Since I love Baldur's Gate 1+2, once might think that I would love this game and initially there are many reason to. Superficially, Pillars of Eternity (PoE) 1+2 are real time with pause party based RPGs like BG 1+2 and the staff making them had some experience with the Icewind Dale series. The devil however is in the details and I would summarize it as follows: + great graphics, easy inventory management, many character builds. - Attacks of opportunity in a real time with pause game causes a lot of wonky behavior. This system should honestly never have been put in, because it causes weird character movements. - Generally quite bad and nonsensical main story. Similar to a lot of open world games, the main story has a lot of apparent urgency to it that turns out to be completely hollow. - Everyone behaves like a modern American and not like a character in a weird and fanstastical world. - The classes are quite unbalanced among each other. Some have regenerating ressources in combat, other do not and mostly suffer. - The buffing is obnoxious. Since you cannot buff outsied of combat, every combat starts with the same buffing routine, which can never be fully automated since the characters always end up doing something stupid. They should have removed buffing completely. - There is a turn based mode, but a lot of things (like dexterity) simply do not work correctly there and there are too many easy and stupid fights in the game for this to not become very boring. The game was simply not designed for this. - My favorite playstile in BG 1+2, the backstabbing rogue, is mostly not supported here since the mechanic is anemic. The placing of traps is also not a useful mechanic. I could go on for a while, but I'll stop here. I have tried to love this game many times and have started probably over 20 times, but I'm not sure if I'll ever finish it.
Is there anything to write about BG1+2 that has not been written before? One thing not emphasized enough is how fun the combat can be! It's tactical and the real time with pause causes a lot of chaos to happen to which one has to react. None of the game that have tried to follow (Pillars, Pathfinder,..) have captured it, in part because they've introduced elements such as attacks of opportunity that make the combat less fun. It's the only game of it's type in which I find it fun to play as a thief, stealthing and backstabbing around, placing traps and being a general nuisance. Do yourself a service and play it with the mod Sword Coast Stratagems. It elevates the game to another level!
Tactical, fun combats. Varied options in spells and abilities. In addition to the main campains, there are plenty of custom ones to download, Highly recommend installing the Unfinished Business mod. If you like games like Icewind dale or Temple of Elemental Evil, you should like this one too.
