Author Topic: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire  (Read 1626 times)

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Offline FlamingCobra

  • An Experiment In Weaponised Annoyance
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Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Fig crowdfunding campaign

Obsidian is making a sequel to Pillars of Eternity. If you like classic CRPGs, the Infinity Engine games, or Pillars 1, give these guys money.

 

Offline zookeeper

  • *knock knock* Who's there? Poe. Poe who?
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Re: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I gleefully bought (but didn't fund) PoE because it seemed so great, but it was ultimately quite a disappointment. Despite being exactly what I wanted a modern Infinity Engine -like RPG to be in a technical sense, the characters and story dropped my lasting impression from "flawed gem" to "missed opportunity". Certainly many characters were good and some of the story was good, but for me, the good bits were not enough to compensate for the nonsensical villain's plot, the underwhelming ending and having to suffer the existence of Kana Rua.

I guess I'll pass on this one until I get to read some reviews based on a full playthrough. :blah:

 

Offline Mikes

  • 29
Re: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I gleefully bought (but didn't fund) PoE because it seemed so great, but it was ultimately quite a disappointment. Despite being exactly what I wanted a modern Infinity Engine -like RPG to be in a technical sense, the characters and story dropped my lasting impression from "flawed gem" to "missed opportunity". Certainly many characters were good and some of the story was good, but for me, the good bits were not enough to compensate for the nonsensical villain's plot, the underwhelming ending and having to suffer the existence of Kana Rua.

I guess I'll pass on this one until I get to read some reviews based on a full playthrough. :blah:

The story was quite philosophical in places ... and frankly, I found it very very good and unique, as few games explore the questions PoE did and even fewer in such depth. (Expansion included)

Milage may vary I guess, as your post proves. ;-)

 

Offline zookeeper

  • *knock knock* Who's there? Poe. Poe who?
  • 210
Re: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
The story was quite philosophical in places ... and frankly, I found it very very good and unique, as few games explore the questions PoE did and even fewer in such depth. (Expansion included)

Milage may vary I guess, as your post proves. ;-)

Well, indeed I don't really care about "exploring questions" as such, although I don't even know what questions it was supposedly exploring. What bugged me was that I barely saw the villain at all, and by the point at which I figured I'd finally get my big run-in with him to kickstart the game's final act, it instead just ended without the villain's plot or the big reveal making much sense at all.

Sure, a lot of the individual ideas and elements in the story/plot were refreshing, good and unique, but for me it just didn't form a satisfying whole. I blame a lot of that on the last segments of the game, though; I know I didn't particularly dislike playing most of the game (even despite about half of the companions being completely insufferable), but I expected a lot more from the overall plot so when it fell flat it retroactively sort of dragged my view of the game as a whole down with it.

 

Offline Mikes

  • 29
Re: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
The story was quite philosophical in places ... and frankly, I found it very very good and unique, as few games explore the questions PoE did and even fewer in such depth. (Expansion included)

Milage may vary I guess, as your post proves. ;-)

Well, indeed I don't really care about "exploring questions" as such, although I don't even know what questions it was supposedly exploring. What bugged me was that I barely saw the villain at all, and by the point at which I figured I'd finally get my big run-in with him to kickstart the game's final act, it instead just ended without the villain's plot or the big reveal making much sense at all.

Well again, opinions may of course vary. To me however, without giving away too much spoilers, the villain, your shared "history" with the villain and ultimately the entire question about the nature of the gods and how that revelation would motivate one person in a certain way and someone else in an entirely different way ... was a huge reason what I found so great about the game. Hands down the best I have played in years if not decades in my humble opinion.

Even more so as the final "reveal" was so relevant to many of the games earlier explored moral/philosophical issues. Pillars and the expansion as well, imho really managed to make a convincing argument for a certain viewpoint/worldview (or several for different worldviews actually), only to later put you to the test with a difficult decision that explored just how "convinced" you were exactly by the games earlier argument(s).

As said above, I was quite positively surprised and delighted by the entire experience.


If I wanted to nitpick, then nostalgy would have made me wish for one of those old school Bioware romances that I found so enthralling - as I was much younger :P ... on the other hand, the themes and questions Pillars offered were so much more mature and nuanced that a (typically at least somewhat cheesy) romance would maybe have taken away from it, rather than adding to it. ;-)

« Last Edit: February 01, 2017, 08:59:33 am by Mikes »

 

Offline Aesaar

  • 210
Re: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Obsidian have said they really don't like Bioware-style romances and I can't say I blame them.

  

Offline Mikes

  • 29
Re: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Obsidian have said they really don't like Bioware-style romances and I can't say I blame them.

Oh I'd definitely agree (by now). I found the latest entries into that category rather cringeworthy as well.