Pillars of Eternity - Another Short Roundup

Here are some more reviews I found this week for Pillars of Eternity .

DigitalSpy - 5/5

Although the studio set out to evoke the spirit of the Baldur's Gate age, it has gone one better by delivering a product that conjures nostalgia, yet feels every inch a modern game capable of standing tall beside the market leaders.

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GamingTrend - 90/100

Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity is a love letter to those gamers who remember RPGs of old – when parties were large, adventures were world-sprawling, and you read a book or two worth of words before the world was saved.

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Softpedia - 5/5

Pillars of Eternity is a must-buy for anyone who has played classic titles like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Planescape, and it will certainly deliver the story, the conversations, the companions, the combat and the big themes that they are yearning for.

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Impulse Gamer - 4.3/5

Pillars of Eternity is indeed great fun for RPG players young and old, and you don’t need a $2000 beast to play it on either. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a deep and involving experience, and has the time to give it the respect it deserves.

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IncGamers - 9/10

Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity revisits the company’s Black Isle roots, resulting in a High Fantasy, party-based RPG in the traditional style. Strong thematic hooks, well-written characters and reactive quest design, all resting on an original set of tabletop-inspired mechanics, make this a triumphant return.

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More information.

Hmpf, I'm not as thrilled.

Pillars of eternity is a nostalgic RPG that's lot of fun, a good game, sure, but it's not outstanding.

Reasons include, overall depth, no encounter design, few branching points, weak reactivity to name just a few. It's strongest points are perhaps writing (a matter of some debate), nostalgia and music.

At this point the only thing that'd make it a long-lasting classic is a properly done expansion pack so we'll see. If Obsidian - some of the most brilliant minds in the industry - delivers yet another sub-par experience I'll be disappointed.

If Wasteland 2 is 9/10, I'd give Pillars of Eternity 8/10 at most.

luj1 said:

Hmpf, I'm not as thrilled.

Pillars of eternity is a nostalgic RPG that's lot of fun, a good game, sure, but it's not outstanding.

Reasons include, overall depth, no encounter design, few branching points, weak reactivity to name just a few. It's strongest points are perhaps writing (a matter of some debate), nostalgia and music.

At this point the only thing that'd make it a long-lasting classic is a properly done expansion pack so we'll see. If Obsidian - some of the most brilliant minds in the industry - delivers yet another sub-par experience I'll be disappointed.

If Wasteland 2 is 9/10, I'd gave Pillars of Eternity 8/10 at most.

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Uh oh… better brace yourself for the inevitable onslaught.

I don't really understand why everyone associates Pillars with nostalgia. It's sort of a backhanded compliment.

I played the Baldur's Gate series for the first time less than a year ago, and I still think Pillars is amazing. There's no real nostalgia involved for me.

Hehe, I can't wait to hear the response to Corwin's "realist" review - whatever that means

jdr13 said:

uh oh… better brace yourself for the inevitable onslaught.

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:ddddd

luj1 said:

Reasons include, overall depth, no encounter design, few branching points, weak reactivity to name just a few.

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Reactivity in this game is far better than anything we've seen since Arcanum. Not sure what 'overall depth' means as I would take that to be an aggregate of lore, dialogue, reactivity and mechanics, all of which are on a scale from good to outstanding.

Fluent said:

I don't really understand why everyone associates Pillars with nostalgia. It's sort of a backhanded compliment.

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I think it might be associated with the concept that you are supposed to hate everything these days. So if you like something, it's because you are nostalgic.

Also, BG1/BG2/IWD nostalgia should be detrimental to liking POE because it does lots of things done differently in the game and it is in a totally different setting...and you can't have nostalgia for POE.

Fluent said:

I don't really understand why everyone associates Pillars with nostalgia. It's sort of a backhanded compliment.

I played the Baldur's Gate series for the first time less than a year ago, and I still think Pillars is amazing. There's no real nostalgia involved for me.

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Perhaps you're not actually the only person in the world?

But your love for all things old and "meh" attitude towards almost all things new that aren't based on something old - is kinda the same thing.

Maybe we could invent another Fluent-specific word for it, though.

How about….. Favoritismalgia?

Sacred_Path said:

Reactivity in this game is far better than anything we've seen since Arcanum.

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I played first as Death Godlike, which according to the manual are signs of misfortune that are usually killed at birth. However, during my 45 hours crossing a heavily religious world plagued by misfortune and soulless children, no one gave a dime about me. I must've got three to four reactions to my race at most, and not a single one was negative. In Arcanum everyone was quite racist. Here even hateful savages will call you Mr. Godlike, Sir. I expected to be called a freak or abomination, but all I got was a boy asking me how I could see.

Sacred_Path said:

Not sure what 'overall depth' means as I would take that to be an aggregate of lore, dialogue, reactivity and mechanics, all of which are on a scale from good to outstanding.

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From mid-game onward Pillars of Eternity felt somewhat thin. It felt lacking the more I played. The only thing I've found to be *outstanding* - and many will disagree with me here - is the writing. I know it can be overly pretentious at times, but I enjoyed it.

luj1 said:

I played first as Death Godlike, which according to the manual are signs of misfortune that are usually killed at birth. However, during my 45 hours crossing a heavily religious world plagued by misfortune and soulless children, no one gave a dime about me. I must've got three to four reactions to my race at most, and not a single one was negative. In Arcanum everyone was quite racist. Here even hateful savages will call you Mr. Godlike, Sir. I expected to be called a freak or abomination, but all I got was a boy asking me how I could see.

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It would be kind of cool for Death Godlike to stick out, but there's a total of 16 races in the game. I think it's still nice that you got any feedback for race at all.

The amount of writing in this game and the amount of dialogue options is pretty large as it is. In this game you get different disposition options on top of the different dialogue options in almost every dialogue worth of note. You can also consistently bait enemies into combat if you want to kill them for loot, quest resolution or roleplaying reasons. Add factions on top and you have a pretty huge amount of reactivity.

For more reactivity you should try sticking to certain dispositions to build reputation. I'm playing an Aumaua Priest of Eothas and usually go with Honest/ Benevolent or nonviolent options, and I got reactions based on these as well as the Eothas cult. And I think that makes more sense than including a ton of racial dialogue options because the Dyrwood is supposed to be such a melting pot - it's supposed to be pretty tolerant.

From mid-game onward Pillars of Eternity felt somewhat thin. It felt lacking the more I played. The only thing I've found to be *outstanding* - and many will disagree with me here - is the writing. I know it can be overly pretentious at times, but I enjoyed it.

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The lore and writing are definitely high points of the game - though I enjoy the reactivity even more. Character building is just about fun enough, but the combat is a bit weak for a game that is so focused on fighting.

luj1 said:

I played first as Death Godlike, which according to the manual are signs of misfortune that are usually killed at birth. However, during my 45 hours crossing a heavily religious world plagued by misfortune and soulless children, no one gave a dime about me. I must've got three to four reactions to my race at most, and not a single one was negative. In Arcanum everyone was quite racist. Here even hateful savages will call you Mr. Godlike, Sir. I expected to be called a freak or abomination, but all I got was a boy asking me how I could see.

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That's indeed disappointing. Imho if they can't design a world reacting on exotic races, they shouldn't have included them.

If you want to make it right, adding a race to a game is more than just adding visuals and numbers.

luj1 said:

From mid-game onward Pillars of Eternity felt somewhat thin. It felt lacking the more I played.

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I'm holding off on trying it but that's pretty typical of Bioware/Black Isle/Obsidian design, in my opinion. They front load content on the assumption that either most people don't finish games or that most people like to tear through them at record pace and lose interest in game complexities after a while. Not really sure I have that right but Chris explained their stupid on usenet, 15 years ago. They have a formula and they stick to it like religion.

Morrandir said:

That's indeed disappointing. Imho if they can't design a world reacting on exotic races, they shouldn't have included them.

If you want to make it right, adding a race to a game is more than just adding visuals and numbers.

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A race that is treated different than any other race would make the game harder to balance - and balance was the mantra here. You're thinking of a different game.

PoE - no way to compare it with BG games. At best it's comparable with IW 1. Yes there is a good amount of lore, some nice music, but like someone wise said: not every combat should be epic. I have no problems in the field, as i am used with the system since times imemorial. But think of the children, ffs.

I like the world's design, but overall, it seems that i'm in a new wasteland. The stronghold stuff is nice, but it could be so much better. Plenty of stuff to add on that part of the game. After the awesome system of choices and consequences that Obsidian developed for AP, i expected them to see a nice adaptation in PoE. Nope, it did not happen. Things are predictable.

Decent game, but nothing to write home about it if you leave the nostalgia glasses at home or if you've dealt with better titles.

wolfsrain said:

Decent game, but nothing to write home about it if you leave the nostalgia glasses at home or if you've dealt with better titles.

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Plz tell us more about how Alpha Protocol is a better fantasy RPG than PoE

Sacred_Path said:

Plz tell us more about how Alpha Protocol is a better fantasy RPG than PoE

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Where in his post does he claim that?

Sacred_Path said:

Plz tell us more about how Alpha Protocol is a better fantasy RPG than PoE

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You're really challenged when it comes to reading and separating aspects

He specifically talked about the C&C system they developed for AP.

The more irrational you become in your defense of the game, the less you will be helping it.

Calling no NPC reactions to an overtly unique race a balance issue, really is the ultimate fanboi comment.

JDR13 said:

Where in his post does he claim that?

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He uses AP as a reference for things that he's disappointed about in PoE. Which is, in this regard, silly. AP was a spy game, not an isometric squad based tactical fantasy RPG. It was clear from the beginning that, while there would be reactivity, the game would not be completed by navigating dialogue trees. It was also clear that you wouldn't get a myriad skills like NWN2 had. So I'd say such complaints are invalid.

Sacred_Path said:

He uses AP as a reference for things that he's disappointed about in PoE. Which is, in this regard, silly. AP was a spy game, not an isometric squad based tactical fantasy RPG. It was clear from the beginning that, while there would be reactivity, the game would not be completed by navigating dialogue trees. It was also clear that you wouldn't get a myriad skills like NWN2 had. So I'd say such complaints are invalid.

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He didn't ask for a carbon copy, he was asking for deeper C&C system. Why can't deep C&C exist in dialogue trees in PoE?

Please explain.