Developer/Publisher: Obsidian Entertainment / Paradoc Interactive
Release Date(s): Mar. 26, 2015
Genre(s): RPG
Platform(s): Windows, Mac, Linux
Language(s): English; subtitles and interface for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Polish
Pricing: $44.99 / £34.99 / €41,99
Rating: M (ESRB), 16 (PEGI)
Pure nostalgia!
Here's one Kickstarter project that's really taken off: Pillars of Eternity is everything fans have been asking for, and it's not innovative graphics, but challenging gameplay and an excellent story that have impressed players all over the world. You could even say that Obsidian has gone back to its roots with Pillars of Eternity, which in many ways is highly reminiscent of their 1998 classic Baldur's Gate.The transmigration of souls Before doing anything else, you start your journey by creating a character. There's practically no limit to the possibilities here, so you should really think about the kind of character you want to make and what combinations of class, race, and creed make the most sense. This is one place where the manual can really help you out. First you choose your race: Human, Aumana, Dwarf, Elf, Orlan, and Godlike. Your choice of race will have an impact on your character's attributes. After you choose your race, you can choose a sub-race, with at least two options per race. Pillars of Eternity also lets you choose one of eleven classes: Barbarian, Fighter, Chanter, Paladin, Ranger, Cipher, Druid, Monk, Rogue, Wizard, or Priest. All these options means it takes a while to create a character, but that's typical for most RPGs. Once you've created your hero, you're ready to go.
When the adventure begins, you're part of a caravan that's just set up camp for the night. Not feeling all that well, you get up to look for some berries that are supposed to make you feel better. It doesn't take long for you to wander into an ambush, and you're able to escape by the skin of your teeth along with two other characters. At this point you find yourself caught up in a very complex storyline, one where people's souls play an important role. As it turns out, your illness somehow grants you the ability to look into other characters' souls and see whether or not they're telling the truth. You can also see the souls of the dead and interact with them. In the course of the story you discover that you have become a Watcher, a person who is capable of reading souls. You're often able to use this ability in dialogue, allowing you to find things out about people that they never would have told you otherwise. Dialogue is an important aspect of the gameplay in Pillars of Eternity, as certain questions you can ask, answers you can give, and abilities you can use in conversation can have a tremendous effect on the course of the events taking place in the world of Eora. Sometimes it's possible to avoid a fight using this ability. Other times you can use it to dig deeper into background of a situation instead of just taking someone's word and acting on it. Dialogue options also offer a wide range of main quest missions and side quests that will affect your reputation, making you popular or unpopular with certain people. And on top of that, when you level up you can put points into your Intellect attribute, which will also have an effect on your dialogue options. Here, again, the possibilities really are endless.
“You must gather your party before venturing forth”
In the course of the game you'll also have the opportunity to hire on companions who will accompany you on your journey. Not only is this something you should do – it's pretty much unavoidable, because Pillars of Eternity is no simple hack 'n' slash title. The combat system is really something else, and battles are extremely challenging and heavy on tactics. So if you're looking for an ARPG like Diablo, you're in the wrong place.Pillars of Eternity allows you to pause at any time, and this is something you're really going to have to make use of, especially during combat, where you'll have to strategically place all of your party members and issue individual orders for them to carry out. The pause button's actually your best friend, as this is a combat system that will punish you for every little mistake you make. By the same token, you should save your game as often as you can and spare yourself a great deal of frustration. Luckily there's a quick save feature for exactly that. This combat system is what makes the game so incredibly challenging, and for players that are new to the genre, it can really be exasperating, as just running into the fray and mashing attack buttons is guaranteed to lead to a quick death. Say you your Wizard casts a fire spell and one of your companions is in the way, he won't be immune to the damage. On top of that, when a character dies, they're dead for good, and can't be brought back to life. This means you're going to have to take a patient and tactical approach and be careful not to rush into things. If you need to hire some new adventurers, though, you can find them at inns throughout Eora. But make sure that your party members' skills and attributes comeplement each other well, too.
There isn't any multiplayer mode in Pillars of Eternity, but it would have been really hard to implement anyway, since Pause plays such a crucial role, and you need five or six characters if you hope to do any good in combat. Nevertheless, you can easily spend hours upon hours in single-player, and there's never a dull moment. Also, like in Baldur's Gate II, you can build and upgrade your own stronghold, which will lead to further buffs to your attributes and increase your prestige throughout the land. As you can see, Obsidian really covered all their bases with Pillars of Eternity, right down to the last detail.
"Fye, you're itching for the kindling touch of your sister..." Even in terms of graphics, Obsidian borrows heavily from Baldur's Gate here. The graphics aren't necessarily innovative, and if you're looking for extravagant visual effects, you're probably going to be a bit disappointed. Instead of epic cut scenes, Pillars of Eternity focuses on the tremendous depth of its plot, which is mostly conveyed via dialogue. Full audio is available for English only, but international versions do feature subtitles. Even so, they did their homework here; so for example, when an elf speaks with a strong regional accent, it gets translated into say, Bavarian for the German version. The musical soundtrack also fits the game really well, rounding out the whole experience quite nicely.
