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. Chronoton
    Aug 9, 2019
    10
    what a good game, if you are mature enough, great rpg, great port, love the switch gamming expirience this console is really a playing station
  2. 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.
  3. Joes
    Aug 8, 2019
    9
    Muy buen juego con unas excelentes mecanicas, el luce muy bien tanto en modo portátil como en sobremesa
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. Gabriel_Heroso
    Aug 10, 2019
    6
    Love the game on PC. But do not buy it for Switch, at least for now.. There are some major bugs going on. :/
  9. DrForecast
    Aug 12, 2019
    6
    Pillars is, at its core, an amazing game. I loved the story, the level of detail and content put into making it be as it is.

    That said, this is my second platform on which I'm playing it, and oh my, is the Switch port buggy. No crashes, so that's a positive. The UI is completely messed up: fonts get corrupted during gameplay so all text turns into weird glyphs. Icons of items in your    Pillars is, at its core, an amazing game. I loved the story, the level of detail and content put into making it be as it is.

    That said, this is my second platform on which I'm playing it, and oh my, is the Switch port buggy.

    No crashes, so that's a positive.

    The UI is completely messed up: fonts get corrupted during gameplay so all text turns into weird glyphs. Icons of items in your gear and inventory overwrite each other, so sometimes a bow looks like a cloak, or a lock pick looks like a potion.

    Both of these bugs trigger easily within the first few minutes of playing the game. As such, I can't believe that this bug isn't known. Pretty shameful performance on the part of the author/porting team.    … Expand
  10. SlimeKnight33
    Sep 18, 2019
    5
    This game easily will be a 10/10 as soon as the grey screen issue is fixed. Obsidian really made a masterpiece that pays tribute to past Infinity Engine games. The port translates to Switch very well and I feel the controls work well with a very subtle learning curve. Great role playing experience and as soon as that issue is fixed it will be up there with Divinity Originals Sin 2 as theThis game easily will be a 10/10 as soon as the grey screen issue is fixed. Obsidian really made a masterpiece that pays tribute to past Infinity Engine games. The port translates to Switch very well and I feel the controls work well with a very subtle learning curve. Great role playing experience and as soon as that issue is fixed it will be up there with Divinity Originals Sin 2 as the best rpg on the Switch.… Expand
  11. greyscal-e
    Aug 14, 2019
    3
    Versus Evil did a VERY POOR job on this port. It is incredible to me that it was released with a $70 price tag in its current state. Unbelievable.
  12. Thewangatang
    Aug 10, 2019
    3
    I made a metacritic account just to rate this game, I’ve been a metacritic user for going on 3 years but nothing has incited me into reviewing a game until this game, it’s fun, I love it, but those cheap pieces of **** who ported it did a garbage job, the game is riddled with bugs. I’m about 4 hours in and it has completely crashed twice, so if you’re gonna play it, save often. The textI made a metacritic account just to rate this game, I’ve been a metacritic user for going on 3 years but nothing has incited me into reviewing a game until this game, it’s fun, I love it, but those cheap pieces of **** who ported it did a garbage job, the game is riddled with bugs. I’m about 4 hours in and it has completely crashed twice, so if you’re gonna play it, save often. The text scrambled into nonsense, it lags, literally BOTW is about 3088 times more graphically intensive and doesn’t lag, but this game does, the selection system needs work, it will randomly grab onto something and that’s the only thing you can select, and now that I’m typing this, meta critic needs help too, I can’t read what I’m typing on my phone because their site is garbage too, kinda funny...… Expand
  13. karmadeeds
    Aug 13, 2019
    2
    I also made a metacritic account just to rate this game.

    The nintendo switch port of this game is the hands-down worst game I've ever payed for. The sheer number of bugs in the game are mind-boggling. They are enough and are so prevalent that it makes me doubt that any of the actual "critic" reviews actually played the nintendo switch port. The bugs include: 1. All text on the    I also made a metacritic account just to rate this game.

    The nintendo switch port of this game is the hands-down worst game I've ever payed for. The sheer number of bugs in the game are mind-boggling. They are enough and are so prevalent that it makes me doubt that any of the actual "critic" reviews actually played the nintendo switch port.

    The bugs include:
    1. All text on the screen being completely unreadable.
    2. Icons for items in your inventory being incorrect.
    3. The combat log not displaying the most recent entry due to a padding issue at the bottom.
    4. Chanters not being able to chant ever.
    5. Game randomly crashing.
    6. Ranged damage not being calculated at all (causing range damage characters to deal 0 damage always)

    and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. There are plenty of additional problems like extreme battery consumption and laggy play that are indicators of a poor job done with the port in general.

    With the mix of both non-mechanically significant but extremely prevalent bugs and actual game-breaking mechanical bugs, this should be a hard pass for anyone considering buying it.

    Additionally, the controls in game are messy and complicated for the switch to handle making it more difficult than you would expect.    … Expand
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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.
  17. The_Martian
    Aug 12, 2019
    1
    Too many bugs disrupt the experience but will revise review if patched. I had thought bugs would be gone by now since release, but it's not the case. Is a shame, was looking forward to this.
  18. Bezelbuhb
    Aug 13, 2019
    1
    First, the actual game is amazing! Great story, great characters, great gameplay!
    However, the switch port is absolute GARBAGE. How can one release such a buggy game?!?! Sorry, but the game is 4 years old and the Switch is also out for quite a while, so there was enough time to get rid of these obvious bugs! There is a huge amount of glitches, text and icons are messed up and there are    First, the actual game is amazing! Great story, great characters, great gameplay!
    However, the switch port is absolute GARBAGE. How can one release such a buggy game?!?! Sorry, but the game is 4 years old and the Switch is also out for quite a while, so there was enough time to get rid of these obvious bugs! There is a huge amount of glitches, text and icons are messed up and there are frame rate drop. Games like BOTW or Doom are running great on the Switch but this game has drops in the frame rate. Please tell how that is possible??? This port is a joke!! For a 4 year old game and 40 bucks, I would expect a smoothly running game. I tolerate some bugs but every few seconds you spot a new bug - ridiculous!! I will revise my review once the bugs are fixed but this makes me really angry!    … Expand
  19. SillyVase
    Aug 21, 2019
    1
    This port is BROKEN, which all reviewers seem to have missed??? LOT of glitches in the text, major bugs in the mechanics. Even crashes to the point of wiping out saves. :( If haven't bought, don't, if have, get a refund or wait for patch right now waste of money
  20. Bluemage
    Aug 29, 2019
    1
    Scoring Switch Port quality only not game itself. Due to the bad quality of the port and it's high numbers of critical bugs it is currently unplayable in the way it was supposed.
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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.
  25. maskh
    Sep 2, 2019
    0
    The game is unplayable because of bugs after one month of the release, don't waste money in this game
  26. Cyniclese
    Sep 7, 2019
    0
    UNPLAYABLE! Why don’t professional reviewers mention how broken this port is?

    Here’s a list of problems I encountered: Several crashes, animation errors from NPC’s, text glitches, inventory items that are supposed to boost stats don’t do a thing, inventory items don’t display correctly in inventory. I got a refund from Nintendo, bought Divinity 2 instead. Apparently the folks at Verses    UNPLAYABLE! Why don’t professional reviewers mention how broken this port is?

    Here’s a list of problems I encountered: Several crashes, animation errors from NPC’s, text glitches, inventory items that are supposed to boost stats don’t do a thing, inventory items don’t display correctly in inventory.

    I got a refund from Nintendo, bought Divinity 2 instead. Apparently the folks at Verses Evil say they’re going to fix these issues: I don’t believe them. They *had* to have known the game was broken and they released it anyway! Here are my theories: They didn’t have the time they needed, they’re inexperienced at porting games, they don’t know how to fix all the bugs, or they’re lazy—taking people’s money when they KNEW their port was broken! I’m glad I got my money back. I won’t be buying this even if Verses Evil says they’ve “fixed” the game. Not buying Pillars 2 either.

    It’s a shame. What I was able to play of the game was fun! But it doesn’t “just work”.    … Expand
  27. Dr_awkward
    Aug 25, 2019
    0
    Holy crap, is this a broken port! I made an account for the specific purpose of rating this p.o.s. game. Did vs_evil do absolutely zero QA, or did they merely commit fraud by lying about the quality of the game? So many completely obvious and game-breaking bugs. Save your money and buy something that actusllynworks.
  28. XanderB
    Aug 26, 2019
    0
    Game is released in unplayable state. Item buffs do not work, skills do not work, graphical glitches. It is a disgrace this game was released in this state. DO NOT BUY!
  29. ProfessorWheels
    Aug 27, 2019
    0
    Unfinished game, many bugs not mentioned in reviews, 1st patch plans are inadequate to fix core issues. Bought to support the devs now feel let down by them. :(
  30. KBMK
    Aug 30, 2019
    0
    It's broken. Massive game breaking bugs and glitches. It should never have been sold in this state.
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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.
    Read full review
  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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