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. Mike_M
    Jun 16, 2018
    5
    Review on hold, pending fix of quest bugs and a few companion or ability bugs.
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. Dubeau
    Jun 9, 2018
    9
    Never played the first game. Finished Deadfire in 48 hours. Amazing game. The story is quite engaging and intriguing. Very nice and different characters. You also have morale choice to make from time to time. The graphics are pretty good. I got some skipping when too much lighting were involved. The combat requires tweaking the auto-pause in the options. You can disable it too. There was aNever played the first game. Finished Deadfire in 48 hours. Amazing game. The story is quite engaging and intriguing. Very nice and different characters. You also have morale choice to make from time to time. The graphics are pretty good. I got some skipping when too much lighting were involved. The combat requires tweaking the auto-pause in the options. You can disable it too. There was a bug when a character levelled up, where you have your weapon inventory unequipped the last item. A bit annoying. The quest system leave text indications but they are not really helpful. There is no arrow or objective pointers to where to go and what to do. Because of the amount of side quest it would have been great to be able to know where to go. The music was really sweet and some parts fun to listen. I give the game a 85%. Totally worth buying it if you are into that style of RPG.… Expand
  5. dolol88888
    Jun 5, 2018
    10
    good game a liitle bit short and no main boos to kill i think the dlc can make this game epic lets hope so
  6. Generic_
    May 29, 2018
    9
    Pillars of Eternity 2 blossoms from its deep crpg roots and surpasses its predecessor in every way. This is the closest feeling to a tabletop campaign ive experienced in a rpg, i only wish i could of shared it with my friends.
  7. marc5477
    May 28, 2018
    5
    Update 2: I finally got passed the 10 hour mark and unfortunately, the game actually got worse about 25 hours in. Initially I though the boat battles were fun, now I find them a complete waste of time. I also realized there is no economic balance to the game. If you do boat battles, you get rich so fast, that you can buy all the unique stuff in shops by 15 hours in. The writing does notUpdate 2: I finally got passed the 10 hour mark and unfortunately, the game actually got worse about 25 hours in. Initially I though the boat battles were fun, now I find them a complete waste of time. I also realized there is no economic balance to the game. If you do boat battles, you get rich so fast, that you can buy all the unique stuff in shops by 15 hours in. The writing does not improve, though quest quality did improve. Dialog however never improved and remains terribly boring.

    Update 1: I just tried playing it again and again, 10 hours in and I couldnt stay awake. The story is not interesting and the writing is just horribly boring. I am not sure how this is above a 8.0. Its not like the RPG elements have not been done before in every infinity engine game. This game plays it too safe. It needs something to call its own. Text boat battles dont do it.

    First the good. There are a lot of class options for player customization. I actually enjoy creating unique characters and trying different combinations. I settled on a monk/wizard using staffs which makes sense and actually did fairly well in the time I played the game.

    The not so good but still ok.

    Graphics are decent but areas are very small and it feels static. Everything seems to be voice acted which is nice, except the voices were inappropriate for the game. Some voice actors are great which is why I am placing this here but others are atrocious for the setting. See below for an explanation. Combat is iffy.

    The combat ok but the interface design is very poor. For an action style RPG, they went out of their way to place important information out of the action (view) area requiring you to take your eye off the action to see characters conditions. For example, there were a few situations where my characters almost died and I never even noticed they got hit. This is because health indicators are not above the characters but down below outside of view. Also the camera does not turn, a negative for a modern game with a large budget because it means that at times, its hard to see due to bad angles. The menus are terrible popup sub-menus inside of menus inside of other menus... terrible gui design. Still combat itself is not bad inherently but they added absolutely nothing new.

    Last, the bad stuff...

    #1 Completely UN-immersive. This is a two parter. First, this game that takes itself very seriously (like the 1st) but the story is high school level silly. The two simply do not mix. If you are going to take yourself this seriously, you better have a grade A story and dialog to back it up otherwise it will be a complete drag. I barely got to the 2nd island and I dreaded clicking on an NPC because I didnt want to hear more about the Watcher or get another fetch my money quest... There is a little bit of comic relief but it is very far and few between.

    Second, the accents... oh my god they are so out of place that snap you right out of the game entirely. The girl (Xoti) and her mom, with the southern accents were a complete turn off. I made a mistake by recruiting her but I didnt want miss any content so I usually recruit everyone. I just turned down the volume and started reading so I didnt have to do a double take every time she spoke. But that was not the only accent out of place. The Italian accent is also completely out of place and through the 1st 5 hours it seems that half of the population was Italian. How did someone think that this would be immersive in a game that is as serious as this one? It would have been great for a comedy but not here.

    #2 Group AI is completely borked and unreliable. For example, the AI does not even turn on if your characters are moving at the start of an encounter. It takes them about 5-10 seconds before the AI kicks in and in the meantime, they enemies will get 2 rounds off against characters that are just sitting there doing nothing. Since I play on the highest difficulty, this means that at times, 1 character is dead before the AI even starts up so I had to micro everything. Also, the AI turns off for a bit if you directly order your characters to use a special ability. All this means you have to constantly micro everyone in the party or you will have serious problem at higher difficulties even against trash enemies. This makes every battle a huge drag. You need to do a lot of pausing and clicking and pausing and click and pause and click every few seconds. Too much repetition. Macro'ing in this game is not fun, fair, nor balanced. If you micro everything the game becomes nearly trivial. If you dont micro you will lose to laughable enemies... POE1 had similar problems and I got bored of that quickly too. Baldurs Gate was never like this. They need to fix the AI and reduce the number of clicks (better gui).

    Ultimately, I played about 10 hours and I was so bored that I didnt want to continue. I may go back to play this again later but right now, just seeing the game icon makes me feel sleepy.    … Expand
  8. Kaniro
    May 27, 2018
    10
    Incredible crpg, Imho, the best one in decades. Far superior to PoE 1, sense of freedom, wonderful exploration. Cant recommend it enough
  9. extrememuslim10
    May 26, 2018
    10
    Absolutely beautiful game! It's definitely a must-buy for players who love rich story telling. Don't just complete the main quests, also try finishing the side quests. In total, it took me more than 60 hours to complete this game. It's definitely worth it. Please don't hesitate to buy it. We need to support talented studios like Obsidian entertainment. I know there are people who'll beAbsolutely beautiful game! It's definitely a must-buy for players who love rich story telling. Don't just complete the main quests, also try finishing the side quests. In total, it took me more than 60 hours to complete this game. It's definitely worth it. Please don't hesitate to buy it. We need to support talented studios like Obsidian entertainment. I know there are people who'll be complaining about this game since there aren't any explosions and fps online matches. But it's not aimed for the general public, it's for the mature audiences who love to read through amazing stories and experience an enriched single-player journey throughout a beautifully crafted fantasy world… Expand
  10. Bytewave
    May 26, 2018
    10
    I really love this game, just as I loved the original. I was tempted to rate it a little lower because it lacks one thing; a little bit of polish. There's still a few bugs and a balance pass is required but Obsidian consistently delivers extended support for their titles and I have no doubt this will be no different.

    Anyone who loves isometric RPGs will at least like this and its only    I really love this game, just as I loved the original. I was tempted to rate it a little lower because it lacks one thing; a little bit of polish. There's still a few bugs and a balance pass is required but Obsidian consistently delivers extended support for their titles and I have no doubt this will be no different.

    Anyone who loves isometric RPGs will at least like this and its only gonna get better.    … Expand
  11. RaurosAmmonoide
    May 26, 2018
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Obsidian is each day concerning, likely approaching downfall. In Deadfire, though assignee of a handful of neat design choices (sea exploration; not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed it; fluid combat, optional level-scaling, etc.), falls short on what once was the trademark of this company: the narrative. It seems the lads at Obsidian —those who remain anyways from recent purgues— took to heart the dumbfounding complaint of ''Too many words'' and ''Too much text''; hence in POEII everything pertaining to its story (quests, companions and lore, sweet lore) is minimized, not synthesized but downgraded and sadly uninspired.
    The gist of Pillars of Eternity is philosophical, perhaps more actual than ever —kith are a metaphor for humanity in all its diversity and collective delirium —facing the struggle of faith crisis, godlessness and subsequently loneliness in our contemporary age; an issue glimpsed by Nietzsche and practically all thinkers that ensued. Its treatment is poliphonic, diverging: different characters share their feelings of the matter: either desperate nostalgia for their inextricable gods, spite for their misdeeds and abandonment or utter rejection of their inmanence. The Wheel concept, however, is picked up from easternly breezes, namely Hinduism and Buddhism; it presupposes a mechanism of soul-binding in recurring stages of life and death (together with an interstitial state, the In-Between) with goddess Berath as their caretaker. On this intrincate canopy of recycled myths and all-too-human disquietudes Eothas (the one astray, making a mess!) rises as a prophet, a philantropist; or at least so he claims... He represents Nietzschean will to power, his sacrifice wistful and an opportunity for kith to disentangle themselves from gods and their machinery, attain liberty... But what is to be done with such liberty? Other deities, pressuming that mortal lives can only be ripe for confusion and suffering, vouch for complete annihilation. In any event risk is at the heart of Eothas' manoeuvre.
    No, PoE's not your typical inane fantasy setting; even to cynics or atheists, it resonates with how we feel, a pivotal ambiguity —now asymbolic hopelessness, now a manic struggle towards ghostly knowledge. Not even the Eoran Pantheon itself is beneath these woes. Hence my pain at watching it butchered, mishandled, vandalized and discombobulated by (no doubt) incompetent writers. Cringe-inducing bits of dialogue, atrocious romancing, characters striped hollow... fetch-quests, uneventful journeys, undeveloped ship combat... Must be played in Hard Mode so as not be a walk-in-the-park.
    Not **** but not too good either.    … Expand
  12. draculdracul
    May 26, 2018
    9
    I just finished playing this game. It was a great ride. Loved it more then POE 1. But there is room for improvement. Especial difficulty level is way to easy for experienced players. Main storyline is a bit simple and short but there is enough content in the game to help you forget that. Loved the multiclass system and after a while i even started to like the ship combat system. I thinkI just finished playing this game. It was a great ride. Loved it more then POE 1. But there is room for improvement. Especial difficulty level is way to easy for experienced players. Main storyline is a bit simple and short but there is enough content in the game to help you forget that. Loved the multiclass system and after a while i even started to like the ship combat system. I think this last also has some room to improve.

    I love the moral conflicts i sometimes experience with quest lines. Loved the side quests. And this is the only game where i read every aspect of quest line. The fact that actors did a great job in the quest dialogue draw me in every questline.

    All with a a worthy sequel to POE but it has room to improve in its current state ( v 1.02) .    … Expand
  13. AndersBjorkman
    May 24, 2018
    10
    I'm a big fan of rpgs. Played Bg1&2, Icewind Dale, Dragon Age, the Witcher series, Planescape torment, Fallout 1&2, and so on. Wasn't a big fan of the first Pillars. Dont know if its because I didnt invest enough time in it. This game, I've played like 30 hours in one week. Was a long time ago since a game really captivated me like this. Some of the characters are lacklusting, and theI'm a big fan of rpgs. Played Bg1&2, Icewind Dale, Dragon Age, the Witcher series, Planescape torment, Fallout 1&2, and so on. Wasn't a big fan of the first Pillars. Dont know if its because I didnt invest enough time in it. This game, I've played like 30 hours in one week. Was a long time ago since a game really captivated me like this. Some of the characters are lacklusting, and the optimization is quite poor. That being said, its a really fun game. The combat mechanics are rewarding, the skill and leveling systems are also rewarding, the story is good, you just have to invest time into it. As a guy said who gave it a low score "its about chasing a big blue dude, just talk everywhere, there is no story". Dont listen to this guy. He's gotta have ADHD (i have a adhd diagnosis, but these game really keeps my interest). The story is in the fine details, all the amazing dialogues, and options. The number of different ways to play this games dialogue and options is quite breathtaking. All in all
    Pros: Good graphics. Good gameplay mechanic. Fun quests (most of them) and story.
    Cons: Bad optimization, some bugs, some lackluster characters (just a few)
    All in all, i give it 10/10 Bhaals.    … Expand
  14. Slotharingia
    May 24, 2018
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. *Review contains some points that may be considered spoilers *

    Deadfire is a great game. Tons of things to do, lots of quirky details, heaps of laughs, companions with different personalities, some of which you can romance. The player experience is varied and doesn't just involve hitting stuff. There's a huge city to explore, ships and ship combat that can be approached in a variety of ways, scripted interactions and lots of quests that can be resolved in a number of ways, sometimes peacefully, which is nice and adds flavour to different types of characters you create. Multi and subclassing as well as non combat skills you can upgrade (such as diplomacy, bluff, alchemy, explosives, etc) offer endless variations of gameplay. In general, it's a lot of fun and much better than the first one imo. This island setting makes it less sombre than these types of games often are, as in spite of creepy dungeons etc, the overall scenery and ambiance is colourful and pleasant. There are various factions with pros and cons you can help, or not and a complex approval system with companions both for your character and one another.

    Negatives are that the game is buggy and to some extent appears unfinished. A number of quests bug out or make no sense if you do them in the "wrong" order, although as it is open world, the right order is not obvious. Weps have faulty descriptions, etc. You can also end up with negative rep simply by going to the wrong place at the wrong time, and so on. While that's not really bad, I imagine it could be off-putting to some people, especially as you won't know why it happened unless you played it before or google. Also, I imagine it would be very confusing if you haven't played the first game, and the companions from the first game treat you like they do not know you approvalwise, irrespective of your prior relationship with them and are harder to almost impossible to get positive rep with, making the choice to play an established character from a previous game a tad pointless. Combat is arguably too easy at times if you are used to this type of system, and the main story is somewhat lackluster. Finally, the narrator overdramatises to the point of it becoming extremely irritating.

    So all in all a fantastic game that does suffer somewhat from a feeling of having been thrown on the market to reach the ultimate deadline when it wasn't really polished. I do hope these issues are fixed in later patches as it would be a pity to leave something with such potential lacking due to what I can only assume were oversights caused by lack of time.    … Expand
  15. ahowell95
    May 23, 2018
    9
    Great game all in all, haven't finished the main quest yet, but the side quests I have finished are really fun, especially the pirate quests.

    So ... a couple of things: 1) battle mechanics are out of whack right now, so if you are like me and hate 1st person hack and slash RPGs, and love tactical combat where you can use and control every aspect of what's around you, I would wait a    Great game all in all, haven't finished the main quest yet, but the side quests I have finished are really fun, especially the pirate quests.

    So ... a couple of things:
    1) battle mechanics are out of whack right now, so if you are like me and hate 1st person hack and slash RPGs, and love tactical combat where you can use and control every aspect of what's around you, I would wait a month until they roll out an update, I read it's supposed to be mid-to-early June, that said though there is also some mods you can use to get it closer to what Obsidian is known for, and I expect they will deliver, especially in what I experienced playing the Beta, good combat!! Did anyone else get wiped by the Sand Blights over and over again???

    2) Some of the side quests are too short, but nothing that would stop me from recommending.

    3) Do miss the Endless Path's style dungeon of the first game, but if I remember correctly Baldur's Gate 2 really didn't introduce a huge dungeon until the expansion, so curious what the DLC will deliver.

    4) I actually like the whole ship combat mechanic, adds a good break and options in exploring the world.

    Other than that fun, fun, fun!! And a good RPG.    … Expand
  16. 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
  17. socokid
    May 22, 2018
    10
    Some of the bad reviews here are amazingly vapid. This is a better version of the first game in nearly all aspects. I'm 50 hours in (the end is nowhere in sight) and am having a blast... which is all that counts.

    I have a high end PC (7700k, 1080, 1440p display) and I get a constant 120 FPS and have yet to experience a game/quest ending bug. I've had two crashes, both had autosaves that    Some of the bad reviews here are amazingly vapid. This is a better version of the first game in nearly all aspects. I'm 50 hours in (the end is nowhere in sight) and am having a blast... which is all that counts.

    I have a high end PC (7700k, 1080, 1440p display) and I get a constant 120 FPS and have yet to experience a game/quest ending bug. I've had two crashes, both had autosaves that were only a minute or two behind where I was.

    It's a great game with many mechanics (even ship upkeep/sailing/cannon fighting... down to what sort of food you give to your crew and how it affects their moral...) in a world with almost too much to do/explore. Almost all of it voice acted (which is amazing).

    Definitely and highly recommended for anyone into classic RPGs.    … Expand
  18. 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
  19. Gamebeating
    May 21, 2018
    7
    A tiny bit above average. Everything the game improves over the first title (combat, visuals, sounddesign) it destroys with bad writing and funky voice acting.

    While the combat gets better and better with every game Obsidian makes, the writing takes a nose-dive over their last titles.
    I hope they can break this trend with their next project, while keeping the combat as good as it is now.
  20. Shadowl0rd
    May 21, 2018
    10
    Impresionante, épico... no tengo palabras para elogiar a un juegazo de un calibre espectacular.
    Los cambios con respecto al Pillar 1 son sencillamente perfectos. Un guión que te enganchará desde el primer momento, combates y mágias de todos los colores con un sistema perfectamente equilibrado que te hará disfrutar de cada minuto. Soy seguidor de este tipo de juegos desde hace muchos,    Impresionante, épico... no tengo palabras para elogiar a un juegazo de un calibre espectacular.
    Los cambios con respecto al Pillar 1 son sencillamente perfectos. Un guión que te enganchará desde el primer momento, combates y mágias de todos los colores con un sistema perfectamente equilibrado que te hará disfrutar de cada minuto. Soy seguidor de este tipo de juegos desde hace muchos, muchos años. Baldurs Gates, Icewind, Bards Tales, neverwinter y como no el Pillars 1. Y el único que le aguanta el pulso a este es el Divinity Original Sin 2. Pero aún asi en mi opinion este lo supera de largo. JUEGO OBLIGADO DE TENER. OBRA MAESTRA.    … Expand
  21. MarkandJez
    May 20, 2018
    5
    I was hit by a game breaking bug in the core storyline when playing pillars of eternity two only a few quests in.
    I think there is a console work around that I found but that will take time for me to figure out.
    Abit of a shame tbh also a lot of loading screens will break the altogether emersion since every transition seems to load a different map.
  22. T-Opel
    May 20, 2018
    10
    Amazing game, almost everything is improved from the first PoE. The combat is much smoother, although I still prefer the combat in Tyranny. Great quests and really good music. There is a lot of reading in the game, so be prepared for that. If you want to do every side quest, the game can last over 50 hours.
  23. Jaganntha
    May 20, 2018
    10
    It is a beautiful game full of fun activities, the story is good, the audio excellent, the combat entertaining also obsidian always fulfills what it promises. In summary goty 2018
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. Vheod
    May 19, 2018
    10
    I'm 54 hours in and I have to say this is an phenomenal game. If you liked the previous title or the old infinity engine games, I can recommend this. This almost as big of an improvement to the original title than BG2 was to BG1...
  27. 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.
  28. mykeymoonshine
    May 18, 2018
    8
    Project Eternity sought to revive the style of the infinity engine games using crowd funding because major publishers don't make anything like that anymore. This was a success, POE and a few other games showed that there was still a market for this type of game and now the genre is back in full swing.

    The sequel improves on that game massively. It looks so much better than the last    Project Eternity sought to revive the style of the infinity engine games using crowd funding because major publishers don't make anything like that anymore. This was a success, POE and a few other games showed that there was still a market for this type of game and now the genre is back in full swing.

    The sequel improves on that game massively. It looks so much better than the last game, the art style is fantastic. The last game had beautiful 2d environments but the 3d character models looked a little dated and out of place but that is not the case here, the character models are for the most part really good and the new lighting and vfx really brings the game to life.

    the majority of dialogue is voice acted and the VO is for the most part great. All the important npc's have hand painted portraits now, Obsidian used a simpler watercolour technique which allowed them to create portraits for every quest relevant character. This really helps make each character seem more unique a problem i had with the last game was that very few of the side characters were all that memorable and this really helps with that.

    The world is more open and it's a lot easier to explore the many islands in the Deadfire Archipelago. There are also a lot of side quests most of which are well written and interesting. You have a ship and there are many ways to upgrade, customise and even buy new ships in the game. There are many potential crew members for your ship. You can either hire them from taverns or more interestingly there are npc's dotted throughout the world who can potentially be hired as crew members. This is a nice touch for example I was able to recruit an ogre as my ships cook who was tired of her job cooking in this dive of a tavern.

    The combat is more fun and the new subclass and multiclass system is for the most part fantastic it adds so much more customisation to the game, some classes have more versatility than others but then you can always multiclass. I do think in the current state though the combat is a little too easy, that is supposed to be being patched some time soon.

    The game really reacts to the way you customise your character, there are all kinds of skill checks and background checks. For example you can play as a "godlike" which is essentially a person who has been touched by a god and blesses with certain godlike characteristics, this is supposedly rare and people react strongly to it. In POE though there were other godlike everywhere and reactivity to godlike characters was uncommon. This is not the case in this game it comes up a lot which is really nice to see.

    I am not giving this game a perfect score because there are a couple of problems, for one thing the intro forces you to either import a save from the last game or choose a preset world state (you can also make a custom world state in the options menu without importing). This would seem to imply that your choices from the last game matter in this one but many of them simply do not. Sure they come up a lot in conversation but most of them have very little in the way of consequences. Even some choices that should have major consequences don't at all. The import system is also quite buggy but that has already been patched for the most part.

    The main plot is not as long as I would like and there isn't really a way to change it much either, this was the same with the last game and it was my biggest gripe but at least that one had a longer main quest that didn't feel bogged down either. This one could probably do with being about twice as long as it is. Don't get me wrong though the game isn't lacking in story content, it's just that there is a lot more focus on side quests and specifically faction quests.

    Another problem I have is the companions, they just feel less important than the ones in the last game. Even the returning ones I feel like they are just along for the ride. There are also "sidekicks", I would be fine if that was like Baldur's gate where some companions just had less content but sidekicks have so little after the initial meeting that they seem pointless and not worth taking. They should have some party banter and a few comments and reactions to certain quests here and there to make them feel worth taking. It's a shame too as some of these characters have potential. The companion relationship system is also quite buggy so lets hope it gets patched soon.

    I would definitely recommend this game, despite a few flaws it improves on the last and I am already enjoying my second play through.

    Disclaimer: I backed this game    … Expand
  29. HpfllyIRmbrThis
    May 17, 2018
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I really liked the first one and I'm kind of Obisidian fanboy, but there is just something weird with this game. I kind of like it and the potential is huge in paper, but when you actually play, it seems so...well not shallow but shallow (I have 18 hours clocked atm).

    What I mean is that yes, the overall lore and companions are as deep as they can get, but the main story is just bland. There are so many side quests given to you, filling your log very quickly, BUT these side quests are mainly serving the purpose of leveling up so you can progress the main story. The quest log actually shows a level cap that is "required" for the quest, meaning that there is definitely going to be fighting and you kinda must meet the level requirement to survive.

    Pros:
    + exploring the world can feel rewarding
    + solid cRPG
    + ship customization
    + choices have weight

    Cons:
    - plays it too safe
    - the story is too "epic" with gods and end of the world
    - auto regenerate HP...why?
    - auto regenerate spells...why?
    - these accents...lol. For example I met a skeleton guardian with a basic Scottish accent. Voice pitch was normal and there were 0 effects on his voice. It felt as out of place as Xotis southern accent
    - combat is just meh and there is (again) a lot of it
    - too easy even with higher difficulty
    - too much combat
    - combat gets repetitive as there is no weight on it (just rest and eat those fruits)
    - bugs
    - FPS drops
    - pirate battles get repetitive

    I don't know, I really want to like this game.    … Expand
  30. 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.
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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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