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. 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
  2. Willar
    Nov 21, 2018
    8
    I am a big fan of this kind of RPG but I have never been a massive fan of the Pillars world. There have been better crpgs but this is still a very worthy and enjoyable title.
  3. almax
    Jul 19, 2020
    8
    Very good sequel which, unlike other wonderful rpg (e.g.dragon age or fallout 3 ), do not upset the original title transforming it into garbage.
    Only the story is, from my point of view, a little less addictive than the first one but you should not miss it if you liked pillars of eternity
  4. Oshiri_Maeda
    Oct 31, 2020
    8
    Great game! Too bad I'm not a fan of real-time pause fights. It is playable in turn-based mode, however it is not as polished and doesn't feel as good as something like Divinity Original Sin. You can feel that the game was not planned as turn-based, still alright though. Art and classic setting are superb, dialogs and text quests are pretty well done too. Love the text quests, too badGreat game! Too bad I'm not a fan of real-time pause fights. It is playable in turn-based mode, however it is not as polished and doesn't feel as good as something like Divinity Original Sin. You can feel that the game was not planned as turn-based, still alright though. Art and classic setting are superb, dialogs and text quests are pretty well done too. Love the text quests, too bad there were not very variative and pretty short. My biggest issue, besides the non-native turn-based mode that just lacks some zest, is the myriad little items and abilities, each with miniscule bonuses that just hard to manage and remember. I'd rather have twice or three times less abilities and item effects, but making them more impactful. Just tired of managing all those buttons and tired of keeping so many numbers in my head. and soooo many stats...
    Still, wonderful game, I'm just nitpicking.    … Expand
  5. cezar88augusto
    Dec 9, 2022
    8
    I decided to play it in turn mode. The story of the game initially is cool, but as the game goes on, it gets dense, with many unnecessary characters and dialogues. I managed to finish Pillar of Eternity in 65 hours of gameplay: I completed several side quests and obviously, the main quest.

    It's a good RPG game. The game is open world and there is a navigation system and naval battles    I decided to play it in turn mode. The story of the game initially is cool, but as the game goes on, it gets dense, with many unnecessary characters and dialogues. I managed to finish Pillar of Eternity in 65 hours of gameplay: I completed several side quests and obviously, the main quest.

    It's a good RPG game. The game is open world and there is a navigation system and naval battles different from conventional RPGs.

    I liked the game, but I confess that I expected more since I saw the many positive reviews before playing it. I recommend the game, but it's nothing fantastic.    … Expand
  6. Demiurge11
    Feb 25, 2021
    8
    The Good:
    - The game is quite fun.
    - The tactical combat can be quite challenging, and interesting. - There are lots of places to see, characters to talk to, and moral dilemmas to consider. - The epilogue felt like a satisfying accumulation of my decisions along the way. - The story definitely fits well with the Pillars mythology and is a good sequel to the original game. - I got 80    The Good:
    - The game is quite fun.
    - The tactical combat can be quite challenging, and interesting.
    - There are lots of places to see, characters to talk to, and moral dilemmas to consider.
    - The epilogue felt like a satisfying accumulation of my decisions along the way.
    - The story definitely fits well with the Pillars mythology and is a good sequel to the original game.
    - I got 80 hours of fun game play out of the game, and hadn't quite tapped all the game's potential.
    - Worth the money. I'd buy a sequel.

    The Bad:
    - Director Josh Sawyer said that sales of this game were low and he didn't know why. I can explain what the missing "je ne sais quoi" is from my perspective. While the game is fun (as stated above), the story is very fragmented. There are tons of side quests and factions to support, but the main storyline is pretty short and not well-developed at all. The game starts off well, with lots of richness in the story and characters, but that fragments into a ton of little side quests and things to keep you occupied. Don't get me wrong, those things are fun, but they don't add up to a story that feels really satisfying. There are plenty of hack & slash and MMO games that offer tons of diverting side quests. I think people play an Obsidian game for the story. Pillars of Eternity II did not deliver here. The ending is interesting, but getting there felt... meh.

    The Ugly:
    - two of the playable characters are cardboard cutouts--this is apparently due to the game having gotten insufficient funding from backers. Some of the characters are full of personality and have things to say at various points in the game, and have their own personal quest and epilogue, whereas there are a few that say virtually nothing and seem like ghosts. I would have preferred that the cardboard cutouts be removed entirely rather than haunting the game.
    - I didn't really like *any* of the factions presented. They were all unlikable in my opinion. At least, on the bright side, the game-makers gave me the option to go independently.    … Expand
  7. F1_is_WWE
    Mar 20, 2022
    8
    This is the best CRPG game simply because it has by far the best combat of them all. No longer do you just spam heal and attack like in other games, here you have to actually use your skills and items with different tactics each battle. Muticlassing and leveling characters is fun. I can't go back to any of the older CRPGs after this one, it just blows them out of the water.

    The only    This is the best CRPG game simply because it has by far the best combat of them all. No longer do you just spam heal and attack like in other games, here you have to actually use your skills and items with different tactics each battle. Muticlassing and leveling characters is fun. I can't go back to any of the older CRPGs after this one, it just blows them out of the water.

    The only problems with the game are the boring story and naval battles, but they don't take up too much time.

    Would recommend playing with the Diffuclty Tweaks mod so you don't get overlevelled.    … Expand
  8. Tomplexthis
    Jul 7, 2022
    8
    This game builds alot upon the first pillars of eternity, but also has a Awful ending, the game in its entirety is pretty amazing, and worth playing, it adds on a lot of new features that are kind of awesome, like the dumb boat, with repetitive fights, or the many islands, with places to see and explore, loved its dlc, for what the game is, i liked it alot, but that ending, sours everyThis game builds alot upon the first pillars of eternity, but also has a Awful ending, the game in its entirety is pretty amazing, and worth playing, it adds on a lot of new features that are kind of awesome, like the dumb boat, with repetitive fights, or the many islands, with places to see and explore, loved its dlc, for what the game is, i liked it alot, but that ending, sours every aspect of playing this.… Expand
  9. HydrophobikFish
    Jun 9, 2023
    8
    Huge step up over its predecessor. Interesting concept of a pirate rpg, the story and setting are both very engaging. There are many interesting questions posed to the player, small and large. Combat is fun and did not wear out its welcome. Characters a bit hit or miss but some real stars in there. Soundtrack and presentation appropriately mythic.
  10. 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.
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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.
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. night4
    May 8, 2018
    7
    Pros:

    - Amazing graphics - Incredible sound - High flexibility in creating a character due to subclasses/muticlassing - Probably good replayability - Unmatched AI options Cons (Roughly in order of importance): - The drop to 5 party members is unnecessary and a step in the wrong direction. Improving the AI addresses the micromanagement concerns people had. - With so    Pros:

    - Amazing graphics

    - Incredible sound

    - High flexibility in creating a character due to subclasses/muticlassing

    - Probably good replayability

    - Unmatched AI options

    Cons (Roughly in order of importance):

    - The drop to 5 party members is unnecessary and a step in the wrong direction. Improving the AI addresses the micromanagement concerns people had.

    - With so many subclasses and multiclassing options, the game will *never* be balanced, or even close. Balance isn't the most important thing in a single-player RPG, but it is something that needs to be done, and they've created far, far more work for themselves than they can handle.

    - Dropping back to level 1 with your characters is... somewhat expected, but I'm finding that because most spells/abilities are identical to the first game, it's like I'm just playing the first game all over again. I thought we were getting a sequel here.

    - Related to the previous point, far too many spells are identical to Pillars 1, with longer cast times and adjusted damage. It's disappointing. The new spells they did come up with are, again, mostly blatant copies of D&D spells.

    - It feels like they spent far too much time and far too many resources on martial characters rather than casters. Somewhat related to the previous point on unoriginal spells.

    - Most spells take too long to cast and/or recover from. It makes combat feel like a slog.

    - Too much information during character creation is far too vague.

    - Loading screens are still too long.

    - It's a bit too "pirate-y".    … Expand
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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.
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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.
  25. 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
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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
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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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