Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

 PC
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 740 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 540 out of 740
  2. Mixed: 102 out of 740
  3. Negative: 98 out of 740
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  1. Caveretien
    May 16, 2018
    0
    Pros: Pirate! Beautifully old graphic, a lot of classes and a lot of abilities.
    Cos:
    -Terrible music, cheap quality regarding both composing and producing tracks. - long and drag out unimportant and uninteresting dialog. Even with alot more voice over compare to POE 1. Voice over team has little to no emotion or that many lines to say. Saying "I got it" 50 times in a row is terrible.    Pros: Pirate! Beautifully old graphic, a lot of classes and a lot of abilities.
    Cos:
    -Terrible music, cheap quality regarding both composing and producing tracks.
    - long and drag out unimportant and uninteresting dialog. Even with alot more voice over compare to POE 1. Voice over team has little to no emotion or that many lines to say. Saying "I got it" 50 times in a row is terrible.
    - Main story is very very short and boring. There is not really a lead of why one thing lead to another. Their purpose of the whole POEII: Deadfire is not convincing.
    - Too many side quests, they are random and uninteresting. Aside from distracting the player from the main quest, in one town, there are about 20 NPCs each gives 5 quest. It forces you running back and forth too much, not only that the amount of loading screen, you tell me. Game feels like a series of side quest rather than telling a story. I'd call this one Pillar of Many Random Pirate Side quest.
    - Pausing/AI configuration. Again, developers provide too many unnecessary tools for a simple task, 95% of the scripted AI condition aren't needed. Getting interrupted on a spell will make character skip that spell entirely..Compare this to Dragon Age: Origin or Final Fantasy XII ( game on a ps2), they are simpler and doing a much better job.
    -Even though there are alot of classes, abilities and weapon of choices, the way active and passive abilities are made making building a character is oblivious, you cannot fail to build a character in this game. It's very wide but shallow. I'd rather have something narrow but deep, that's character building.
    - Pathing, character can't reach a destination run around and getting hit by engagement attack continuously.
    - Developers are so lazy to balance the game so that they make an option of scaling, game is too easy even on path of the damned difficulty once you reach high level
    -level of a character define its power, everything else is irrelevant: your class, weapon of choice, abilities, potions, scroll etc..

    Final word, I can't believe this PoE I and PoE II both budget about $6 M, compares to DOS I and
    DOSII with the same budget. or even its predecessor NWN or Baldur's Gate. After 40 hours to finish this game on Path of The Damned. I'm very dissapointed    … Expand
  2. Sayno
    May 14, 2018
    4
    If you want a bunch of flowery language, buggy inconsistent combat, bland characters, a quota-filling system of sexuality with hetero being the minority, a much shorter game then PoE and not as good as any RPG in recent or semi-recent memory but are desperate for an isometric game, then I suppose it is OK. The world is quite nice. I'm really concerned about the direction Obsidian is takingIf you want a bunch of flowery language, buggy inconsistent combat, bland characters, a quota-filling system of sexuality with hetero being the minority, a much shorter game then PoE and not as good as any RPG in recent or semi-recent memory but are desperate for an isometric game, then I suppose it is OK. The world is quite nice. I'm really concerned about the direction Obsidian is taking though with their game quality and leftist agendas.… Expand
  3. marcus113
    May 14, 2018
    0
    Do people have no standards? Baldurs Gate I & II, are so much better in every way and they're almost 20 years old... they put better graphics in the game and assume that this is all you have to do? Why not do something different and unique? If this were a movie that remade an older movie it would get destroyed in reviews. Why are gamers giving it a pass for being a safe remake of an olderDo people have no standards? Baldurs Gate I & II, are so much better in every way and they're almost 20 years old... they put better graphics in the game and assume that this is all you have to do? Why not do something different and unique? If this were a movie that remade an older movie it would get destroyed in reviews. Why are gamers giving it a pass for being a safe remake of an older game.

    Also this is an RPG. Graphics are not what makes RPG's great. Its character development, story, writing, lore... This is a lot less complex than the original D&D games in terms of classes, combinations and abilities so no points for that. I mean... if you are going to copy, at the very least maintain the level of quality of the old games and dont cut content. The bad thing about this game is that its so boring. The story is just drab and tiring.    … Expand
  4. svarog
    May 9, 2018
    2
    Loading screens, loading screens everywhere... Optimization? No, better to add more loading screens.
  5. maxmoefoe
    May 8, 2018
    0
    Boring characters, boring story, boring narrative design. Easy combat. This feels like a horrible DLC for the original pillars of eternity.
  6. KalrocVN
    Aug 16, 2018
    0
    Cringe inducing dialogue. Weak character development. Horrific ship-to-ship combat-in text-that last forever. Do not waste your time or dollars.
  7. Ololof
    May 23, 2018
    0
    One of the worst CRPG ever made
    Writing is cringe, gameplay is boring and "safe" garbage
    Honestly I can't understand how can someone defend this game, it just doesn't have redeeming qualities. Obsidian blaming backers for the final state of game, just like they blamed publishers everytime before was just too much for me
  8. djball
    May 20, 2018
    1
    Garbage extreme verbose over the top writing that drags on for eternity. Story that is absolutely non existent, hunt down big blue dude with big feet WTF! Fetch stuff, kill stuff, and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk... Meanwhile load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, loadGarbage extreme verbose over the top writing that drags on for eternity. Story that is absolutely non existent, hunt down big blue dude with big feet WTF! Fetch stuff, kill stuff, and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk... Meanwhile load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen, load screen. You get the picture.… Expand
  9. Nostalgo
    May 22, 2018
    0
    Bugsidian is back in full force like never before.

    Radio silence from the developer on the exact release date of patches. Game is unplayable couse of terrible optimization, crashes, fps issues due to memory leaks even on top pc, difficulty is laughable that the party autopilots itself, ship combat is boring and simple,companion side quests are nonexistent, I could go on for another    Bugsidian is back in full force like never before.

    Radio silence from the developer on the exact release date of patches.
    Game is unplayable couse of terrible optimization, crashes, fps issues due to memory leaks even on top pc, difficulty is laughable that the party autopilots itself, ship combat is boring and simple,companion side quests are nonexistent, I could go on for another 1000 words.

    This game is a disaster that will require months to fix.    … Expand
  10. AcerolaOrion
    Jun 26, 2019
    0
    Let me just explain one (of the many) objective problem this game has in detail.
    Deadfire is extremely poorly optimized to the point where it affects gameplay and overheating might damage your hardware.
    Google it if you dont believe me "ultimate gaming rig deadfire" "overheating deadfire". What happens? The game drops A LOT! of frames all the time even on high end machines to the    Let me just explain one (of the many) objective problem this game has in detail.
    Deadfire is extremely poorly optimized to the point where it affects gameplay and overheating might damage your hardware.

    Google it if you dont believe me "ultimate gaming rig deadfire" "overheating deadfire".

    What happens? The game drops A LOT! of frames all the time even on high end machines to the point where it affects the gameplay. I can not count the number of times when i engaged combat and the game just skipped entire seconds of time to the point where it made me reload because of how bad the engage ended up (without having any control).

    There are fights on ships. The ship areas are un -fffffing- playable. I have frame drops to below 10 on a good desktop PC ON LOW SETTINGS! I can play recently released AAA games on high and its nowhere near that (Sekiro, Tomb Raider, Monster Hunter DMC5 or Pathfinder Kingmaker (by a team who made their first major title!!!) to name a few) and Deadfire is a bloody year old?! How is this not patched?
    I have never seen anything like this in my life. It is unbelievable.
    Its not just in combat. The game gradually runs worse and worse the longer you play. (Visibly consistently worse framerate on steam over time in the same areas)
    Some areas get my CPU to 80+ degree Celsius AND THERES NOTHING IN THEM (Beraths temple, the area under the watershaper guild to name 2 of them)??? Its completely random. WHY? WHAT? HOW?
    The game doesnt even look particularly good. Maybe its the effects? I wouldnt know since i can never see them because the game just frameskips over them most of the time LMAO!
    Ohh and of course... Loading screens. Loading screens everywhere all the time.    … Expand
  11. Matt_H
    Apr 27, 2019
    0
    If you like bugs and glitches that will never get repaired, you'll LOVE Obsidian.
  12. user9991213131
    May 19, 2018
    2
    Played game for a several hours before giving up. As a fan of the genre, I was disappointed. I did not play the first game. Cons: Poor character creation (low selection of faces, portraits, and more), poor mix of 3D and isometric, lacking polish (generally clunky interface), poor dual class system, filler in gameplay (I suspended judgement on walking around map etc. but am now certain thatPlayed game for a several hours before giving up. As a fan of the genre, I was disappointed. I did not play the first game. Cons: Poor character creation (low selection of faces, portraits, and more), poor mix of 3D and isometric, lacking polish (generally clunky interface), poor dual class system, filler in gameplay (I suspended judgement on walking around map etc. but am now certain that this is simply filler in lieu of content). I honestly cannot think of any pros to compare to either the classics (IWD, BG), or similar modern games like divinity, which I highly recommend. If you are new to the series as I was, purchase with caution.… Expand
  13. nanddo
    May 17, 2018
    0
    It's a nice game, but is full of bugs, when you select a quest and open the journal, the quest is not even preselected WTF, there are missions you cannot finish because of bugs, crew members that don't heal due to bugs. Is not enjoyable like this, wait till they patch it properly. Pillars of ethernity I did not have this kind of bugs.
  14. maxikyd
    Aug 31, 2018
    1
    Managed to play for 6 hours since June with intermittent crashes. Now the game either gives a black screen at startup, or the crashes are roughly every 5 minutes with no sign of patching in sight. Devs seems to be leaving the repairs up to users. Cannot recommend until the crash problems have been fixed by the devs. Currently unplayable.
  15. KomradJurij
    Nov 17, 2018
    2
    If only Larian made this...
    This game had potential, but the combat is garbage plus the graphics are hit or miss.
  16. metalreflectsli
    May 18, 2018
    0
    The Mac OS X port does not work. The developers are unresponsive on both the Steam forums and the GOG forums.
  17. jcolin
    Oct 24, 2018
    0
    They finally added romances to one of their games but screwed it up completely. If they ever patch in a romance for Eder then I'll give it a shot. At least with pillars 1 we knew there weren't any from the start, but with 2 it was a stretch goal and they just hodge podged some stuff together.
  18. Sandman83
    Nov 27, 2018
    0
    Tried and tried to get into this game but yeah this game just didn't do it for me, don't really get why it's so highly scored?
    Is it because it's and indie or something?
  19. Shinno
    Dec 1, 2018
    4
    A circus parody to the first Pillars of Eternity. Even Aloth is cracking jokes now, the whole game is one big laughing stock.
  20. Deaden
    Jun 16, 2020
    3
    ...Bok gibi oyun. Never Winter Nights ı yapan firma olduğuna inanmak zor...
  21. TyrantGodBane
    May 11, 2020
    1
    I do not understand how there are 420 positive reviews on a game that has base features still bugged. Bough his May 2020 and I just deleted it for good. The main island before you get your ship based on your main character is6-10hrs long, 2hrs of them are Loading Screens. When you save it kicks you to the main screen. Continue or load up and that save file vanishes. Auto saves are justI do not understand how there are 420 positive reviews on a game that has base features still bugged. Bough his May 2020 and I just deleted it for good. The main island before you get your ship based on your main character is6-10hrs long, 2hrs of them are Loading Screens. When you save it kicks you to the main screen. Continue or load up and that save file vanishes. Auto saves are just one time and you can't locate them(via PS4) so if you die there goes all that hard hard. Au

    10 playthroughs and I'm done with the game. The amount of glowing lying reviews is staggering. “its a great game" lies just to make you buy it.    … Expand
  22. BakriSaragih
    Jul 29, 2020
    0
    "Do not make further Pillars of Eternity game anymore, you'll only screw things further"

    The statement above is the bottom line I would like to give to this game. Don't get me wrong, I WAS a big fan. I love the writing, 10/10, the story and dialogues, 10/10, I have no problem with bird view 3D character, but the game design, about how you managed it, really put everything into the    "Do not make further Pillars of Eternity game anymore, you'll only screw things further"

    The statement above is the bottom line I would like to give to this game. Don't get me wrong, I WAS a big fan. I love the writing, 10/10, the story and dialogues, 10/10, I have no problem with bird view 3D character, but the game design, about how you managed it, really put everything into the trash can.

    First of all, I am a "hardcore" gamer, which means, I always do the craziest difficulty any game ever has, which includes PotD. I love it, I love the concept, what really infuriated me though was, "What did you smoke when you put that save mechanism". Honestly, if you want to remove auto-save for the sake of "you get what you play", not gonna lie, I will agree with you. But how can you expect us to forgive you, for punishing us because of one of your GAMEBREAKING BUG? Not to mention how annoying it is to manual save because of your bizarre manual save system. And now you wonder why nobody cares to buy your game.

    This isn't just some "bug issue", this is some "mind concept" issue. You want to punish the player as hard as possible but you don't want to compensate or anything of your own failure. That is a selfish paradigm.

    As a verdict, put your thought about making PoE III to the grave. The franchise is done. You are done. Don't screw things any further than it has.

    For new-players: forget PoTD. Not because it was too hard, but because this game got too many game-breaking bugs that would make you wasted a couple of hours.    … Expand
  23. GVB
    Oct 30, 2020
    4
    Rpg are my favourite genre. But this game its simply... meh. A lot of content, yes, and the writing is good, but the plot is uninteresting, the quest are a bit repetitive, and the companions are underdeveloped in every aspect and not have much weight in the story of your hero. So, if you want to play a great isometric rpg... play Disco Elysium. Or Baldur's Gate 2. Or Neverwinter Night...Rpg are my favourite genre. But this game its simply... meh. A lot of content, yes, and the writing is good, but the plot is uninteresting, the quest are a bit repetitive, and the companions are underdeveloped in every aspect and not have much weight in the story of your hero. So, if you want to play a great isometric rpg... play Disco Elysium. Or Baldur's Gate 2. Or Neverwinter Night... or Baldur's Gate 2 again, and again, and again... :-D… Expand
  24. 2random
    Sep 4, 2022
    1
    The game feels extremely unsatisfying to play. A huge disappointment. Not even close to baldurs gate. It just tries to be what it isn't. There's no real depth to the world, most of the NPCs speak with one-liners, stand in 1 place all the time and are more like decorations than actual people. This isn't how you make this kind of games. The game is in poor technical condition- lags, bugs,The game feels extremely unsatisfying to play. A huge disappointment. Not even close to baldurs gate. It just tries to be what it isn't. There's no real depth to the world, most of the NPCs speak with one-liners, stand in 1 place all the time and are more like decorations than actual people. This isn't how you make this kind of games. The game is in poor technical condition- lags, bugs, takes ages to load. But the woke sure is there, the game's just infested with it.… Expand
  25. PenetratorGod
    Feb 10, 2023
    3
    It's a bad Divinity ripoff. The first game tried to copy Baldur's Gate. It's a series with no original ideas of its own. Even if we leave the story aside, the gameplay is terrible.
  26. CoolDadTx
    Dec 23, 2018
    2
    Updated score after starting the DLCs. They are worse than the base game. Every enemy is way above your level even when you are maxed. So there is absolutely nothing you can do to even the odds. You are pretty much given to luck to win the boss battles. The bosses are so horribly overpowered that even micro-managing is of limited effect. This is some of the worst DLC I've seen. it's so badUpdated score after starting the DLCs. They are worse than the base game. Every enemy is way above your level even when you are maxed. So there is absolutely nothing you can do to even the odds. You are pretty much given to luck to win the boss battles. The bosses are so horribly overpowered that even micro-managing is of limited effect. This is some of the worst DLC I've seen. it's so bad I'm skipping the rest of them. Obsidian really screwed up on this mess of a game. I wonder if they even bothered to playtest anything or just kept "upping the numbers" to make it "more challenging". I thought we left that broken game design system to the novices.

    Mediocre RPG that doesn't do have a good job as the first one. All the time the devs spent on building up the lore and world just falls on deaf ears. Who really cares about the lore when everything you read is a bunch of hyperlinks to some additional data that is just long and boring. The time could have been better spent on the mechanics.

    The ship-based system is just awful. It is so bad that if it wasn't needed for getting around I would never use it. I completely avoided any combat if at all possible because it was just a badly implemented mess. Firstly it is completely random and it didn't appear that, irrelevant of rank or equipment, anything actually impacted it. I had the same chance to hit early on (very low) as I did late in the game even with expert crew. Every ship I met hit me every time they fired their cannons yet I hit probably 50% or less. The movement in combat (and turning and pretty much everything else) had no impact. Basically you jibe and then you fire. Rinse and repeat in what turns out to be very long battles. Nothing else really changed anything. Firing at sails didn't do anything to the opposing ship even when at 0. Taking out the crew didn't help because they replaced them just as fast. Running away always said you lost morale for fleeing an inferior opponent even though most opponents out gunned us in every way. The ranking system and the fact that you couldn't move crew and do anything else at once was just a round-based system applied to ships. It just doesn't work. This is by far the worse system in the game and really dragged it down because it was constantly in your face.

    The rest of the game was not much different than the original. Way too many skills that seemed limited to useless. The attempt at showing quest levels is just broken. There were many questions that it said I was ready for but then you encountered groups of enemies with 2 or 3 skulls above their names. How in the world can a quest have these enemies and still be at my level.

    You are also constantly outnumbered and have to micro-manage every battle if you want to win. Irrelevant of any AI settings you make the mages always feel the need to run right up to the melee folks. The ranged fighters do the same thing. Yet the opposing AI never had these issues.

    The constant DLCs add nothing to the broken mechanics. Since Obsidian is moving on to their next game I don't expect anything on this game to be fixed. If you're a fan of the original you'll like it but otherwise this is nowhere near the best we've seen from this company in the past.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Best PC Game of 2018
22
#22 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018
10
#10 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 71
  3. Negative: 0 out of 71
  1. RPGamer
    May 7, 2019
    70
    Those with an appreciation for the tabletop games and classic PC games this pays homage to will likely have an enjoyable experience. The learning curve is a bit steep, the seas may get choppy, and the deck can get rather slippery, but with some patience and perseverance, even the greenest sailor can go from lowly deckhand to decorated captain.
    Read full review
  2. Game Debate
    Oct 22, 2018
    95
    With DLC called 'The Deck of Many Things' and rules system that very closely mirrors the fundamentals of D&D right down to individual spells, it's sort of a crying shame that the powers that control licensing on both sides were unable to consummate this obvious marriage. Pillars of Eternity, for me, is the best D&D series there never was.
    Read full review
  3. Gamers Heroes
    Sep 4, 2018
    80
    Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is not for everyone. The web of intertwining features and mechanics are as deep as they are complicated, but for those looking for more from their RPGs – more character, more wonder, more life – Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a fantastic homage to the true roots of the RPG genre.
    Read full review
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