Pillars of Eternity - Reviews

Here are a few more reviews for Pillars of Eternity:

Pixeljudge, 4.5/5

This is an example, and arguably THE example, of a Kickstarter project done right. Obsidian clearly spent a lot of time and had a lot of passion for this game and it just shows everywhere. The game looks great, sounds great, plays great. I’ve played some Kickstarter funded projects and wondered when I was going to get the rest of the game. I play Pillars of Eternity and wonder what happened to the last five hours. It’s simply a joy to play which is pretty much one of the highest compliments I can give a game. I’ve enjoyed thousands of games over the last 30+ years. Few have been consistently a joy to play to the point where I look forward to the next time I can sit down with them and in some cases actively set up my schedule to make more free time for them. Pillars of Eternity is one of these rare gems. Even if it wasn’t for a review, I’d be playing this game relentlessly...and I think you should play it too.

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Kotaku

Forget that one designer and his cockamamie claims about how games can only recreate childhood joy. Pillars of Eternity is capable of evoking so much more than nostalgia. Maybe it’ll get you to care about the fates of its fictional characters, like the enigmatically insane Durance and the chill-yet-tormented Edér. Maybe it’ll get you to stop and ogle at some of gorgeous art you’ll find throughout Dyrwood and neighboring regions. Maybe it’ll get you thinking about some of the themes it explores—death, purpose, faith—and challenge your viewpoints in interesting ways.

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MacGamerHQ, 4.5/5

Despite relatively low system requirements (see below), Pillars of Eternity looks beautiful, even on my 5 year old iMac. The settings are detailed, different characters are easily discernible by their appearance and clothing, there are nice volumetric effects, and the graphics serve the story well. Likewise the sounds and voice acting. The only quibbles I’d have with the dialogue is that sometimes you’ll meet an NPC for the second or third time and be greeted as though it’s the first before the actual dialogue boxes appear; also the stock phrases from your party when you enter different game modes get repetitive. These are small issues that only stand out because everything else about the game is so superior.

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EPN.tv (video review)



More information.

This is a game that it takes a while to get into. It's been sort of a steep learning curve for me. Maybe if I would have played Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale it would have been easier for me to start getting into, but that was in the days before I started gaming and by the time I started getting into RPGs, those games were too primitive looking to me, to get me interested.

This game is a lot of fun once you start getting into it. For me, that's several times starting new games and starting to learn the system.

But I think that Sword Coast Legends is going to be much better than this. Will see, I'll be getting that one on release day.

Sword Coast Legends might be better looking for some ppl, but i doubt it will be on the same quality lvl as PoE in other aspects.

I think Sword Coast is going to be a much different type of game. pause to play vs real time (when in multiplayer mode anyways). I would like Sword Coast to be a great game, but from what I have seen I can't really form an opinion yet. I would like to see more ofhow they will implement 5e rules and I also hope the campaign that ships with the game is interesting and fleshed out in lots of details. The comparison I have in my head for SC is NWN. NWN was good, but took LOTS of time to build a campaign using the included mod tools.

I'm really curious how many copies this game will sell by year's end. I think it will be a pretty big success for Obsidian.

I had no trouble getting into this game. And I hadn't played anything like this in years (Diablo 3 and Blackguards doesn't count).

Thrasher said:

I had no trouble getting into this game. And I hadn't played anything like this in years (Diablo 3 and Blackguards doesn't count).

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Like you I had no problem getting into it, bit of a learning curve on how to best use the combat system.
I just found the story got weaker as you went along and way to much loading time.

Yes, it became a bit tedious with trash and load.

Just finished the game recently.
Story didn't catch my interest like the old classics did, but was good to play.
(If you are like me and you feel you need a break when you reach the second city, take heart you are actually near the end.)

Will give a shoutout to Aarklash legacy for being my favorite "Real-time with Pause" role-playing game, though it does differ quite a bit from Obsidian engine games.

Thrasher said:

I had no trouble getting into this game. And I hadn't played anything like this in years (Diablo 3 and Blackguards doesn't count).

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Yes, it was a lot of fun for me. It's been a while since I've had a similar memorable gaming experience. Not that there aren't some elements that couldn't be further improved. I'm hoping the eventual expansion set will provide a broader story and fill in the gaps and weaknesses.

I finished up my first play-through last night after 85 hours. Some mixed thoughts and feelings as the shine and excitement eventually did somewhat wear off on me after arriving at Defiance Bay, which I found a little underwhelming as a whole.
Act III felt rather short also in comparison to everything else before it. I also strangely found that I'd stopped feeling fully connected to the story.

Pros:
- It's such a pleasure to play a party based IE like cRPG with six party members again.
- Beautiful environments (Searing Falls is spectacular and entering Gilded Vale for the first time is gloomily unforgettable)
- Lush, sedate soundtrack (The heavy BG influence in the combat themes wasn't unpleasant)
- Wonderfully atmospheric, creating that "must play just a little more before bed" type feeling. Then all of a sudden it's near dawn...
- Excellent, articulate writing.
- Amusing and mysterious companions.
- Replayability is reasonable given the possible party compositions and the Icewind Dale aspect of being able to customise your parties via inns.

Cons:
- Stronghold poorly implemented and not adequately tied into main game-play. (NWN2 keep was much more interesting.)
- Encounter design a little on the weak and repetitive side. Nothing really memorable overall compared to its spiritual predecessors. BG2 Dragons still reign supreme!
- Slightly mundane intemization; I never felt a strong enough sense of progression here when you can enchant so much.
- Low level cap; I'd hit it by Act III.
- C&C faction interplay not as strong as it should be. Defiance Bay a little underwhelming...

As a disclaimer of sorts, I suspect I should have played on "Hard" as "Normal" certainly became too easy if you chose to level and explore many areas in BG style before reaching the city. Still, it was fantastic overall and I look forward to seeing where Obsidian go with the expansion.
For my next character, I think I'll try two rogues, use Hiravias/Pallegina/Grieving Mother more and then try to hit 3 in the more menacing dispositions.

I'm totally at a loss as to whether to play this game or not. I've not been in such 50/50 undecided since, well, ever really. I guess it's because I've so recently come off of Neverwinter Nights 2 original campaign, a game I finished in spite of not really enjoying anything beyond progression for progression's sake. I still have nightmares of banal NPCs following lengthy loading screens following trash non-tactical mobs following large empty areas becoming the RPG norm.

And the more reviews I read, the more I'm getting that NWN2 vibe more than any other relatable game, particularly as it's an Obsidian product.

However, it's got the isometric IE style camera combined with the glorious IE-like backdrops and the 6 man party theme, so it's not going to be anything like comparable to the NWN2 horrors and I'd probably like it on many levels.

Crappy itemisation though… I'm a *massive* itemisation fan. Also guns… I seem to be the only person on the planet whoever mentions guns as an issue. I aught to play it just to get the guns thing out of my mindset.

Gah! The dilemmas!

lackblogger said:

I'm totally at a loss as to whether to play this game or not. I've not been in such 50/50 undecided since, well, ever really. (..)
Gah! The dilemmas!

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Flip a coin.

The looting is mostly generic, but there are a few nice sparkly things. The best part of looting is there is very little need for inventory management. Just quick slotting items for use in combat. I love the stash for just dumping trash items for selling later. although once I got the stronghold and starting doing bounties I never had to sell a thing. Harder difficulties may vary.

I found it to be a good but not great game, as (like others here) the story kind of fizzled out for me… which made me lose some motivation to finish etc. However, that tends to happen with me and RPGs quite a lot (in fact, even some of the classics—FO2, Arcanum) suffered similar issues. It's difficult to maintain story pressure/motivation with a game that has so many areas and quests. The only two games I've played that did that properly for me were Planescape and BG2. I never stopped being intrigued by the stories and enjoyed both right up to the rousing conclusion. FO1 had a good story, but also had the benefit of being a much shorter game.

But I'm very glad for my time with PoE. It helped me relive a bit of those IE glory days again, which I guess was the point. Next time, I'd like to see them take more chances.