With Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian has managed to strike a solid balance between nostalgia for Baldur’s Gate and its late nineties compatriots without ending up with a game that feels…well, dated. Admittedly, much of its appeal rides on players’ rose tinted affection for those old-school DnD-inspired RPGs (myself included), but the game is not without its own merits and feels more like a tribute than a misguided attempt at a resurrection. While its target audience is without a doubt gamers who were old enough to play Baldur’s Gate and its ilk when they first came out—or several years behind the curve, like me—Pillars of Eternity should still hold some appeal for newer gamers as well, if only because it gives them a look at a gameplay style that primarily died with Windows XP.
