Pillars of Eternity II - The World of Deadfire

If anyone's interested, German Gamestar review (now pulled, since embargo)

"Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Review
The Best RPG on the High Seas

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has a lot to live up to. Obsidian’s 2015 RPG was one of the first great Kickstarter success stories, reinvigorating a genre that had faded by the wayside for years with an original setting, well-designed dungeons, and captivating quests.

But within the first few hours of playing Deadfire, any worries that the sequel would fail to meet up to the standards set by its predecessor fell by the wayside. With Deadfire, Obsidian has done the difficult job of creating a sequel that not only stands on its own but surpasses its predecessor in nearly every way.

Set some time after the events of the first Pillars of Eternity, you once again play as the Watcher of Caed Nua. Unfortunately, Caed Nua is quickly destroyed with the reemergence of Eothas, the god of life and rebirth who was thought to have died in the aftermath of a years-long war. You barely manage to survive the ensuing chaos and begin to follow the formerly dead god across the ocean to the Deadfire Archipelago in order to both save your soul and figure out why Eothas is back.

As a direct continuation of Pillars of Eternity, the events of that game greatly influence Deadfire. While veterans can import their save files, newcomers can choose what their Watcher did in Pillars of Eternity, either by choosing several broad paths or by individually picking every choice. Not that entering this game with a new save is bad, as Deadfire does a great job of refreshing players on the events of the first game and introducing them to the wonderful wilds of the Deadfire Archipelago.

Speaking of which, while the setting of the original game was well-realized and epic in scope, it was rooted too much in standard medieval fantasy for my personal taste. That’s not the case in Deadfire, which is set in a massive chain of islands that are loosely based on Polynesian cultures in the South Pacific. It stands out from other RPG’s, both in its gorgeous art style and variety of locales, and in how the nature of playing on an island chain influences the gameplay.

Much of your exploration will be done via your ship, which serves as a much more personal base than the stronghold of Caed Nua did in Pillars of Eternity. You can upgrade or outright purchase new ships, recruit crew members with their own dispositions, and fight in well-designed sea battles that are challenging and engaging. Captaining your own ship is the clear highlight of Deadfire, and is the basis for some of my favorite moments in the game, such as when I infiltrated a pirate fort by enacting a false flag operation.

It also allows for an interesting exploration of the relationships between the colonial powers and native peoples that make up the bulk of Deadfire’s factions, though the fantastical aspects that come with being a fantasy RPG mean that it’s not an entirely one-sided relationship. The Huana tribes, Vailian Trading Company, Royal Deadfire Company and the Príncipi sen Patrena are the driving force behind many of the best quests and storylines in the game, from the Huana’s struggle to unite the fractured tribes of the archipelago to the Príncipi’s status as former nobles prancing around as pirates.

That’s further enhanced by having the entire game fully voiced, which is by-and-large well acted. The writing has clearly improved in Deadfire, with a distinct lack of the run-on, flowery dialogue that overwhelmed much of the lore and quests in the first game. Companions may still be based on archetypes, such as the roguish pirate and the scholar with a dark past, but their interactions with each other and their personal goals make them compelling to fight alongside and interact with.

As in tradition in CRPG’s, Deadfire has all the fixings and traps that are common to them. Massive skill trees, tons of customization options, and an intricate class system are what you’d expect from an Obsidian RPG. Yet while the battle system is similar to the first game, with the ability to pause, slow down, or speed up the flow of battle depending on your preference, it is much more robust thanks to the programmable AI. Reminiscent of the Gambit system from Final Fantasy XII, you are able to set specific conditions for your characters to respond to. For example, this can be as simple as having your priest cast a healing spell on anyone under 50% health, but it can be built out enough so that you can essentially automate the gameplay. If you’re like me and love to program your companion’s behavior, you’re going to have a great time in Deadfire.

The biggest improvement over its predecessor, however, is its pacing. While Act 1 of Pillars of Eternity was often cited as the most difficult portion of the game, Deadfire slowly but surely leads you through ever increasingly difficult challenges from beginning to end. That’s not to say the beginning is a walk in the park, but that it is more balanced throughout the entire game. From the number of combat encounters to the ways in which you explore the world, Deadfire is a tight, engaging experience despite the fact that it is an RPG that could easily take you 100 hours to complete

As expansive as the world is, this also comes at a cost. Even though the load times are noticeably shorter than those found in the original game, they are still rather long, sometimes taking a minute or more to load in a particularly graphically intensive area. Considering Deadfire is dozens upon dozens of hours long, this adds up pretty quickly. And there’s a steady assortment of bugs that made their appearance throughout my time with the game, such as voice lines repeating again and again in conversations and the occasional pathfinding issue. Though importantly, I encountered no bugs that crashed or broke the game.

These issues are minor overall, and the overall upgrades made to Deadfire make up for it in spades. Ultimately, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a near-perfect sequel. It builds upon the foundation of the previous game with more compelling exploration and a deeper combat system, fixes many of the problems that held the first one back, and is from top to bottom a more polished experience. No matter if you’re new to the world of Eora or an experienced traveler, Deadfire is an RPG you have to play.

9.5
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a sequel that surpasses the original in nearly every way, and is an RPG that should not be missed."
 
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Pets were basically cosmetic inventory items that followed the main character around and were not controllable or interacted with.

You may be thinking of the Ranger's Animal Companion.

Yes you are right that is what I was think off.

Then I don't care about pets have to many in real life.
 
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Could anyone bring me up to speed? I haven't followed the game at all and I have a few questions.

1 - Is this supposed to be epic and huge in scope, i.e. 100+ hours?
Looks a bit excessive. Streamers have been playing for four days 10 hours per day and no end in sight. Hard to think though they will last 10 days.
2 - Is there land exploration, too, or mostly just ship exploration?
Both. The settings look alike caraibean lay outs with a portion of the americas, meaning exploration of small to larger pieces of land. Exploration is performed through text based events or moving around a larger place.
3 - Will it be possible to start a new game WITHOUT picking choices as to how the previous game played out (I got close but never finished the first game and don't want to really spoil every decision blatantly, if you know what I'm saying. I'm sure there are spoilers in PoE2, obviously, but I may not recognize them as much as picking directly from a list of choices.)

Thanks in advance.
Unlikely. Their world building sets in, no doubt the encyclopedia might provide enough to stand for not having played the first one but having played the first one to get familiar with the world is preferable. The second episode happens in the same universe, close in time. Perceptions of events are changed according to the resolution of the first.
Might have an option to skip the stage and randomly fill the options.
 
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Could anyone bring me up to speed? I haven't followed the game at all and I have a few questions.

1 - Is this supposed to be epic and huge in scope, i.e. 100+ hours?

Depends how you play, doing all the content in the first game could take you 100+ hours and Deadfire is bigger.

2 - Is there land exploration, too, or mostly just ship exploration?

There is 3 type of exploration:
- ship navigate between islands, you can encounter naval battle, storms, shipwrecks and text adventure at sea.
- overland: a little icon you move around island to reach "areas", you can find secrets,
text adventure and of course access areas and dungeons.
- area exploration: that's like POE1 normal exploration, some of these are very small (mostly for text adventure combat encounters), some are larger similar in size to POE1 areas.

3 - Will it be possible to start a new game WITHOUT picking choices as to how the previous game played out (I got close but never finished the first game and don't want to really spoil every decision blatantly, if you know what I'm saying. I'm sure there are spoilers in PoE2, obviously, but I may not recognize them as much as picking directly from a list of choices.)

There are 5 or 6 presets, you have to pick one I believe. I'm not sure of spoilery their summary is though.
 
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I always find your stance on this funny. "Pause-place inputs-unpause" IS RTwP. Not pressing the "Pause"-button would make it RT. Of course it's nice to be able to destroy trash mobs without any pausing, but in a more challenging combat it would be kind of silly not to use it? Sure you COULD learn all the keyboard commands (I certainly use a lot of them because mouse clicking everything takes ages, I mostly use them while paused though) and try to make a challenge out of playing the game entirely without pausing…but your stance that that's the "right" way to play RTwP sounds like a paradox to me.
Nothing new. Same circular points made ever and ever again.

At the moment, it is not RTwP but PwRT.
Nobody ever spoke about never pausing in a RTwP product. The issue is the spamming of pause as a prop for a lack of proficiency.
As stated many times already, capping the number of pauses available to a player per encounter is RTwP, this severely impairs thePwRT thing.

Fights can not be challenging because players are challenged by their lack of skills first: they can not draft a plan and execute it. Placing inputs in real time is beyond their skills.

Like assessing the difficulty of a car racing circuit through the perception of people who can barely drive. It introduces a big bias.

In the current state, fights might be resolved by the AI. The thing is that players can not achieve the same once the AI is disconnected without spamming pause.

There is nothing personal in this (it would be good if personal), they are mere observations, basic observations, like telling that somebody who can not fly a jet will struggle to be hired as a test pilot.
By the way, there was that vid exhibiting that fights can be played RT no pause.

Despite all the conceding made by devs, like slowing down the pace of a fight (coupled with the slow mode, it is very slow), addition of state machines, reduction of fights to a static phase and more, players can still not play it RTwP. They can not even manage a 5 vs1 without spamming pause. They urgently need a prop for their lack of skills.
 
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Well the initial reviews are in and they are very very good..... One player is complaining that too many spells are similar to poe-1..... hum.... makes you think....
 
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Well the initial reviews are in and they are very very good….. One player is complaining that too many spells are similar to poe-1….. hum…. makes you think….

It's amazing isn't it, direct sequels with the same main character have the same spells and abilities available.

3 - Will it be possible to start a new game WITHOUT picking choices as to how the previous game played out (I got close but never finished the first game and don't want to really spoil every decision blatantly, if you know what I'm saying. I'm sure there are spoilers in PoE2, obviously, but I may not recognize them as much as picking directly from a list of choices.)

Thanks in advance.

I'm reading a review from someone who never finished POE1, seems like you want to finish the first game or get it spoiled to you because you won't get the references in the preset/manually created state.
 
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Thanks Azarhal & Chien. Not 100% sure yet if I'm going to dive in. Might just replay PoE 1 or start Sword Coast Legends or something. But Deadfire is tempting…
 
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I'm reading a review from someone who never finished POE1, seems like you want to finish the first game or get it spoiled to you because you won't get the references in the preset/manually created state.
Erm, I will not use my Eternity1 savegame in the sequel.
It's not Mass Effect for god's sakes.
 
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Nothing new. Same circular points made ever and ever again.

At the moment, it is not RTwP but PwRT.
Nobody ever spoke about never pausing in a RTwP product. The issue is the spamming of pause as a prop for a lack of proficiency.
As stated many times already, capping the number of pauses available to a player per encounter is RTwP, this severely impairs thePwRT thing.

Fights can not be challenging because players are challenged by their lack of skills first: they can not draft a plan and execute it. Placing inputs in real time is beyond their skills.

Like assessing the difficulty of a car racing circuit through the perception of people who can barely drive. It introduces a big bias.

In the current state, fights might be resolved by the AI. The thing is that players can not achieve the same once the AI is disconnected without spamming pause.

There is nothing personal in this (it would be good if personal), they are mere observations, basic observations, like telling that somebody who can not fly a jet will struggle to be hired as a test pilot.
By the way, there was that vid exhibiting that fights can be played RT no pause.

Despite all the conceding made by devs, like slowing down the pace of a fight (coupled with the slow mode, it is very slow), addition of state machines, reduction of fights to a static phase and more, players can still not play it RTwP. They can not even manage a 5 vs1 without spamming pause. They urgently need a prop for their lack of skills.

Thank you for a very well formulated answer. I still disagree about you stance, since to me RTwP has always been a matter of making it possible to have loads of options while still having somewhat of a flow as compared to the static nature of turn based products. It's never been about pausing as little as possible, and limiting pauses to a per encounter version while an interesting idea is not something that would make it "more" RTwP. Just different RTwP. I'm impressed by the people who can play without pausing, but I've never seen a developer state that's the point of RTwP in their game.

I can respect that's the way you think they should be played though, especially since you enjoy watching streams where constant pausing must get boring fast.
 
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Thank you for a very well formulated answer. I still disagree about you stance, since to me RTwP has always been a matter of making it possible to have loads of options while still having somewhat of a flow as compared to the static nature of turn based products. It's never been about pausing as little as possible. I'm impressed by the people who can, but I've never seen a developer state that's the point of RTwP.

I can respect that's the way you think they should be played though, especially since you enjoy watching streams where constant pausing must get boring fast.

I think that's the new generation of gamers, and sadly that might be the direction RTWP is headed, i.e. it's about pausing less and less frequently. I may have noticed it trending in that direction but maybe I'm imagining it (some of the combat trailers for PoE2 for example, show battles that look more like action combat than RTWP.) I'm sure difficulty levels will play into that, too, though.

But I 100% agree about RTWP with you. It's my favorite combat style, because it is fast-paced yet still retains the tactics and strategy. It also has that kind of "think on your feet" / clusterf*%$-ness, but in a good way (keeps it somewhat unpredictable.) Best of both worlds for me.
 
Erm, I will not use my Eternity1 savegame in the sequel.
It's not Mass Effect for god's sakes.

You can create your own POE1 world state in the game or pick a preset. From the looks of things, it does world state reactivity better than Mass Effect. You can get your ship covered in bird shit because of something you did in POE1 or didn't do. I don't know the exact specific, just saw the ship in a gif and that it was the result of something from POE1...must be awesome with the 30 minutes of sea shanties.
 
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Yes you can go and create "history" one by one thing. I plain refuse wasting my time on it.
Also when asked at the beginning what I did in Eternity1, I picked the first option without reading what's it about and without "studying" others.
The ship might be covered with shit now? Whatever I'll clean it up.

Mass Effect had romances reactivity better - do you remember any romance in Eternity1? Neither do I.
Why would I care what I did with other people and trashmobs (and gods) - I might have cared back then, but sorry, can't care less for any of that today. Time passed, emotions are gone for good.

If I ever make minireview for Eternity2, this meaningless yet forced continuity is getting -1 from me.
God bless ToCS2 system.
 
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I'm torn between importing my save and starting a new character. I like my Cipher whom I finished the game with last year, but in the other hand it's fun to try new classes.

Can you import a save for the decisions but change the character?
 
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I'm torn between importing my save and starting a new character. I like my Cipher whom I finished the game with last year, but in the other hand it's fun to try new classes.

Can you import a save for the decisions but change the character?

You always go through the character creator, so you can change the race, background, classes, etc.
 
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I get the feeling you don't care for western (as oppose to asian) rpgs.

Yes you can go and create "history" one by one thing. I plain refuse wasting my time on it.
Also when asked at the beginning what I did in Eternity1, I picked the first option without reading what's it about and without "studying" others.
The ship might be covered with shit now? Whatever I'll clean it up.

Mass Effect had romances reactivity better - do you remember any romance in Eternity1? Neither do I.
Why would I care what I did with other people and trashmobs (and gods) - I might have cared back then, but sorry, can't care less for any of that today. Time passed, emotions are gone for good.

If I ever make minireview for Eternity2, this meaningless yet forced continuity is getting -1 from me.
God bless ToCS2 system.
 
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You didn't say if it's PC or Nintendo version. Or something else, the rumor is you sold your soul to consoles. :p

I have that "Obsidian Edition".
The haptic feel of the box is astonishing : It almost feels as if this was satin ...

A printed handbook is sadly missing. Oh, the good times of really thick handbooks ! Anyone remember the handbook of Arcanum ?
I would sometimes even take them to sleep studying them before I sleep ... ;)
 
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It would be really weird (and a proof of good imagination) if anyone remembered romances from PoE, since as far as I'm aware of the game doesn't have any.
 
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