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. AkumaJack
    May 5, 2017
    9
    This game is amazing for like 95% of the time.
    The graphics are astonishing, the combat system is both challenging and fun when you get used to it and the world design is really good. Every place seems alive with lore on inns, whores and sidequests that are more that simple sidequest most of the time.
    Plus there is the option to focus just on combat with the bounties or the optional mega    This game is amazing for like 95% of the time.
    The graphics are astonishing, the combat system is both challenging and fun when you get used to it and the world design is really good. Every place seems alive with lore on inns, whores and sidequests that are more that simple sidequest most of the time.
    Plus there is the option to focus just on combat with the bounties or the optional mega dungeon if you are tired of reading. Because you will read A LOT playing this game.

    The bad part is the ending boss which is for a level capped party quite too easy imo and some quests that are uninspired. (But thats not a problem because there are a **** of quests and most of them are really good.)

    But this is just a little fraction. Most of the game is enjoyable.    … Expand
  2. ThatUDLegacy
    Apr 27, 2017
    10
    Let's start with, should you buy this game? Yes, it is well worth the price.

    Pros: Dragons Interesting characters, Interesting Stories, Extensive spells(so many that i didn't use all of them), Fort Building, Fun Combat, Friendly Banter, Lot's of Bounties, Lot's of choices, Imprisoning people, Companion Stories & quest lines, An in Depth biography/journal that writes of your    Let's start with, should you buy this game? Yes, it is well worth the price.

    Pros:
    Dragons
    Interesting characters,
    Interesting Stories,
    Extensive spells(so many that i didn't use all of them),
    Fort Building,
    Fun Combat,
    Friendly Banter,
    Lot's of Bounties,
    Lot's of choices,
    Imprisoning people,
    Companion Stories & quest lines,
    An in Depth biography/journal that writes of your deeds,
    Dragons.

    A Few Cons:
    After the Boss fight the game just ends (apparently it autosaves just before you jump)
    Can't change decisions once they are made, for example, you can destroy and object or stop it, yet if you stop it, you cant come back and destroy it later, because.... reasons?
    Need's More Dragons,
    Banter it seems is only limited to 3 lines, maybe rarely 4,
    You can ask your jailor to whip your prisoners but not treat them well? :L & prisoners barely say anything! a person who asked to be put in jail asked to be released, after 1 day!!!
    I feel that companions don't talk enough?
    Important vistors personalies, are often Non- exxistant in your Fort,
    I couldn't find anything to make my screen follow my character, having to constantly click ahead, maybe i missed it.

    It is said people complain more about things they love.    … Expand
  3. 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.
  4. lagrie
    Mar 4, 2017
    9
    Obsidian has done a great job of returning the Crpg genre. And have created a beauty of a game.
    I'm glad that obisidian is bringing back the beauty that is Crpg's.
  5. DreamEaglr
    Mar 1, 2017
    8
    Люди хотели классическую RPG наподобие Fallout и Baldur's Gate. Они ее получили, но только лишь от части. Что сразу бросается в глаза, дак это великолепный арт-дизайн, 2д задники с персонажами, сделанными в 3д - идеальное решение для изометрических игр. И в первые 10-15 часов действительно может сложиться впечатление, что это наследник тех самых RPG 90х годов, но чем дольше играешь, темЛюди хотели классическую RPG наподобие Fallout и Baldur's Gate. Они ее получили, но только лишь от части. Что сразу бросается в глаза, дак это великолепный арт-дизайн, 2д задники с персонажами, сделанными в 3д - идеальное решение для изометрических игр. И в первые 10-15 часов действительно может сложиться впечатление, что это наследник тех самых RPG 90х годов, но чем дольше играешь, тем больше понимаешь, что: в игре ужасный баланс, на 3 уровне сложности довольно просто играть, боевка начинает очень быстро надоедать, слишком много текста и диалогов, если в той же Planescape Torment ты на этом не заостряешь внимания, ибо там практически все диалоги были написаны отлично и их было интересно читать, то тут с этом большие проблемы. Короткий сюжет и типичные для Обсидианов баги.
    Много раздражающих моментов компенсируются ощущением, что это та самая игра из 90х со своими недостатками и достоинствами.    … Expand
  6. 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.
  7. gloriouspotato
    Feb 13, 2017
    8
    PROS:
    + Good storytelling and writing, with well developed companions and quests.
    + Nice exploration of certain themes such as the role of gods in society, the burden of memory, and of conflicts (both real and personal) arising from faith. + Some nice orchestral soundtracks. + Attributes and skill choices play a significant role, not only in combat, but also in what choices are    PROS:
    + Good storytelling and writing, with well developed companions and quests.
    + Nice exploration of certain themes such as the role of gods in society, the burden of memory, and of conflicts (both real and personal) arising from faith.
    + Some nice orchestral soundtracks.
    + Attributes and skill choices play a significant role, not only in combat, but also in what choices are available to you within dialogues, giving a plethora of role-playing options.
    + Overall, the combat offers a fun and challenging tactical experience that requires synergy between abilities and appropriate positioning in battle.

    CONS:
    - Some combat encounters have lots of visual clutter and obstruction, making it hard to see what's happening on screen.
    - Mediocre framerates in certain areas, even on specs well exceeding the recommended spec.
    - Frequent and relatively long loading screens.
    - XP distribution is a bit skewed, making it very easy to reach the level cap.    … Expand
  8. destinyfan1
    Jan 28, 2017
    9
    maby one of the best rpg's ever , good story,combat , environments it has it all well done
    o and did i already say the caracter customanisation ,well its also awesome
    why aren't you buying it already????
  9. Alaska_Wolf
    Jan 26, 2017
    8
    Pillars of Eternity is a solid, well crafted game. I really enjoyed it tremendously on my first play-through which I played on Path of the Damned. The storyline was fairly good, albeit not extremely well written. The White Marches DLC was also pretty good, but actually take place PRIOR to the endgame and can't be completed after the endgame without reloading a prior endgame save orPillars of Eternity is a solid, well crafted game. I really enjoyed it tremendously on my first play-through which I played on Path of the Damned. The storyline was fairly good, albeit not extremely well written. The White Marches DLC was also pretty good, but actually take place PRIOR to the endgame and can't be completed after the endgame without reloading a prior endgame save or restarting. The inclusion of the DLC into the middle of the game honestly didn't make a lot of sense to me. While some of the Companion quests were a bit hard to trigger or resolve, they were decent enough.

    Overall its a very good and faithful representation of a dying genre that I loved during their heyday. But perhaps my biggest criticism of the game is that I found it to have little replay value. My second playthrough feels rather dull and lackluster, and truthfully I'm having trouble finishing it. This time I'm playing with Custom NPCs that are far stronger the the weak game Companions, but the NPC interactions and storylines just aren't there for me. I have say Grieving Mother and Eder "Can I pet that?" were absolutely my favorite Companions; most of the others just didn't do much for me.

    If you're looking for another Witcher 3, this is not it. It is however a very good game in the classic style and I'm very definitely looking forward to the just announced Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire!    … Expand
  10. floredon
    Jan 24, 2017
    10
    I created a Metacritic account in order to write this review. If you are a fan of RPGs that were made in the late 1990s and early 2000s and are interested in playing a game that is a modern adaptation of that experience, you owe it to yourself to play Pillars of Eternity and The White March expansions. This is a game that you need to immerse yourself in to get the most out of, althoughI created a Metacritic account in order to write this review. If you are a fan of RPGs that were made in the late 1990s and early 2000s and are interested in playing a game that is a modern adaptation of that experience, you owe it to yourself to play Pillars of Eternity and The White March expansions. This is a game that you need to immerse yourself in to get the most out of, although there is an alternative way to play that focuses more on the combat gameplay (triple crown solo, no companions, no deaths, hardest difficulty). The lore is inspired by history and it shows. Reading the Cyclopedia and the quests reveals a detailed history that rivals the Elder Scrolls in scope and depth. There is a sequel in development, and since Obsidian owns this IP, expect more content in this series (I'm hoping for a trilogy). I've gone back and played Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate and while I enjoy those games, Pillars of Eternity has spoiled me to the point where if I am craving a CRPG experience, I come back to this game. I would say that this is my favorite fantasy CRPG. The expansions further enhance the experience, and do not feel like the typical filler DLC that you see in AAA titles these days. The high quality of the game reflects the high quality of the team, and solidifies Obsidian as the master of the CRPG.… Expand
  11. Soupgoblin
    Dec 6, 2016
    2
    Not sure if anyone that has reviewed here actually played Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Icewind Dale and the other CRPGs...

    At best this game is lackluster, sure it has good graphics, and the dialog between the companions is great but IMHO as an old time P&P D&D player, Obsidian has failed by not using any recognizable CRPG game mechanics, and instead dumbing the game down for the    Not sure if anyone that has reviewed here actually played Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Icewind Dale and the other CRPGs...

    At best this game is lackluster, sure it has good graphics, and the dialog between the companions is great but IMHO as an old time P&P D&D player, Obsidian has failed by not using any recognizable CRPG game mechanics, and instead dumbing the game down for the LCD's... Using endurance and heal mechanics, but failing to include a way to actually heal... The lack of really interesting armor stats or gear stats (all armor is pretty much the same. dr and recovery). The abilities and talents choices are horrid, basicly just forcing you to chose the ones that suck the least... They know the genre, yet they decided to make the game player feel as though they have been given a blue ribbon for participation. I'm just glad that a friend loaned me his copy so I didn't have to pay for the game to find out that Obsidian, a company I trusted, would vomit this perversion of a crpg out...

    I say this after re-playing Baldur's Gate 2 last month, this game is a mere shadow of what they did with the D&D mechanics, Obsidian can do better, they have done better, and anyone who gave this game a better score than 5 should feel ashamed that they went fanboi instead of actually telling the truth.    … Expand
  12. ExpertPL
    Nov 12, 2016
    9
    The lore of this game is incredible. The characters in this game are incredible. Everything in this game is incredible. Then why I won't give a 10? Well, it doesn't have that something special, that would make it one of the kind.

    This game is a great return to Baldur's Gate kind of RPGs, must-have for every RPG fan.
  13. SuperGlare
    Oct 31, 2016
    10
    Body and mind cant handle the amazingness of this game.
    At last obsidian created a true rpg in this dark era of gaming which everything is simplified ****
    The art is spectacular and graphics feels like magic.To hell with 3d nothing can match the 2d art design for enviroments. Music and sound is oldschool and amazing and the voice overs when casting a spell are just superb. There is so    Body and mind cant handle the amazingness of this game.
    At last obsidian created a true rpg in this dark era of gaming which everything is simplified ****
    The art is spectacular and graphics feels like magic.To hell with 3d nothing can match the 2d art design for enviroments.
    Music and sound is oldschool and amazing and the voice overs when casting a spell are just superb.
    There is so much stuff and so many thing to mix and match that you will explode from happiness.
    From an Icewind dale fan this game is superb.It combines baldurs gate and Icewind dale together and its amazing.Not only has the story character that you can hire but you can hire mercenaries as well that you create.I mean how awesome is that.Dont you like the characters that the game gives you?Go make your own party.
    10/10 True oldschool RPG waiting for tyranny and Pillars of eternity 2
    Screw bioware and their simplified piece of trash rpgs    … Expand
  14. Mandulum
    Oct 13, 2016
    7
    Five Word Review: Modern RPG, classic look/feel.
    Favorite Thing: An epic adventure with plenty to see and do.
    Least Favorite Thing: Really dislike the progression system. Levels are few and far apart and you don't feel much more powerful with each advancement.

    Playtime: 80h (includes White March I & II)
    Enjoyment: 7/10
    Recommendation: Yeah, if you have copious amounts of time to spare.
  15. ShinsFortress
    Oct 12, 2016
    2
    The game itself was fine, and is the second best of it's ilk to come along since all those old Infinity Engine games. Visually I liked it, sound was fine and the party system was fine. Quests and story? Fine. What's wrong with it?

    Minus a few points for very poor encounter design & planning in certain locations. Minus a few points for overdoing it with the backer placement stuff.    The game itself was fine, and is the second best of it's ilk to come along since all those old Infinity Engine games. Visually I liked it, sound was fine and the party system was fine. Quests and story? Fine. What's wrong with it?

    Minus a few points for very poor encounter design & planning in certain locations.
    Minus a few points for overdoing it with the backer placement stuff.
    Minus a zillion points for there *still* being serious bugs (e.g. entire character inventory disappears).    … Expand
  16. monkeyking95
    Oct 11, 2016
    3
    I think there's a reason games like this aren't made anymore. It honestly didn't engage me, I never felt connected to the world or the characters. The gameplay felt stale and bland and I have no nostalgic bias towards isometric RPGs. I think those who have their nostalgic blinders on will enjoy this but if your taste in gameplay, game design and player engagement has evolved and 'moved on'I think there's a reason games like this aren't made anymore. It honestly didn't engage me, I never felt connected to the world or the characters. The gameplay felt stale and bland and I have no nostalgic bias towards isometric RPGs. I think those who have their nostalgic blinders on will enjoy this but if your taste in gameplay, game design and player engagement has evolved and 'moved on' then you won't find much here that will delight you. Pillars Of Eternity is a wilfully average game.… Expand
  17. T4l0n
    Sep 13, 2016
    5
    I really wanted to like this game, sadly it has too many issues.
    The game presents itself with a really good dark theme and with the complicity of the visuals and musics it really delivers a great atmosphere. Sadly the first think you discover has many problems is the combat: it has the typical crpg style of combat but there's no mana only a limited amount of usages for any spell, the    I really wanted to like this game, sadly it has too many issues.
    The game presents itself with a really good dark theme and with the complicity of the visuals and musics it really delivers a great atmosphere. Sadly the first think you discover has many problems is the combat: it has the typical crpg style of combat but there's no mana only a limited amount of usages for any spell, the interface doesn't let you properly understand enemies hp/weakness or your chars positions and there's a really weird gear system: the better the armor the slower you attack (yes, for real), so the optimal way to play at higher difficulties is to have a big tank in the front and all the other characters naked in the back casting spells or throwing arrows ...
    The leveling system disencourages combats and exploration, everything is quest related, after you killed a certain type of enemies a couple of times you won't get any more exp from killing them, it's a really weird system that seems stupid and dumb to implement in a high-fantasy "classic" crpg, maybe it will work better on their next game "Tyranny" but in this game is a disaster. You will end up getting 99% of your experience just by completing quests and the loot you find in dungeons is mostly trash, now join this to the combat system and it ends up it's not only worthless but a bad idea to explore dungeons after you complete the quest.
    Also this game railroads you into making certain choices just because you're not powerful enough to do what you want, it's not that it's hard, it's plain out impossible, for example you have a choice "with me" or "against me" if you choose to go against the enemy he double shots your team, can i go back later ? yes, but why all the dungeon is easy and only the final boss is impossible ? This doesn't make any sense ...
    There's a lot of bad optimization, even on high end pcs everytime you open the map or inventory the framerate drops and the game itself is filled of long loading screens everywhere (and i have a ssd, i can only image how long they are on magnetic disks).
    The world is filled with stupid backers nps : there are tons of npcs that will "tell" you a vision about themselves, all these visions are stories made by the backers and they are so long and extremely boring, completely trowing you out from the immersion of the game.
    I literally had to stop playing because of a bugged quest, i killed a character i had to talk to because it bumped into me earlier and triggered a fight, when i talk to her "side" i can only fight both the sides together all against me, i have no chance of surviving this, and yes, it's a main quest ...    … Expand
  18. TemplarGR
    Sep 9, 2016
    5
    Let me tell you kids, as a gamer who "was there" when Baldur's gate launched: This is nothing like it. Terribly overrated for no reason, this is a mediocre Baldur's gate clone that has no place in the modern era. I suppose it was cheap to make, and people are starved for meaningful RPGs, so they take what they can get, hence the overinflated scores, but still...

    The original Baldur's    Let me tell you kids, as a gamer who "was there" when Baldur's gate launched: This is nothing like it. Terribly overrated for no reason, this is a mediocre Baldur's gate clone that has no place in the modern era. I suppose it was cheap to make, and people are starved for meaningful RPGs, so they take what they can get, hence the overinflated scores, but still...

    The original Baldur's gate had a much better story and richer world, a far better rpg system (obviously due to D&D second edition), great graphics for its time, and better designed gameplay. This is just a horrible immitation. For its budget, not bad, but we as gamers don't judge budgets, we judge the experience, and in 2015 this won't cut it.

    If you exclude the graphics, if this was released side by side with Baldur's gate, it would have flopped. No reason to play it, unless you really want an old school RPG and you have already played BG to death.    … Expand
  19. Arroyo_man
    Sep 7, 2016
    8
    i've change my mind after some time, thinking this game is better, gave a credit for another go and enjoyed more this time, 8/10 far superior rpg than witcher 3 for example.
  20. KuriousJorj
    Sep 3, 2016
    4
    Yet another overrated game by people apparently desperate for ANYTHING in the RPG genre.

    Boring world, boring plot, boring combat, boring game. Long-winded walls of text. Pathetic combat (enemies that move away from your attacks, but if you do the same, you get a "Disengage" penalty. AND NO, just because it's a pause RPG does NOT mean it's supposed to be that way. Does NOT mean it    Yet another overrated game by people apparently desperate for ANYTHING in the RPG genre.

    Boring world, boring plot, boring combat, boring game. Long-winded walls of text. Pathetic combat (enemies that move away from your attacks, but if you do the same, you get a "Disengage" penalty.

    AND NO, just because it's a pause RPG does NOT mean it's supposed to be that way. Does NOT mean it gets a pass on being boring.    … Expand
  21. Magnethead
    Aug 22, 2016
    8
    Pillars of Eternity helps bring back the group-based, tactical RPG as we knew it in the glory days of Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and similar games. It does so unapologetically and accurately while also bringing enough new ideas to the table to make the game more than pure nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. The underlying story and fantasy world are meticulously crafted, innovative andPillars of Eternity helps bring back the group-based, tactical RPG as we knew it in the glory days of Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and similar games. It does so unapologetically and accurately while also bringing enough new ideas to the table to make the game more than pure nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. The underlying story and fantasy world are meticulously crafted, innovative and well written. Overall, the game is hugely successful though there still are minor issues that could be improved.

    PoE doesn't rely on the old D&D rules, they have their own, new RPG rule set that does use classes, spells, resting and the typical party roles we're used to (tank, healer, crowd control, damage) but otherwise has its own ideas of stat-interaction and a few new class ideas. The overall concepts will be recognizable to seasoned RPG veterans while still presenting new challenges to adapt to.

    The story is a major selling point of PoE. The writing is solid, the story deep and the character (especially the eight NPCs) are very well crafted. There's a great deal of freedom in regards to how you approach different quests and even characters in the game, you have almost unconstrained freedom to murder and pillage almost any character in the game, if you so choose, for example. A criticism here could be that perhaps the story doesn't escalate tension particularly well so that when the game ends, it doesn't feel so much like a strong climax as simply a steady unraveling of an intricate plot. The game behaves mostly like the final fight is a formality and the actually interesting question isn't if you win, but what you do after you win. This can make the game seem slightly less memorable than perhaps it should be.

    Arguably, there are some issues with balance that should be addressed too. Between DPS and non-DPS classes, the game becomes very fixed in its roles. Tanks find it hard dealing meaningful damage but retain the ability to tie down enemies through the game's 'engagement' system. This system simply means that if you run away from a character engaging you, that character damages you for free - however since tanks don't do meaningful damage, the AI could actually just run right past them with great advantage. It doesn't do that, luckily, but this lopsidedness arguably makes the game system feel a bit artificial at times. The spell system could also use a bit of rebalancing, certain spells serve no clear purpose in the game as you don't really have the time or the situations where they need to be cast. In most situations, dealing damage outweighs more complicated options. This said, the system actually works really well, it has genuinely intuitive ideas and I hope they continue to work on it.

    All in all, PoE is a successful RPG game and follows Divinity Original Sin in reviving this wonderful genre. The crowd-funding concept definitely worked in this instance. I hope Obsidian stick to this project and release a sequel soon, they needs only address a few issues that exist still in PoE and build on the promising world behind the game.    … Expand
  22. MarcMrine
    Aug 15, 2016
    10
    This review is a continuation of my Baldur’s Gate review, because this is the real Baldur’s Gate 3, sharing its combat system, character development, handmade backgrounds, environment, sound, dialogues and most important, the same developers... proving that “evolution” is not a 1st person adventure, evolution is more of the same wisely improved.
  23. Storyteller
    Aug 14, 2016
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Let me begin this by saying I really wanted to like this game. I desperately wanted to. I tried in as many different ways as I could to convince myself that I just wasn't seeing Pillars from the right angle, that if I tried one more time I could get into it, but in the end I had to admit the truth to myself. Pillars of Eternity is garbage. This game falls flat on its face when it comes to important elements that make a great role-playing game.

    The first is the terrible cast of characters. In a game that revolves around a party of companions, they design an extremely limited (what, six, maybe seven total?) and bland cast of joinable NPCs that would never, ever travel together if you were looking at this from a story perspective. That might be forgivable if they were interesting with their own romances and side quests and intricate backstories, but they're not. The game designers seem to attempt an apology for this by shoehorning in some mechanic to design your own party of characters from the tavern, but for me that's just as half-ass as apologizing for the terrible magic weapons they designed by letting you enchant your own gear.

    The second is clearly the combat. From the basic system to the character classes to the way enemies behaved and battles generally went, it's a big gigantic mess that is not intuitive or fun to play. The basic concept of Pillars combat mechanics are confusing and annoying. Items you find are woefully inferior to the bland generic items you can enchant, and the way stats interact with your class is unbalanced and at times extremely confusing (physical strength dictates the damage wizards do with their spells -- WHAT?). Many enemies are given stunlock abilities or endlessly heal each other (such as the Paladins in Raedrics Keep), and all are automatically designed to rush your weakest characters. There's no real way to stop this, short of sending your fragile characters away from the fight at maximum range, but as soon as they move in to do anything to help, they will get rushed and die. The worst part is that after you finish that tough-as-nails epic fight, you realize you're not a damn step closer to the next level for it because of a pretentious XP system that only rewards quest completion and not body count of defeated foes.

    Third is the lack of immersion or replayability. The game makes a big deal about character race, background, culture and all that, but ultimately those choices have no impact on the actual events of the story. The 'reputation' system they tried to implement is confusing and poorly designed, so that by the time you finish the game, you will have a car crash of many different reputation types. This is made even worse when certain classes (Priest and Paladin) have class abilities whose strength depend on this broken reputation system. Quest lines allow the illusion of choice at some points, but the result is the same regardless of what you do.

    Fourth, and finally, is the story. It's not interesting. The main character can talk to dead people, and some Big Bad Evil Guy in a mask is stealing souls for some unknown, shallow and ultimately pointless purpose. The hook for even placing you where the events of the game take place is immediately revoked a couple hours in after Raedric decides to yank his offer, leaving you as some wandering nobody with no purpose other than to chase down why you have funny voices in your head. Being a Watcher is supposed to be this super-rare unique Kewl D00d power, but the most reaction I ever got out of anyone amounted to: 'You're a Watcher? Huh. That's funny.' As plot devices go it's really weak and I found myself struggling to give a single damn about magic rocks coming out of the ground, hooded people performing nefarious rituals, or my character's involvement in the whole mess at all.

    The fact that this game has gorgeous aesthetic and production value makes all of this worse. With such crucial design flaws, this is literally the RPG equivalent of a hot girl that won't put out. She'll tease you, but in the end you'll walk away with nothing but blue balls, resorting to your only option of finding some relief by drunk dialing your ex.

    That's it. Pillars of Eternity is a hot girl that doesn't put out. End of review.    … Expand
  24. akshaysk
    Aug 10, 2016
    8
    This game is a great callback to the old Infinity Engine RPGs. The powerful factions, each tinged with grey; the stories of betrayal and greed and the dynamic party, filled with personalities that react to everything around them. The game does have flaws (such as pathfinding issues and slightly tedious inventory system) , but overall it is a wonderful throwback and I enjoyed each minute ofThis game is a great callback to the old Infinity Engine RPGs. The powerful factions, each tinged with grey; the stories of betrayal and greed and the dynamic party, filled with personalities that react to everything around them. The game does have flaws (such as pathfinding issues and slightly tedious inventory system) , but overall it is a wonderful throwback and I enjoyed each minute of the 73 hours I spent with the game. When I revisit it (hopefully with all the expansions), I think I will feel as delighted as I did the first time.

    Because, PoE has an enduring quality. I could come back to it (and indeed, I did) after a few days of not thinking about it at all and find myself as immersed as I was when I left. Few other games (I would dare to say any work of fiction) have this quality. Brilliant job overall. Obsidian, my hat's off.    … Expand
  25. Harpasa
    Jul 19, 2016
    9
    If you enjoyed Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale etc. , you dont want to miss this game.Only problem i had with the game is npc dialogues can get a little boring from time to time. Still one of the best RPGs i played in years and a must-play game.
  26. roachtbp
    Jul 15, 2016
    10
    Feels like you are playing an old school, classic RPG like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, minus the D&D rules, plus modern conveniences and better graphics. Great party-based, tactical combat reminiscent of Baldur's Gate, with characters and a story that also is pretty good and well-written. I welcome an RPG such as this that harkens back to the masterpieces of old. I love this game inFeels like you are playing an old school, classic RPG like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, minus the D&D rules, plus modern conveniences and better graphics. Great party-based, tactical combat reminiscent of Baldur's Gate, with characters and a story that also is pretty good and well-written. I welcome an RPG such as this that harkens back to the masterpieces of old. I love this game in every way.… Expand
  27. Robobob
    Jul 7, 2016
    10
    It's like the developers took everything that fans loved about old school RPG like Balder's Gate and Icewind Dale and actually made it BETTER! The combat system is much more intuitive than the old silly 2nd edition rules that those older games used. They slimmed down and trimmed the fat off the skill system. Added many cool feats and abilities, some you can use every fight (encounter)It's like the developers took everything that fans loved about old school RPG like Balder's Gate and Icewind Dale and actually made it BETTER! The combat system is much more intuitive than the old silly 2nd edition rules that those older games used. They slimmed down and trimmed the fat off the skill system. Added many cool feats and abilities, some you can use every fight (encounter) and some every day (rest). This is nice as some spellcasters don't necessarily become useless the second they run out of spells. Everything is so similar to D&D, yet tweaked and renamed to make it something original. Deflection instead of Armor Class. Accuracy instead of Attack, etc. There are some cool new classes like Chanter and Cipher that play different than any other class you've seen. Then there are genius additions to the game like you can create your own hirelings for your party if you aren't satisfied with the companion characters. And building your own stronghold is fun. I've been playing on average difficulty and while few of the fights are too easy, the boss fight are just the right perfect challenge.. you have to use a full party's potential to win,as it should be. I could ramble on forever about all the cool changes to the old formula and I literally have nothing negative to say about this game 40hrs in. Perfect. 10/10… Expand
  28. PowerGamer
    Jul 3, 2016
    7
    At first I really liked the game. A lot of variety in character choices, etc.
    At lot of fun at first but frankly the game just gets monotonous.
    The game doesn't scale well, and you will hit the level cap before the end of the 2nd act (out of three). The whole thing get monotonous. It's the same thing over and over, and over again. I would play the game for a while and fall asleep.    At first I really liked the game. A lot of variety in character choices, etc.
    At lot of fun at first but frankly the game just gets monotonous.

    The game doesn't scale well, and you will hit the level cap before the end of the 2nd act (out of three).
    The whole thing get monotonous. It's the same thing over and over, and over again.
    I would play the game for a while and fall asleep.

    I feel now it was a mistake to get the expansion. If it were not for the expansion I probably would have made it to the 3rd act.

    For some reason most game developers, who's ever in charge, seem to think well if I don't put 100+ hours of play in a game people will complain that it's too short.
    It's as if every new movie had to be six hours long. Most people couldn't sit through it and with this game like most it's just too drawn out.

    I even used Cheat Engine hacks to supercharge my characters to roll through the battles thinking I would make it through the 3rd to finish the game.
    To boring, couldn't do it even then.

    The game is fun for a while, but take my advise and don't bother getting the expansion unless you finished the game and really want to add many hours of the same thing..    … Expand
  29. night4
    Jul 2, 2016
    9
    Wow.

    If you liked Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II and you cried when it was announced that there would never be a Baldur's Gate III, then this game is for you. It's got EVERYTHING going for it with a couple minor cons that keep it from being a 10. Pros: Music, graphics, original story, combat. I want to emphasize how rare it is to see a game with a good, original story these    Wow.

    If you liked Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II and you cried when it was announced that there would never be a Baldur's Gate III, then this game is for you.

    It's got EVERYTHING going for it with a couple minor cons that keep it from being a 10.

    Pros: Music, graphics, original story, combat. I want to emphasize how rare it is to see a game with a good, original story these days.

    Cons: Generated characters have experience penalty, wildly changing classes each time they patch (especially chiphers), and retarded AI. These things are fairly minor overall.    … Expand
  30. BSim500
    May 20, 2016
    5
    If the intention is an "old school nostalgia" BG clone, then it sort of succeeds. But it's not without annoyances:-

    Engine - The game engine is horrible. They used Unity and it's clearly more suited to FPS / horror games than isometric RPG's. Large chunks of the game has severe slowdowns (down to 18fps) in major city areas caused by the way Unity Engine layers assets when rendering    If the intention is an "old school nostalgia" BG clone, then it sort of succeeds. But it's not without annoyances:-

    Engine - The game engine is horrible. They used Unity and it's clearly more suited to FPS / horror games than isometric RPG's. Large chunks of the game has severe slowdowns (down to 18fps) in major city areas caused by the way Unity Engine layers assets when rendering groups of people. This isn't due to lack of horsepower as both CPU & GPU usage are only 30% loaded (and VRAM a mere 600MB) when the slowdowns occur. I've seen this before on other Unity games where fps drops into single digits despite the CPU & GPU being not even half loaded. In contrast, post-IE RPG's like NWN, Dragon Age Origins, or Divinity Original Sin, with RPG-specific engines are all proper 3D and run a solid 60fps on hardware half as powerful. On top of that, 15s load times (even on SSD's) on every minor area transition get very old, very quickly. At least 4-5hrs will be spent staring at loading screens. These problems can't be fixed as they're internal to the Unity Engine and walking through areas like Copperlane or backtracking through several zones is not enjoyable.

    Combat - It's just "OK". In theory it's tactical. In practise, you'll be repeating the same "put 2x tanks in a choke-point then get the other 4x party members to spam blunderbuss ranged attacks" MMO style weak-tank / healer / DPS setup over & over. Most trash-mobs are the same. Spells are too weak. Fighters have weak attacks since heavy armor virtually halves attack speed. Sneaking & backstabbing in combat were clumsy. Traps are weak. No pickpocketing. Can't buff outside of combat (there goes half the tactics in countering certain types of mobs). It didn't actually feel that D&D-ish to be honest. I also found the game doesn't convey what's going on in combat visually too well when too many very tiny people all look the same even wearing different armors.

    Bugs - Broken journal entries, damage penalty bugs, quest bugs. I got stuck in combat mode more than once (which prevents you from travelling or saving). Sound randomly cuts out when speeding up game in a crowded place (needed a lot due to not being able to run - you will walk everywhere at a snails pace). Bug in White March where chars slide forwards slowly instead of walking. Dexterity checks not properly applied in scripted events, etc. Lots of minor things.

    Poor design decisions - The devs seem to blindly copy everything with BG without thinking why some stuff has evolved since. One major gripe I have (with both BG & PoE) is the abnormally small "fog of war" where your 6 world saviours cannot see a large 50ft high windmill from across the street. The only reason this was in BG was because those games were written in the late 90's when everyone had 4:3 1024x768 / 1280x1024 monitors and the short view distance sort of naturally fit the low res screens of the day. On modern 1080p and higher resolutions, the 1/4 screen vision bubble looks ridiculous. Even by 2002 (NWN1), D&D style RPG's had the "fog" made far larger, more realistic and widescreen friendly and eliminated the "blind as a bat" claustrophobia and "narrow strip lawnmower pattern" 'exploration' irritations, (as has virtually every other high rated popular modern "old school" RPG, eg, Dragon Age Origins, Divinity Original Sin, etc). Baldur's Gate 1-2 were great games, but their UI wasn't infallibly perfect and is one of the first things someone playing it for the first time today with no "nostalgia anchor" picks up on.

    The writing is OK but only 2 chars out of the game ever seemed to be personally affected by "Hollowborn" reducing the sense of urgency. Very little humor. "Banter" felt weak & forced. Pacing of lore feels off (too much too early, then goes flat mid-game). The game caps your level halfway through rending the DLC and late sidequests reward-less. The stronghold and its constant attention seeking timed quests that pop up when you've just started something elsewhere was more annoying that immersive. I wouldn't have missed it if they had scrapped it completely. Crafting was mostly pointless (I didn't use it once) as were 90% of Stronghold upgrades. And whilst I understand the need to reward Kickstarters, many in-game comments / tombstone memorials were flat out distracting / childish. Instead of putting in a loading screen warning of how "4th wall breaking" immersion-shattering they are, the Devs could have "curated" a lot or gave better submission guidelines that required they actually fit the game rather than end up resembling your average Youtube comments section. All Kickstarters are mentioned in the credits anyway.

    In short, the game isn't bad but they picked the wrong engine to use, and I think there was too much obsession with "over-trying" to be Baldur's Gate 3 that caused some questionable design decisions. I really wanted to like this, but I simply didn't enjoy this anywhere near as much as I originally expected.    … Expand
  31. RMDsilva
    May 7, 2016
    8
    great story, great old school RPG that is dark and full of choices.
    very addictive, clocked some 100h just running back and forth.
    bad points: a bit slow and combat isn't GREAT (hard to feel tactics are that rewarding over spamming paralysis and so on)
  32. orctown-troll
    Apr 24, 2016
    6
    The game itself is good enough. It does however have one BIG problem. It will waste the MAJORITY of your play time with loading screens. I guess you should definitely have an SSD hard drive. Will that actually fix this? It is 2016. 'Old school' games should load before we fall asleep waiting.
  33. Ljungman
    Apr 1, 2016
    9
    I like nearly everything in this game. The storytelling is probably one of my favorite aspects of this game, where it is told nearly like a book. Pillars of Eternity has one of the best writing I've ever seen in a game and it's wonderfully executed, both in dialogue and in storytelling. It's an amazingly well-written story throughout the game. You'll also meet other characters in yourI like nearly everything in this game. The storytelling is probably one of my favorite aspects of this game, where it is told nearly like a book. Pillars of Eternity has one of the best writing I've ever seen in a game and it's wonderfully executed, both in dialogue and in storytelling. It's an amazingly well-written story throughout the game. You'll also meet other characters in your travels, with interesting backgrounds and side-quests, also with an amazing dialogue.

    Graphically it reminds me of Baldur's Gate, with new-end graphics. I love how the game looks, it's truly a beautiful game, where the world looks like something from a painting. Character customisation is quite bad, but it's just a small part of the game.

    Sidequesting in Pillars was actually really fun! It wasn't those fetch missions, it was of the same quality as the main quest, with choices and consequences. Most of the sidequest had moral choices for your character that would build up what type of character he/she is, which makes you able to decide if you're a hero or a villain. Interesting all the way through. The party you choose to have with you is also affected by what you decide to do during this moral choices and might dislike you for it, and even leave you.

    I loved the combat. It's challenging and fun. Depending on what moves you do, where you place your characters and what spells you use to certain enemies you might die or win. If you play on the higher difficulties, side questing is a must to be able to continue. You even might meet a powerful enemy you can't defeat at the moment, but after doing more quest you can return to and defeat, and it feels really good in doing so. Looting for gear was one of the things I found quite lacking, often I got bad gear from a hard enemy, but the semi-hard bosses gave me gear I used for the most part of the game. It was not much gear changing.

    And oh yeah, THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD! It feels like a classic RPG from start to end!    … Expand
  34. JustCriticiseIt
    Mar 28, 2016
    5
    "It's over?! I've played through this game for hours, waiting for something interesting to happen and all that you're giving me are some contradictory universe mechanics and some half-assed, mostly unexplored "noble lie" concept?" - my thoughts when I finished the game that say everything about my opinion
  35. AnTi_HeRo2100
    Mar 2, 2016
    9
    Pillars of Eternity

    If you are like me and a little hesitant to try this game out a bit I'm hoping to put your mind at ease a bit. I have never played Baldur's Gate so I honestly have nothing to compare this game to by the way of previous installments by the company however that means I'm not jaded by having a prior favorite in the series, so here goes my review. I wont get into    Pillars of Eternity

    If you are like me and a little hesitant to try this game out a bit I'm hoping to put your mind at ease a bit.

    I have never played Baldur's Gate so I honestly have nothing to compare this game to by the way of previous installments by the company however that means I'm not jaded by having a prior favorite in the series, so here goes my review.

    I wont get into character creation just gameplay, like I said above I had never played a previous installment by this company so I didn't know what to expect however, what I got was a truly great game from the environment to the characters to the music this game was made great and while there are some difficulties picking up some aspects to the game its nothing that you cant easily learn with time and a little practice. the atmosphere that the creators manage to create at each part of this game with the music, environment, and enemies is amazing I love to break out my Turtle Beach's when I play this game just for the immersion factor.

    I hope you enjoy reading because if you highly dislike it DO NOT get this game, it helps portray the story as you progress by allowing you to read and imagine the reactions that you want through descriptions that are equal to if you were reading an actual book and for those of us who don't mind reading it makes the story being told that much better in every way.

    (Summary) this game is a slow paced, story based, dungeon crawler that will grip you and keep you playing while enjoying the music and environment that has been created. I give it a solid 9/10 the only reason its not a 10/10 is that sometimes it can be a little to slow for my personal taste and sometimes the amount of constant reading can get a little annoying, great game none the less.    … Expand
  36. Schuback
    Feb 26, 2016
    5
    We all know this is a low budget game. But it's not a bad game at all. Just can get pretty repetitive and boring because there's no voice acting. So you'll be reading the whole game through which gets tiring after 10 hours in. No cutscenes and not much character animations. And the combat isn't that good too. Lack of immersion and story can get boring cause of more reading. Yeah..... WithWe all know this is a low budget game. But it's not a bad game at all. Just can get pretty repetitive and boring because there's no voice acting. So you'll be reading the whole game through which gets tiring after 10 hours in. No cutscenes and not much character animations. And the combat isn't that good too. Lack of immersion and story can get boring cause of more reading. Yeah..... With so many RPGs out there with voice acting, good story, better combat gameplay, I don't think Pillars of Etternity is that good. I enjoyed Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter, and some other top down text-filled rpgs. But it isn't the 90s it's 2016, act like you care. Put some effort to evolve or innovate the top down rpg genre. Not stay entirely and not improve at all. Oh but you have a low budget? Doesn't mean a thing. If the game isn't good, it isn;t good.

    Play it if you're into old-scool rpg. Many who are stuck in past (oh it reminds me of the 90s wow...) Otherwise, play something else. It's no 10/10 like many people are saying that it is. Alright at the start but after about 8 hours it collapses.    … Expand
  37. Ignatius_Reilly
    Feb 23, 2016
    8
    This is a sort of re-review, somewhat after the fact. I originally gave the game a 10, which was probably premature, like most reviews on this site. While I like all the modern updates, and find the game overall very satisfying in terms of combat, exploration, and characters, the game is bogged down by a serious lack of editing.

    It's not that I don't like reading or reams of text (I    This is a sort of re-review, somewhat after the fact. I originally gave the game a 10, which was probably premature, like most reviews on this site. While I like all the modern updates, and find the game overall very satisfying in terms of combat, exploration, and characters, the game is bogged down by a serious lack of editing.

    It's not that I don't like reading or reams of text (I just recently finished a 500 page novel in a few days) but I feel that a lot of dialogue is repetitious, often consisting of a character telling you the same thing in many different ways. For example, when you meet a character named Maerwald, he goes through so many throwaway lines that don't tell you anything concrete other than to reiterate he is crazy, which after a point you're like, "I GET IT!" Too many characters do this!

    The writing isn't bad, it's just a lot of it could be cut without taking anything away from the game. This is my biggest hurdle with fully immersing myself, knowing that in playing I'll have a long-drawn out dialogue to get through. A lot of it is all info-dumpy, and so not as compelling as it could be. The worst offender being the two women at Twin Elms, Oh God, which is presented as an egregious information dump.

    I had hoped for writing more like New Vegas, which, while wordy, has a lot of instances for player agency, so you're able to stay involved even through long conversations.
    Of course, I could skip all the dialogue, but I feel that removes from the enjoyment, I want to know the story, and get into the characters, but the writers use so many words to say so little! Argh!    … Expand
  38. pythag0ras
    Feb 18, 2016
    5
    pros: sort of Balrur's Gate style content
    cons:
    -You can only use items that are equipped in battle and you cant move items from your bag to active use during combat, so this means you have to already know what kind of damage your enemy is weak toward before you go into the battle, or keep reloading until you guess correctly. -no pick pocketing npcs -fatigue /athletics system isn't    pros: sort of Balrur's Gate style content
    cons:
    -You can only use items that are equipped in battle and you cant move items from your bag to active use during combat, so this means you have to already know what kind of damage your enemy is weak toward before you go into the battle, or keep reloading until you guess correctly.
    -no pick pocketing npcs
    -fatigue /athletics system isn't needed and just slows you down and adds annoyance . if you wanted reality you wouldn't be playing a video game. hunger fatigue systems like this are just a developers cheap way to keep people from completing content faster then they want, instead of making enough content that it wont matter. This system reminded me of getting hungry in minecraft..
    -Tons of TL;DR .. I am not trying to read a book here
    -combat is pretty boring . basically just click on the enemy and wait for your char to kill them,
    -fast mode needs to be toggled constantly instead of just being an option in the gameplay options
    -no markers to show quest objectives , forcing you to read adding to more of TL;DR in the game
    ultimately I'd say a pretty weak version of Baldur's Gate.    … Expand
  39. MR67
    Feb 15, 2016
    8
    An enjoyable CRPG that can honestly be called a true RPG in the vein of Baldur's Gate, Planescape or Icewind Dale and not yet another console-crowd-pleasing faux RPG mishmash of MMO and FPS. It's really refreshing to see a proper CRPG up there in the PC sales charts again. If you enjoyed the Infinity Engine based games like the Baldur's Gate series then it's 99.9% certain you'll enjoy thisAn enjoyable CRPG that can honestly be called a true RPG in the vein of Baldur's Gate, Planescape or Icewind Dale and not yet another console-crowd-pleasing faux RPG mishmash of MMO and FPS. It's really refreshing to see a proper CRPG up there in the PC sales charts again. If you enjoyed the Infinity Engine based games like the Baldur's Gate series then it's 99.9% certain you'll enjoy this one.

    Pros:
    6 person party with full management of characters and all their gear? Check.
    Traditional dungeon exploration with the party having to sneak around and watch out for genuinely lethal traps? Check.
    Interesting companions and party banter? Check.
    Additional party hirelings you can create yourself? Check.
    Your own stronghold? Check.
    Nice in-game options like trial of iron mode (one saved game only which is deleted upon party death) or expert mode (all in-game feedback disabled)? Check.

    Cons:
    - In-game Kickstarter backer content - as ShinsFortress mentioned below, backer content gets foisted upon you in the game and it does break immersion a little, even if you choose to completely ignore it. Almost half the NPCs standing around in any given town or tavern are backer creations who serve absolutely no purpose in the game other than to relate a completely meaningless short story to you if you click on them. And then there are the numerous gravestones scattered around the game with real-world backer names on them.
    - Graphics and voice acting could be better, though this is a minor gripe as the game is a Kickstarter funded game that delivers a lot of quality and gameplay considering it was produced using probably less than 10% of the budget of certain other games in this 'genre'. Voices occasionally don't speak their lines or start midway through the text paragraph currently displayed on the screen.
    - Lack of balance between some classes. The chanter has to be hands down the worst class in the game while the druid seems a bit overpowered.
    - Combat would have been better if it had been turn based. It can be a bit overwhelming to keep track of things when your party is fighting many opponents at the same time and your party members can hit the turf before you know it.
    - AI and pathfinding not the greatest. Can sometimes be a chore trying to move your squishier party members away from the front of combat while moving your tanks forward as they have this wonderful knack of trying their utmost to run into one another instead of around one another. Archers can sometimes just toodle off completely by themselves if they can't get at their target and may end up just wandering into a second group of monsters far away from the rest of the party.
    - Selling lots of loot in your stash can be a pain in the butt as you have to individually click on each item to sell it. An adjustable "sell all" option would have been nice.
    - No romance options in the game. Collapse    … Expand
  40. losik
    Feb 13, 2016
    4
    There is one big issue with this game - the combat is a chore. I don't want to explore another location if I will have to defeat another group of lackluster enemies in this turnbased clickfest. I also think that developer tried to fill as much references/throwbacks to Baldurs Gate as possible to blind people with blind people with nostalgia and it looks like it worked.
    One more thing -    There is one big issue with this game - the combat is a chore. I don't want to explore another location if I will have to defeat another group of lackluster enemies in this turnbased clickfest. I also think that developer tried to fill as much references/throwbacks to Baldurs Gate as possible to blind people with blind people with nostalgia and it looks like it worked.
    One more thing - can we finally start CRPGs in cities? It is not fun to explore different possible approaches to game when I have to go through the same introductory area over and over. It is even worse here than in Wastelands 2, as most locations are out of reach until you complete quests.    … Expand
  41. Athenryn
    Feb 11, 2016
    4
    Appalling dull, generic story and some of the worst RPG combat/level design ever devised! Just replay Baldurs Gate instead, since the only charm this game has is the BG nostalgia trip.

    I am totally done with Obsidian, no-one is better at draining the fun from an RPG, while leaving a miserable story, miserable characters and bizarre difficulty (the early levels are literally almost all    Appalling dull, generic story and some of the worst RPG combat/level design ever devised! Just replay Baldurs Gate instead, since the only charm this game has is the BG nostalgia trip.

    I am totally done with Obsidian, no-one is better at draining the fun from an RPG, while leaving a miserable story, miserable characters and bizarre difficulty (the early levels are literally almost all fights you need to come back and finish in 5 levels, it's So. Weird. To build a game like that).

    Also, YES, kickstarter is a menace with the jacked up player reviews, this is just not a fun product.    … Expand
  42. Skipper
    Feb 5, 2016
    5
    I don't exactly know how to describe how I feel about this game. I like the idea of it more than I actually like it. Maybe it's the comparison to Baldur's Gate. The game itself feels hollowborn. It has all the moving pieces, but the soul seems to be missing.
  43. Xenofex
    Jan 30, 2016
    8
    This game does feel like the return of Baldur's Gate. The story is great so far and the game system is worth your time to study. The graphics is also great, which is a huge improvement over Baldur's Gate series.

    However considering it was released 201x decade, I do expect and prefer something even better, like what I found in The Witcher 3: great story with astonishing graphics and    This game does feel like the return of Baldur's Gate. The story is great so far and the game system is worth your time to study. The graphics is also great, which is a huge improvement over Baldur's Gate series.

    However considering it was released 201x decade, I do expect and prefer something even better, like what I found in The Witcher 3: great story with astonishing graphics and action, where not only you can read but also you can witness that fantastic world.

    And for the system, I feel it could be better: maybe just a better guidance for the new players. In Baldur's Gate, people love the complexity of the system because it's an experience that can be carried over with you here and there. The system of Pillars of Eternity feels a lot like D&D. Probably it's on purpose to create the old feeling with out patent issues.

    On the other hand, Dragon Age took another path. In DA:O the system was not simple, but not working very well, at least in my opinion. Not too many builds for a class, and the tank-nuker-healer triangle just feels tedious and unrealistic. In DA2 the system was simplified and in DA:I it was polished over DA2. I kind of like what they did in DA:I for the balance between simplicity and flexibility. Complex combat system is for a lot of builds. And if the developer is not able to make a lot of sensible builds, why not leaving the system simple? There a tons of elements to improve to improve the overall experience for a cRPG.    … Expand
  44. Dafuzz
    Dec 24, 2015
    1
    Certaintly not a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and not a good game either. It isn't even the classic style RPG that it wants to be, it is just a dumbed down RPG for a modern audience with an isometric view.
  45. iseeall
    Dec 18, 2015
    10
    A great remake of Baldur's Gate 2, I can only agree on everything with other reviewers who gave 10/10. If you like top-down party-based RPGs with huge non-linear worlds, multitudes of spells/abilities and complex character building - buy this game.
  46. Greywolf2001ca
    Dec 11, 2015
    7
    Good game, but I really hate those stupid pseudo real-time turn-based combat crap. Makes the game look really dumb. Aside from combat, which you cannot avoid at all in the game, you have a good story. It does not seem that your choices matters in the game. I've done like 25% of the game, and my choices have made no difference and had no impact on the story.

    There are some nice and    Good game, but I really hate those stupid pseudo real-time turn-based combat crap. Makes the game look really dumb. Aside from combat, which you cannot avoid at all in the game, you have a good story. It does not seem that your choices matters in the game. I've done like 25% of the game, and my choices have made no difference and had no impact on the story.

    There are some nice and unusual options in the options menu of this game. You can actually hide metagaming information, which increases replayability... well, it would increase it alot if the choices you take would change the story like in Age of Decadence, which is a much better game overall, especially in the storyline department (you live according to your choices. Went through half the game without fighting a thing, just talking, plotting and manipulating people into doing things for me.)

    Pillars of Eternity is not really worth the price tag it currently has, but it's worth paying 20-25$ though. More if combat was better.    … Expand
  47. thermoplastics
    Dec 9, 2015
    9
    PRO: Rich storytelling
    One of the main highlights of Pillars of Eternity is the rich and deeply involved story telling. The minutia to be found in game is almost exasperating. Every aspect of the world and the characters within have a very involved background with many different reactions to the players chosen character (race, class, etc.). On top of this there is often very well done    PRO: Rich storytelling
    One of the main highlights of Pillars of Eternity is the rich and deeply involved story telling. The minutia to be found in game is almost exasperating. Every aspect of the world and the characters within have a very involved background with many different reactions to the players chosen character (race, class, etc.). On top of this there is often very well done voice acting to accompany these scenarios, giving even more life to the game.

    PRO: Deep character creation
    The character creation menu in Pillars of Eternity are highly detailed. The player can choose from six different races that have eleven playable classes. There is also an assortment of sub races for each of the six races. Making for a pretty wide selection of choices that allows the player to create very individualized avatars.

    PRO: Combat requires forethought
    The combat in Pillars of Eternity usually requires a good bit of planning. Depending on the monsters one is facing the scenario shifts on how one needs to react. Fighting a couple of bandits will call for a complete different reaction than fighting a large dragon. Players have to adapt constantly, which creates an exciting atmosphere and a good bit of tension. The use of the space bar (or having a setting that auto pauses) to pause the game is key in planning how to react to each scenario which thankfully gives the player plenty of time to plan their future actions.

    PRO: Fantastic throwback to the isometric RPGs of old
    For fans of games like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, Pillars of Eternity truly succeeds in bringing the CRPG genre into the modern era without compromising any of the old mechanics. The isometric view of the game gives a familiar feel but the new engine and addition of many modern effects gives the game a look all its own that fits in with any modern offerings on PC.

    PRO: Movie quality music
    The quality of the soundtrack is comparable to some of the best CRPGs out there as well as films like Lord of the Rings. At times there are looping soundtracks but luckily the sound design was done in such a way that there is also moments of ambient music and sounds to break up the monotony.

    PRO: Long gameplay
    With a play time of up to 70 hours, Pillars of Eternity will last any player for a good amount of time.

    PRO: Large selection of companions
    A player can have up to five different companions accompany them along their quest. Many of these companions have their own storylines, making for a feeling of connection. There is also the option of hiring your own user created companions at an inn, but of course this may not be as exciting as using the game created ones.

    PRO: Crafting system
    Players can collects items in the world to use for crafting. Crafting allows for creation of potions and scrolls as well as equipable items or enchantments for equipable items such as weapons, shields and armor.

    Unlike some crafting systems, crafting in Pillars of Eternity is a mechanic and not a skill, so there is no need to level up any crafting experience in order to craft.

    PRO: Three editions available that offer extra out of game content
    There are three different digital retail editions available for Pillars of Eternity, Hero Edition ($44.99), Champion Edition ($59.99) and Royal Edition ($89.99). The Hero edition is the base game with no extras. The Champion Edition offers the purchaser extra digital content such as a soundtrack and HD map. The Royal Edition offers everything the Champion Edition does with even more extra digital content such as Ringtones, eBooks and a strategy guide.

    There is zero in game content missing from any of these editions as Obsidian made it a point to make sure all the extras are just that, extras. Some may say what is on offer for the extra editions is not comparable to the price, really it is just a way for fans to give more money to a studio that bothered to create a genre of game that is often overlooked, a way to show appreciation.

    CON: A lot of reading
    The amount of text in game may turn some people off as much of the time spent in game will be spent reading.

    CON: Single player only
    There are no online or co-op modes.

    Full comparison found here: http://www.slant.co/topics/2220/viewpoints/5/~what-are-the-best-crpgs-on-pc~pillars-of-eternity    … Expand
  48. Artur_
    Dec 6, 2015
    7
    It is a good alternative to so called "AAA games", worth 70 hours of playing. Freedom of team buiding, comfortable equipment management, good crafting, reasonable battle running. Nice 2D graphic, sound, isometric perspective and a very stable game. Story is ok, although I didn't feel involved, so minus 2 points - it is RPG game after all. Third point deduction for one insta-kill beast.It is a good alternative to so called "AAA games", worth 70 hours of playing. Freedom of team buiding, comfortable equipment management, good crafting, reasonable battle running. Nice 2D graphic, sound, isometric perspective and a very stable game. Story is ok, although I didn't feel involved, so minus 2 points - it is RPG game after all. Third point deduction for one insta-kill beast. Overall - play and have fun ;-)… Expand
  49. Voyou
    Nov 24, 2015
    4
    It seems that many bad reviews focus on bugs. Not mine. I play(ed) a bug free game. Well, with the exception of the memory management, which is so bad that the game can't work on a 32 bits system, making those programmers the laughing stock of the industry. Anyway...

    I give a less than average note because the inanity of the gameplay easily ruins any good aspect of PoE. Whatever our    It seems that many bad reviews focus on bugs. Not mine. I play(ed) a bug free game. Well, with the exception of the memory management, which is so bad that the game can't work on a 32 bits system, making those programmers the laughing stock of the industry. Anyway...

    I give a less than average note because the inanity of the gameplay easily ruins any good aspect of PoE. Whatever our favourite game is between BG2, Planescape Torment or other, most of us here enjoy the Infinity Engine. To me, the combat was their weakest point, but it was never an hindrance, and at times it was even very enjoyable. Every single fight in PoE is a pain and a bore; and there is a huge amount of bloodshed.

    Here are some of the worst and most ridiculous flaws of the game:
    - Stats and skills (the full 5 of them) are awful. The system was clearly designed by an all-too-geeky amateur.
    - Playing equals crunching numbers, complete with percentages and fractions. Not to mention that this numbers are ugly to read. This hobby feels like working.
    - Itemisation is everywhere. The looting system is as boring as in many games. What's more unusual, the spells are equally annoying to read and boring to use (e.g., AoE hobbled for 1.7 sec vs Will + dazed 2.016 sec vs For... or whatever.)
    - Fighting is nothing more than grinding, due to an accumulation of inane mechanics. You won't find here the large variety of play styles and tactics you had in an IE game.
    - To detect, you must sneak. You will then explore all maps at a turtle's pace. A terribly cheap and mean way to make a game last longer.
    - Thieves are sad. I'm the guy who plays BG2 with at least 4 thieves at once. I can safely say it's my favourite class in video games. Of course, I expected PoE to improve them (and everything else.) But you can't pickpocket, you can't backstab (well, technically you can, but you'll be dead in the next 2 seconds,) sneaking is clumsy, traps are a joke, and you can do nothing new compared to an IE game.

    This is not the place to mention and detail all the design flaws of the game, but the list goes on and on. The good sides, on the other hand, are quick to note: The game is gorgeous, and some of the companions are terrific. The only reason I'll keep playing, if sporadically, is to interact with a priest named Durance. The best NPC ever, so props to whoever wrote this geezer with such a level of maturity and intensity.    … Expand
  50. hag9600gt
    Nov 23, 2015
    6
    I'm a big fan of the genre, I played most of the similar games. Since my english is not perfect, I sum up the good and bad in short sentences:

    Good: Nice graphics, well written text, good atmosphere. Bad: Below average UI, broken character and party selection, camera does not follow the characters (seriously?!?), constant problems with font sizes (too big in the chat window, too small    I'm a big fan of the genre, I played most of the similar games. Since my english is not perfect, I sum up the good and bad in short sentences:

    Good: Nice graphics, well written text, good atmosphere.
    Bad: Below average UI, broken character and party selection, camera does not follow the characters (seriously?!?), constant problems with font sizes (too big in the chat window, too small everywhere else).

    I can't believe this game has so muc updates and patches, and the developers didn't fix the obvious gameplay settings. They should take a look at Divinity: Original Sin.    … Expand
  51. mishkoff
    Nov 14, 2015
    10
    Excellent game if you like games like BG or Icewind Dale. Main strengths are: dialogues, story and beautiful locations. It is a proof a good game does not need a massive budget and all that 3D graphics to be a good game.
  52. Hohum
    Nov 12, 2015
    9
    I was skeptical at first, I admit. Back when the original Baldur's Gate bandwagon rolled on through town, I was too busy wrapped up in the glorious world of Ultima Online to take much notice. Only much later, in modern times, did I labor through the BG franchise. While the story and game world were both great, you really get a sense for how far we've come in 15+ years since, in terms ofI was skeptical at first, I admit. Back when the original Baldur's Gate bandwagon rolled on through town, I was too busy wrapped up in the glorious world of Ultima Online to take much notice. Only much later, in modern times, did I labor through the BG franchise. While the story and game world were both great, you really get a sense for how far we've come in 15+ years since, in terms of designing games which are actually enjoyable to control and play.

    Pillars, then, is the epitome of what can be achieved when classic RPG-craft and top-notch storytelling meet a more modernized game design philosophy. The result is a spectacular triumph.

    From the outset, you're struck with the "right" balance of nostalgia and playability, which continues on throughout the game. Controlling your party is a streamlined affair, and combat moves at a decent pace without ever feeling too fast or too slow. The variable game play speeds work wonders, meaning you don't have to pause every 2 seconds to issue a new command if you don't want to. It's the little things.

    The graphics, soundtrack, voice acting - everything is fantastic in my eyes (and ears). The quests are numerous and interesting. There's a rich lore to wrap yourself up in like a cozy blanket, but not so much that it feels like opening your favorite novel each time you launch the game.

    My only reservation is a technical complaint - the game runs horribly on my Core i7, 16GB RAM, Nvidia 960M 2GB laptop. I rarely get above 20FPS on low settings. On my desktop machine with GTX 980 graphics, it runs just fine. Little disappointing, but it doesn't detract too much from the overall experience.

    If you enjoy CRPG games, especially those of old, then you owe it to yourself to play this game. Roll on the next one.    … Expand
  53. Soujirop
    Nov 9, 2015
    8
    This is a very good RPG, sure, it hooks and I enjoyed it despite the huge amount of dialogue that sometimes is out of place or ridiculously redundant and tiresome. Now, is the game in the same level as Baldur's Gate? Not even close... But anyway, I thank Obsidian for reviving the genre.
  54. elenaPamelar
    Oct 31, 2015
    0
    Clearly lots of paid reviews on this one. Great graphics? At least they are easy to spot but this is still dishonest. I put nothing past Obsidian, they have a long history of iffy stuff.

    Anyway, the game is pretty bad. I tried to play it on release but couldnt get into it. Decided to give it another chance (while waiting for FO4) and loaded it up. Steam did its update, and off I went to    Clearly lots of paid reviews on this one. Great graphics? At least they are easy to spot but this is still dishonest. I put nothing past Obsidian, they have a long history of iffy stuff.

    Anyway, the game is pretty bad. I tried to play it on release but couldnt get into it. Decided to give it another chance (while waiting for FO4) and loaded it up. Steam did its update, and off I went to forums to see what had changed. Seems they did a lot of "re-balancing".... why do you re-balance a 1 player game? Seriously... the problem I had with it the 1st time was that it was just so boring to play. Too much clicking and the story was basically like a filler episode of an anime. If anything, the game needed to be unbalanced to give it some fun but nope... you know what they did? They made it even more boring by making sure whatever was "overpowered" before, was no useless and that all classes are now just boring and linear.

    Ok so I loaded it up, and started making my character. I had played on several difficulties prior and decided to go ahead and play at PotD (highest difficulty) because I remembered how completely imbalanced the game was and it needed some help. Made a Rogue, discovered the game was stupid. Everything died in a few hits once I had my tanks and I got as far as the bounties when I stopped and re-rolled something else because the game was just retarded with the rogue (too much dps).

    I tried a wizard. Then I remembered just why I didnt like the 1st time... with something slower than a rogue, the game is sooooooooo boring. Things died very slowly the 1st 6 or so levels because he didnt have tons of spells yet. Sure trash stuff was easy, but anything with medium difficult took forever to kill and resisted the wizard waaaay too often even though I had min/maxed him for casting and only chose spells to counter weaker resists. It was stupid. not fun at all. Basically my wizard spent 99% of fights flinging his ranged spam attack... this is not fun. I had surrounded him with support so none of them were major damage dealers except the ranger who was doing ok but all he does is just auto attack because that is all he can do.... boring, boring, boring, boring. Got as far as the 2nd bounty and stopped.

    Re-rolled one last time hoping to find some class that was fun to play so I tried a Cipher. She gets unlimited spell casts but limited number of spells like a warlock in dnd. She was better, but again, very limited. Eventually she became a two trick pony spamming that binding spell, and auto attacking....

    So here is the problem. They went out of their way to make classes as balanced as possible but never once stood there and asked, but are they fun to play? MMO's are usually not very fun because of this type of thing. They only exist for the social aspects of gaming, otherwise, they suck the big one. Why make a single player game like an MMO? Very bad design. Please stop paying people to post reviews. There is no way this game should rank higher than a 6.    … Expand
  55. suneater
    Oct 25, 2015
    8
    Pillars of Eternity is a good CRPG that feels held back by a bland story and combat that gets easier and tactically simplier as the game progresses. There is plenty of content to explore (including a personal castle to upgrade and a deep dungeon to explore for fancy loot, room for actual roleplaying with extensive dialogue options, and unique classes that alone are enough to make me wantPillars of Eternity is a good CRPG that feels held back by a bland story and combat that gets easier and tactically simplier as the game progresses. There is plenty of content to explore (including a personal castle to upgrade and a deep dungeon to explore for fancy loot, room for actual roleplaying with extensive dialogue options, and unique classes that alone are enough to make me want to replay the game) but the majority of it is too similar to previous games in the genre to really stand out on its own. While I love Obsidian, this repurposing of old ideas and design choices just doesn't feel like the dream project it was supposed to be.

    PoE gives you plenty of important decisions to make and lets you know every chance it can that these decisions matter. However, one very important sequence of events near the halfway point in the game in particular stood out in breaking that illusion. At one point you reach a crossroads between two factions, one of which you previously sided with. Various speech options let you continue to side with them or roleplay other options. However, the Big Bad shows his face and spits on your decisions, making your previous questing and choices moot. It is very frustrating to play through because you're just stuck there watching it play out with no input on what is happening, only to suffer the consequences later. Something more cryptic happening off-screen during these events would've been better writing and would've had the same effect without being so frustrating to play through.

    The end boss also feels very contrived and added for the sake of having a last boss for a video game. Most of the game you're chasing him and always 2 steps behind him and yet in this last bastion he decides to face you face-to-face. I feel like he was supposed to be an Irenecus clone but he comes off feeling whiny and shoehorned. I would've really preferred pushing him and the "twist" leading up to the final area into a sequel or expansion because it really detracts from the rest of the game.

    While I enjoyed my time with PoE, I find it hard to recommend. Overall, it felt quite bland and dry compared to CRPGs of old with only the few unique classes and the deep character interactions really standing out to me. If you've played CRPGs before and are on the fence about this, try a pillar of the genre such as Baldur's Gate 2 or Icewind Dale before dropping cash on this.    … Expand
  56. XxSoULxMaNxX
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Played over 120 hours. Once I finished (with the NPC companions) I played again with an entirely different group of characters (I created myself). The character, skill, enemy and environment variety made the game more than enjoyable. I am hoping for more games like it.
  57. Bongo_clive
    Oct 13, 2015
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Having just completed Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin, I was very excited about trying another high quality RPG, but I cannot bring myself to finish this drudgery.

    The other 2 games had wit, humour and fun, with crisp, snappy dialogue, truly interesting characters and a quest you could relate to, Pillars had none of these things.

    It is clearly well made, it look pretty good, but it is just so boring.

    And don't even get me started on the number of bloody loading screens.

    I loved Baldur's Gate, but that was 15 years ago. Design has moved on. Wasteland 2 showed how it should be done. This is just a terribly boring game.    … Expand
  58. reavor
    Oct 9, 2015
    7
    A solid attempt to revitalize the genre of pause and play RPGs, but with a lot of strange mechanics regarding resting etc. The world in general felt kind of lackluster, less bright colors, and without some of the humor permeating the BG games. But the effort to make something original and craft a story trying to tackle some deeper questions is appreciated.
  59. EviltoastSA
    Oct 5, 2015
    8
    Really looked forward to this release. I played all those infinity engine RPG's back in the day, they were my favourite games at the time. And i must say i wasn't disappointed. It has to be said though that this game was specifically made for fans of the previously mentioned games. In other words fans of complex tactical party/team based rpgs will dig this. The graphics were perfect forReally looked forward to this release. I played all those infinity engine RPG's back in the day, they were my favourite games at the time. And i must say i wasn't disappointed. It has to be said though that this game was specifically made for fans of the previously mentioned games. In other words fans of complex tactical party/team based rpgs will dig this. The graphics were perfect for this genre, the music and ambiance was also awesome albeit a bit too similar like the infinity engine games but no biggy tho. The story i really liked and the quest structure was decent too (cant remember too many fetch quests although there were simple "go kill this guy come back tasks"). The gameplay was great too although DND purists wont be too impressed with the depth it still delivers with good tactical combat and complex mechanics true to the original infinity engine games' approach.

    I can nitpick a few things tho, most noticeable is the length of the game. It felt rather short and the end felt abrupt in a way. Played around 50 hours and did virtually everything possible. And compared to the older games its very short but in modern times i guess 50 hours is par. In terms of mechanics Its complex and has room to experiment and enjoys various builds and classes but compared to AD&D it just feels a bit sparse and marginally lacking still decent though. All in all a very good game and might not be for everyone but truly delivers for its target market.    … Expand
  60. SkySlam
    Oct 4, 2015
    10
    Great, immersive and fun RPG experience. It really felt like playing Baldur's Gate for the first time again.
    I enjoyed a good part of the story, the gameplay is smooth and the companions are interesting and definitely feel alive. Did not disappoint the long wait.
  61. everin
    Oct 2, 2015
    7
    Tier 2
    + Interesting story and side characters, a lot of nice expository details
    + A pretty world with a lot of spectacular details and environments
    ? Pacing of the story is a bit slow and all over the place
    - Combat feels messy and unrefined, real-time gameplay is very chaotic
    - Character items and models are visually unimpressive and immersion breaking
  62. nilleratus
    Oct 1, 2015
    4
    I'm very much a fan of this type of games, I've played them all.

    This games starts of extremely well, me and a close mate didn't talk about anything for the first few days. Act 1 is awesome. In act 2, you start getting a little bit bored because the fights are so easy, that could be countered by raising the difficulty though. In act 3 you steamroll everything and you reach max level    I'm very much a fan of this type of games, I've played them all.

    This games starts of extremely well, me and a close mate didn't talk about anything for the first few days. Act 1 is awesome. In act 2, you start getting a little bit bored because the fights are so easy, that could be countered by raising the difficulty though.

    In act 3 you steamroll everything and you reach max level late act 2 or early act 3 depending on how you play. That means the only exploration left is story and loot. This isn't diablo, so loot is only mildly interesting. So rule that out.

    The story then, it's ok, it's not bad and it's not great. I wasn't entirely captured by it but I wanted to get through it, and I did, barely because the gameplay is so **** boring the last act.

    I followed this game from the start and I'm super disappointed unfortunately :(    … Expand
  63. Derf3L
    Oct 1, 2015
    9
    Amazing game! A true RPG, incredible story, great combat, really good immersion and a lot of exploration.
    So many good sides..
    I haven't given a 10 because of a few small issues, like slightly outdated graphics and overall interface is not that fresh.
    Good work Obsidian. Totally recommend it.
  64. Cleglaw
    Sep 22, 2015
    8
    it gets boring after a while. spamming same battle startegy takes away the fun.

    BUT for first 80hourish gameplay, i really enjoyed it, it seemed like one of the best games i have ever played in last 10 years.

    final score: 8.

    sorry, but i dont even want to buy expension cause the core mechanics already bored me, i dont crave for more spamming.
  65. Fimbul
    Sep 11, 2015
    6
    Well there is nearly everything said about this game but what bugs me the most is that such a combat heavy game doesn't give you Exp for defeating foes. That's fine if you can avoid most of it and you have other options to fulfill your quests, but you are constantly forced into. NO EXP FOR COMBAT!!!!

    and it's long and everything needs so much time. that's just painful if your time is    Well there is nearly everything said about this game but what bugs me the most is that such a combat heavy game doesn't give you Exp for defeating foes. That's fine if you can avoid most of it and you have other options to fulfill your quests, but you are constantly forced into. NO EXP FOR COMBAT!!!!

    and it's long and everything needs so much time. that's just painful if your time is limited.

    So for me is it just mediocre.    … Expand
  66. toirko13
    Sep 5, 2015
    9
    First of all i want to give thanks to the developers for creating this master piece of a game! and i hope they will add more to this master piece in time such as characters and other wonderful DLC.

    this game is a must buy! so get it!
  67. Batbamb
    Aug 24, 2015
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Well, I did not expect Pillars of Eternity to be such a failure in terms of world-building and writing.

    First of all, let's recall that Obsidian's main selling point on Kickstarter was to draw inspiration from Baldur's Gate and the likes. So,to some extent, PoE had to use an imaginary world full of magic and wonders: you will find no small amount of mighty heroes, spells, adventures and exotic races in the world Obsidian designed.

    But these are just cosmetics. The true themes are dark and serious: soulless children, obscurantism, death of gods, and so on. It seems like Obsidian was more attracted to dark fantasy (a genre where the magic world falls into chaos/horror).

    As a consequence, humour and delight are close to nonexistent in the world of PoE. That alone doesn't necessarily makes it a bad game: grim worlds can be interesting too. The problem is that the dark fantasy themes are severely underdeveloped. Indeed, Obsidian could not stray too far from high fantasy: they had promised a game similar to Baldur’s Gate, after all. So, compromises had to be made...

    The main storyline is a good example of it. After the first hour or so, your avatar is supposed to be gradually losing his/her sanity.

    You never, ever feel it. Apart from some casual ghosts apparitions. Boo!

    In this instance, the gameplay does little to support the story (Mask of the Betrayer did that better). The consequence is that you are not invested at all in your character’s specific state. But this is only one of the main topics of the game, so what’s the point of developing it, hey?

    Another key feature of the story, the Hollowborn curse, did not convince me either: its concrete presence and influence on the population is hugely overlooked. I can only recall two characters who seemed psychologically affected by the situation: Raedric and the Grieving Mother. It’s as if the game was not at ease with its own main topic.

    So, PoE refuses to be only a high fantasy game, while not really daring to be a dark fantasy one. The result is that this game hugely lacks vision. Ironically, you could say its world has no soul.

    I also think the game suffers from its attempt to reproduce the style of Planescape: Torment, whereas the world of PoE is not quite as inspiring. Torment had an exotic, surprising and mysterious world, full of sense of wonder: an ever-burning corpse in the middle of a tavern, an alley giving birth… Such motifs supported the imaginative, philosophical writing very well. The writers of Torment could constantly show what they meant: the words and graphics merged to create intricate and delightful images.

    In PoE, the writers’ mantra turned into “telling rather than showing”: since the universe lacks vision, the narration mainly embroiders emptiness.

    And it does so in large quantity: the texts seem even longer than in Torment… but they are far less compelling. The descriptions are constantly bloated, trying to inject depth into a world that severely lacks it. For example, the dialogues give systematic descriptions of the characters’ physical attitude (“she frowns”, “he purses his lips”, etc.). Sometimes it can be amusing to read. But a lot of it doesn’t add anything, which dilutes the relevant descriptions into an indigestible mess. I concede that the vocabulary is rich (I certainly improved my English a lot while playing this game). And some passages are genuinely beautiful, as in the dialogues with the gods. But often, the writing is just uselessly verbose.

    A word about the fights: the combat system is nice… but the encounter design is atrocious. 90% of these encounters consist of trash mobs. Only a few fights will make you change your tactics. Too bad. The most challenging fights are entertaining, though.

    Apart from that, there are a few instances where PoE deserves praise.

    Firstly, I liked the roleplay options and the variety of dialogue choices in general. Consequences lack, but at least you can create a personality for your avatar.

    Then, the construction of the secondary quests was mostly excellent. You generally have several options to conclude them, all of which are morally defendable. And the few FedEx missions (the bounty quests) included most of the more interesting fights in the game, so that’s a good compromise.

    Moreover, the companions were well executed and varied. They have a history and a personality, which are not forced upon you: it’s up toyou if you want to know more about them. I found Durance to be particularly fascinating. The Grieving Mother’s tremolos and melodramatic tales, less so.

    And of course, the graphics are stunningly beautiful. The icy tones of Noonfrost are breathtaking.

    So, there are some good points in PoE. But the narrative aspects and the fight design ruined this game for me. At least, PoE provides a valuable warning for the future attempts at building imaginary worlds with depth and soul. Nowadays, a lot of RPG do not even show us mistakes worth reflecting upon.    … Expand
  68. Barby
    Aug 20, 2015
    10
    Is like play a tale, a beautiful soundtrack accompanied me through the deep character creation and I've learned its mechanics almost without noticing while I play, there are plenty of text well integrated as a book with illustrations and choices based on your character's stats, the best way to narrate great amount of text I've ever played, I really feel comfortable with my choices, alsoIs like play a tale, a beautiful soundtrack accompanied me through the deep character creation and I've learned its mechanics almost without noticing while I play, there are plenty of text well integrated as a book with illustrations and choices based on your character's stats, the best way to narrate great amount of text I've ever played, I really feel comfortable with my choices, also the background is dynamic through dialogues. The combat system is the best in RPGs, like Dragon Age Origins with the possibility to customize your character even in its portrait, including the whole party. Sincerely the best RPG today.… Expand
  69. TheMitherer
    Aug 18, 2015
    8
    A very good game but not an outstanding one. Of course, every true rpg made these days is measured against the BG series (and quite rightly so) and it is perhaps unrealistic to expect any new game to have the same impact. Anyway, this game does a lot of things very well - character creation is great and there are some interesting classes to investigate. Joinable NPCs are good although aA very good game but not an outstanding one. Of course, every true rpg made these days is measured against the BG series (and quite rightly so) and it is perhaps unrealistic to expect any new game to have the same impact. Anyway, this game does a lot of things very well - character creation is great and there are some interesting classes to investigate. Joinable NPCs are good although a rogue would have been nice, game play is generally excellent. I cannot say that I found the powerful weapons and armour to be particularly inspiring but there are some other items that are, well, overpowered to say the least. The loot system is a bit quirky and one extremely useful item hasn't shown up in any of my 6 games so far. Spells are good but there are too many damp squibs in there (and some spells are just too good not to spam). The story is more than adequate and extremely well written in places.
    Overall, very playable (and replayable) and an enjoyable experience. Hopefully they can improve upon it with another effort.    … Expand
  70. Yosa
    Aug 11, 2015
    0
    One thing they did right, damage resistance on armour, now dont think im apologetic but lets point out some things,the health system is retardedt, you should lose life! when hit, not on a derived stat.; the whole character system is bad, there is no intuitive logic there, the percentage based thing is garbage, scaling is your enemy, in levels in everything, the stat system is garbage, theOne thing they did right, damage resistance on armour, now dont think im apologetic but lets point out some things,the health system is retardedt, you should lose life! when hit, not on a derived stat.; the whole character system is bad, there is no intuitive logic there, the percentage based thing is garbage, scaling is your enemy, in levels in everything, the stat system is garbage, the world is an empy mess of usless npc that you cant interact with, yada, why bother… Expand
  71. Goldenface
    Aug 11, 2015
    10
    Pillars of Eternity is nothing less than a product of those in love with a genre, to be played by like-minded people. No longer will you be aimlessly grinding enemies who barely fit into the context of environment, but instead having unique and memorable encounters that cannot be overcome by simple brute force. No longer will you have to experience patronizingly obvious dialogue trees, butPillars of Eternity is nothing less than a product of those in love with a genre, to be played by like-minded people. No longer will you be aimlessly grinding enemies who barely fit into the context of environment, but instead having unique and memorable encounters that cannot be overcome by simple brute force. No longer will you have to experience patronizingly obvious dialogue trees, but instead ambiguous (yet malleable to be more obvious) and interesting choices that give the player the freedom to role play beyond the stale-cracker "good", "evil", and "uninspired" archetypes. No longer will you be flying through the levels in hopes of level cap with a slew of minuscule passive points to make you feel like you're doing is important along the way; NO! AWAY WITH THAT RUBBISH! Now you hold each level up like a precious, fragile metal that can be wasted as easily as it can be utilized. Wrap these table-top oriented design choices into an intriguing story that gracefully unfolds without dragging you through it against your will and you have one the of the finest crafted titles in the genre that I will recommend for years to come.… Expand
  72. brindle88
    Aug 9, 2015
    8
    I previously reviewed this game low, I think because I was frustrated that the rules and mechanics differed from baldurs gate 2 lol. Having replayed this game and after getting used to the rules and mechanics I am loving it. I would have rated this game a 9 or even a 10 but I didn't because you can tell it has been made on a reduced budget; script cards instead of cinematics, reducedI previously reviewed this game low, I think because I was frustrated that the rules and mechanics differed from baldurs gate 2 lol. Having replayed this game and after getting used to the rules and mechanics I am loving it. I would have rated this game a 9 or even a 10 but I didn't because you can tell it has been made on a reduced budget; script cards instead of cinematics, reduced audio and voiceovers, relatively few areas to explore, lore no where near the level as bg2 and they could have added more hidden areas, items ect...

    I can only prey they make POE2 with a big proper budget. Well done obsidian.    … Expand
  73. justanhonestguy
    Aug 8, 2015
    7
    Not that good for me. Loved BG1, BG2, and the Icewind series. This game is extremely faithful to the old iso rpg's, and I suspect that that's part of the problem in my case. It's so faithful to them, it's like a reapeat of your favorite tv show. Not bad, but not as good as the first broadcast. Really solid programming and wonderful efforts on all technical fronts, but these don'tNot that good for me. Loved BG1, BG2, and the Icewind series. This game is extremely faithful to the old iso rpg's, and I suspect that that's part of the problem in my case. It's so faithful to them, it's like a reapeat of your favorite tv show. Not bad, but not as good as the first broadcast. Really solid programming and wonderful efforts on all technical fronts, but these don't contribute to the magic as much. as they did in the old days. It was all new in the old days, and BG! was wayy ahead of the competition. I don't think that you could reasonably expect BG1 to thrill you these days either, so maybe absolute fidelity to the "old school" systems is not such a great thing after all.Technically, everything is as good or better than BG1 or BG2, but the fun factor isn't there for me as much. I think if you haven't ever played a top-down CRPG before, this might prove to be a unique and challenging game, but in my case right from the start I felt that I was going over old ground again. Way back when, BG1 was my introduction to CRPG's, and I flat out loved it., so much so that I actually ditched work over it and used it as the benchmark to compare rpg's to it for years. But that was 17 years ago, and things have changed. This isn't a new idea anymore, no new ground is broken in the game, and it all feels really "used" somehow. Nowhere is that feeling more apparent than in the overly used cookie cutter combat music and sounds. Each new combat starts with what seems to be the exact same sound bytes and effects, regardless of the monster or actor being challenged. This is the single biggest technical gaffe in my opinion, but it's not a show-stopper by any means. I feel that technically the game is very good to excellent, but that isn't what makes a game fun as we all know. I think that it meets the bar set by BG1, but that is old and somewhat tired standard. Things change and the idea of a good game must change also. Kudos to the developers for the excellent job, but sadly, for me, the magic just isn't there. I'm going to 7 out of 10 for respectable design and programming, excellent art and mechanics, but the 3 missing points are for the "fun factor". Not much innovation here, feels like an expansion to BG1 would , and in 2015, it's somewhat anachronistic. Also, I totally agree with dinin70 and his description of the loading screen runaround. You ARE at all times at least 5 or 6 loading screens away from getting any movement done, and it takes away from the fun factor IMMENSELY when you have to go to a certain town or area from a distant one. I would have shaved 10 hours from my over 120 hour total if I could just have avoided all the loading time. Not so much fun. I may sound like I'm saying this isn't a good or great game and I don't want to take away from the great work the devs have done, but it is what it is. If i could go into the high 70's i would, but somehow I just didn't experience the BG magic this time around. It IS very much an experience that feels a little too nostalgic. Like they say, "you can never go home again". I feel that this is a deeply admirable, capable, and polished effort to recreate the magic of the originals, but because we HAVE been here before, it's never as good the second time around. First timers may have a completely different experience, so i would tend to recommend this game highly to newcomers to the genre. Veterans, not so much.… Expand
  74. dinin70
    Aug 3, 2015
    7
    Don't look at people saying the combat is boring or the game is buggy. Those are people playing on a Commodore 64 and that unfortunately don't have any finger on their hands.

    The combat is good, the graphics are great, the gameplay is very intuitive. I really enjoyed playing it, however I can barely recommend it. You are looking for an old style RPG, ok go for it. You are looking for    Don't look at people saying the combat is boring or the game is buggy. Those are people playing on a Commodore 64 and that unfortunately don't have any finger on their hands.

    The combat is good, the graphics are great, the gameplay is very intuitive. I really enjoyed playing it, however I can barely recommend it.

    You are looking for an old style RPG, ok go for it. You are looking for a new Baldur's Gate? Nope...

    I don't think that I enjoyed BG because I was a teenager and now I grew old, the game is just not playing in same league.

    - Epicness of BG2 - Forget it. Are you saving the universe, thanks God no. However, are you following such an interesting story as to replace the Lord of Murder himself? No... Or are you seeking who you are and are throwed in a story you don't know where it will end (PST)? Not really... The story is just average.

    - Variety of BG2 or even Icewind Dale - Forget it. In those games you were exploring so many places, each of them being extremely different than the previous. Here... No, the World map is just too small... The cities are empties and few things to do. You are in the capital, you feel alone. In BG2, only in Amn (representing a very small part of the game) you had so many quests to do, so many things to make. Every neightboorhood had plenty of zones, plenty of people to speak to...If you were playing a fighter you could your castle, and it was feeling alive. Here in PoR, you are in your castle, stupidly you think that as you are upgrading it people will come, you'll see farmers, bartenders, a court... No... There's just no one throughout the entire game... Feels extremely empty on that side.

    Apart from that the game as serious other flaws of which the MOST AWFUL one: loading time... This is just horrible... You cannot camp as many times as you want. Which is a good idea in theory, but practically you just want to quit the game... "Ok, limited camp supplies, I have to watch out, play strategically, cannot screw up". Good, but... You can play as good as you want, your mage-retarded psycho elf is tired after having done 300 meters... So, you are in the Endless Paths, 3 screens away from the surface. 3 loading screens. Then walk up to the tavern, enter the tavern, loading screen. Walk on the first floor, loading screen. Sleep, go away and again 5 other loading screens to go onto battle... Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus...

    So all in all... The game is good, and any people who like occidental RPG will like it and should go for it, but it's not even 50% as good as Baldur's Gate or IceWind Dale. In every point it's just below...    … Expand
  75. Furipe
    Jul 31, 2015
    10
    It's too easy to review this game. It brought back the true face of RPGs of IE and showed how an oldschool game can easily beat the newest ones. In my opinion, it's so far the best RPG of 2015. Those who love genre must buy it; and Baldur's Gate (1 and 2) too.
  76. Ozard
    Jul 22, 2015
    9
    Excellent all round game which, if you are a crpg fan, should keep you occupied for quite some time. But it's not without its faults. Some very interesting classes to experiment with, story is good, combat generally very good. Joinable npcs are interesting, writing is very good and the game is more than a decent length. There is also excellent replayabilty value. All this makes for aExcellent all round game which, if you are a crpg fan, should keep you occupied for quite some time. But it's not without its faults. Some very interesting classes to experiment with, story is good, combat generally very good. Joinable npcs are interesting, writing is very good and the game is more than a decent length. There is also excellent replayabilty value. All this makes for a thoroughly great experience. Ok, now the gripes. After about level 5, my cipher, druid and mage where only casting 2 or 3 spells constantly. In fact, my cipher cast one spell about 90% of the time. It got a little tedious. Some of the druid spells are so much better than the rest it's not even funny (at the same levels). The Stronghold - possibly not worth the money and the time. I got through the game quite easily without any of it. Bounties are a good idea but you can only do 3 before you are 3/4 of the way through the game (and one of them that is required to get the rest probably isn't doable before level 8 anyway). More could have been given earlier with less rewards if necessary. Achievements - seriously, if you are going to dish out achievements like 'triple crown solo' you should make sure that at least most of the classes are able to do it. At the moment only a rogue can (not seen any proof at all that any other class can) and that's by avoiding as many fights as possible and shoving all points into sneak. Just make it a sneak achievement why don't you? The game should be able to be soloed by most classes, not just one.

    Having said all that, I for one will be buying the expansion.    … Expand
  77. Desdicado
    Jul 7, 2015
    10
    Folks I have to say this is genuinely the best game I've played in years, took me back to the days of Baldurs Gate etc.
    Totally gripped me, decent combat, good story, not too text heavy, decent graphics, lovely spell animations, good customisation options and great NPCs, frankly I loved it.
    one of those "just one more mission" games. Spectacular and it was about £15!
  78. manukosta
    Jul 5, 2015
    10
    Im sorry, but this isnt just another Baldurs Gate....its a vastly improved one, with better mechanics, visuals, great fast pace option toggled with s or d for exploring, and it is the comeback of a genre. THIS is why the game is so special, because these types of games have a market, and its big! Its why people still play tabletop RPGs and Dungeons and Dragons, we dont need the bestIm sorry, but this isnt just another Baldurs Gate....its a vastly improved one, with better mechanics, visuals, great fast pace option toggled with s or d for exploring, and it is the comeback of a genre. THIS is why the game is so special, because these types of games have a market, and its big! Its why people still play tabletop RPGs and Dungeons and Dragons, we dont need the best graphics in 3D to have a great gaming experience. I love Witcher 3 and I love this game. And we definitely need more of these types of games. Strategic, fun CRPG at its best!… Expand
  79. Demonscream
    Jun 30, 2015
    10
    The game mechanics are really good and the story is unbelievably great. Your companions really make the game fun, talk to them and listen to them. Don’t read any more reviews! Just go buy this game. Yes it is that good!
  80. cratecruncher
    Jun 29, 2015
    9
    Pillars is a long game with dozens of side quests, dungeons, interesting companion characters, and a unique story. It took me 160 hours to complete the game on my first playthrough. Great game in the traditional Baldurs Gate Infinity Engine mold. Only better because there isn't so much "grindy" map clearing like those old games.
  81. Shamansdrum
    Jun 29, 2015
    6
    Pillars of Eternity stands out. I didn't have so much fun with RPG since Dragon Age Origins (and I did play most pc rpg's inbetween those titles). It's also sort of a disappointment and here's why...

    Although being a beautifully realized BG clone, or how they like to say it "a spiritual successor" it doesn't necessarily carries all the beauty inherent to the original. Way too often I    Pillars of Eternity stands out. I didn't have so much fun with RPG since Dragon Age Origins (and I did play most pc rpg's inbetween those titles). It's also sort of a disappointment and here's why...

    Although being a beautifully realized BG clone, or how they like to say it "a spiritual successor" it doesn't necessarily carries all the beauty inherent to the original. Way too often I felt torn apart by two ambivalent tendencies of the game, that is storytelling and hack'n'slash. I bow before Obsidian for filling all those immense dungeons with fair amount of content, creatures and treasure. It's the good type of hack'n'slashing - sandboxed, handcrafted and polished. The thing is that for "a spiritual successor to BG" I expected more story-driven content, something interesting and meaningful to get me through all those stale, repeatable combats. The main story-line is pretty good, which is extraordinary, taking into account how badly written some critically acclaimed rpg's are (remember Dragon Age 2?). Dialogues between your teammates are also poised and funny. After playing more than 24 h I started realizing that the game somehow lacks a consistent direction. The lore and immersion in it seems a bit half-baked. The script, how good wouldn't it be, is still incomplete. For me, this game is constantly on the verge of delivering the experience it so loudly aspired to deliver. I'd even say : They almost did it. I hope they will make the sequel better.    … Expand
  82. DarkEagle969
    Jun 23, 2015
    5
    Could have been excellent, but it just stays a bit too old-school.
    It could have done with things like fully spoken dialogues, the engagement system is mediocre. Every fight is the same. The story is also not up to par with for example Planescape Torment or more modern games.
  83. mijxero
    Jun 21, 2015
    5
    This game tried really hard to bring new life to this genre. I have to give them props for trying new things. Unfortunately for me a lot of these changes don't work for me.

    XP: You only get this from quests and some other things like finishing a bestiary log (10 skeletons). I see how this could be good, the rogue who used stealth instead of farming all the enemies. For me I find    This game tried really hard to bring new life to this genre. I have to give them props for trying new things. Unfortunately for me a lot of these changes don't work for me.

    XP: You only get this from quests and some other things like finishing a bestiary log (10 skeletons). I see how this could be good, the rogue who used stealth instead of farming all the enemies. For me I find doing a lengthy dungeon run and walking away with no progression makes me mad.

    Items: They tried to have interesting items and you can even enchant them with extra abilities, but I never found that "Whoa!" item. I was constantly calculating stats that have been renamed. Do I need +2 Reflexes or +1 Perception?

    Combat: All characters get more abilities that they can use more frequently, great! Unfortunately with a party of six I am constantly clicking 6 sets of abilities to fight wolves, because automated AI is for softcore players I guess.

    Story and Writing: Its sooo much. They have good writing but it quickly overloads you and I began to just skip through it because I was getting frustrated at the incredibly slow pacing.

    Quests: A lot of the sidequests are very basic and unimportant. Combine this with no compass or marker (Which older games did too) and I found myself wandering around a lot. Also a lot of these are really a let down. *Minor Spoiler* I fought my way through the castle of a corrupt king and killed him. I saved the land and took over a castle ... except some guy came up and said "Thanks, we'll take it from here." Take it for what you will, this game is trying and I hope it brings back the genre, but I just can't call it BG3.    … Expand
  84. Idiota150
    Jun 19, 2015
    7
    I like it, but there are so many flaws. The one thing that keeps me playing it, is the story/stories, even if it can become very confusing at times. I feel combat has been ruined by confusing terminology, math, and mechanics. Too much magic which you never can use, too few meaningful weapons/armour upgrades. Many things in the game prove to be practically meaningless, but then there areI like it, but there are so many flaws. The one thing that keeps me playing it, is the story/stories, even if it can become very confusing at times. I feel combat has been ruined by confusing terminology, math, and mechanics. Too much magic which you never can use, too few meaningful weapons/armour upgrades. Many things in the game prove to be practically meaningless, but then there are some things you can miss which makes it very difficult. This game could have been so much better, so it's clearly not a 10.… Expand
  85. adff500
    Jun 18, 2015
    7
    + + + Pros + + +
    1. Very long campaign with plenty of maps and side quests.
    2. Nice graphics,great level design and amazing soundtrack. 3. Smooth gameplay,interesting characters,writing and dialogues with lots of choices. - - - Cons - - - 1. Plenty of unnecessary loading times (even when you are on the same map). 2. No voiced dialogues (text only). 3. The combat rules,casting and    + + + Pros + + +
    1. Very long campaign with plenty of maps and side quests.
    2. Nice graphics,great level design and amazing soundtrack.
    3. Smooth gameplay,interesting characters,writing and dialogues with lots of choices.

    - - - Cons - - -
    1. Plenty of unnecessary loading times (even when you are on the same map).
    2. No voiced dialogues (text only).
    3. The combat rules,casting and survival handicaps the player greatly (and the A.I. is one of the worst I´ve seen in a while).

    Classic RPG with modern graphics and some annoying old-school and technical flaws. Overall an enjoyable experience.    … Expand
  86. Ananisapta
    Jun 9, 2015
    9
    Fans of Baldur's Gate will be pleased with this retro creation... like visiting the Auburn - Cord - Duesenberg antique car museum. Fans of more realistic and action-packed modern RPGs may find Pillars a bit flat and the combat deadly slow. I was not pleased with the ending... perhaps it was the choices I made, but it seemed little had changed. Life is to continue in a medieval turmoil ofFans of Baldur's Gate will be pleased with this retro creation... like visiting the Auburn - Cord - Duesenberg antique car museum. Fans of more realistic and action-packed modern RPGs may find Pillars a bit flat and the combat deadly slow. I was not pleased with the ending... perhaps it was the choices I made, but it seemed little had changed. Life is to continue in a medieval turmoil of chance and futility, world without end. But to get there was an eternity of talk - talk - talk, punctuated by scads of 30" battles that could take a half-hour to play out. The final battle took me over an hour... and that was on easy difficulty! OK my crew was level 11 rather than the recommended 12, but I couldn't face grinding everybody up another level. Also many of the abilities are cumbersome to use and not intuitive. Part of the challenge is to learn how to play six different characters simultaneously, plus our group had a pet and three kinds of conjured creatures to keep track of. One has to level all these folks individually and tend to their armor and weapon sets, not to mention consumables. The 'top-down' graphics are much less immersive than the virtual reality typical of today's games. The game was made with love and conviction, the voice acting was good but many of the dialogs weren't voiced. Some enemies are unkillable but you won't know which ones until after 30' of waling away on them. And walls of text to read, especially at the end. In summary, a period piece, well made but not awesome.… Expand
  87. juanval
    Jun 8, 2015
    10
    Beautiful game. The best of the kickstarter funded games. A perfect sucessor of the Infinity Engine games. If you liked Baldur's Gate Icewind Dale or Planescape Torment, you should play Pillars of Eternity.

    In order to have a better experience of the game, it's recommended, before start playing, to read about the setting: deities, recent and historical events, geography, races,    Beautiful game. The best of the kickstarter funded games. A perfect sucessor of the Infinity Engine games. If you liked Baldur's Gate Icewind Dale or Planescape Torment, you should play Pillars of Eternity.

    In order to have a better experience of the game, it's recommended, before start playing, to read about the setting: deities, recent and historical events, geography, races, factions, regions, etc.

    I love the setting, a mix of renaissance, colonial, medieval era, in which human souls are the center of the plot. I love too the music, companions, the beautiful areas to explore.

    The plot is well written and original. I liked the ending too.

    Combat, one of the main features of the game, is great but the only problem is that the game is not well balanced. Playing on hard mode, I only found 4-5 difficult battles in all the game. The rest was too easy. I reccomend to avoid playing Pillars of Eternity on Normal or Easy mode.

    Now I'll wait to the release of the expansion. I hope to see more games in this beautiful setting. ;D    … Expand
  88. cossayos
    Jun 5, 2015
    9
    I already wrote a review for this game right after the release and playing about 10 hours of the story.

    So now that I played about two months without losing interest, I'm writing again. First, if you don't like reading, this game isn't for you. But if you do, it's a very welcome light at the end of the tunnel of the so called AAA straight to console feces on a silver platter you get    I already wrote a review for this game right after the release and playing about 10 hours of the story.

    So now that I played about two months without losing interest, I'm writing again. First, if you don't like reading, this game isn't for you. But if you do, it's a very welcome light at the end of the tunnel of the so called AAA straight to console feces on a silver platter you get served so often these days.

    In fact, the Obsidian team is the only studio that never dissapointed me. They seem to be still hungry and invested in their products. As opposed to the empty suits being at the helm of the big shareholder companies. The story isn't original, but I don't expect a game narrative to be the next great novel. You can have an influence and you always feel to be part of the world, which ultimately, is all that I expect from a game.

    There are bugs, make no mistake about that, but the team is constantly working on ironing out the flaws and adding some additional balance fixes to the different classes and spells. So they don't let you stand in the rain and listen to the community. There are also some real issues I have with this game. Such as guards not reacting to fights right under their noses. But all this doesn't take away the impression of this being something great and having every potential for expansions.

    So, all in all, if you like a good old school RPG, are not afraid of reading and don't fall for the shiny factor so many games put before content these days, consider giving Obsidian your money. At least side quests are quests and not a glorified FedEx simulator of fetch and carry. And don't compare it to Baldur's Gate. It's a game in it's own rights and has nothing to do with D&D rulesets for starters. These comparisons are quite asinine as most coming from game magazines is today.    … Expand
  89. marc5477
    May 31, 2015
    7
    If I had 2 words to describe this game it would be "Repetitive micro-management..." or is that three word? How about 2 words and a hyphen...

    EDIT 5/30/15: This game has gotten extremely monotonous and boring. I jumped straight into the hardest difficulty and once I understood the system it became extremely boring. Every battle is exactly the same and there are so many useless trash mobs    If I had 2 words to describe this game it would be "Repetitive micro-management..." or is that three word? How about 2 words and a hyphen...

    EDIT 5/30/15: This game has gotten extremely monotonous and boring. I jumped straight into the hardest difficulty and once I understood the system it became extremely boring. Every battle is exactly the same and there are so many useless trash mobs to kill that it really does get old very fast. by the time I hit level 8, all battles became trivial because all you need to do to win is have 2 tanks and they can hold anything back forever. Then its a matter of whittling the enemy down. I restarted and tried playing as a rogue and tried to play with no tanks but it turns out that without tanks the game is basically impossible. So you are stuck with either boredom or impossible (requiring cheese strategies to win). I deducted 1 point and I stopped playing the game. I did not finish it but I might come back to it some other day.

    I have to admit that this is a good (above average) game; and this is coming from someone who absolutely hates Obsidian (their lazy backsides mucked up some of my favorites like KotOR II and especially NWN2). The story is fine, and characters are ok and gameplay is above average however it really gets dragged down by lack of companion AI. I really got tired of casting the same thing over and over and over in every single encounter and the short timers on skills and spells make it that much worse. They really needed to implement some better automation to take care of repetitive tasks.

    I did not like the itemization in this game... gear in this game is unbelievably boring. I can tell that they wanted to maintain a tight grip on game difficulty but seriously... its a single player game... what is the point? They keep wasting time re-balancing classes and spells in patches as if there were some sort of competition to be had when there is not... They should spend that time to add more items, spells, skills and feats to the game to give it more flavor and add fun to the game.

    The game is satisfactory in difficulty. I played it out of the gate on "Path of the Damned" and was happy to see that the game actually managed to kill me a few times while I learned the ropes. The bad news is that it seems that on that difficulty, you pretty much have to resort to cheap tricks to get through the 1st 4-5 levels depending on what class you pick at the start. This does not bother me very much because I enjoy the progression from being weak to becoming something that no longer needs to resort to cheap tactics but clearly the beginning of the game needed better balancing. I assume on "normal," this game is a cake walk.

    The game tries a few odd gameplay methods such as doing away with healing hit points and making it so that you can only heal endurance (fatigue) during combat. Endurance essentially becomes a second form of "hit points" and you can use spells to replenish it during fights but you dont die entirely unless your hit points go to 0. When endurance hits 0 you simply get knocked out but if your party wins, you will get back up, recover your endurance, and carry on with however many hit points you had left. You can only recover hit points by resting outside of combat. It sounds more complicated than it really is and frankly, it is just a convolution of the original system we are all used to and I dont think it adds much to the game (it also cheapens the value of hit points significantly).

    The one thing I dont like is how easy it is to reduce endurance even on tank built characters since many spells and abilities target it directly though other resistance (like reflex and such). I've frequently see my warriors knocked out while still having more than 90% of their hit points in tact... its a bit silly when you see that happen and it completely negates the value of hit points.

    There are other nagging issues like the need to walk around a lot due to lack of camping supplies (you have to return to town to rest instead) and other minor things but overall id say this is a good game. Characters are well written although not much humor in this game. Story progression is good. I wish they spent more time on the keep but it was not bad either. A solid above average 7 (recall average is 5 on these online sites due to how the statics play out with more people voting).    … Expand
  90. Buzzerker
    May 30, 2015
    3
    Pillars of Boredom , that is what they should have called this merry go round , old retro game. Because that is what this overpriced copy of Baldur's Gate 2 updated game is. It's a pitiful game. Really I felt so stupid paying all that money for it. Since I got the Witcher 3 the Wild Hunt , I deleted Pillars of Eternity and I probably won't ever play it again for Eternity.
  91. EdenR
    May 29, 2015
    9
    This game is the closest to old style computer RPG's that I have encountered in a very long time. The amount of character interaction and party tinkering possible is enormous. I loved the real time pause combat system as it was easy to set and forget for easy combats and micro manage for the bosses.
    I will say that my play through took 90 hours because you only get experience points from    This game is the closest to old style computer RPG's that I have encountered in a very long time. The amount of character interaction and party tinkering possible is enormous. I loved the real time pause combat system as it was easy to set and forget for easy combats and micro manage for the bosses.
    I will say that my play through took 90 hours because you only get experience points from finishing quests in the main as opposed to chopping your way through the world. The last third dragged somewhat as you had to grind your way to the end. If you enter the end game dungeon there is no exit so you really need to be maxed out to take the final battle. Can't wait to see what they do in the next expansion. Also, fantastic value for the paltry price.    … Expand
  92. philb74
    May 29, 2015
    7
    I am a huge fan of Baldur's Gate and other D&D games so was excited when I heard this was coming out. There are some things that are great about this game and some things that are not so great.

    First up is character creation and this is done well. Different races have different strengths and different classes need points put into different stats as expected. The gameplay has    I am a huge fan of Baldur's Gate and other D&D games so was excited when I heard this was coming out. There are some things that are great about this game and some things that are not so great.

    First up is character creation and this is done well. Different races have different strengths and different classes need points put into different stats as expected.

    The gameplay has moved on a lot from the original D & D games and I think it works well. You will get a different experience tactically playing as a druid compared to a mage. I played this through as a mage, druid, rogue, cipher and warrior. All great fun especially the cipher and the mage. The ranger is dissapointing and I haven't tried the monk. The priest class isn't that exciting either.

    Most of the experience in the game comes from doing the quests, and it is therefore strongly recommended to do as many side quests as possible. You have to do the quests to level up. There is plenty of interesting loot to collect and I strongly recommend doing all the dungeon levels under your keep as well as all the bounties if you want the best loot.

    I would have given this game a 10 except for two things. The NPC's are not great companions and the main story is a massive let down. I was particularly annoyed at the story for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was somewhat inconsistent and contradictory, and secondly, it reeked of an agenda.

    I'm not going to spoil the plot for anyone who hasn't played the game, but the ending seems to go against the experience of much of what you had to do in the game. I also think a lot of games are strongly but subtly pushing various political, anti religion messages through their games. Constant references to inquisitions etc. Can we have some games that are just fun and don't try to influence our thinking either way please?    … Expand
  93. Balabhadradas
    May 27, 2015
    5
    Too many bugs.

    Check the forum for the latest on bugs:

    forums.obsidian.net/topic/79258-common-recurring-bug-list-patch-105/ (No HTML so I broke the link.)

    And for anyone who hates buggy releases please vote YES on this poll:

    forums.obsidian.net/topic/79882-should-poes-final-release-have-been-called-ealry-access/page-2

    Would have been great, but the bugs killed it for me.
  94. sterle2009
    May 26, 2015
    10
    At last! A game as beautiful as Baldur's Gate series! Well I'm still waiting for Torment but that's another story. I'm loving the new classes, complete freedom to specialise your character however you want it and redefinition of the stats. Makes the game so wonderful to play and there's no good or bad builds.
    Well, even with the great mechanics, if the storyline sucks it wouldn't amount    At last! A game as beautiful as Baldur's Gate series! Well I'm still waiting for Torment but that's another story. I'm loving the new classes, complete freedom to specialise your character however you want it and redefinition of the stats. Makes the game so wonderful to play and there's no good or bad builds.
    Well, even with the great mechanics, if the storyline sucks it wouldn't amount to much right? Great news is there's plenty of ambience and story to keep me occupied and staying up "just one more hour" LOL    … Expand
  95. jack67
    May 26, 2015
    10
    This game is a masterpiece in the spirit of Baldur's Gate, without the clunky restraints of AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Pillars of Eternity has an interesting story, excellent side quests and interesting NPCs. This is a text-heavy game influenced by "Planescape: Torment," so if you don't like reading, don't bother with this one. Details abound for those players interested in diving into theThis game is a masterpiece in the spirit of Baldur's Gate, without the clunky restraints of AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Pillars of Eternity has an interesting story, excellent side quests and interesting NPCs. This is a text-heavy game influenced by "Planescape: Torment," so if you don't like reading, don't bother with this one. Details abound for those players interested in diving into the world's fiction.

    Pillars of Eternity is the best of what Kickstarter games has to offer and certainly will be expanded upon by Obsidian. This one is well-worth the money and time.    … Expand
  96. goodman528
    May 25, 2015
    10
    First traditional RPG I have played from beginning to end. I would highly recommend this to everyone, it is the best game I have played in a long time.

    The central theme of the game is the timelessness of human nature, and the role of religion in structuring power in society. That is a very impressive topic for a computer game to tackle. It's definitely a cut above the other games that    First traditional RPG I have played from beginning to end. I would highly recommend this to everyone, it is the best game I have played in a long time.

    The central theme of the game is the timelessness of human nature, and the role of religion in structuring power in society. That is a very impressive topic for a computer game to tackle. It's definitely a cut above the other games that just want to find excuses to get you from one map to the next map to kill more people, and it's definitely a step forward in the history of video game development. The topics touched on in this game include:

    religious fundamentalism
    politicians using scapegoats
    wealth gap and civil unrest
    inheritance of wealth and power in a democracy
    organised crime
    drug addiction

    That list could easily be describing a very serious book about our world today, but it's not, it's about a video game. Isn't that amazing? There are a lot of foreshadowing for a sequel, so there is more to this story then PoE 1. I expect the next game to be even better!

    As a side note: most of the criticism for PoE is about bugs and PoE not being as good as BG. I played 1.05 version of the game and I didn't notice any bugs at all. In fact, PoE is one of the most polished and bug free gaming experiences I have ever had. As for PoE vs BG, I think it's an unfair comparison because there is a 15 year time gap. BG's story was very entertaining, and BG companions had a lot of that 90s charm, but lawfulness/goodness grid alignment and "I am your father" storyline really isn't that good as literature, so get down from that BG pedestal and have some objectivity.    … Expand
  97. SigilFey
    May 24, 2015
    10
    Pillars offers players that masterful Infinity Engine experience with modern-day polish. I was initially underwhelmed by the overall story and presentation, but by about 5 hours in, I was well invested and enjoying the game thoroughly. There is a lot of depth to uncover here and plenty meaningful role-playing to experience.

    I would call the gameplay fairly linear, but there are many    Pillars offers players that masterful Infinity Engine experience with modern-day polish. I was initially underwhelmed by the overall story and presentation, but by about 5 hours in, I was well invested and enjoying the game thoroughly. There is a lot of depth to uncover here and plenty meaningful role-playing to experience.

    I would call the gameplay fairly linear, but there are many points at which the choices you make may have a drastic impact on the world, open or close off entire quest-lines, or even alter the way you look at your own character. While not the most unique or ambitiously developed fantasy universe, Pillars' gameworld is quite interesting, nonetheless. I may not have been awed by anything in particular, but I was definitely never bored!

    Combat can be very challenging, even on the easiest setting, and requires intricate control and management of your entire party to be successful. (If anything, characters have too many unique skills, abilities, powers, special attacks, etc. -- there are a few I think I never actually used!) On the same token, I never really started to feel as if combat was becoming mundane, and emerging victorious was always a thrill.

    Whether you're a vet of the old Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series or brand new to this whole style of RPG, Pillars of Eternity is easy to recommend. It's not the most incredible game in the genre, but it does what it sets out to do -- perfectly.    … Expand
  98. SherlockHolmess
    May 24, 2015
    6
    Starts of great but gets lost pretty quick. Battelsystem is this realtime with pause key, which i find pretty ugly.
    Even worse, most of the harder battles are very undeterministic and forces to lots of quicksave/load with totally different results.
    Well anyways the story is not that bad at all, you can see into other peoples souls which is funny at first but then you realize that it has    Starts of great but gets lost pretty quick. Battelsystem is this realtime with pause key, which i find pretty ugly.
    Even worse, most of the harder battles are very undeterministic and forces to lots of quicksave/load with totally different results.
    Well anyways the story is not that bad at all, you can see into other peoples souls which is funny at first but then you realize that it has no impact on whatsoever... so it becomes unnecessary pretty quick. The end is good again but during the game the storyline just idles...
    The Characters you meet and can group up with are most of the time very good designed but are too few to really select between.
    So all in all the game is a newer version of Baldurs Gate which is not bad at all but far form being a great RPG.    … Expand
  99. KJSharp
    May 23, 2015
    10
    An immersive game that demands strategy and tactical play. You will like this game if you're looking for a Medieval fantasy game that will present a challenge.
  100. blade01
    May 21, 2015
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. If you think Baldurs Gate is today a 10/10 stop reading because Pillars of Eternity is a 10/10 for you too.If you think Baldrus Gate is still a great Game but you think in 2015 that formula needs improvements read my review.I compare Pillars to Baldurs Gate 1 and2 , its really close and that game is the spritual predecessor.Before i go into detail i think i should mention that i think a game in 2015 need more then just what Pillars delivers.

    Visuals:Its ok.Visuals are not that important to me.The backrounds are hand-drawn as far as i know, you can see that.Some backrounds are really nice, others not so much.Its a mixed bag.What i miss is more variety.Most maps are pretty generic i think.I miss lightning effects that impresses me, but thats because of the engine they use.Its an enhanced version of the old engine that runs Baldurs Gate.And its ok, the game is not bad looking.The artdesign is something that i dont like.The armors for example, even the "special" ones dont look that impressive.There is nothing special.

    Sound:I miss great music.There is SOME music but its not really special.Thats a little moodkiller for me.The voiceacting is for the most part ok.Not everything is great, some characters are not that good.
    What i really dislike is that sometimes one part of a discussion is voiced, others not.That happens often in the conversations with your partymembers.That is distracting and disrupts the flow of the conversation.
    What i miss too are sounds when you fight.Music is playing, fine, but what about some weapon-sounds?
    Like in KOTOR?In KOTOR you have sounds when weapons are used, you even see little flashes.Here?Nothing!

    Gameplay:I think the gamplay is a mixed bag too.There are some great ideas.For example that the game explanis in a text what happens and you can choose with a click what you want to do.That is really fun and you need to pay attention and sometimes you need to know the abilitys of your partymemebers.Unfortunately this feature is rarely used and sometimes the best choice is so bluntly presented that its is boring.A giant letdown is the combatengine.In combat the pathfining AI is terrbile.In houses and dungeons you will get stuck.Even when there is enough space to go your companions will just stand there and watch.This can kill off your entire party.That is something the game inherritted from BG and that in 2015!!!For that, ill substract 1 point from the endscore.What is a letdown too is the character development.Its to simple.You can choose some paths but i tried different stuff with the adventureers you can hire.Most skills are too weak.I chose my rogue so that she crits nearly with EVERY strike, 2 weaponstyle with sabers.At the end of the game, she was maxed out and 85% of her hits were crits while she killed more enemys then the entire party without her together.I think i broke the combatsystem with my build because even on higher dificulty the game was far too easy.When i read some reviews and hear about "challenging combats" i can just laugh, im sorry.Its unbalanced as hell and if you understand how the engine works that can be work in your favour.A problem i see is the selection of possible companions.The cast is uninteresting at best, there is no real dynamic in the group.They wont leave you, they wont turn against you.No love interest, i miss that when i think back to BG2!There are other not so great points, ill not go into detail, most of them are just minor points.

    Summary:I played BG1 weeks prior to the release, so i can compare pretty good.Pillars is on par with BG1.Weak points and strong points are nearly the same.In the end, BG1 is a better game for me.The cast of possible companions is more interesting, the mainstory is more interesting and there is even some dynamic when you are good and some members of your group are evil for example.Where is all that in Pillars??Baldurs Gate 2 is a 10/10 for me, even today.BG1 is a 8/10 for me, cause that game is missing some of the great parts from BG2.Pillars is weaker when it comes to story, even the sound is weaker, so its a 7/10 for me.That makes it a good to great game.Something for comparison:The highest score i ever gave was a 8/10 for last years surprise "This war of mine".Maybe Pillars 2 will be better.....    … Expand
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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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