Pillars of Eternity - Thoughts & Impressions

Staff member Fluent made a new twenty minute YouTube video with his thoughts & impressions of Pillars of Eternity, and why everyone should love the game.

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Hello folks! In this video I proudly present my "first impressions" after spending 53 brilliant hours with the recently-released Kickstarter RPG - Pillars of Eternity!

My playthrough thus far couldn't be better! I received a review copy approximately a week before the game released, and spent that time playing through and greatly enjoying myself. The game is legendary, so watch the video and see what I have to say about it!

Pillars of Eternity is a game that was created by Obsidian Entertainment. After a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised nearly $4 million dollars, they set out to create their ultimate vision of what a modern Infinity Engine game should be. The end result? Pillars of Eternity, one of the greatest RPGs in the last 15 years! I'd say they succeeded! Well done, Obsidian!

More information.

No Cons found so far. Even they made real efforts for a better GUI, so can't blame them for not having the perfect solution for everybody. Exemplary work! Hope with patches and GUI mods we will have a dream-game.

Nice video, Fluent….I guess.

I stopped watching as soon as you mentioned spoilers, which was pretty early on. Some games, I don't mind so much. But with this one, I'm enjoying it so much I don't want even the smallest spoiler.

I'm 13h in and loving it so far. Story/Writing is ace, mood is gloomy how I like it (my main gripe with D:OS). Backgrounds are beautifully drawn. Char gen took me 1h as it should be ^_^

Only con so far is that combat is confusing. Often all your chars and the enemies are one big knot of limbs. Hope it gets better when I get more of a hang of things and get better crowd control.

The game could also use some more char portraits, but that should be easily rectified with imported fan-made pics.

Some month of extra development time was really good for PoE.

The game is very stable, the story is engaging with c&c, exploring is non-linear and dialog is interesting.
I still don't like the stat-system very much and the combat is just mediocre.
A real turn based system just fits better for such games IMHO.
Nevertheless another real good Kickstarter game.

PoE is the prime example how 15 years after Baldur's Gate 2 developers still can't make a better crpg. Let's see how long BG2 will be king - in real life sport we have world records standing for nearly 30 years. Can this happen in the computer world too?

tldr: I expected a lot more.

You expected a lot more from a Kickstarter? Are you mad or just delusional? And I'd love to see examples on how you qualify BG2 as 'King'.

I'm usually the first one around here to ground a game's reviews back in reality, but your comment just wreaks of senseless nostalgia - you even play the game yet?

Thanks for the impressions - I am loving it as well!

Originally Posted by Ferris_bg
PoE is the prime example how 15 years after Baldur's Gate 2 developers still can't make a better crpg. Let's see how long BG2 will be king - in real life sport we have world records standing for nearly 30 years. Can this happen in the computer world too?

tldr: I expected a lot more.

Compare it to Bg1.

compare PoE 2 to Bg2.

19 hours in, and probably the biggest thing I'd like to see improved is the combat pathfinding (have had a few too many cases of characters just sitting there when there's a clear path to the enemy, and I've had to manually guide them). Great game so far, and (presuming it's going to make a large profit based off the positive reviews, its position in GOG/Steam sales charts and that the Steam achievements are showing that only around 22% of the people with the game on that system were kickstarters which, while rough, is still an indication of a good amount of non-backers picking it up) it'll be interesting to see what they can do with an expanded budget for a sequel.

There she is! 'Forgiveness' was my contribution, and it's great to see it for the first time. Thanks, Fluent, for showing! There are about 5 or 6 named pistols in this game, they all have different stat bonuses, and several have negatives to offset those bonuses. But not Forgiveness! She's not flashy, but pound for pound (50% damage bonus/20% increased rate of fire) it may be the most useful. Pistols are still slow as hell though, so it's not like it's overpowered…

Loving this game. Hard to use words like "masterpiece" these days, but this may be one. Gah, just wish I had more time to play right now. Stupid work…

I always wonder why people who use to say that "Fallout 3/NV is like Elder Scrolls with guns" will never claim that Pillars of Eternity is Wasteland 2 with swords… Well, the videogame nostalgia must be a real sickness…

Just wondering if it's normal for me to be encountering really, really tough enemies early in the game.

I'm getting along fine, killing stuff here and there (bandits, spiders, wolves, whatever) then suddenly I get wiped before I can even utter "what just happened …".

*** MINI-SPOILER BELOW ***



There's an entrance to an underground dungeon very early (2nd area, I think) where there's a group of spiders (2 large ones and a smaller one or two) that kill by pet bear in two hits and make sort work of everyone else.

Originally Posted by Fargol
Just wondering if it's normal for me to be encountering really, really tough enemies early in the game.

Yes.

However, the toughest, earliest enemy in the game is… A bear. As luck would have it.

I'll say this, if you are playing on hard mode, you really really need a tank to mitigate some of the hits that these mobs can deal out. My rogue can only tank for bare seconds, but Eder can go toe to toe with ten foes and keep them all in check.

My one big complaint about the game so far would have to be the combat. Too often, it's a slow chaotic mess; RTwP is not a highlight. The inability of single-target spells to 'home-in' on targets creates a further cumbersome dynamic, requiring your casters to wait around until the target is no longer charging.

This clumsy combat made me turn off Expert Mode, as it compounded the chaos with additional guesswork, leading to some frustrating fights - the frustration stemming from mechanics rather than the storlyline itself.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
Yes.

However, the toughest, earliest enemy in the game is… A bear. As luck would have it.

Yeah, forgot about him. Made me look like an infant in comparison.

Seems strange though. Once you're ready to fight one of those tough critters or groups, I suspect you would be far from that area and would need to backtrack a lot.

Originally Posted by Fargol
Yeah, forgot about him. Made me look like an infant in comparison.

Seems strange though. Once you're ready to fight one of those tough critters or groups, I suspect you would be far from that area and would need to backtrack a lot.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Spoiler – SPOILER

Yeah, once I got companions in the next "zone", I went back, killed it and am glad I did. The loot was good in the cave.

I'm planning to try that as well.

Thanks.

Odd. I started a new game as a Fighter, and alone (same char level, same difficulty level) I easily beat that bear in the cave. Whereas before, when I was not playing a Fighter, I got turned into rugs to decorate the bear's cave.