Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition

 Switch
User Score
2.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 76 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 76
  3. Negative: 55 out of 76

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  1. Hackattaque
    Nov 6, 2022
    8
    November 2022 Review. As all the brutal user scores can attest, the Switch is not the best way to experience Pillars of Eternity. The visuals are a little muddy, the load times can get annoying and I got about three or four hard crashes during my 50-hour play-through. That said, if you can pick it up on sale and look beyond the bugs, there's a very good RPG here that falls just short ofNovember 2022 Review. As all the brutal user scores can attest, the Switch is not the best way to experience Pillars of Eternity. The visuals are a little muddy, the load times can get annoying and I got about three or four hard crashes during my 50-hour play-through. That said, if you can pick it up on sale and look beyond the bugs, there's a very good RPG here that falls just short of classic. It's got a big world to explore (though broken up into small chunks), a refreshing lack of fantasy cliches, and a good story mixing macabre magic and political backstabbing. The combat system and AI are not as good as Divinity: Original Sin 2's, which is the superior game. But PoE is a close second and worth your time.… Expand
  2. saxo27
    Jan 18, 2022
    8
    Picked the game up on a deep holiday sale. I'm 10+ hours in and here are my thoughts.

    For one, I really like it. Plays very well, the menu and controls are easy to use. The initial load time is quite long, about 3+ minutes (from booting up to getting into the game). Load times between buildings are not long, standard length for games on the Switch. Regarding any technical issues, I    Picked the game up on a deep holiday sale. I'm 10+ hours in and here are my thoughts.

    For one, I really like it. Plays very well, the menu and controls are easy to use. The initial load time is quite long, about 3+ minutes (from booting up to getting into the game). Load times between buildings are not long, standard length for games on the Switch.

    Regarding any technical issues, I have had only one crash in 10 plus hours. No glitches, strange text, pets not spawning, or anything else. This may change after many hours more of play, but I'm happy enough already.

    I'm playing on a Switch oled and have the game downloaded to my internal memory, as opposed to an sd card (this has helped alleviate technical problems with other games). I have also disabled auto save, and I have limited myself to two save slots only. I have heard that excess save files are the crashing culprits for this game. I also started as a rogue, if that influences anything then I do not know. In short, I really enjoy this game.

    If you are interested, pick it up on a deep sale (so you'll have minimal buyer's remorse if something digitally ill fated occurs). Follow my tips above, and happy gaming!

    Update time: 20+ hours in. About 7 crashes in total. 2 during saving that erased my save. Luckily I had another, so make sure you keep a second save slot always. I'll update more as I go.

    Update time: While I do find the game enjoyable and that it has a lot to offer, like an interesting plot, engaging characters, a simple but fun battle system, I'll be putting this game down for a while.

    The great Achilles heel has become the loading times. They have grown a tad too long and can pile up to wasted time when you need to travel to a city and then to multiple houses. Each new zone, and building within, contain a lengthy loading screen. As a result, I spent a lot more time waiting than playing. This isn't an issue if you enter one single larger dungeon, but the game is made up of zones and places to enter in those zones.

    I'll be putting this game down for a while but I'll definitely pick it up again when I get that CRPG itch and when I have a bit more time and patience to spare.

    In short, the game is playable and enjoyable, but only if you have heaps of patience and forgiveness for terminal bugs likes deleted saves on crashes during saves (keep an additional save to remedy this).    … Expand
  3. eqr
    Jan 9, 2022
    0
    it's 2022, and the game keeps crashing and losing progress. Don't buy in on Switch, it's a waste of time and Nintendo does not allow to refund even completely broken games
  4. Davidwwone
    Dec 28, 2021
    0
    I've not been able to play this for more than 15 mins without a hard crash. A truly awful buggy mess of a game.
  5. kosterix
    Apr 3, 2021
    7
    How can it be professionally rated 8.2 and by real players as a 2.4 ??

    I got it on a sale, if you can call €35 a sale, on 2020-4-19 and what every consumer is whining about, broken gameplay and such, I have not seen it. I play this on Switch Lite, and it looks just fine. The screen is small obviously but the text is well legible, something many ports have failed to take into account.    How can it be professionally rated 8.2 and by real players as a 2.4 ??

    I got it on a sale, if you can call €35 a sale, on 2020-4-19 and what every consumer is whining about, broken gameplay and such, I have not seen it. I play this on Switch Lite, and it looks just fine. The screen is small obviously but the text is well legible, something many ports have failed to take into account.
    Also the menu system is a bit clunky, not something easy to do better on a mobile. Look, if I wanted a screen experience (and I do not) recommend you go get the pc version.
    Also, it's a long/slow game, and you need to make notes.
    I just really wished they had a physical release version of this, so I had a place to store my notebook in.
    The lore is immense and amazing. Gameplay is tactical. What more can you ask for?    … Expand
  6. iRob
    Mar 16, 2021
    0
    You will see reviews on this site saying things like "Despite the switch-specific issues...", but there is nothing BESIDES "Issues". This game is unplayably glitchy and the developer has flat-out said that they will not be fixing it. Save your money.
  7. TuxDC
    Feb 11, 2021
    1
    Do Not Buy. Buggy mess with game breaking bugs and abandon by developers. No way to get a refund so they don’t care. Game needs to be delisted.
  8. DizavidHZ
    Dec 14, 2020
    1
    Do not touch this game for fifty dollars. Ten max. There's lots of good here, mistake me not. However, between bugs and bad game design choices, it has breaks of ruination that ruin immersion.

    First, the bugs. This review is as of 12/2020, so it's after the patches that got rid of the even more egregious bugs other reviews here are showing. Spells: I've had to look up online the    Do not touch this game for fifty dollars. Ten max. There's lots of good here, mistake me not. However, between bugs and bad game design choices, it has breaks of ruination that ruin immersion.

    First, the bugs. This review is as of 12/2020, so it's after the patches that got rid of the even more egregious bugs other reviews here are showing.

    Spells: I've had to look up online the definition of several spells, as selecting them from the spell wheel will make them copy the definition of a spell next to it. Pressing the more info button does not help; it brings up a random page of information. It once brought up the stats of a rod a different character was equipped with.

    Spells, bad game design: In order to create lazy difficulty curves, most spells (except damaging ones) are combat only. Up against enemies that can endlessly spit confusion/domination at you? You cannot cast spells protecting from this beforehand; you must during combat. There's almost no spells that outright dispel, and instead suppress these effects. Of note is the fact casting immunity from spells on someone suffering said effect DO NOT dispel nor suppress the effect. If it's a target only immunity spell, it won't even let you select the effected person as a target. There's no logical out of or in game reason for this. "I can only channel my spells when people attack me or my friends!" ?

    Lazy difficulty curves: Harping on same issue as above, many enemies can "break" rules your own characters are bound by; see the above: Mushrooms that can rapidly spit domination at you. Banshees can scream paralysis at you endlessly. A defensive perk increases your chances of avoiding by ten, but seems to be a waste of a perk point. This is all earlyish game mind you, where story barriers prevent your access to most gear that might be able to help. So spells are nearly useless against these enemies and gear is nonexistent. This doesn't happen *too* often, but often enough I've nearly put the game down.

    Selection "Hit detection": This just refers to the game realizing what object or thing you're trying to focus your attention to, most notably "Question Mark Cues" indicating points of interest. I had to laugh because often, if I don't want to hold down a button and try to aim a fan indicating what I'm looking at every single time, I've learned I can make the game know automatically by approaching the said object (can apply to treasure chest/searchable objects) and turning my back and thus gaze AWAY from it.

    Saving glitch: Just after chapter 2 begins, you cross a gorge and immediately fight some much tougher than usual mushrooms. Up until now they've been challenging enough to not bore, but not aggravatingly so. The above mentioned domination spitters is what I came across. Well, after loading a manual save...the game decided I'd actually intended to save during the battle. So now my save loads not a screen above the encounter, but directly in the middle of it. Lowering difficulty isn't possible, as you must change screens for them to take effect. So it's down to loading up the last autosave now.

    Loading times: Ya know, when I read reviews, I saw this and wondered why reviewers were so impatient; they aren't bad at all.

    Until roughly midway through chapter 1, and it keeps getting worse. The more you play, the more data it keeps in memory. Even saving takes longer and longer. I'm aware this is a long and large game. So is Outer Worlds, and that's three dimensional. It did not have near this abysmal of an increasingly longer load times both in saving and switching areas. Reloading a save is the worst. I, not hyperbole, had enough time to go let my dog out, pour some milk, and came back to loading screen still up.

    This game wanted so badly to not just be Baldurs Gate 1 and 2; it obviously wanted to surpass them by copying them. I've beaten the above two on max difficulty before and never had such immersion ruining effects. There IS a lot of good things happening here, so if you find it on a heavy sale, I'd suggest getting it. However, due to how long it has been out yet so many bugs still exist from port to port, I would never recommend paying full price. This is not a $50 experience.    … Expand
  9. airal
    Sep 20, 2020
    0
    Forget EVERYTHING I said before.

    Game just crashed and lost my save. Game is trash. Do not purchase. 100+ hours gone. Just lost my Deadfire purchase as well.
  10. Diverse_Voice
    Jul 31, 2020
    0
    Grip Digital, Vs Evil and Obsidian have mishandled this port to the point where it doesn't even work almost a year after release. Grip Digital has apparently given up trying to fix it, and VS Evil shows no interest in doing so because they have milked all the money they can from this port and the upcoming Deadfire ports. Obsidian is responsible simply because they don't even seem to careGrip Digital, Vs Evil and Obsidian have mishandled this port to the point where it doesn't even work almost a year after release. Grip Digital has apparently given up trying to fix it, and VS Evil shows no interest in doing so because they have milked all the money they can from this port and the upcoming Deadfire ports. Obsidian is responsible simply because they don't even seem to care about the state of this port and have offloaded all requests for updates and bug reports to the other companies, washing their hands of them. Criminal, and all three should answer for this trainwreck of a port.… Expand
  11. DeadZenWalking
    Jul 28, 2020
    0
    This, coupled with the Outer Worlds switch port, solidifies Obsidian as one of the worst porters out there. It's a bug-ridden mess and should never have been sold to the public.
  12. JayAlex
    Jul 9, 2020
    0
    Unplayable port that ruins the excellent game released elsewhere. Shameful to even sell this DOA port, but they did anyway!
  13. Spinnning_Jenny
    Jul 7, 2020
    0
    Obsidian does not seem capable of making a Switch port - first Outer Worlds, now this. Disappointed. Completely.
  14. Kangaroos_R_Bad
    Jun 10, 2020
    0
    Animation friend at Obsidian says this was not their fault, their publisher is to blame for the broken mess of the port and PS4 one as well. Blame Ver Evil, not Obsidian!
  15. ChadTyler
    May 17, 2020
    0
    Worst port on switch hands down. Literally unplayable. They should cancel the poe2 port. They will never get this one working properly.
  16. marcin_wroc
    Apr 19, 2020
    1
    DONT BUY THIS GAME AT THIS STATE FOR ANY PRICE! When I can rate witcher 3 port for switch 9/10 (more more more complex game) this 2D simple game build on unity framework port is TOTALLY CRAP. How its possible to f*ucked is so much. event after last patches there is so many small bugs (glithes) but its more important game crashing for time to time. Where is QA in Evil Genius company ? HowDONT BUY THIS GAME AT THIS STATE FOR ANY PRICE! When I can rate witcher 3 port for switch 9/10 (more more more complex game) this 2D simple game build on unity framework port is TOTALLY CRAP. How its possible to f*ucked is so much. event after last patches there is so many small bugs (glithes) but its more important game crashing for time to time. Where is QA in Evil Genius company ? How its possible to sell game at this state. I bet Wither port at ALPHA stat was more playebale and stabile. They rent a chepest possible student developers team, and the are not able to claim resposibility for this screwed up work. Its a robbery and shoul be illegal. OK programming is a hard and maybe this game for any reason is hard to port but ONE WORD -> RESPONSIBILITY! This game never should be at eshop.
    PS: More ridiculus it that the same dev tem workin og pillars of eternity 2 and PS4 port is also f*ucked up. evil genius is laughing you in the face with this port    … Expand
  17. unbridled_anger
    Apr 3, 2020
    0
    Waste of time money and faith. After losing patience with PS4 after already getting burnedon this Switch port, all I can say is this is a poor job of what could have been a great console port. Its like flushing 60 bucks down the drain.
  18. ecikowaty
    Mar 26, 2020
    0
    Versus Evil knowingly released the game despite a multitude of game breaking bugs . I was patiently waiting months for them to fix everything but had enough already. Insolent and shameless devs have not fixed the game over 9 months after releasing it and what did they do in the meantime? They ported Pillars of Eternity 2 to PS4 which is equally as broken as the Switch port. After pointingVersus Evil knowingly released the game despite a multitude of game breaking bugs . I was patiently waiting months for them to fix everything but had enough already. Insolent and shameless devs have not fixed the game over 9 months after releasing it and what did they do in the meantime? They ported Pillars of Eternity 2 to PS4 which is equally as broken as the Switch port. After pointing that out they blocked me on Twitter, go figure.

    Stay away from anything Versus Evil releases.    … Expand
  19. KohlMcKay
    Feb 28, 2020
    10
    Bugs have been fixed. This is a fantastic game that launched with a lot of issues on switch that most fans did not appreciate but the game is without a doubt worth your time now.
  20. Harkronor
    Jan 15, 2020
    0
    Completely broken game. and after 6 months its not fixed. The gray screen problem, spells not working , and a bunch of glitches. i got a refund. you should to.
  21. deskgoomba
    Dec 19, 2019
    0
    Also made an account just to review this game. It's completely shocking to me how high the critic reviews are. I agree with others that they either didn't play the game very long (although I started encountering bugs from the get-go) or something else was going on. Either way, STAY AWAY FROM THIS PORT!

    It's a super tempting purchase for fans of the genre, and the PC version is great but    Also made an account just to review this game. It's completely shocking to me how high the critic reviews are. I agree with others that they either didn't play the game very long (although I started encountering bugs from the get-go) or something else was going on. Either way, STAY AWAY FROM THIS PORT!

    It's a super tempting purchase for fans of the genre, and the PC version is great but really for the switch there are much better options such as Divinity Original Sin 2, or even the recent Baldur's Gate ports.

    Versus Evil has just completely botched this one and even after almost 9 months of patches to get it playable I still see users reporting some of the SAME bugs and errors that plagued it way back in August.

    DON'T BE LURED BY SALES PRICES this game is a mess.    … Expand
  22. AaronF
    Dec 12, 2019
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game came out months ago and is still unplayable. Game breaking bugs still exist and the final quest is bugged and while cause the game to crash literally making the game impossible to finish… Expand
  23. Nevermber
    Dec 4, 2019
    8
    A patch came out, bugs fixed, I can add a review.
    Yes, this is a cool role-playing game in the style of the baldur's gate, which dragged me on for 45+ hours.
    I must say right away that during these 45+ hours I went through the whole campaign, but DLC “white march” could not start because of bugs. And on the one hand, this is an interesting story, and on the other hand, it doesn’t    A patch came out, bugs fixed, I can add a review.
    Yes, this is a cool role-playing game in the style of the baldur's gate, which dragged me on for 45+ hours.

    I must say right away that during these 45+ hours I went through the whole campaign, but DLC “white march” could not start because of bugs.

    And on the one hand, this is an interesting story, and on the other hand, it doesn’t pull you to play it for the third time when there is D: OS2 on the platform, where the mechanics of battles are better and the gameplay is somehow more interesting.

    However, for the first time playing (if you forget that it was with bugs and a gray screen) I went through and enjoyed it a lot, because there is a cool story here, your decisions affect the game (not so much, but sometimes it’s significant) and it’s here is a very nice role-playing game, not RPG / action.
    Gather your own unique group of heroes, make them become the greatest heroes and save the world.

    I hope the second part on the Nintendo switch will be with fewer bugs.    … Expand
  24. Crosi
    Nov 11, 2019
    0
    The game is completely broken, with game breaking bugs, constant crashing and visual glitches. Some users even experienced save files-erasing bugs. It's like they didn't even test the game before releasing it and decided to use paying customers as beta testers. On September 5th I paid 50 bucks for a game that I still can't play and I can't even get a refund! I hope NIntendo willThe game is completely broken, with game breaking bugs, constant crashing and visual glitches. Some users even experienced save files-erasing bugs. It's like they didn't even test the game before releasing it and decided to use paying customers as beta testers. On September 5th I paid 50 bucks for a game that I still can't play and I can't even get a refund! I hope NIntendo will acknowledge this problem if not resolved and refund anyone who bought this horrible port.
    DO. NOT. BUY.    … Expand
  25. Pi4lyfe
    Oct 6, 2019
    1
    I also own the PC version of POE (which is fantastic), but the Switch version is completely unplayable... literally! Not only is the game riddled with game breaking bugs, and frequent crashes, but the further you progress in the game the more the game code degrades. Eventually the screen will turn grey and will be unplayable. I really hate to say it, but this version is so incredibly poor,I also own the PC version of POE (which is fantastic), but the Switch version is completely unplayable... literally! Not only is the game riddled with game breaking bugs, and frequent crashes, but the further you progress in the game the more the game code degrades. Eventually the screen will turn grey and will be unplayable. I really hate to say it, but this version is so incredibly poor, that it has forever tarnished my view of Obsidian. Yeah, they contacted out the port, but still, they are still responsible for this hot pile of garbage. Why critics gave this a high score I cannot for the life of me understand. Avoid like the plague. Please.… Expand
  26. UltraDrive
    Sep 29, 2019
    2
    This is the first game I Purchased when I bought my Switch. Unfortunately it was released early with tons of bugs that render it almost unplayable. Versus Evil, which ported it over to the Switch, has released one patch. Hopefully many more will follow to make this title stable. Unfortunately this has become a trend of Dev’s to let the public be their beta testers and disregard theThis is the first game I Purchased when I bought my Switch. Unfortunately it was released early with tons of bugs that render it almost unplayable. Versus Evil, which ported it over to the Switch, has released one patch. Hopefully many more will follow to make this title stable. Unfortunately this has become a trend of Dev’s to let the public be their beta testers and disregard the backlash as a result. THQ Nordic and Versus Evil is slated to release Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire on the Switch in December.
    Hopefully it won’t be plagued with so many bugs as this title. At this point, I can’t recommend purchasing Pillars of Eternity Complete Edition until Versus Evil fixes it.    … Expand
  27. HyperReal
    Sep 21, 2019
    0
    The game is fantastic. The port, however, is total trash. After playing it for 20 hours, my title screen is now an unusable unplayable grey screen of death. Before that, the text would be corrupted for a few seconds and look like some weird alien language. At first I thought it was kind of neat but the problem became progressively worse until right before the grey screen of death, all textThe game is fantastic. The port, however, is total trash. After playing it for 20 hours, my title screen is now an unusable unplayable grey screen of death. Before that, the text would be corrupted for a few seconds and look like some weird alien language. At first I thought it was kind of neat but the problem became progressively worse until right before the grey screen of death, all text was permanently unreadable with absolutely no workaround. There were also plenty of random crashes sprinkled throughout. Don’t waste your money.

    Edit: a new update has just been released and the game worked great for an hour. Now all in-game text us completely unreadable, the map is unreadable, and random sprites have populated the UI making it unusable. In short, it's unplayable. Clearly the folks over at Versus Evil (the port house) are incompetent. I'm changing my rating from a 2 to 0 for getting my hopes up with the patch.    … Expand
  28. shibbez
    Sep 20, 2019
    0
    There is NO WAY the developers did not know about this GAME BREAKING BUGS!! This is what makes me angry. There is no way to NOT see this problems. So they never testet it or just did not care.
    It's in an unplayable state after a few hours in the game, evan after the first so called "patch".
    In a text heavy game, the text glitches so bad and you can do sh*t about it. And then it just    There is NO WAY the developers did not know about this GAME BREAKING BUGS!! This is what makes me angry. There is no way to NOT see this problems. So they never testet it or just did not care.
    It's in an unplayable state after a few hours in the game, evan after the first so called "patch".
    In a text heavy game, the text glitches so bad and you can do sh*t about it. And then it just crashes over and over again.
    Here we are, i spent my money on this and can not continue to play. Congratulations.
    This is crime in 2019.    … Expand
  29. Daebiya
    Sep 19, 2019
    2
    I was absolutely loving this game. The writing was great, but I was a bit disappointed when some sections suddenly lost voice acting. But that's not the problem. ITS BROKEN!! My game has crashed over 20 times. That's a lot of patience for one man, because the loading times are already very long. But even the simplest things will crash. Like loading to the upstairs of the pub in the firstI was absolutely loving this game. The writing was great, but I was a bit disappointed when some sections suddenly lost voice acting. But that's not the problem. ITS BROKEN!! My game has crashed over 20 times. That's a lot of patience for one man, because the loading times are already very long. But even the simplest things will crash. Like loading to the upstairs of the pub in the first town. It's really a 50% chance that any load (which is often because every house and different level of a building needs a load), will cause a crash. I would spend 30 minutes outfitting my party, just to have it crash when I stepped into the next loading area. Absolute trash and I've never wanted a refund from a game before, but we all deserve one for this. It's a broken product.… Expand
  30. Thorbudd
    Sep 19, 2019
    0
    The worst port ever. I did not believe it possible to destroy a game in such a way. The longer you play the worse the glitches and game breaking bugs. Professional reviewers should be charged to pay the refunds for all deceived buyers.
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Awards & Rankings

52
#52 Best Switch Game of 2019
33
#33 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019
82
#82 Most Shared Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Switch Player
    Oct 25, 2019
    60
    Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition does fulfill the promise of bringing back the experience of an old-school cRPG. As a result, though, it also comes with a convoluted combat that can get in the way of the game’s main appeal: its expansive fictional universe.
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  2. FNintendo
    Sep 24, 2019
    90
    Pillars of Eternity does not rewrite the foundations of the RPG genre but it stands out as an amazing tribute to the classics and with its experience in exploring a wide, vast world and centrality of the player's actions in the top-quality plot the result it a game that never runs out of steam. On top of that, the combat system adds to the game's depth and help make Pillars of Eternity an absolutely unmissable work that nobody should ignore.
    Read full review
  3. Daily Star
    Aug 28, 2019
    100
    Despite these Switch-specific issues, Pillars Of Eternity is an absolute joy to play through. With the main campaign and two expansions included there’s well over forty hours of excellent RPG to get stuck into. It’s one of the Switch’s best ports because it’s one of this generations finest titles.
    Read full review
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