Pillars of Eternity

 PC
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2683 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,104 out of 2683
  2. Mixed: 308 out of 2683
  3. Negative: 271 out of 2683
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  1. Woolee
    Jul 11, 2023
    7
    ivinity looks better but lacks the writing, both are my most recent favorite RPGs in recent memory. This will go down as the game that broug
  2. HydrophobikFish
    Jun 9, 2023
    6
    Overall a miss for me. Too reliant on dense lore exposition, a setting that is dreary and not particularly interesting, and a story that is overall forgettable.
  3. Barrage
    Apr 24, 2023
    6
    An homage to Baldur's Gate. I liked the ending, but the characters in the game are completely unmemorable.
  4. ErayTellezi
    Apr 5, 2023
    7
    40 saatin sonunda bitti. Divinity Original Sin serisini büyük keyifle oynamış birisi olarak bunu pek beğenmedim. Tam anlamıyla sıra tabanlı olmaması, kendimizin durdurmak, turları ve süreleri takip etmek zorunda olmamız, ekranda oluşan kaos nedeniyle combat'ı takip etmeyi zorlaştırıyor. 6 tane parti üyesini, üzerinde durum etkileri, canları vesaire takip etmek çok zor.

    Oyundaki    40 saatin sonunda bitti. Divinity Original Sin serisini büyük keyifle oynamış birisi olarak bunu pek beğenmedim. Tam anlamıyla sıra tabanlı olmaması, kendimizin durdurmak, turları ve süreleri takip etmek zorunda olmamız, ekranda oluşan kaos nedeniyle combat'ı takip etmeyi zorlaştırıyor. 6 tane parti üyesini, üzerinde durum etkileri, canları vesaire takip etmek çok zor.

    Oyundaki yetenekleriniz tekrar yapabilme açısından ikiye ayrılıyor, çatışmadan sonra yenilenenler, dinlenmeden (kampta veya handa uyuma) sonra yenilenenler. Yeteneklerin büyük çoğunluğu dinlenmeden sonra tekrar kullanılabilir hale geliyor. Hal böyle olunca bu yetenekleri kullanırken iki kez düşünüyorsunuz. Bu da savaşlarda tüm gücünüzü kullanmamanıza ve bu nedenle kısır ve keyifsiz bir oyun tecrübesine neden oluyor. Bir de ben oyunlarda ekstra cimri birisiyimdir. Aman belki sonra ihtiyacım olur diye güçlü şeylerimi kolay kolay kullanmam. Bu oyun bu yüzden mahvetti beni. Lan yeni büyü edinmişim, dağı taşı oynatacağım, sonra kullanayım diyorum. Şu mekanik olmasa oyundan aldığım keyif iki katına çıkardı.

    Dinlenme mekaniği bence çok saçma olmuş. Adamlarınız zamanla yaralanıyor, canları azalıyor vesaire. Bunları gidermek için ya ebesinin nikahına gidip bir handa uyuyacaksınız ya da yanınızdaki kamp ateşiyle hemen oracıkta dinlenebileceksiniz. Daha da saçma yanı kamp ateşinden maksimum 4 tane taşıyabiliyorsunuz yanınızda. Bu da uzun zindanlarda daha stratejik oynamanız demek oluyor. Kısacası oyun sizi bir türlü salmıyor. Kendi ayağına sıkarak, kendine bu kadar zarar veren bir oyun daha oynamadım.

    Oyunda ilk sıkılmaya başladığım yer şehre geldiğimiz kısımdı. Saatlerce full diyalogla, neredeyse hiç savaşmadan oynuyorsunuz. Oraya git ona bir şey de, şuraya git ondan bir şey al. İki dakika salın da beni bir yerler keşfedeyim, yok maalesef. Oyunun hikayesinden falan orada koptum zaten.

    Çoğu yan görevi yaptım. Ama sonlara doğru sıkıldığım için bir kaç tanesini salıp direkt ana göreve daldım.

    Neticede comat'ı karmaşık ve kısıtlayıcı olduğu için sevemediğim bir oyun oldu. Dos serisi gibi adam akıllı sıra tabanlı olsa daha çok keyif alırdım. Bu konuda çok eleştiri gelmiş olacak ki ikinci oyunu isterseniz bu modla oynayabiliyorsunuz. Belki bir ara bakarım.    … Expand
  5. hileger
    Jan 19, 2023
    6
    (оценка графомания) от текста бошка болит какой он скучный никчемный и бессмысленный.
  6. FlamesoFF
    Dec 6, 2022
    6
    Let’s describe it briefly.

    Advantages: Interesting lore, profound character scripts and story. Disadvantages: pretty much everything else. Graphics: was outdated even at its release. Looks like Sacred 1 game with better resolution. Sound: it exists. Nothing special. Music: couple of ambient tracks and very annoying only one single battle music track. Absolutely generic. Controls:    Let’s describe it briefly.

    Advantages: Interesting lore, profound character scripts and story.
    Disadvantages: pretty much everything else.

    Graphics: was outdated even at its release. Looks like Sacred 1 game with better resolution.

    Sound: it exists. Nothing special.

    Music: couple of ambient tracks and very annoying only one single battle music track. Absolutely generic.

    Controls: gamepad controls are terrible. Every time when it’s need to switch from one character to another camera moves to this character. Why it’s so? Super inconvenient. Environment is also difficult to explore due to disappearing pointer. Unable to map commands queues. Basically everything is super primitive.

    UI and interface: poor usability, lack of information, requires lots of repetitive actions to do a simple thing, and some parts are simply ambiguous.

    Gameplay: Fight is nothing special, primitive point and click. Loot system is disgusting: exploration is not motivated, because usually all cheats contain random trash, and enemies most of the times don’t drop anything useful. Almost no random quests. Basically your “journey” will look like: read some dialogs - fight, fight, fight tons of similar enemies - repeat.

    In conclusion: Pretty solid CRPG, with lots of unfortunate flaws. Could be way better. But feels like only script writers were motivated, but not the developers of core mechanics.    … Expand
  7. codsworth
    Dec 3, 2022
    7
    Not as good as its predecessor Baldur's Gate, but a strong contender when it comes to updated visuals and gameplay. The narrative is weak and plodding at times, which is problematic in such as story-driven RPG, but there's definitely enough to keep your interest here, especially with the White March expansions.
  8. Wineneeder
    Sep 2, 2022
    7
    I like it, an Infinity Engine type game updated. The combat is good and the mechanics make sense (a nice change from third edition's THAC0, and other quirks). The paintings and art and design is alright, but the character models aren't great. Jagged, boring, lower quality, even too much so for a PC game from 2015.

    There's also way too much pointless writing... I know some of it is    I like it, an Infinity Engine type game updated. The combat is good and the mechanics make sense (a nice change from third edition's THAC0, and other quirks). The paintings and art and design is alright, but the character models aren't great. Jagged, boring, lower quality, even too much so for a PC game from 2015.

    There's also way too much pointless writing... I know some of it is optional backer reward stuff, but it makes my eyes cross where other RPGs don't. Walls of text, and there's some weird desync in how text is formatted and how the spoken lines come out. I'm not sure I can describe this at the moment, I'll come back when I've finished the game.

    Anyway, I'm not very engaged in the story, but not dead bored and lacking direction, like in Baldur's Gate post mines. The world isn't exactly to my tastes, a bit high fantasy generica, with the big crystals, etc... it's hard for me to be engaged in that kind of setting, if I'm not actively roleplaying. I'm not immersed. A more involved story and mechanics that tie into it might have helped, but perhaps there's time, I'm not very far.

    On the flip side, you couldn't pull me away from Disco Elysium. Anyway, I'll come back to this and surely rewrite it when I'm done.    … Expand
  9. BananaSurf
    Jul 20, 2022
    6
    Some good parts, but the story is very..soulless, ironically enough for a story about souls being stolen. It starts out OK but about halfway through it becomes a bit of a slog.
  10. RevUBrah
    Apr 14, 2022
    6
    The entire reason this game exists is to serve as a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, one of the greatest CRPGs of all time, but it greatly falls short of the mark. Tyranny copied its combat system from this and it's just as bland here as it was there, and Chris Avellone was barely involved (even he says the story is too linear and uninspired). A good RPG doesn't need two hoursThe entire reason this game exists is to serve as a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, one of the greatest CRPGs of all time, but it greatly falls short of the mark. Tyranny copied its combat system from this and it's just as bland here as it was there, and Chris Avellone was barely involved (even he says the story is too linear and uninspired). A good RPG doesn't need two hours to draw the player into the world, and I can't give this game any more time than that.… Expand
  11. Wrathzo
    Mar 21, 2022
    7
    Pillars of Eternity is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive. The game is a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, along with Planescape: Torment. Obsidian started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for it in September 2012. The game uses the Unity engine. The game takes place in the fantasy worldPillars of Eternity is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive. The game is a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, along with Planescape: Torment. Obsidian started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for it in September 2012. The game uses the Unity engine. The game takes place in the fantasy world of Eora, mainly inside the nation of Dyrwood. The infants in the Dyrwood are plagued by a recent phenomenon in which they become "hollowborn" upon birth, meaning they are born with no soul. During the beginning of the game, the protagonist experiences an awakening of power due to a disastrous supernatural event, discovering they are a "Watcher": a person who can see past lives and interact with souls. The objective of the game is to find out what caused their awakening and how to solve the hollowborn problem.… Expand
  12. JackPlack
    Feb 2, 2022
    7
    Good/not great. Still i like more BG1 and BG2. Good idea with improving castle. Main disadvantage - u can easily make bad team and skill set. Its difficult to finish the game with that case. Another thing - so many magic/healer spells - without good auto AI or programming its very too much reading, browsing,... I dont at all idea remembering spells - dumb. Maybe good for board game. ItsGood/not great. Still i like more BG1 and BG2. Good idea with improving castle. Main disadvantage - u can easily make bad team and skill set. Its difficult to finish the game with that case. Another thing - so many magic/healer spells - without good auto AI or programming its very too much reading, browsing,... I dont at all idea remembering spells - dumb. Maybe good for board game. Its little like unused potion skills section in Witcher 3 (by almost everyone)… Expand
  13. Topfpflanze
    Jan 4, 2022
    6
    I am facing a problem. Pillars of Eternity is certainly one of the best RPG games I know. But: it is indispensable to read and understand the lengthy texts that are displayed to you, because they contain important hints. Depending on the hardware (resolution and display), this is an imposition. And that's why I think this is one of the best games that are unplayable.
  14. Tabbou
    Dec 20, 2021
    6
    Could have been better :
    There are lot of choices and consequences + a cool story and lot of quests
    but the building a team and fighting part are not well made, battles are mid turn by turn and mid real time wich made them both slow and hard, I didn't have much fun except for the firsts ones.
  15. Antictra
    Mar 10, 2021
    6
    Being from Baldur's Gate / Planescape: Torment generation had played Pillars of Eternity with open mind, yet I finished having a "meh ..." attitude. Simply in the end I did not feel engaged by either story or the characters, which I have not found memorable. In my opinion it is a dud, probably will be forgotten in the future just like Torment: Tides of Numenera.
  16. PrincessRose
    Feb 19, 2021
    6
    I like exploring and seeing where the story takes me.
    I dislike the combat of CRPG's and since Iam in it just for the story and exploring there is an option to make combat very easy for those that want to get through the combat as fast as possible and just focus on the story and exploring. But even on very easy I was not able to beat the Adra Dragon as I found it extremely difficult. Iam    I like exploring and seeing where the story takes me.
    I dislike the combat of CRPG's and since Iam in it just for the story and exploring there is an option to make combat very easy for those that want to get through the combat as fast as possible and just focus on the story and exploring. But even on very easy I was not able to beat the Adra Dragon as I found it extremely difficult. Iam sick of how ridculously hard it is and hate not being able to defeat it
    I find talking to NPCs with the reach into the soul thing pointless as it doesn't lead anywhere, it's annoying and I just choose the leave option as soon as it happens.

    At times I felt bored and just wanted to rush it though. Doesn't feel like it has enough depth.
    I can't recommend as I hate frustrating fights and just want to be able to get through it.    … Expand
  17. ErhanCeylan123
    Jul 17, 2020
    7
    This game have a general and unsolveable performance issues.This game universe is not interesting for me.
  18. Baltifru
    Apr 19, 2020
    6
    I think many people love Pillars of Eternity and rightfully so.

    I didn't like the game though, for one main reason: it is uselessly complex, and both words in "uselessly complex" matter. First of all, the combat system is quite atypical. While it can be played easily for someone who plays the game in easy mode and doesn't care about tactics, it can rapidly give headaches given the    I think many people love Pillars of Eternity and rightfully so.

    I didn't like the game though, for one main reason: it is uselessly complex, and both words in "uselessly complex" matter.

    First of all, the combat system is quite atypical. While it can be played easily for someone who plays the game in easy mode and doesn't care about tactics, it can rapidly give headaches given the number of possibility offered: there are (too ?) many classes within the group each having its own gameplay. For each them, too many choices are offered. For instance, the mage has like 30 spells, that can even be customised (maybe there are hundreds of possible spells in the whole game ?). Status are also too numerous. Can't count now but it looks like there are at least 20 of them, which end up being very difficult to sort out for people like me who don't have the patience to learn them all.

    The statistics are yet another example of this useless complexity: the game relies on a system of a double set of statistics. One set can be directly customised at each level up and determines the possible interactions of your character during dialogues and off-combat sequences. The other one determines the strengths of your character in combat, but you cannot tune it manually: each stat is computed based on the first set of statistics in a non-changeable fashion. This makes the RPG aspect of the game "uselessly complex" is the sense that this additional layer of complexity doesn't, in my opinion, serve any purpose. Complexity in a game can be welcome if, through it, you can extend the possibilities offered by the gameplay. That is not the case here.

    I am sorry to drop this game midway, because for the rest the lore is very interesting, the world and atmosphere imagined by the devs are great and the decision mechanics make this experience very customisable. But the truth is I was forcing myself to play this game up to now. Giving up.    … Expand
  19. nik_balani
    Feb 13, 2019
    6
    I played Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights and loved them both. Pillars of Eternity, whilst being of a similar genre, was too heavy on the story (with excessive amounts of reading), but very unoriginal and unchallenging in its gameplay. I played for a good 40 hours as I am the type of person who like to finish anything I start, but in this case simply had to give up as the gameplayI played Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights and loved them both. Pillars of Eternity, whilst being of a similar genre, was too heavy on the story (with excessive amounts of reading), but very unoriginal and unchallenging in its gameplay. I played for a good 40 hours as I am the type of person who like to finish anything I start, but in this case simply had to give up as the gameplay simply had nothing more to offer.… Expand
  20. Ydun79
    Feb 11, 2019
    7
    I tried to play this game twice. Twice around thirty hours of playtime. Just can't sink my teeth into it though I'm an avid rpg gamer. It just never gets online for me, never really gives me the feeling that those characters are mine, doesn't suck me into the story. No doubt I will try again in some years.
  21. sotnhs
    Nov 18, 2018
    6
    Years later, I'm giving this a try. To be brief, this isn't in the same class as the old Bioware games. Pros, the battle system I like. Maybe more so then the strict D&D2.5/3 rules of old. Cons, if certain missions are done in a certain order, the story kind of breaks. e.i., you trigger an event, go back talk to an NPC with a specific party member which triggers a different event thatYears later, I'm giving this a try. To be brief, this isn't in the same class as the old Bioware games. Pros, the battle system I like. Maybe more so then the strict D&D2.5/3 rules of old. Cons, if certain missions are done in a certain order, the story kind of breaks. e.i., you trigger an event, go back talk to an NPC with a specific party member which triggers a different event that doesn't really make sense to be happening after the previous event. It's a poor man's Baulder's gate as far as story is concerned. I felt like the stakes weren't high enough for the main character. It's like why the hell should the main give a **** about going through all this? To get some information? You're killing people and going on this wild goose chase for some information. You need something more concrete than that. Amateur hour devs who aren't smart enough to learn from the past, other games and other industries (movies) and apply it to the game. e.i., inciting incident, high stakes, etc.… Expand
  22. supercagan
    Nov 17, 2018
    6
    Bland story, combat got very boring and repetitive after killing the same thing for 44535 times. It has that good old soul of Baldur's gate though. I enjoyed TYRANNY way more than i enjoyed this game. Do not really worry about your stronghold in the game, just keep playing the main quest, you will get bored way before than...on the plus side it has good graphics and environments.
  23. raporgi
    May 18, 2018
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. boring and extremely generic. the races and classes are copy pasted from DnD but lack the interesting mechanics or lore behind them. Story is sleep inducing drivel you'll find yourself going from trash mob to trash mob while be dropped the most pathetic bits of story. Choices have no consequences that really matter. the tacked on stronghold minigame is basically facebook level crap. Encounter design is annoying and unfun. crafting is crappy. stick to playing the original IE games. I backed this game when it was first came out. Ai scripting was not even present. Your characters would just stand idle while being beaten to death by the enemy. Josh Sawyer needs to get a slap on the head.… Expand
  24. Hack
    Jan 15, 2018
    7
    An enjoyable story in a wondrous land that's spoiled by engine choice and technical problems. Pillars uses the Unity engine which is known for having performance issues and it's no different here, during combat the frame rate swings wildly on hardware that far exceeds the recommended specifications, beyond that the game also suffers with a tremendous amount of load screens which are alsoAn enjoyable story in a wondrous land that's spoiled by engine choice and technical problems. Pillars uses the Unity engine which is known for having performance issues and it's no different here, during combat the frame rate swings wildly on hardware that far exceeds the recommended specifications, beyond that the game also suffers with a tremendous amount of load screens which are also quite long even on a SSD. There's even a delay before you can loot after a fight, everything in Pillars just feels a bit clunky and it all comes down to picking Unity for this project.

    The highlight of the game is the story and voice acting which is absolutely top notch, it's just a shame only about 50% of the dialog is actually voiced which results in a ton of reading which did get a little overwhelming at times. Where the game collapses is the gameplay, the combat is unsatisfying and quite awkward, with really awful pathing issues that prevent your party from attacking.

    Overall the game was good but let down by technical problems and a fairly janky combat system, if you're a fan of RPGs of this type I'm sure you'll enjoy Pillars, I did but I was left a little disappointed.    … Expand
  25. nitorita
    Dec 25, 2017
    6
    (This review was written back in '15, when the game was first released. It doesn't factor in any DLCs released since then.)

    I've played the game for a good amount of time so far. Unfortunately, I didn't really get the thrill that I had hoped to get from it. Putting aside all the hype and background with the game, from an unbiased, ordinary gamer's standpoint, this game is pretty    (This review was written back in '15, when the game was first released. It doesn't factor in any DLCs released since then.)

    I've played the game for a good amount of time so far. Unfortunately, I didn't really get the thrill that I had hoped to get from it. Putting aside all the hype and background with the game, from an unbiased, ordinary gamer's standpoint, this game is pretty "boring." And I shall elaborate.

    First off, it's quite evident that the game is story driven. There is a heavy emphasis on story, and you're constantly driven into situations where you must make conversational choices that could potentially affect your gameplay later on. And that sounds wonderful! But, just because a game has a great story base and intriguing lore doesn't necessarily mean that it's a great game to play, especially if you're not much of a reader who prefers walls of text (believe me, you're given pages and pages of text in this game).

    The main issue which caused me to give this game such a low rating was because I found the combat rather uninteresting. If you're looking for the thrill of fast-paced gameplay, you're better off looking at other RPGs. This game was developed solely for the patient gamer.

    Throughout the game, due to the difficulty of the fights, you're forced to always utilize the pause feature to issue commands to each individual character every 2-5 seconds. The AI in the game is pretty poor on your end; it can't seem to figure out how to make educated decisions during combat (even if you have auto-pilot (anti-idle) enabled in the game's settings), and often causes characters to just stand still and do nothing. This can become a bit of a chore if you have some one-dimensional characters you'd prefer to just do whatever while you control the more important characters that have many abilities.

    Another major issue is the lack of character progression and improvement. You characters do not change much over the course of several (real-life) hours. What that means is, the game forces you to use the same set of abilities for an overly long period of time. This can bore the average gamer pretty easily.

    Not only that, but for whatever reason, the developers decided to eliminate "healing potions" by replacing it with a health and regenerating armour system, which is familiar to those who play shooters. The game also incorporates a "Final Fantasy cooldown" feature for attacks and skill usage, as well as unrestricted movement while it's happening.

    This could make or break the game for you, depending on if you can work with this new system of gameplay. "Hit and run" tactics would work, if not for the "issue" where enemies can "back attack" you while you're running. And this happens because there are stats in the game that involve dodging attacks, and allowing you to avoid attacks physically would remove the point of said stats. Most enemies move quicker than you do, which makes attempting to run pointless unless you are a distance fighter.

    Levels don't come often, but that's because progression doesn't come often either. Ironic how that works. Regarding equipment, you're generally stuck with the same set of starting weapons and armour and won't find any better ones until much later on in the game. Unfortunately, you probably already be bored by that point in time.

    You earn pennies selling the junk you don't need, and the equipment sold in stores are impossibly expensive. The stores aren't tab based, which makes finding items a chore. Especially since your sold items are shown as well.

    I think all of these "cons" exist solely because the developers wanted to create a realistic role-playing game and strongly believed that in a real fantasy world, this is how you would progress. Basically, no progression at all for long periods of time.

    Anyway, in terms of what I like about the game, I can't really say much. There's a strong emphasis on decision making and story, but that's about it. If you aren't much of a fantasy lover or a book reader, you probably won't like this game. It becomes a chore really early on. I suggest buying it only after it hits sub-$20.    … Expand
  26. CoolDadTx
    Oct 19, 2017
    6
    Had potential to be a good RPG but just left me depressed and unimpressed. Overall the leveling system is weak. Skills supposedly interplay with conversations but pretty much every conversation ends with a fight no matter what you choose. This is especially frustrating with the main and side quests. Almost every one acts like you have a choice but ultimately the choice is always eitherHad potential to be a good RPG but just left me depressed and unimpressed. Overall the leveling system is weak. Skills supposedly interplay with conversations but pretty much every conversation ends with a fight no matter what you choose. This is especially frustrating with the main and side quests. Almost every one acts like you have a choice but ultimately the choice is always either kill someone or leave them in a bad situation. There is never a case where you can actually do what you want to do (short of ignoring the quest). In one case you have 3 different options to prevent an innocent person from attacking you. But all 3 options eventually lead to that very conclusion irrelevant of any skills or abilities you have. This isn't roleplaying at all. This is a numbers game which ultimately make the entire RPG aspect pointless.

    The stronghold, which is hyped up early in the adventure is a complete waste of time. No matter how much you upgrade and how many mercenaries of any quality you hire, ever time you earn money bandits take at least half. There is absolutely no way to prevent it. None. Who thought this was a good idea. Ultimately the stronghold adds no value to the game or your character. The minimal amount of XP and money you could earn is irrelevant by end of game.

    Combat itself is a little flaky. There are some balancing issues. Late in the game you can pretty much roll over everybody but there is an encounter or two that, for no other reason than the devs decided to, you basically cannot win without luck even at max level. And some of these are tied to either irrelevant side quests or just random encounters. It makes saving often necessary, just in case.

    Overall this is a disappointing game. The quests are just one depressing encounter after another, the leveling is lackluster at best and the combat really boils down to a numbers game.    … Expand
  27. Klewer
    Sep 19, 2017
    7
    Having played BG 1 & 2 and enjoying them, I found this a little more of a struggle to get in to. While overall it is very similar in many mechanics I could not get in to the overall story and found it a drag after 20 hours of gameplay.
    Fans of Baldurs Gate style games will definitely enjoy this, if you after more of a Diablo type experience maybe stay away.
  28. Voukras
    Jun 5, 2017
    6
    Pillars of Eternity is a pale shadow of what Baldur's Gate 2 once was. The story-writing is vastly inferior and I'm baffled by how most people don't really notice it at all. As long as it moves and quacks like a Baldur's Gate, it's a Baldur's Gate, right? Wrong.

    The villain is poorly characterized and their motivation is weak. The climax of the plot is weak and unsatisfying, I could    Pillars of Eternity is a pale shadow of what Baldur's Gate 2 once was. The story-writing is vastly inferior and I'm baffled by how most people don't really notice it at all. As long as it moves and quacks like a Baldur's Gate, it's a Baldur's Gate, right? Wrong.

    The villain is poorly characterized and their motivation is weak. The climax of the plot is weak and unsatisfying, I could barely will myself to care about anything in this universe at all.

    The actual gameplay is decent. I found the combat system dreadfully boring and repetitive, but hey, that's how I feel about almost every RPG from this genre. It's not bad if you're into experimenting and finding op builds.

    The exploration and ways of solving quests were acceptable. Almost, but not quite good, with quality varying from area to area. Essentially once you get passed what feels like it should be the half of the game, you're actually 20% away from finishing the game. Not that the game is short. The length isn't the problem. The problem is that the pacing goes completely out of whack and gives you a feeling of unsatisfaction through the remainder of the progression.

    The universe is as cookie cutter as it gets with nothing special in its presentation and not much to make you feel attached to any particular area. I'm torn between feeling like "I'm being unfair, the Devs really tried and it just wasn't up to my unique and weird tastes" and "The Devs knowingly recycled the Baldur's Gate formula with a mediocre plot and universe." I still feel the latter characterization is highly uncharitable but after finishing the game I can't shake off that feeling.

    If you really want another RPG from the Old Bioware/Black Isle style, you should certainly check it out, but otherwise I would suggest playing any of the other RPGs from this genre: BG2, Planescape Torment, Numenera, Tyranny.    … Expand
  29. TimW001
    Apr 10, 2017
    7
    It's pretty good. It has some really cool stuff about it, great graphics and great ability of story telling. But at the same time it's very much how you expect it to play. If you've played any of the original Fallout games or Baldur's Gate or even shades of Diablo II.
    So it is a good game, but that's all I would say on it, that's it's good. Worth a purchase in a sale.
  30. Mike_M
    Feb 15, 2017
    6
    This game is now much--improved by patching. Normally I'd give this a 9, but I have to downgrade it to a 6 because of the condition in which it was released: completely unfinished.
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Awards & Rankings

6
#6 Best PC Game of 2015
7
#7 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
25
#25 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 71 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 70 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 71
  3. Negative: 0 out of 71
  1. RPGamer
    Jul 7, 2015
    70
    Pillars is a title that should make old-schoolers happy while still offering a solid core game, story, and a rich setting for new-schoolers.
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  2. LevelUp
    May 25, 2015
    93
    Pillars of Eternity stands on its own merits without resorting to nostalgia too much. Truly a CRPG masterpiece, the game offers old school, real-time strategic combat, and a vivid world to explore. Not only do you get an overall well-made experience, but also a challenge you haven't seen since the 90's.
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  3. Games Master UK
    May 24, 2015
    82
    A sprawling game in a familiar setting, and a clever tune-up for the cRPG. Just what the backers hoped for. [June 2015, p.74]
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