PoE reviews

Jason Schreier (Kotaku) reviews PoE:

There are sections of Pillars of Eternity that appear to have been victims of resource restrictions and time constraints. The second major city, Twin Elms, isn’t nearly as interesting or as well-constructed as Defiance Bay, and the pacing gets a little funky towards the end. After many hours of languid exploring, I unexpectedly found myself at the end of the story, wondering how I was already at the end of the story. Other components of the game—like the stronghold and the crafting system—feel like they could be fantastic if they just gave you more choices to make and things to accomplish. Once you unlock the stronghold, for example, the game tasks you with building new upgrades and hiring mercenaries to defend your keep, but it never quite gives you incentive to care.

On a scale between, say, Icewind Dale 1 and Baldur’s Gate II, Pillars of Eternity falls somewhere smack in the middle. Put another way: this is a great RPG, and it’s one worth your time, even if you don’t know what a Bhaalspawn is.

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.

And maybe—probably!—it will convince you that even in 2015, games that look and play like this can be as wonderful as they ever were.

I dont know why but the game is missing something. It look great but doesnt feel great to me.

Originally Posted by Damian
I dont know why but the game is missing something. It look great but doesnt feel great to me.

I think it's missing that sense of wonder. It was for me, anyway. With Forgotten Realms games, I have that. With PoE, I didn't. Travel and exploration becomes dull when the story that propels you forward just isn't that interesting. I liked the hollowborn mystery, but everything else was kind of… blah to me. The game is still great due to the quality of the writing, but I wonder how much better it could have been if there were an overall story that matched?

I also got tired of killing stuff for no XP whatsoever, and I didn't think I would care when I first started. Toward mid-game, I began avoiding fights-- and that's a bad sign because I would often skip areas of the map as a result. However, as a side effect, I was far more apt to talk to people/dragons and find non-combat ways out of situations, so maybe that's good in a roleplaying sort of way.

Another factor in my "lack of wonder" argument is that, other than lore descriptions and art design, I wasn't really all that impressed with unique loot. I think there should have been a level or two higher than what could be crafted, and maybe a few attributes that you can't add yourself simply by finding a leaf (just a bizarre system). It's tough to get excited about finding yet another weapon that is "accurate" or is really good at killing creatures you're likely not to see again. They need some unique-ier stuff, I think.

So, positives:

Writing
Art design (armors, weapons, etc)
Maps
Certain character spec options
Game length/world size
Lore
NPCs: Pallegina, Eder, Grieving Mother, Sagani

Negatives:

Overall story (The spinning adra/soul-stealing pillars were just a lame concept)
The whole magic/cypher/chanter system
Endurance vs health system
Lack of truly unique items
Lack of XP during combat
NPCs: Durance (too over the top), Hiravias
While I love the idea of having a keep, it was poorly implemented despite the dungeon