Pillars of Eternity II - Review @ Techquila

Techquila reviewed Pillars of Eternity 2 and gave it a 4.4 out of 5 and the label 'One of the best cRPGs of our time'.

Being set in the Deadfire archipelago has major implications on every facet of the gameplay, most of them positive. The focus of the game shifts to exploration of the dense network of islands, some hidden while others known. Most uncharted islands contain dungeons or crytic puzzles, and along with those come lots of treasures.

However unlike the first game, the dungeons here are precise and don’t drag on for more than a handful of levels. An overview map similar to open world JRPGs is mostly used for exploration which switches to 3rd person-isometric within towns, villages and ruins.

Maritime combat and ship-maintenance are core components of the gameplay in Pillars of Eternity II, although the combat is fairly simple and limited to a bunch of dialog options. These involve barking orders to your crew and unless you decide to board the enemy ship, there’s no actual combat involved.

More information.

The game features three factions in total, the pirates of Principe, the Vailian Trading Company and the Royal Deadfire Company.

There are four factions. The native Huana.

None of the characters have the charm of The Grieving Mother

She was atrocious

There's never any actual combat involved, in any game. Imagine the lawsuits.

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
There's never any actual combat involved, in any game. Imagine the lawsuits.

40 posts in 6 years and you choose a pun. Well done

Waiting on both expansions and more patches.

Hoping I can skip ship combat entirely… eventually. This game has a lot to offer, but inconsistent performance (FPS) and the ship combat are big turn-offs.

The ship combat really isn't that burdensome.

Most of the ships are non-hostile except the Principi before you deal with Benweth, and slavers unless you ally with them. If you deal with Benweth right after the tutorial, there are only about a dozen hostile ships patrolling the map.

You can also board ships instead of fighting them, which actually gets you more loot. Otherwise, you can buy a telescope and upgraded sails, and outrun any ship

If for some reason you are forced to play the ship minigame though, it's very easy. Someone devised a tactic that allows you to defeat any ship with the beginning sloop.

I'd like to hear more about that.

My issue: Once boarding/ship combat with characters begins? I get rushed by 5-6 enemies and my party is in a bad formation. Which is stupid… if we saw them approaching, we'd have our mages and cleric in the back, etc. As it is, I have about 2 seconds before the enemies rush my party.

Why wouldn't my core group become ready and waiting for the enemies to board? The game makes it like we were surprised out of nowhere.

That's a complaint I had too, but most boardings are still pretty easy because companions/sidekicks outside your party will back you up. If there's a companion you never use, it may be worth keeping them leveled and equipped solely for boarding. Of course, you can always just avoid a ship until you're a higher level.

I'll play this when the EE edition comes out or gotye, whatever it will be called,like I did the first one,that being said I had fun playing the first one,so like I said will wait awhile…….

What!? Grieving Mother was awesome!

I hate Grieving Mother with a passion. The sequel is better off without all the long ass flashbacks and grimdark dead baby nonsense.

Originally Posted by Zloth
What!? Grieving Mother was awesome!

I know right. I loved her too. And Durance. Eder and Aloth were also well written. The rest were meh

Grieving Mother is possibly the worst companion in an RPG ever

- Forgettable aesthetic and voiceacting
- 80% of interaction is through prose and walls of descriptive text
- Extremely long-winded and confusing backstory told through written flashbacks
- Unsatisfying companion "quest" where you change her entire beliefs through dialog
- Virtually no interactions with other companions or reactivity within the world
- By the time you reach her you will have already had your fill of grimdark crap

The best companion in PoE1 is Zahua. Good aesthetic and voiceacting, interesting personality, deep backstory, fun companion quest, and natural feeling character growth.

Most people seem to enjoy Avellone's constant "it's almost as if" oh-so-deep-and-mysterious verbosity - but I certainly don't.

That said, he has some cool ideas and notions. He just seems to over-present them - like we're too stupid to understand his message the first time, so we need it repeated in every single paragraph from start to finish.

Durance was great and made me respect Avellone more, but then I found out his character was heavily rewritten by other writers. All of his banter, interjections, and the end to his companion quest was written by Fenstermaker.

Personally I'm glad he left Obsidian. I used to think he was decent, but now I find his style of writing very tiresome. Tyranny and Deadfire are better games without him.

Personally, I quite liked Grieving Mother. I felt the writing generally for her character was one of the more poignant and memorable from the first game. There was a mysterious aspect to her story and multiple layers which coupled with that opening sense of enigma, made me wish to know more. To achieve that I think, is admirable writing. I can understand why others didn't enjoy it so much, but for me it was enthralling.

This ineffable mysterious quality was definitely lacking in many of the characters in the second game for me, which arguably are more straight up and direct. The game does miss writing in the style and tone of Durance and Grieving Mother as far as I'm concerned. That said, once all the DLC are out I'll try the sequel again and investigate some characters I missed on the first run.

Also, I'm happy to report that my physical rewards are finally on the way. Hopefully this is the case for all backers and Watchers soon as well. (It's about time Obsidian!)

My favorite PoE character was actually Hiravias. Durance was just an arse; an imperious holy arse, but still an arse. I never really got into the Grieving Mother character.

Originally Posted by rjshae
My favorite PoE character was actually Hiravias. Durance was just an arse; an imperious holy arse, but still an arse. I never really got into the Grieving Mother character.

I'm i agreement. Hiravias was my favourite as well, with Aloth being the runner up. I don't really have an opinion on Grieving mother since I didn't use her in the party, and likewise for Zahua. The Devil of Caroc seemed pretty cool but was too scary for me… Maneha and Sagani were decent but nothing special, I liked Eder and Kana but felt their quests weren't ended in a satisfying way. Pallegina is a Paladin. Paladins are boring. Except for Keldorn.

I never finished the first pillars but of the companions I did get I didn’t care too much for any of them. I thought about returning to it and making a 4 character party of my own characters and power gaming it. I do enjoy min/maxing and power gaming.

Eder was my favorite. Grieving Mother .. had her for a short while and lost interest. Disliked Durance. He thought he was so cool and mystical at first and then turned out to be neither. Aloth was pretty nice and I like the female hunter Sagani.