Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

 PlayStation 4
User Score
4.8

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 128 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 128
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 128
  3. Negative: 62 out of 128
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  1. zazollo
    Feb 3, 2023
    3
    The technical issues here were not quite as bad as they were on ps4, but it still feels like an incredibly dated and pretty janky game. Unfortunate because there is potential.
  2. Diretornak
    Jul 13, 2022
    4
    The game is good but even playing on a ps5 the loading screens are painful. The game was clearly poorly optimized. Still, if u have time, its a good turn based rpg.
  3. yeaokwhatever
    Jun 2, 2022
    0
    DO NOT BUY ON CONSOLE. the ps4 port is a hot **** mess. im literally trapped in an act 1 city bc of a bug i cant leave to advance storyline common bug but the fixes dont work. nevermind that they ruined combat, made the UI even worse than poe1 load screens take over.1 min and theres one every time you turn around open a door go to a diff room etc. trash port of a bad game, sad to see it bcDO NOT BUY ON CONSOLE. the ps4 port is a hot **** mess. im literally trapped in an act 1 city bc of a bug i cant leave to advance storyline common bug but the fixes dont work. nevermind that they ruined combat, made the UI even worse than poe1 load screens take over.1 min and theres one every time you turn around open a door go to a diff room etc. trash port of a bad game, sad to see it bc i liked poe1 despite some ossues… Expand
  4. Hopkins65
    Dec 26, 2021
    0
    Осторожно игра не работает на PS 5
    Not working on ps5. Сони отмораживается, деньги возвращают.
  5. LunaresArienal
    Mar 25, 2021
    4
    TLDR
    I can't put anything higher than a red mark because of all the problems people point out in the other reviews.
    I can't put less either because the story seems great, the characters are nice, the assignements are cool, battles are interesting and less confusing than in say Divinity Original Sin 2. But it is just not playable on PS4. Now the long thing : Loading screens take    TLDR
    I can't put anything higher than a red mark because of all the problems people point out in the other reviews.

    I can't put less either because the story seems great, the characters are nice, the assignements are cool, battles are interesting and less confusing than in say Divinity Original Sin 2.
    But it is just not playable on PS4.

    Now the long thing :
    Loading screens take easily more than 1 minute and there are a LOT of them. Runeforged said precisely what I was willing to say : a single fetch quest that requires talking to a NPC in a house from the Inn in the same city will take literally 20 minutes because there is a loading screen to leave the inn, one to enter the house, one to get to the first floor of the house, one to get back to ground level, another one to leave the house and a last one to re-enter the inn. And that's in the case where the quest NPC is at ground level of the inn ... if not just add two more minutes of not being able to play.

    But listen, I could consider forgiving the loading screens. I remember a time where all games had super long loading screens (that's because I'm getting older). But I cannot forgive the combination of loading screens and constant crashes with a wonky autosave system. The crashes happen at weird times (except one that seems constant and not fixed since 2018 in Tikiwara) and the autosave does not seem to take into account that I already did that bloody inn-fetch quest and I have to do it all over again !

    I know it's a global pandemic and i have a lot of spare time at home. But I can't - and I won't - do the same quest three times because the game crashed.

    It breaks my heart because the work behind the game is phenomenal, the lore is great, the art is nice. But it's simply unplayable. So I'm going to stop playing there, it's the first time I stop playing a game for technical reasons and let me tell you : that sucks.    … Expand
  6. AlexKhor
    Dec 12, 2020
    0
    Errors and bugs. Game doesnt work even 5 minutes. No patches. Playstation store does not make a refund after playing game.
  7. AaronF
    Feb 3, 2020
    0
    This game has been out for months and is still un-f*****g-playable and what's worse is that every so called patch introduces even more bugs. The game is great when it works but unfortunately Versus Evil can't be trusted to put out a quality game

    An edit several months later. The game is still broken and Versus Evil seems to have no interest in communicating with the player base anymore.    This game has been out for months and is still un-f*****g-playable and what's worse is that every so called patch introduces even more bugs. The game is great when it works but unfortunately Versus Evil can't be trusted to put out a quality game

    An edit several months later. The game is still broken and Versus Evil seems to have no interest in communicating with the player base anymore. Do not buy this under any circumstances    … Expand
  8. kirioroshi
    Sep 11, 2020
    1
    I can't believe this garbage in this age!
    Paid 60 dollar for a price of full game, got headache peace of crap
    Pros: -in the time of lacking decent RPG game! -lore. Cons : -Ps3 graphics. - loading screen for 5 minute every door you enter! Cant believe a development can ve this much bad. - bad UX. -bad combat. - lots of useless complexity in builds. - lag in every moment the memory tries to    I can't believe this garbage in this age!
    Paid 60 dollar for a price of full game, got headache peace of crap

    Pros: -in the time of lacking decent RPG game!
    -lore. Cons :
    -Ps3 graphics. - loading screen for 5 minute every door you enter! Cant believe a development can ve this much bad. - bad UX. -bad combat. - lots of useless complexity in builds. - lag in every moment the memory tries to calculate some code. And I'm playing it at ps4 pro. My advice to you dear friend dont waste your poor money.    … Expand
  9. Rysi0
    Aug 28, 2020
    2
    This game is unplayable, loading times are so big ...
    I have played 4 hour (2 h loading time, 2 h actual gameplay...)
  10. CatBlade
    Aug 12, 2020
    2
    This game is broken on PS4. Deadfire has menu scrolling/selection issues, save file slots have to be kept at 3 or less or it crashes, and the load screens take a minute each to load. And every transition requires a load screen - even if you are in a house with three stories, each floor requires a full load screen. Combat is broken. I have companions that are not in my party that are inThis game is broken on PS4. Deadfire has menu scrolling/selection issues, save file slots have to be kept at 3 or less or it crashes, and the load screens take a minute each to load. And every transition requires a load screen - even if you are in a house with three stories, each floor requires a full load screen. Combat is broken. I have companions that are not in my party that are in the combat lineup. They cause the camera to go off screen and make combat buggy. I have no way of fixing this. I even deleted the entire game and did a hard re-download/reinstallation. It can't be fixed. Obsidian keeps referring me to VersusEvil for these issues. VersusEvil ignores my messages. It is too late for a refund. The actual game, itself, looks so fun if it worked. But it doesn't. I find myself fighting more with the game itself than with the enemies in combat.… Expand
  11. DeadZenWalking
    Jul 28, 2020
    0
    Obsidian ports do not function well, and the PS4 version is no exception. While much better than the terrible Switch ports they do, the loading screens are last-last-gen compared to other games on the PS4 in this genre. Disappointed.
  12. Spinnning_Jenny
    Jul 7, 2020
    0
    Loadddddding screens loadddddding screens and MORE loaddddding screens. More boring than fun because you can't actually play anything.
  13. MasterGibz
    Jul 5, 2020
    1
    Obsidian and VE have proven that they couldn’t care less about their console ports. The game is unplayable due to game breaking bugs that they have shown absolutely no initiative on fixing.
    The game is terribly optimized for controllers, and as many have mentioned, the load times are abysmal. Load times lasting upwards of 5 minutes per room. God for it you have a fetch quest, where they    Obsidian and VE have proven that they couldn’t care less about their console ports. The game is unplayable due to game breaking bugs that they have shown absolutely no initiative on fixing.
    The game is terribly optimized for controllers, and as many have mentioned, the load times are abysmal. Load times lasting upwards of 5 minutes per room. God for it you have a fetch quest, where they force you to pop through 12+ load zones in a single area. You can get trapped in an Interact State completely removing your ability to fight, making it impossible to progress in the game. Do not buy this game, your money would be better spent as fireplace kindling.    … Expand
  14. Spellcheck_
    Jun 30, 2020
    0
    Bought this game on release, and it was the most buggy, waste of money I had seen in some time.

    Almost half a year later, having shelved the game, I picked it back up. I have seen to-date I believe 2 large patches, the game is exactly as unplayable and bugged as it was at release. The Publisher a company called Versus Evil, and their chosen developers a company named Grip Digital are    Bought this game on release, and it was the most buggy, waste of money I had seen in some time.

    Almost half a year later, having shelved the game, I picked it back up.
    I have seen to-date I believe 2 large patches, the game is exactly as unplayable and bugged as it was at release. The Publisher a company called Versus Evil, and their chosen developers a company named Grip Digital are thieves.

    No one in their right mind would have released this game, either their quality assurance testers need to be fired as there is no conceivable way they could miss this many glaring, game-breaking bugs, or they don't have any. As I first encountered a bug within my first hour of playing when this released, checked back today with a new game, and yep... hit a bug again within the first hour.

    Versus Evil have had just under half a year to get this game in a fixed and working state, and it is just as bad as it was in January, they are awful, dishonest and do not care about the player base, they just seem to care about getting their money. I am honestly surprised this game is still up for sale tbh.

    I will never again trust or buy anything associated with Versus Evil or Grip Digital, anyone reading this - do not buy the game, save your time and money and go elsewhere.    … Expand
  15. ozjohnd
    Jun 22, 2020
    2
    I had high hopes, played for as long as I could tolerate. The loading times killed it for me (I can forgive the occasional glitches and crashes) ... go inside a room and load, load ... single gameplay task, leave room and load, load, load ... in some sections of the game the loading time exceeds the actual gameplay time.

    Particularly fond of RPG and THQ Nordic but this one is    I had high hopes, played for as long as I could tolerate. The loading times killed it for me (I can forgive the occasional glitches and crashes) ... go inside a room and load, load ... single gameplay task, leave room and load, load, load ... in some sections of the game the loading time exceeds the actual gameplay time.

    Particularly fond of RPG and THQ Nordic but this one is seriously frustrating.

    ( opinion from a Bard's Tale tragic )    … Expand
  16. Kangaroos_R_Bad
    Jun 10, 2020
    0
    Do not blame Obsidian it is their publisher for this mess of a port, my animation friend at Obsidian says they have nothing to do with it
  17. tellus
    May 15, 2020
    3
    I have the PS4 version of the game.

    Currently I do not recommend this port. The game is not optimized for the console. Loading times are frequent and can last almost 3 minutes in bigger areas. In big cities, where you need to transition a lot to complete quests, you can expect to play 2 minutes in a 15 minute session. There are also an inordinate amount of game breaking bugs. This needs    I have the PS4 version of the game.

    Currently I do not recommend this port. The game is not optimized for the console. Loading times are frequent and can last almost 3 minutes in bigger areas. In big cities, where you need to transition a lot to complete quests, you can expect to play 2 minutes in a 15 minute session. There are also an inordinate amount of game breaking bugs. This needs to be fixed, fast, for the game to be enjoyable, which I have no doubt it can be.    … Expand
  18. TheGrackle
    Apr 4, 2020
    4
    A truly great game that is totally ruint by technical issues. If you buy this game you will literally spend half your time staring at the load screens. The game feels like a horrible beta nightmare.
  19. unbridled_anger
    Apr 3, 2020
    0
    Writing after waiting for my last loading screen. Burned on Switch port, burned on this. Thanks Obsidian for taking a great game on the PC and then not even caring about the PS4 and Switch.
  20. Varbog
    Apr 1, 2020
    0
    I want to like this game, I really do. I love isometric RPGs. This is, however, the most bug-infested port I have ever played. After 30+ hours of spending more time fighting with trying to get the game to actually work I finally have had enough. To detail the exact problems:

    -Frequent blue screen crashes. I have never seen a game hard crash this much on PS4. It's honestly shocking how    I want to like this game, I really do. I love isometric RPGs. This is, however, the most bug-infested port I have ever played. After 30+ hours of spending more time fighting with trying to get the game to actually work I finally have had enough. To detail the exact problems:

    -Frequent blue screen crashes. I have never seen a game hard crash this much on PS4. It's honestly shocking how often it happens. Easily has happened a couple dozen times.

    -Bugged NPCs: while I only came across two, I have no doubt there are others. Two enemy NPCs I encountered (at different places) would immediately crash the game as soon as they began their first action in combat. This happened reliably such that I had to just go around these encounters. Luckily they were not scripted encounters I couldn't bypass.

    -Buggy controls: this one is seriously mind-boggling. On occasion, the game just flat out decides it's not going to accept certain types of input from the PS4 controller any more. The most annoying of these is when circle will no longer back you out of menus / information screens because the only way to get out of it is to force close and restart the game. Other times it won't take input from the d-pad / sticks and you have to close and re-open a menu to fix it. This is a frequent problem. It happens even more often in sea battles for some reason. Sometimes it will stop accepting input from square, so then you can't "Loot all and continue" after a ship battle but you have to loot every single item individually (sometimes there's 15-20 items) and if they come in stacks you have to pick up the whole stack, move it down to your stash and place it manually. Really obnoxious.

    -Bugged PCs: I encountered various issues with playable characters. Sometimes when you're moving through poison clouds or other persistent damage effects the game just decides to put itself into manual cursor mode and the left joystick stops navigating your character. Also ran into a lovely bug where I swapped characters out of my party, but any time I got into combat the game still thought one of them was in the party. I couldn't do anything with them, it just would fly the camera way off screen and I would have to "End Turn" manually to get back to what I was doing. Maybe not game breaking but holy mother of God is it annoying.

    -Last, but certainly not least, saved game corruption: Here we go, the Mac Daddy of game-breaking bugs for you to behold. A number of others have mentioned this, but yeah, sometimes your saved files (or a bunch of them) will just get corrupted and guess what? You're f-ed. Hopefully you have a ton of saves to scroll through so you can MAYBE find one that will work. Enjoy your "map cannot be loaded" and trip back to the PS4 main screen.

    Now for some minor gripes. Yes, the game loads slow. Even on PS4 Pro with the game loaded onto an SSD. Even for tiny areas (think a single-room hut that doesn't even fill the entire screen). I realize we used to put up with this all the time when I was a younger gamer, but it's 2020. This is not a graphically intensive game. It shouldn't take so long for small areas to load. This port is just really poorly optimized. I COULD live with this if not for all the other bugs and frequent crashing, but all of that together is just... infuriating.

    I've seen claims that Versus Evil is working on fixing them, but it's been over 2 months since release and it's still this broken? Honestly I wish I could just get a refund. DO NOT BUY ON PS4. Been trying to get a refund for this for over a week, but Sony makes it a huge pain to try to get refunds on "faulty" games.    … Expand
  21. Inkedhulk
    Mar 18, 2020
    0
    Boy oh boy.... The game is great from the story and mechanics point of view. But port to ps4 is horrendous. Not only the controls are unintuitive and take significant time to get used to (POE1 had a much, MUCH better controller layout) and even after getting used to it's frustrating to use... But the loading screens... OH MY GOD the loading screens... it's insane!!! Even the smallest roomBoy oh boy.... The game is great from the story and mechanics point of view. But port to ps4 is horrendous. Not only the controls are unintuitive and take significant time to get used to (POE1 had a much, MUCH better controller layout) and even after getting used to it's frustrating to use... But the loading screens... OH MY GOD the loading screens... it's insane!!! Even the smallest room will load for like a minute... Any transition to whatever area takes FOREVER... plus crashes from time to time... and more loading screens... and other minor bugs... I wanted to love this game, but i absolutely hate to play it right now. I hope they will fix it in some patch and it will be better. For now - disappointing and frustrating AF. Regret buying it on PS4.… Expand
  22. LordAnakin
    Mar 13, 2020
    0
    Just unplayable "PC port".

    Through my 20 years of videogame expirience - it is first time i see such broken game on PS4.

    1) Huge, enourmous time of loading areas. You are playing 1 hour - and 3 hours waiting untill area will load.
    2) Bugs which didnt let you end quests
    3) Awful controller usability.
    4) Many game mechanics is broken.
  23. burov4j
    Mar 12, 2020
    0
    I love Obsidian games and the first PoE too.
    I bought PoE 2 on PS4 after few days since release for a full price.
    Now, after 2 months after the release I still cannot play this because of crashes, bugs and long loadings.
    Sorry, Obsidian, but next time I will buy your game only after 1-2 years after release at sales.
  24. fced
    Mar 10, 2020
    0
    In its actual state, the game is completely broken on PS4, it crashe frequently (PS4 blue screen) or worst it completely freeze the PS4 (had to remove the power cable, nothing else is possible), there is frequent lag in the inventory or in the game...
    In two words don't buy it until they fix this mess, we (PS4 players) posted messages on Obsidian forum, but nobody answered us, i feel they    In its actual state, the game is completely broken on PS4, it crashe frequently (PS4 blue screen) or worst it completely freeze the PS4 (had to remove the power cable, nothing else is possible), there is frequent lag in the inventory or in the game...
    In two words don't buy it until they fix this mess, we (PS4 players) posted messages on Obsidian forum, but nobody answered us, i feel they will never fix it...
    So don't buy it unless you are prepared for hours of frustration.
    I enjoyed Pillars of Eternity (even if it had a lot of bugs) so i waited for Deadfire and got it Day 0, but now i am very frustrated, the game could be so good if only they fixed it, and if they speak to us about their future patch..
    No Don't buy it in the actual state, wait for a patch ...
    If one want to have an idea about the problems we have on the game, feel free to have a look on the forum : https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/113890-deadfire-ps4-bugs-and-known-problems-list-feel-free-to-add-yours/

    I had great expectations about the patch 1.04, but it only fixed unique weapons enchantment, the game is no more crashing when we try to upgrade unique weapons, but sadly nothing of the major bugs have been fixed, the patch even brought new bugs. Game is still mostly not playable, 30% of the playing time is rebooting the game because it crashed, this game could be so good, concept is good, gameplay would be very good if not broken. 30 sec ago i was in a fight, and i went in the spells menu (options->spells) to check something (yes you can't see your spells information in fight in the spell bar, info are not complete) so i went in the spell menu, and then impossible to continue the fight, instead of attacking all my companion and my character gone on the other end of the map because the interact was still active instead of the attack mode... i tried to load a save and Deadfire crashed (PS4 blue screen). Some areas of the game freeze completely the console if you go in inventory (the area where my character is now - Poko Kohara).    … Expand
  25. NekrotiK
    Mar 10, 2020
    1
    I want it to be known how much I LOVED the first game and I almost LOVED this game....Almost...

    This game is a broken, game breaking mess that as of mid March 2020, still has many issues. Things that I've been dealing with these past few weeks are: Corrupted save files, poor path finding (party members will wonder off the opposite way instead of engaging a sneak attack on an enemy who    I want it to be known how much I LOVED the first game and I almost LOVED this game....Almost...

    This game is a broken, game breaking mess that as of mid March 2020, still has many issues.
    Things that I've been dealing with these past few weeks are: Corrupted save files, poor path finding (party members will wonder off the opposite way instead of engaging a sneak attack on an enemy who is right by you) quests and tasks that end up breaking and are unable to complete, crashes all the time,
    screen freezes and icons vanish while movement is no longer possible, exists become unresponsive and the list goes on and on...They really should've waited with porting the DLC's and focused fixing the base game first. The fact that they rushed this out along with the DLC(s) while ignoring the broken base game is telling and just goes to show where their priorities lie. This **** it and fix it later" mentality is disgusting when they knew just how broken it was before launch. It's even worse on an indie title that was originally born on the backs of fan donations.
    This will be the last PoE port I will ever buy if it's still being ported by Versus Evil.
    If I could get my money back I would have. If you plan on buying this game, wait until another year when and IF it gets fixed, even then DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE for the game and wait till it drops to around 15-20$ for the complete edition. Anything more in this state is insulting.    … Expand
  26. bsured
    Mar 4, 2020
    0
    WARNING! Like many other PS4 players, after many long hours sitting through extended load times and crashes, Deadfire corrupted all my save files so I have to start over. If the load times were not so bad, I might consider it.
  27. GamerGawd
    Mar 3, 2020
    0
    This game is broken for all consoles. It's horrible and they know it. Save your money and buy something else. This game is a rip-off. Don't believe me? Check out reddit and see for yourself. Its garbage.
  28. msmaniacattac
    Feb 29, 2020
    2
    I was so excited for this game since I loved the first one! I could put up with the load screens taking forever and the game quitting abruptly because it was just so good. Deadfire is basically unplayable and very much unenjoyable, Loading screen still takes forever and this game has too many "errors" that make the game quit whilst in the middle of playing. I've noticed after battles itI was so excited for this game since I loved the first one! I could put up with the load screens taking forever and the game quitting abruptly because it was just so good. Deadfire is basically unplayable and very much unenjoyable, Loading screen still takes forever and this game has too many "errors" that make the game quit whilst in the middle of playing. I've noticed after battles it will freeze or "error occurred" on me. This could've been fixed because many complained about the same errors from the 1st pillars. Very frustrating trying to get anywhere in the game, My disappointment is immiserable and my day is ruined.… Expand
  29. xxbrian27xx
    Feb 27, 2020
    1
    Game had great potential but with the incredibly long load times ( playing on a ps4 pro with a ssd installed ) and the random game crashes for no reason what so ever, it has been more of a choir than enjoyment to complete.
  30. Runeforged
    Feb 24, 2020
    3
    The loading ruins this game. You can have infrequent long loads or frequent short loads but frequent long loads is inexcusable. Every door, new area or even a new floor in the same damn building has a long loading screen. I went into an inn, then to the second floor then to the first floor then outside. The actual gameplay took me about 25 seconds but I had to sit through 4 minutes ofThe loading ruins this game. You can have infrequent long loads or frequent short loads but frequent long loads is inexcusable. Every door, new area or even a new floor in the same damn building has a long loading screen. I went into an inn, then to the second floor then to the first floor then outside. The actual gameplay took me about 25 seconds but I had to sit through 4 minutes of loading just for that. This is on a Ps4 pro btw lol absolutely unacceptable. I’ve quit playing but am stuck with losing $60.

    If I didn’t spend most of the time playing loading simulator this game would be a 9/10 for me. Right now however it is ridiculous and unplayable. Do not purchase on console unless they fix the atrocious loading problem.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

77
#77 Best PS4 Game of 2020
60
#60 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2020
8
#8 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Apr 8, 2020
    85
    Pillars of Eternity II arrives on consoles in it’s the best edition with all additional content, completely bringing all of it’s best aspects to console gaming. With its rich non-linear narrative, astonishing world and lore and interesting characters and both real-time and turn-based gameplay, it still is a great game, even with its bad optimisation and confusing control scheme for controllers.
    Read full review
  2. DarkStation
    Mar 17, 2020
    50
    Porting a game made for PC to consoles can be an iffy situation. It’s absolutely something that should happen when possible, as I am all for everyone being to play everything if they are able, but some just flat out work better then others. It’s a shame that the largest and unavoidable knock against Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is something as silly as load times, but it is what it is. If you have a chance to play this game on PC, you should without question. If this is your only way to play this, just make sure you have something to do while you’re waiting.
    Read full review
  3. Cubed3
    Mar 10, 2020
    50
    It is mired by a litany of hurdles, that perhaps a more patient player can deal with, but many will really wrestle with this - for them it is advised to seek out PoEII on a platform that it's design is more inherent. At very least, wait until a patch can fix some glitches, and the egregious loading times, in particular. Someone that can get beyond those inconveniences will discover there is a deep novel-esque adventure to be had. This adventure is full of loot, bounties, ship battles, and engaging fetch quests; all of the usual RPG fare that would keep aficionados happy. The island setting is memorable and full of lyrical, witty writing to be discovered which is great. When it works, it can be immersive and no doubt extensively replayable. It's just a shame that it didn't quite nail the port execution.
    Read full review
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