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. S3XU4LH34L1NG
    May 1, 2023
    7
    In its core a great game is hidden but I'll deduct a full 2 points for the shabby state this game is in 4 years after release.

    There a game breaking bugs with gear / spells / potions. Bugs that can ruin full playthroughs. There's memory leaking (I thinks this was an issue in P1 too). After 1-2 hrs this gets unbearable. Also you can clearly see some areas are extremly fleshed out and    In its core a great game is hidden but I'll deduct a full 2 points for the shabby state this game is in 4 years after release.

    There a game breaking bugs with gear / spells / potions. Bugs that can ruin full playthroughs.
    There's memory leaking (I thinks this was an issue in P1 too). After 1-2 hrs this gets unbearable.
    Also you can clearly see some areas are extremly fleshed out and others lacking heavily.

    The characters and the combat system is satisfying and I have no complaints there. The story is well thought out and deeply philosophical just like in the first game.

    Atm this is on gamepass. I recommend grabbing it there.    … Expand
  2. Hyperfailure
    Apr 29, 2023
    7
    In spite of improving on its predecessor in many aspect, the sequel simply does not reach the same heights as the first instalment. While mechanically much more sound, the story and characters do not feel as endearing as the first game.
  3. alex_opr
    Apr 14, 2023
    7
    I wanted to like this game more because I really liked the world and all the deep lore, but it had so many things going against it. The writing is pretty bad my biggest problem is the inconsistent tone, the gameplay is too safe, and too old school imo, and it felt that it provides 2 interesting dungeons in my 40-hour playthrough and the ending was just lackluster. I love RPGs but I thinkI wanted to like this game more because I really liked the world and all the deep lore, but it had so many things going against it. The writing is pretty bad my biggest problem is the inconsistent tone, the gameplay is too safe, and too old school imo, and it felt that it provides 2 interesting dungeons in my 40-hour playthrough and the ending was just lackluster. I love RPGs but I think there are better options out there to put the hours in.

    I will still give it a 7 because again I liked the world, the locations were beautiful, good music and good sound, there are some interesting quests and the combat is pretty enjoyable for a time. I also liked the reputation system and the responsiveness of the world to your actions.. well untill the end.    … Expand
  4. Geralt123
    Sep 13, 2022
    7
    In one sentence: fun combat but mediocre story 7/10

    Pros ----- - Beautiful grahpics - Endless skills / weapons - Satisfying combat - Nice finisher animations - Ship management increases immersion - Entering other ships is fun - Quickload/Quicksave is really good Cons -------- - Load screens when you enter a house or even a new floor of a house, this is really too long -    In one sentence: fun combat but mediocre story 7/10

    Pros
    -----
    - Beautiful grahpics
    - Endless skills / weapons
    - Satisfying combat
    - Nice finisher animations
    - Ship management increases immersion
    - Entering other ships is fun
    - Quickload/Quicksave is really good

    Cons
    --------
    - Load screens when you enter a house or even a new floor of a house, this is really too long
    - Too much religious blah blah
    - Story and most dialogues rather boring
    - Pirate settings is so overused I can’t believe why they chose that
    - Not much to do on many islands
    - Disappointing ending    … Expand
  5. jseph1234
    Apr 17, 2022
    7
    What a lovingly well-crafted game this is. From the beautiful animation and awesome story that carries over from Pillars of Eternity 1. Was a bit disappointed though how my original charater from #1 was Nerfed badly so I have changed my rating to 7 / 10
  6. Gamed2long
    Apr 6, 2022
    7
    Ultimately I developed a love/hate relationship with this game, that continued to its deeply unsatisfying conclusion. It is in many ways an improvement over POE 1. But would I recommend it to a D&D game fan? It depends. To anyone not already a fan of the genre? Definitely NOT!
    The good: Enemy and companion AI is a big step up from the first game. Characters have more voiced dialogue.    Ultimately I developed a love/hate relationship with this game, that continued to its deeply unsatisfying conclusion. It is in many ways an improvement over POE 1. But would I recommend it to a D&D game fan? It depends. To anyone not already a fan of the genre? Definitely NOT!
    The good: Enemy and companion AI is a big step up from the first game. Characters have more voiced dialogue. Characters are more grounded and there were better companion interactions to be had. Some settings are very creative and pretty. The class system is more polished and intuitive. Some more compelling side quests and 3 DLCs far better than the base game. The game even got a bit philosophical at times. In places it had that old school Baldur's Gate quirkiness that is missing in most modern games.
    The bad: Fight balance. How items were handled. I liked the idea of finding gold items and upgrading them until they had the best stats in the game and came with a special ability, however a lot of the time this meant I found a best in slot item for a character, and had no need to change it out for the rest of the game. I took half my crew through the whole game never changing off the equipment they started in. It already had the good perk attributes, so it was just a matter of upgrading with gold and generic crafting stuff. So that took some fun out of itemization. Potions/scrolls would have made a big difference early on, but it costs gold to brew/craft them. Was too poor to when they would have made a huge difference and by the time I was rich enough to, I'd amassed basically all I'd need. So that was largely a wasted opportunity. The 4 major factions in the game are all flawed. Perhaps too flawed to the point it was hard to see redeeming qualities in any of them. I appreciate they didn't want clear "good guy/bad guy" choices. But the factions could have shown more good to go with their bad.
    Then there was ship combat. Basically its own text adventure that ended in a typical fight anyway. I appreciate this game is small budget and chose not to go into battle animations or cutscenes. But the text crawl with unclear rules made it no fun if you know what you're doing and just bad if you don't.
    Finally the main plot started off strong, but ended with a whimper, not a bang. It started out better, but ended worse than most of the side quests and DLC.    … Expand
  7. Odal
    Nov 30, 2021
    6
    Too many things felt off with this game. From the weird aesthetics of African italians in European clothing with weird accents (woke?) to the whole theme of pirates and Islands. Characters were pretty weak as well. Apart from Eder, Aloth, Xoti and Serafin, there wasn't much there.
    And even then Aloth and Serafin are not the best characters ever created exactly. I did like Xoti and Eder    Too many things felt off with this game. From the weird aesthetics of African italians in European clothing with weird accents (woke?) to the whole theme of pirates and Islands. Characters were pretty weak as well. Apart from Eder, Aloth, Xoti and Serafin, there wasn't much there.
    And even then Aloth and Serafin are not the best characters ever created exactly. I did like Xoti and Eder is a likeable classic from PoE though.

    Some may like it better than PoE 1 and it did have some great moments, but overall a very "meh" experience. Especially comparing to Pillars of Eternity 1 in my opinion.

    The plus of the game is the movement with the text-RPG, those I really liked. But the story, atmosphere, characters and quests were all worse than PoE. The terrible combat from PoE was neither improved. The music is pretty good, but not again as good as Pillars Of Eternity 1.

    Still as a fan of RPG:s, I say, give it a try. However, I personally burned out pretty quickly on the game and had to force myself to finnish it.

    I hope if they make a PoE 3, which I hope they do, that they take it back to a classic adventure setting without pirates and that they improve on the things mentioned as negatives in this review: aeshetics, setting, combat, mainquest, characters.

    +
    Text RPG moments
    Beautifully made enviroments
    Music

    -
    Aesthetics
    Setting
    Character choice (too few good characters)
    Factions
    Combat    … Expand
  8. Woolee
    Sep 29, 2021
    7
    In my opinion, PoE2 is a huge step up from PoE1 (which was also a great game). It improved on many areas, and from what I've noticed hasn't worsened in any aspect that was in PoE 1.
  9. ministry86
    Sep 26, 2021
    6
    I don't like to **** on a game that's already sold poorly, but in this case, I have to. There's a lot of nonsense cultural jargon you're supposed to read and actually care about. I'm happy to learn a game world's history and lingo if the journey I'm going on is interesting, but it's not. Don't mistake a Fampyr for a Vampire or Hel for Hell. They're different, but not really. Even readingI don't like to **** on a game that's already sold poorly, but in this case, I have to. There's a lot of nonsense cultural jargon you're supposed to read and actually care about. I'm happy to learn a game world's history and lingo if the journey I'm going on is interesting, but it's not. Don't mistake a Fampyr for a Vampire or Hel for Hell. They're different, but not really. Even reading the quest log is annoying. Obsidian's idea of interesting writing is to throw as many adjectives, nonsensical character names and long winded descriptions into every line of dialogue and scene description. Yet, in the end, very little of it is engaging, exciting or worthy of the time I'm putting into it. As I hear some of the dialogue being spoken, I frequently laugh because of how damn silly it all sounds. It just comes off as pretentious to me. This is one of the most cynical games you'll ever play. Every faction is made up of monsters and bigots.

    There are a lot of time wasting issues within the game. For instance, the load times in between each floor of a building and entering and exiting a building. To fast travel around the city you have to run to an exit, you can't just open the map up and fast travel that way. Why? The "running" speed is also ridiculously slow. Nobody besides the obese run nearly that slow in real life.

    Why does it cost copper to craft items? For example, it costs 300 gold to create a single scroll of "Garden of Life" and 200 gold to craft a "Potion of Ironskin". That's a lazy way to "balance" crafting. If you add up the cost of the ingredients and the copper cost, it probably costs just about as much as buying one. That's stupid. What, are my characters tossing the gold pieces into the potion as it's being brewed? Why does it cost 30k gold to enchant an item from 'superb' to 'legendary' if I already have the skill and items to do so?. I've heard the counter arguments and they don't hold up. "Balance".

    So many potions and spells are so situational that they are useless because you can't use items from your personal inventory in battle. You can only use "quick items" in battle. That's 4 slots. I'm not going to load up my 4 slots with potions that I will likely never need.

    It's so easy to make your crew happy that low morale is never an issue. With all the money you rake in selling dead enemy loot, due to unlimited stash, that you can afford all the good food and drink and never have to worry about anything. You can also share the gold from every enemy ship defeated and that raises morale drastically. 10 morale up to plus 40 morale easily. There is no challenge in the ship combat because you can just board their ship and can avoid the text based naval battles every time. Obsidian is scared of commitments. They design a system but make sure to leave you an out and to allow you to skip it entirely, making that entire system they spent a long time developing pointless. According to the Fig campaign having a ship crew was an actual stretch goal, yet Ydwin, one of the more interesting sidekicks was locked behind the 5 million dollar goalpost. The ship crew was little more than flavor text. There are storms on the world map that you can see when sailing. They're just big circles on the world map to easily sail around. If you go through them there are some text based options that can kill or wound crew if you get unlucky, but mostly, you just gain a little experience. There is no risk whatsoever of running into a storm unless you want to. I sail into them for the nearly free experience points. The entire ship portion of the game is of no consequence. If I had donated money to that Fig campaign, I would be pissed off about the half-assed implementation of the systems on their stretch goals. I didn't and I'm annoyed.

    There is a formula for nearly every place you find exploring the world. You land on an island of interest, there is a site you want to visit. You're greeted by someone with vague speech who makes an offer. You say yes or no. Fight if you said no. You go to the site in question. The little text book pops up as you enter. Inconsequential words. You enter. It's essentially the same map as every other island's mini "dungeon". It takes 5-15 minutes and you're done. I have a feeling the writers were too busy arguing over which companions were going to screw each other than writing quests with substance. As a straight male playing a male character, having two male party members trying to **** me is a bit much.

    Obsidian, hire somebody to write for you besides 20-35 year old Californian hipster liberals. Get a little diversity in there. You actually do need it. And make sure to keep Justin Bell as your composer no matter what happens. He's really great. The music is fantastic.    … Expand
  10. OfCourse
    Feb 15, 2021
    6
    This game has great tactical combat and and many interesting classes and multiclasses to build. RPG system was pretty meh in PoE1(percentages everywhere, graze/hit, overly convoluted and shallow at the same time) and it was somewhat improved here, but nearly all character builds focus around the same stat spread, which again shows that its not a great system. Overall gameplay is veryThis game has great tactical combat and and many interesting classes and multiclasses to build. RPG system was pretty meh in PoE1(percentages everywhere, graze/hit, overly convoluted and shallow at the same time) and it was somewhat improved here, but nearly all character builds focus around the same stat spread, which again shows that its not a great system. Overall gameplay is very enjoyable. Graphics are good, they even fixed ugly character models and bad animations, which plagued all kickstarter RPGs of that era. A lot of quality of life changes(like city navigation) are also appreciated.
    Why the score is so low you ask?
    Well because everything else is from mediocre to terrible.
    Soundtrack still puts you to sleep.
    Setting of Deadfire is a step up from the generic medieval fantasy, but its still not that interesting(because the real world cultures it was copied from are not that interesting either).
    Overreliance on textual adventures for everything gets stale very quickly. SHOW, DON'T TELL.
    Unity is still sluggish, stuttering mess, as usual(yeah its not the engine, its the programming, except when 99% of the games have exactly the same problems and its all somehow the fault of programmers).
    Writing went from boring in PoE1(except Durance, who was written by one who shall not be named) to outright amateur purple prose. Story is unengaging, short and pointless, characters are one dimensional and unmemorable. But this is expected to happen when you hire a bunch of amateurs and drive out the real talent. They had a fairly interesting setting, but then they force feed you its lore by the cartload, until you want to puke every time "soul" is mentioned. Soul this, god that, soul, god, soul, god, soul, god. No character development, no strong motivation, no revenge story, no political nuance, no twist, no emotions, no finale, nothing but countless babble about souls. Not every writer can manage to make you hate the lore that you initially though was cool.

    My advice to new players is ignore the story and just play this game for the combat. Its polished and you see people who were involved into its development knew what they were doing.
    Don't bother reading every sentence, its no planescape torment, not even kingmaker. Unless you can tolerate fanfiction tier writing, you won't get any satisfaction from reading Deadfire.

    My advice to Obsidian is to sack all its "writers" and get some people who can actually write themselves out of a paper bag.    … Expand
  11. Traxillion
    Sep 29, 2020
    5
    Feels a lot shallower to the first game in almost every aspect despite having a lot more mechanics.
    Also gets very boring after a while.
  12. Prometheus1241
    Aug 22, 2020
    5
    I must start from the thing, that i liked the first Pillars

    But the second part is just a step back I do not realize why the hell obsidian decided to create and open world. It just longs the gameplay and forces it to continue for 2-3 hours longer( and if you want to complete all the side quests for 10(!!!) hours or more). and yet, you do not have an ability for quick travel.    I must start from the thing, that i liked the first Pillars

    But the second part is just a step back

    I do not realize why the hell obsidian decided to create and open world. It just longs the gameplay and forces it to continue for 2-3 hours longer( and if you want to complete all the side quests for 10(!!!) hours or more). and yet, you do not have an ability for quick travel. Secondly, after 5-10 hours of gameplay it becomes sooooo boring even for the fan of CRPGs like me. All the dungeons are almost the same, and i have found only 3(!!!) interesting for me side quests. the main story is just **** If the game had autoleveling, it could be completed for 3 hours...

    But lets talk about pros of the game:
    1) the graphics is one of the best among CRPGs
    2) battle system has become better( which is the only thing that saves you from their monotony)
    3) "The Forgotten Sanctum" DLC is quite good( it is best content of the game, as for me)

    So, that is it. I can't recommend it even to the fans of the first Pillars, so 5/10    … Expand
  13. GabFire
    Aug 10, 2020
    7
    Joguei esse jogo há pouco tempo, e realmente não vi nada legal, fico em dúvidas sobre a qualidade do novo jogo ''Avowed'', porque se for no mesmo universo dessa franquia, melhor abandonar e fazer outra coisa.
  14. theirrelephants
    Jun 9, 2020
    7
    Good game but I didn't enjoy it as much as PoE1. 90% of the quests happen around one hub city, and 90% of the other "dungeons" consist of (admittedly pretty) one to two rooms on a single floor. The story didn't flow very well either, and while the faction system was entertaining, none of them were remotely likeable.

    The new party members were okay, but Eder and Aloth were the most    Good game but I didn't enjoy it as much as PoE1. 90% of the quests happen around one hub city, and 90% of the other "dungeons" consist of (admittedly pretty) one to two rooms on a single floor. The story didn't flow very well either, and while the faction system was entertaining, none of them were remotely likeable.

    The new party members were okay, but Eder and Aloth were the most enjoyable companions. The new ones didn't really compare to old favorites like Durance or Sagani. Xoti and Maia were.. okay. The rest of them were either bland or bad. The only one that might have been more interesting was confined to a companion role with no real story (some elf undead woman).

    The main quest also feels incredibly rushed. It's basically four missions and the final "boss fight" is a quick check list of questions and then the credits are rolled.

    It's a good RPG, but it's not a great one. Thaos was a much better villain than Eothas was. The latter comes off like a spoiled child who's smashing things because no one else will let him have his way, and yet his fellow gods wont intervene for reasons that are never really clear despite hitting him with a magic nuke the last time he tried to pull this. Despite attempts to handwave their inaction away, Woedica repeatedly makes it clear that they could stop him, they just wont because...reasons?

    I liked PoE2, but I didn't love it.

    By the way Sawyer, if you're reading this and still confused why it didn't sell as well as the first one - it's because of bad marketing. I didn't even know a second one had ever released until years later when it popped up as being on sale on steam.    … Expand
  15. MR67
    May 30, 2020
    7
    I finally managed to finish this one in around 60 hours without playing any of the DLC, as I probably plan to do another playthrough at some point.

    It's an improvement graphically from the first POE, but suffers from the same poor optimization issues as the first one; frequent lag and stutter while exploring or in combat, frequent and overly long loading screens, CPU getting a tad warm,    I finally managed to finish this one in around 60 hours without playing any of the DLC, as I probably plan to do another playthrough at some point.

    It's an improvement graphically from the first POE, but suffers from the same poor optimization issues as the first one; frequent lag and stutter while exploring or in combat, frequent and overly long loading screens, CPU getting a tad warm, and a ridiculous amount of hard drive space consumed. POE1 (and all DLC) uses up just over 40gb on my drive, while POE2 (and all DLC) uses around 51gb - that's more than the Witcher 3 (and all DLC)! The game is also somewhat easier than the first one (I played on Classic difficulty in turn based mode) - you would probably want to be playing this on Veteran or higher if you've played the first one extensively like myself.

    Zipping around the Deadfire Archipelago in my ship made me feel like I was playing Sid Meier's Pirates game all over again, though unlike that one, ship to ship combat is done via selecting text options instead. I never really bothered with this as it seemed very clunky, so I just opted to select the 'board' option instead, which takes you straight to a big melee involving the crews of both ships. Consequently, I never bothered upgrading my starting sloop, as my crew was sufficient to manage all boarding battles. You can find yourself swimming in loot if you end up attacking other ships on a regular basis, though it's a bit harder to find really good stuff that your party can use.

    The main story of the game is quite short compared to POE1, but the open world nature of the game encourages you to go off the beaten path somewhat and explore the world at your leisure. The new companions introduced in the game are mostly on the bland side, and you have nobody nearly as interesting as Durance from POE1. Thankfully the return of some of the old companions from POE1 helps to soothe things somewhat. More characters are voiced than in POE1, but whoever decided it was a great idea for a number of the characters to have southern American accents deserves to be keelhauled.

    *** The TLDR section ***
    Pros:
    - Graphically superior to POE1
    - Fun open world gameplay
    - Option of turn based or real time combat

    Cons:
    - Poor system optimization
    - Short main quest
    - Some iffy voice acting

    It's a good game and certainly worth 8/10, but I'm subtracting 1 point because of the optimization issues.    … Expand
  16. laertan
    Feb 5, 2020
    7
    My impression of this game is mixed.

    Good things: 1. Sailors songs! 2. Stats of your party affects the outcome of checking. 3. During checkings you can use party members to do smth that they are more skillful. 4. Quests are slightly diffrent depending on what party members are with you. 5. Good sense of humor. 6. You can feed your crew with meat of fallen foes. Fine, I didn't do    My impression of this game is mixed.

    Good things:
    1. Sailors songs!
    2. Stats of your party affects the outcome of checking.
    3. During checkings you can use party members to do smth that they are more skillful.
    4. Quests are slightly diffrent depending on what party members are with you.
    5. Good sense of humor.
    6. You can feed your crew with meat of fallen foes. Fine, I didn't do it, but the fact that this is at all possible somehow make game better!
    7. Battles are much easier then in first PoE1.
    8. Management of the ship is brilliantly designed.
    9. If you killed the enemy, and only after that get quest for his headm you still can say "Yeah, I have his head right here, in my bag!" Glorious.
    10. No limits on how much loot your carry.
    11. Fast mode. Nuff said.

    Bad things:
    1. Main plot is too flat.
    2. Game felt a little bit empty, with not enought content on most of the isles.
    3. Next to none interaction with party members. There are romantic options, with 3-4 dialogues at all. And no romantic scene/art. Call me picky, but that's not enough.
    4. Many quests have almost none actual content, just go and kill someone. Maybe a little bit of background story would be nice.
    5. Strange loot system, by the end I have gathered enough swords and cuirasses to provide equippment for an army, and only some grimoires/boots.
    6. DLC that added to game unkillable foes aren't nice. I mean, I understand that some players like hardcore, but I personally don't, and that's why I use easy game difficulty. And when you add smth to game, perhaps it's reasonable to give all players ability to interact with it.

    I did enjoy it by the end, but still it's not as good as PoE1.    … Expand
  17. nomemory
    Dec 6, 2019
    7
    There a few wrong things with the game to distance it from a great experience: loading screens, weak main story and easy combat even on higher level of difficulty.
  18. passionne
    Sep 7, 2019
    5
    Compared to the first episode, this one is bad :

    - bugs (disappearing ennemies, crash) in August - September 2019, more than 1 year after the release date ! Of course, the latest patch was applied. - a few spells require some time before launching (fireballs) whereas enemies move : fireballs often explode when enemies are no longer in the area. In the first Pillars of Eternity, these    Compared to the first episode, this one is bad :

    - bugs (disappearing ennemies, crash) in August - September 2019, more than 1 year after the release date ! Of course, the latest patch was applied.

    - a few spells require some time before launching (fireballs) whereas enemies move : fireballs often explode when enemies are no longer in the area. In the first Pillars of Eternity, these spells were launched immediately.

    - enchanting is far too expensive.

    - areas are still too small.

    - impossible to turn around the combat scene which makes impossible to have a clear view.

    - naval combat is really bad and does not work : I had destroyed the enemy ship sail so it shouldn' move. I chose to move forward with my ship many times and the distance between the 2 ships does not change ! The developer never played Assassin's Creed naval combats which is miles better than this ****

    - Technically, a disaster : with a high-end PC (9900K, RTX 2080 TI, 32 GB RAM, Intel Optane 900p), there are stutters, the loading times are too long and occur too often, as soon as I move in a building or change area ! Really, the developers should learn from CD Projekt, the Witcher 3 developer.

    I liked the first Episode, despite a few mistakes. I hoped that the developer learnt from them but is it not the case. It is my last Pillars of Eternity.    … Expand
  19. Nimbus1701
    Mar 22, 2019
    5
    Deadfire features a number of 'qualify of life' improvements over the previous game. The problem with Deadfire, however, is that the writers seem to have gotten lost in their own mythology. The lore is quite hard to follow, despite a familiarity to pacific cultures in real world. Even the logic behind the main storyline feels forced - and segmented. The player spends most of their timeDeadfire features a number of 'qualify of life' improvements over the previous game. The problem with Deadfire, however, is that the writers seem to have gotten lost in their own mythology. The lore is quite hard to follow, despite a familiarity to pacific cultures in real world. Even the logic behind the main storyline feels forced - and segmented. The player spends most of their time moving between large swathes of ocean, stumbling onto islands, where you 'play' multiple choice text-games - that is to say, it is mostly padding.

    Had the developers simply extended the storyline, and maintained every other aspect of the original PoE - you'd still have a superior game.

    It's worth buying on discount, to support the developer. But I can't recommend it at full price.    … Expand
  20. RMDsilva
    Jan 13, 2019
    6
    It's a good game, but definitely not as good as the original.
    The storyline gets considerably simpler, there's a "pick your own ending" and nonsensical alliances/diplomacy.
    Combat is also still not super satisfying. Running over everything with the same tactic unless you're on POTD is a bit meh.
  21. frogeater
    Dec 18, 2018
    6
    This is a rather good traditional D&D inspired RPG a la Baldur's Gate, with a decent story so far, nice character interaction and affinity system, nice NPC side stories, lots of spoken dialogues, kind of pretty map design in cities in particular (the small outdoor maps for certain encounters are absolutely boring).
    Combat system is nothing new, exactly similar to BG with pseudo real-time    This is a rather good traditional D&D inspired RPG a la Baldur's Gate, with a decent story so far, nice character interaction and affinity system, nice NPC side stories, lots of spoken dialogues, kind of pretty map design in cities in particular (the small outdoor maps for certain encounters are absolutely boring).
    Combat system is nothing new, exactly similar to BG with pseudo real-time and pausing system... ship approaches and combats are fun in a way, even if a bit of a repetitive dice-throwing exercise.

    But... BUT... It's major drawback, the reason that makes me hesitate to return to it, is the absolutely crazy loading times. You spend 20% of your play time waiting for a map to load. It is just unbareable in 2018. You enter a buidling, 20 seconds. change floors, 20 seconds. Go to the balcony (ie load the main city map you were on before) 30 seconds... repeat ad vitam eternam. We are talking smallish, barely animated 2D isometric maps with few characters on them! Even loading the map for boat trips takes unreasonable amounts of time. Compared to the seamless wanderings of your party on massive outdoor maps in Dos2, which is to me way more detailed and animated, it makes PoE2 an insult to modern graphics engines.
    My time is precious, and I have a decent computer config to avoid such issues. I am writing this very review during the loading time breaks. Luckily enough, Alt-Tab works ok...    … Expand
  22. Rilke21
    Jul 17, 2018
    7
    Well, I'm torn.

    I loved the original Pillars. The story, writing and mechanics were excellent. I was drawn into the world and spent many hours there. Deadfire improves on some of the weaker aspects of Pillars. Graphics are sharper and the AI is smarter (with the exception of wizard Ai...ye gads, those fireballs.) Combat is more fluid, but a little dumbed-down, and significantly    Well, I'm torn.

    I loved the original Pillars. The story, writing and mechanics were excellent. I was drawn into the world and spent many hours there.

    Deadfire improves on some of the weaker aspects of Pillars. Graphics are sharper and the AI is smarter (with the exception of wizard Ai...ye gads, those fireballs.) Combat is more fluid, but a little dumbed-down, and significantly easier . However, the narrative is decidedly weaker. Pacing is a serious issue, especially at the beginning. The main quest is short--it is interesting, but a little flaccid, and not entirely sensical. Maybe the biggest problem with the game is that, apart from the main quest, there seems to be little reason to engage with the world. There is nothing comparable to exploring Caed Nua or hunting nigh invincible dragons. The bounty quests are much less engaging. The "factions" seem under-developed.

    It's not all bad. Some aspects of the game are down right exceptional--like the sea shanties! They have been stuck in my head for weeks.

    My first run of the game was 40 hours (down nearly 30 from first run of Pillars.) I am usually a completionist, but felt no need to stick around here...

    I'll update this review after a second play. Maybe a solo nightmare run will spice things up...there's hope here.

    *And here's an update after 2 runs and 98 hours of play. I'm left with an inescapable impression of "meh." The game is sometimes inspired, beautiful and rich in many ways...and yet somehow feels empty. The weakness of the main quest is difficult to overcome. I was leaning toward upping this rating to an 8 for most of my second play, but just felt so let down by the anti-climactic finish that I'm stuck with a solid 7. This is a good game that flirts with greatness, but falls short. We'll see what the DLC brings.    … Expand
  23. philb74
    Jul 13, 2018
    6
    Rewrite of earlier review. The gameplay is excellent and lots of classes give you many options. The fighting is lots of fun except for the ship battles where I used to just ram the other vessels (for getting the battle over faster) most of the time even though your crew pick up injuries this way. The loot and stuff you can buy is good but I thought the first game had better items.

    The    Rewrite of earlier review. The gameplay is excellent and lots of classes give you many options. The fighting is lots of fun except for the ship battles where I used to just ram the other vessels (for getting the battle over faster) most of the time even though your crew pick up injuries this way. The loot and stuff you can buy is good but I thought the first game had better items.

    The story is simple and doesn't really surprise you at all. Compared with other classic RPG's where you could get captivated and immersed in the story this is very poor. The same can be said for companions/NPC's. There is no meaningful dialogue apart from some banter and the odd comment.

    All in all, if you like party based RPG's and only want good gameplay then this is recommended, but if you want a decent story also then you might be disappointed as I was.    … Expand
  24. Trix122
    Jun 29, 2018
    6
    Although im a huge fan of old school rpg POF 2 is weak in a lot of points, controls are overcomplicated if played manually and boring if automated (micromanage is garbage) and the game is eaaaasy as soon as you get good skills, UI is horrible with a lot of unnecesary things that can't be removed or changed, can't set simple shortcuts such as 12345, you need to set them skill by skillAlthough im a huge fan of old school rpg POF 2 is weak in a lot of points, controls are overcomplicated if played manually and boring if automated (micromanage is garbage) and the game is eaaaasy as soon as you get good skills, UI is horrible with a lot of unnecesary things that can't be removed or changed, can't set simple shortcuts such as 12345, you need to set them skill by skill manually in every different character.

    On the positive side the game has decent story and excellent writing, but some characters and dialogues... are completely out of the fantasy context, for example they emphasize in a lot of current moral conducts like women being equally strong or superior to man and equall rights, instead of focusing in the game itself, wich totally breaks the 3rd wall and pulls you out of the fantasy immersion... like they want to educate their players with some extreme moral mindset and I just want to play the game to be honest...    … Expand
  25. Gilgamesh37
    Jun 24, 2018
    6
    Combat is boring, cumbersome and just plain uninteresting. Instead of being excited and wanting to manage any of the characters in my party, it was a chore to get through. I elected to let my party do whatever they want and just point them to which the mob they should fight, and keep an eye on their health. Naval combat is even worse.
    Story is passable, but not exciting. The game is quite    Combat is boring, cumbersome and just plain uninteresting. Instead of being excited and wanting to manage any of the characters in my party, it was a chore to get through. I elected to let my party do whatever they want and just point them to which the mob they should fight, and keep an eye on their health. Naval combat is even worse.
    Story is passable, but not exciting. The game is quite badly optimized and seems to become more sluggish after a few hours, even quitting to desktop takes almost a minute. And so many loading screens! Every level of every building requires a long loading screen. This makes it feel like a game made 20 years ago.
    Itemization is not that good either, some classes get magical/enchantable items way ahead of others, getting hold of basic things like belts, boots, and rings is a problem.

    I rate it at 6 just because it works, and is passable if you have nothing better. If I had to recommend a similar game, I would say that Divinity Original sin 1 and 2 were MUCH more fun to play and enjoyable overall.    … Expand
  26. DarkyBlack
    Jun 23, 2018
    5
    If you liked the first game this will disappoint you a little. The drop to 5 party members is unnecessary, the ship combat feels unfinished, the side quests are boring, there are not many interesting locations, factions or characters, and the caster system is way worse than in the first game.
  27. sk77
    Jun 19, 2018
    6
    So I just finished the game after about 80h of game play and the felling I got after finishing the game is somewhat ambivalent. Let me explain. POE2 is a good old BG2 style RPG with nice graphics, voice overs, combat system and generally seems like a type of game I would enjoy. However there are few problems for me that prevent me from giving it a higher score.

    The first problem in my    So I just finished the game after about 80h of game play and the felling I got after finishing the game is somewhat ambivalent. Let me explain. POE2 is a good old BG2 style RPG with nice graphics, voice overs, combat system and generally seems like a type of game I would enjoy. However there are few problems for me that prevent me from giving it a higher score.

    The first problem in my opinion is the main story itself which is not very interesting because you don't really know what's going on until the very end where they dump all the exposition on you within an hour of the ending. Another problem with the main story is that it clashes with the "free open world RPG" nature of the gameplay instead of supporting it. The story introduces you to a great threat that needs to be dealt with immediately. Furthermore you learn very quickly exactly where you need to go to confront the threat. The problem is that you can't just go there - you need to level up first of course as in any other RPG. This process however takes about a year of in-game time but there is really no good in-game explanation of why you delay and do bounties and side quests first other than the knowledge of the game mechanic that you know as a player. Also the delay does not make sense within the logic of the story (without getting into spoilers). This is the reason why the story does not work very well in this game in my opinion. It could work with few tweaks, few more "in-between" things you'd need to do before you can go after the main threat and some exposition you'd learn along the way would make the story more interesting. Unfortunately they didn't do that. Ultimately the main story ends up not being very satisfying anyway and the game ends with a whimper rather than a bang.

    But "forget the main story, the meat of the game is the exploring and side questing anyway" I hear you say. Well, the problem with that is that the side quests are not terribly interesting neither. There are not many interesting locations, factions or characters. During the 2nd half of the game the exploring felt more like a chore I had to do to level up before I can get this over with. There are only few somewhat interesting places you can find but mostly it felt like a dime a dozen, especially if you've played other RPGs before. Also most of the side locations are quite small and there's usually not much to do other than a side quest or two. The bounty islands are usually completely generic. There were few nice quests/story book interactions, etc but they were too few and too far between. Also unfortunately the devs did not learn from POE1 and doubled down on unpronounceable names of everything so after I just literally finished the game I cannot remember a single NPC/island/creature name, excluding few main names like Nekataka where you spend half of the game, but what was the queen's name for example I have no idea and she's one of the main NPC characters in the game. Okinawa or something, wait that's not right. Anyway the NPC characters generally, including the main ones, have just few "tell me about yourself/this place" interactions and once you've read them that's it, there's nothing else to them. It does not help that the NPC characters are not very interesting or memorable but the weird names of everything on top of that makes it impossible to get invested in anything.

    It seems like I'm giving the game a hard time but it's not all terrible. The game play itself is enjoyable enough so that I finished the game but I have no interest in 2nd play through. As it is the game is average in my opinion. It's not terrible, you'll get your money's worth but in the end it does not really excel at anything in my opinion which makes it average. This game could have been great with better writing in my opinion, the basic game play is there and it is mostly solid, unfortunately the writing does not elevate it but rather brings it down which is unfortunate as a good story, quests and characters is what makes a good RPG in my opinion. POE2 lacks in all of these departments. Ultimately at the end the game feels unsatisfying and lacking the details that would make it really great. I applaud the devs, clearly fans of the genre, in their efforts to revive the good old BG2 style game where story and gameplay is more important than newest graphics, etc. Unfortunately they did not quite hit the mark for me.    … Expand
  28. Mike_M
    Jun 16, 2018
    5
    Review on hold, pending fix of quest bugs and a few companion or ability bugs.
  29. GaryLinekar
    Jun 15, 2018
    5
    Lots of content and deep mechanics. Great replay value due to endless numbers of builds and branching storylines. The game falls short in its character design choices and writing, vital to fantasy games. When the 999th big aggressive female appears to show you how women can be strong too, you start to get the feeling that their goal isn't to create the most immersive and magical fantasyLots of content and deep mechanics. Great replay value due to endless numbers of builds and branching storylines. The game falls short in its character design choices and writing, vital to fantasy games. When the 999th big aggressive female appears to show you how women can be strong too, you start to get the feeling that their goal isn't to create the most immersive and magical fantasy experience but rather to change the thinking their misguided and uneducated players. This repeatedly drags you out of the fantasy, which sadly ruins the game.… Expand
  30. Thilijan
    Jun 15, 2018
    7
    If you enjoyed Pillars of Eternity, there's a good chance you will enjoy part two as well. The writing is still relatively pretentious at times, the voice acting ranges from excellent to mediocre (some npcs seem to change accents mid conversation), the ship to ship combat is dull and feels unfinished, especially considering the time you will spend on it. I get a piratey vibe but with fewIf you enjoyed Pillars of Eternity, there's a good chance you will enjoy part two as well. The writing is still relatively pretentious at times, the voice acting ranges from excellent to mediocre (some npcs seem to change accents mid conversation), the ship to ship combat is dull and feels unfinished, especially considering the time you will spend on it. I get a piratey vibe but with few supporting features. The story gets you going for a couple hours if you played the previous game (how dare he destroy my castle?!) but quickly turns dull. The new graphics, dialogue system and combat feel like a great improvement. There are some lost opportunities that keep this game from being very good. I can still recommend it for fans, newcomers should wait for a sale to grab it!… Expand
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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.
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  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.
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  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.
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