Oh boi, let's begin!

Pillars of Eternity is a smartly-designed role-playing masterpiece which alongside second part is the best game Obsidian has ever made. It is, essentially, a throwback to older computer roleplaying games. Upon starting up the game you will choose your race, background and class before embarking on an epic quest. The character starts off in the middle of a trip to an area called the Dyrwood. A promise to start a new life in the town of Gilded Vale. Things quickly go tits up and before long you’re scrambling to stay alive. From here things only manage to get worse. You’re dragged into a conflict that will take you across the length and breadth of the Dyrwood as you attempt to uncover an ancient conspiracy and its effects on the land. You’ll see both the good, the bad and the ugly sides of this beautiful, horrifying land. Battles will range from minor skirmishes with bandits and animals to tough brawls with ancient monstrosities.

Pillars of Eternity doesn’t skimp on letting you customize how you experience this conflict. You pick from one of six races, each with between two and four sub-race options. Then you get to pick your class from one of eleven, some of these also having sub-choices to make. Lastly, you’ll have your culture and background – your culture provides starting equipment based on your class while your background provides you with small skill boosts. When you’re done with this your character is truly your own. Even as you pick up NPC allies you’ll often find that they have wildly different choices to yourself so even if you picked the same race / class combo they still feel different.

The game rewards careful wordplay, unlocking alternative quest paths or entirely new situations if you pick your phrasing with foresight. The reputation you cultivate through your responses will come back to you, often, and even make certain statements available to you. As an example, my character developed a reputation for blunt honesty, and as a result, there were several scenarios in which my word alone served as enough proof for certain characters. The reputation system is subtle, but it lends a sense of believable to the niche you carve for your protagonist, and makes it that much easier to get invested in your role. Aside from creating numerous interesting happenings to get yourself involved in, Obsidian also rewards those who dig around before making a quick decision. You might find evidence to contradict a liar, hear the other side of a story that seems cut-and-dry, or come across something that allows you to please both parties in a conflict. This kind of game design allows for you to feel as though you have a much greater impact on the world that just the slash of your sword or the cut of your tongue, and pulls you in that much more effectively.

But what if your role-playing fantasy involves you, 20 Might, and a very big hammer? Pillars does an equally great job of allowing you to live out your dream of being a burly, smash-first-ask-questions-never type, giving a variety of conversation and quest options built around your strength, physique, and intimidation factor. Of course, if you prefer letting your favorite implement of whacking do the talking, Pillars has a wonderful party-based combat system to let you do so. If you’ve played the games upon which Pillars is modeled, you’ll know the basics. Your team of six adventurers can be given commands as a group or individually during the real-time combat, though you have the option of pausing at any time (and can set many conditions for the game to auto-pause for you, if you choose) to assess the battlefield. Much as tabletop Dungeons & Dragons has done in recent years, Obsidian has intelligently made many skills have finite uses per battle, rather than per rest (though the latter still exists). This means your mages and druids will have more to do than lurk in the corner and hope they don’t get one-shotted in each battle. In fact, with every class now given a robust selection of talents, traits, and spells to work with, each melee has an extra layer of strategy. Your heavy-hitters can engage several targets to keep them from attacking over your squishier pals, and managing the various buffs, curses, stuns, and spells between your party means every fight is quite interesting.

Class-building is also rather free-form. Each character has specific class abilities and a role in combat, but the nature of the armor system– that is, that anyone can wear any piece of gear– along with perk specializations means that you can have that heavy armor-wearing battle mage you always dreamed of. Donning weightier equipment slows your character’s action recovery speed, though, so you won’t be striking or spellcasting quite as fast as a less-encumbered companion. Skill choices have a sense of weight, because they define who your character will become; with a level cap of 16, you’re encouraged to make choices about your party’s growth that will absolutely affect how you approach combat throughout the game.

The interface and systems guiding all of this is are rather good ones, and it makes managing the party’s inventory and battle inventory quite simple. Crafting, comparing, and equipping all take relatively few clicks to work with, and the ability to minimize most of the UI during exploration is a welcome chance from the omnipresent frame walling in past Infinity Engine adventures. Character pathfinding across long distance is generally quite good, although you will have to manage who walks where during encounters in tight spaces, as your ranged fighters do tend to enjoy blocking your melee machines from getting to the action. The addition of slow and fast-motion speeds was also an excellent choice, as the former allows you to bypass battle pausing if you’re so inclined, and the latter allows you to quickly retread ground you’ve covered numerous times already.

While the game isn’t going to set your graphics card on fire (arguably a good thing), it’s still detailed and full of polish and beauty. The environments to tend towards the dank and dingy of European fantasy, and many of them are variations of “forest, cave, dungeon,” but there’s still a surprising amount of variety between those archetypes. Character models look rather good (though their diminutive size does make it hard to see at times), and the various suits of armor and weapons all have an effect on their in-game appearance. Spells in particular look awesome, with all kinds of lights and particle effects dancing across the screen. The music is all excellent, following in the tradition of Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale.

Summing up Pillars of Eternity is a dense, lengthy, fascinating adventure that you will remember for a long time.

Oh boi, let's begin! Pillars of Eternity is a smartly-designed role-playing masterpiece which alongside second part is the best game Obsidian has ever made. It is, essentially, a throwback to older computer roleplaying games. Upon starting up the game you will choose your race, background and class before embarking on an epic quest. The character starts off in the middle of a trip to an area called the Dyrwood. A promise to start a new life in the town of Gilded Vale. Things quickly go tits up and before long you’re scrambling to stay alive. From here things only manage to get worse. You’re dragged into a conflict that will take you across the length and breadth of the Dyrwood as you attempt to uncover an ancient conspiracy and its effects on the land. You’ll see both the good, the bad and the ugly sides of this beautiful, horrifying land. Battles will range from minor skirmishes with bandits and animals to tough brawls with ancient monstrosities. Pillars of Eternity doesn’t skimp on letting you customize how you experience this conflict. You pick from one of six races, each with between two and four sub-race options. Then you get to pick your class from one of eleven, some of these also having sub-choices to make. Lastly, you’ll have your culture and background – your culture provides starting equipment based on your class while your background provides you with small skill boosts. When you’re done with this your character is truly your own. Even as you pick up NPC allies you’ll often find that they have wildly different choices to yourself so even if you picked the same race / class combo they still feel different. The game rewards careful wordplay, unlocking alternative quest paths or entirely new situations if you pick your phrasing with foresight. The reputation you cultivate through your responses will come back to you, often, and even make certain statements available to you. As an example, my character developed a reputation for blunt honesty, and as a result, there were several scenarios in which my word alone served as enough proof for certain characters. The reputation system is subtle, but it lends a sense of believable to the niche you carve for your protagonist, and makes it that much easier to get invested in your role. Aside from creating numerous interesting happenings to get yourself involved in, Obsidian also rewards those who dig around before making a quick decision. You might find evidence to contradict a liar, hear the other side of a story that seems cut-and-dry, or come across something that allows you to please both parties in a conflict. This kind of game design allows for you to feel as though you have a much greater impact on the world that just the slash of your sword or the cut of your tongue, and pulls you in that much more effectively. But what if your role-playing fantasy involves you, 20 Might, and a very big hammer? Pillars does an equally great job of allowing you to live out your dream of being a burly, smash-first-ask-questions-never type, giving a variety of conversation and quest options built around your strength, physique, and intimidation factor. Of course, if you prefer letting your favorite implement of whacking do the talking, Pillars has a wonderful party-based combat system to let you do so. If you’ve played the games upon which Pillars is modeled, you’ll know the basics. Your team of six adventurers can be given commands as a group or individually during the real-time combat, though you have the option of pausing at any time (and can set many conditions for the game to auto-pause for you, if you choose) to assess the battlefield. Much as tabletop Dungeons & Dragons has done in recent years, Obsidian has intelligently made many skills have finite uses per battle, rather than per rest (though the latter still exists). This means your mages and druids will have more to do than lurk in the corner and hope they don’t get one-shotted in each battle. In fact, with every class now given a robust selection of talents, traits, and spells to work with, each melee has an extra layer of strategy. Your heavy-hitters can engage several targets to keep them from attacking over your squishier pals, and managing the various buffs, curses, stuns, and spells between your party means every fight is quite interesting. Class-building is also rather free-form. Each character has specific class abilities and a role in combat, but the nature of the armor system– that is, that anyone can wear any piece of gear– along with perk specializations means that you can have that heavy armor-wearing battle mage you always dreamed of. Donning weightier equipment slows your character’s action recovery speed, though, so you won’t be striking or spellcasting quite as fast as a less-encumbered companion. Skill choices have a sense of weight, because they define who your character will become; with a level cap of 16, you’re encouraged to make choices about your party’s growth that will absolutely affect how you approach combat throughout the game. The interface and systems guiding all of this is are rather good ones, and it makes managing the party’s inventory and battle inventory quite simple. Crafting, comparing, and equipping all take relatively few clicks to work with, and the ability to minimize most of the UI during exploration is a welcome chance from the omnipresent frame walling in past Infinity Engine adventures. Character pathfinding across long distance is generally quite good, although you will have to manage who walks where during encounters in tight spaces, as your ranged fighters do tend to enjoy blocking your melee machines from getting to the action. The addition of slow and fast-motion speeds was also an excellent choice, as the former allows you to bypass battle pausing if you’re so inclined, and the latter allows you to quickly retread ground you’ve covered numerous times already. While the game isn’t going to set your graphics card on fire (arguably a good thing), it’s still detailed and full of polish and beauty. The environments to tend towards the dank and dingy of European fantasy, and many of them are variations of “forest, cave, dungeon,” but there’s still a surprising amount of variety between those archetypes. Character models look rather good (though their diminutive size does make it hard to see at times), and the various suits of armor and weapons all have an effect on their in-game appearance. Spells in particular look awesome, with all kinds of lights and particle effects dancing across the screen. The music is all excellent, following in the tradition of Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. Summing up Pillars of Eternity is a dense, lengthy, fascinating adventure that you will remember for a long time.