Pillars of Eternity (PC) Second Opinion Review

One of the finest compliments one can make about Obsidian Entertainment is that it plays a whole different ball game than most developers when it comes to the world of "mature" titles. Instead of following the easy way of sex, foul language, and gore, Pillars of Eternity relies more in its clever writing, complex world-building, and storytelling. There isn't much T&A here, but there's lots of slaughtering of children, religious fanaticism, and, like in the equally well-written, Tyranny, lots of grey morality thrown into the mix. As for the plot at hand, without spoiling much, it's about a pretty scary "plague" due to which many children get born without a soul.

The second compliment is the fact that this is a true, Dungeons & Dragons-inspired RPG that wants you to actually roleplay, and, even more importantly, read! This isn't Diablo. Be prepared for long dialogue sequences even with the most… minor of NPCs; dialogue sequences that are great and all, but will surely alienate those who are thirsty for something more action-packed. For those who like it this way, conversation options are aplenty, and, like in any true RPG, may lead to results that are far from predictable.

Generally, this succeeds in becoming what it wants to be, which is a role-playing game similar to the ones running on BioWare's Infinity Engine, and, as a result, is not from everyone. Take the visuals, for instance. The top-down isometric vistas the hero/heroine will get to ogle at are exceptionally wallpaper-pretty, but those spoiled by modern, triple-A, and fully 3D video games, will have a hard time getting engrossed into this world. Even they, however, will find it hard to say anything bad about the voice acting, which is simply top-notch.

The next part where Pillars of Eternity looks like a homage to those CRPGs of old, is its pausable, semi-turn-based combat. Typical of the developer, and maybe the sub-genre as a whole, its combat system is not friendly towards greenhorns, but, like in Tyranny, this turns out to be a product that tries its best in regards to that, by having a pretty neat, in-game encyclopaedia that explains everything, from lore to game mechanics… although it could be a bit more in-depth about the latter. After all, there's a serious reason why the beginning of this 50+ adventure blatantly says that the Normal setting is not the recommended one for newcomers.

You have to be ready to play your cards as smart as possible, as this is more tactical than hack 'n' slash-y - in fact, it's not hack 'n' slash-y at all. You have to think when to do what and with which character from the party, paying attention to your strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strength and weaknesses of your foes. Undoubtedly, the battle mechanics will overwhelm the inexperienced ones, as those will soon get bombarded with tons of different stats, as well as ways that these will affect the outcome of your actions.

For all the things this is great at, however, Pillars of Eternity, like the classics it pays homage to, is not perfect. There's not a specific big flaw to point at, but there's lots of small ones that definitely "ruin" a bunch of the many steps that you'll make during this odyssey - and that without even mentioning the many bugs that still crawl around. Without going into too much detail, Pillars of Eternity is a master of variety, not quality, as for every piece of perfection (be it a quest, dialogue, or battle sequence), there are at least two that lie somewhere between mediocrity and… meh.