Back in the day, when it came to story and character driven video games there were point and click adventure games and isometric dungeon crawler RPGs. Arguably, the most well known of these latter types are Baldur’s Gate I and II, IceWind Dale I and II, Fallout 1 and 2, and Torment: Planescape. They were an excellent way to experience a deep and engaging narrative that featured an abundance of player choice that impacted both story and gameplay. For many, it was also a way to experience the joys of tabletop gaming in a new and exciting way. Featuring an abundance of character customization and an emphasis on player choice impacting story, character relationships, and reputation. Fast forward a few years and Obsidian launches Pillars of Eternity, a fully crowd-funded endeavor and a modern love letter to the classic isometric western RPGs of old. It was met with critical and consumer praise and the DLC released for it was also considered a success. It is no surprise that Obsidian ran another wildly successful Kickstarter Campaign for a sequel, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. I’ve now had my hands on the game for a couple of months, diving into as many nooks and crannies as I can find, while also experiencing the number of updates made to the game since launch.
Every place feels distinct, interiors and exteriors
It should be noted up front that while there are references made to decisions and events from the first Pillars of Eternity game, it is not required to have played it to fully enjoy Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. Players can either import their save file from the first game or create a whole new character from scratch. The creation options are abundant featuring a variety of races, classes (especially with multi-classes), backgrounds, visual features (expanded with a free DLC), voices (also expanded with a free DLC featuring the voice talents from the D&D actual play series Critical Role as their characters), and weapons and spells. Once character creation is decided, the story starts with an encounter with the gods and “The Watcher” (the player character) surviving the aftermath of the god of light and rebirth Eothas erupting as a gigantic statue. This causes the complete destruction of “The Watcher’s” keep and continued destruction as Eothas makes his way across the Archipelago known as The Deadfire. The Deadfire is a series of islands caught in the middle of an intense capital venture war between the Huana, the native people of the Deadfire, the Principi, a loose organization of slavers, pirates, and vagabonds, and two trading companies, The Vallian Trading Company and The Royal Deadfire Company which are battling for economic control over the island chain, creating a world filled with strife and tension. This opens the door to interesting social interactions with the denizens of the Deadfire, which shift throughout the game based on decisions the player makes and the reputation that results.
The entire world in Pillars of Eternity II, like the first game, is presented in an isometric viewpoint. This surprisingly doesn’t keep the world from feeling rich and full of life, and I found the game pleasantly explorable as a result. It’s a rare choice to not have fully 3D rendered environments in this day, but it doesn’t hold Pillars of Eternity II back in any way. After all, this is exactly what the KickStarter backers wanted, a modern take on the classic western RPG formula. The isometric angle is accompanied with earthy and natural colors that reflect the varied environments encountered. The characters, creatures, animals, people, monsters, and any other living thing that is encountered are depicted with 3D models that are textured and rendered to look like they are apart from the world, but aren’t lost in it. I never had a problem picking my party out of a crowd or in the environment, but never thought they looked out of place either, its a fantastic balance that should be recognized.
The animation is equally impressive with natural movement for all the characters and animals (especially the animals), satisfying attack animations, and bright and epic spell effects. The active lighting looks amazing, casting shadows and adding depth and contrast to the overall look. Caves are suitably dark, warranting to have some characters ready with some optional weapon sets that include torches to light the way. The world map looks massive while traversing around in the available ship. Painted islands show terrain and notable locations as you sail past them. When pulling into a port of one of the major locations a fantastically beautifully illustrated map of the city comes up, and I’d argue are some of the best maps I’ve ever seen. I’d gladly frame high quality prints of them and hang them in my home.
Look at these gorgeous maps!
Look at them!
The core gameplay of Pillars of Eternity II is the same as the first and the classic games it is modeled after. Issue commands to a character in the party to attack, talk, cast, or interact with an enemy, NPC, or object. Time can be paused to issue these commands and when time resumes those actions are performed. This is mostly used during combat when things get pretty hectic; pausing really gives one a sense of what is happening, giving the player a chance to react to what is happening. The effectiveness of a character in any given task or situation depends on their equipment, class, character level, and skill points. The non-combat skills are utilized effectively in both social interactions and in short storybook-style descriptions of scenarios and puzzles, presenting action options based on what is available. A high insight can give a character unique responses and extra information in a social interaction or a puzzle can be solved if a grapple hook and rope are in the inventory. These things really help mix things up so the game doesn’t just only feel like a combat simulator.
While out on the high seas it is possible to engage in naval combat. This isn’t graphically represented, rather using the storybook presentation mentioned earlier. A small indicator graphic shows position and distance of the enemy ship in relation to yours. The ship can go forward, turn right or left, turn 180 degrees, fire cannons on the right or left side, and stop/slow down. The crew gains experience in their roles as they participate in battles and in various other encounters that can happen while out at sea. As the crew gains experience and become more proficient at their role, the chances of success get better against tougher ship captains. Ramming and boarding the enemy ship to fight them is also an option.
Color coding containers is useful for locations that are visited frequently!
Since Pillars of Eternity II came out in May, a number of updates and DLC have been added to enrich the overall experience. Whether it’s adding to some quality of life updates, or more content, these updates are worth mentioning. Aside from Monster Hunter, I haven’t seen this amount of free content for a game in a long while. One such addition enabled fans of the stream series Critical Role to have their character in-game sound like their favorite character from the series. Another DLC added more character customization options. Others add new sidekicks, items, ship upgrades, crew members, and locations. One simple, yet greatly appreciated update changed the color of crates, chests, and other containers to gray if you’ve already searched them. These types of updates make me appreciate this game so much more.
On top of that there is the paid DLC, which at this time there is one piece of content out, with two more to come. The first one Beasts of Winter add a new story line that involves investigating a strange cult that threatens to unleash a dangerous beast into the world. Beasts of Winter‘s story feels unique to this world’s fantasy, delving into the metaphysical side of the world with time manipulation, other planes of existence, and the relation of the gods to the Kith (people) and Eora (the name of the world the Deadfire is set in). The delivery of a strange letter prompts visiting an island with a growing sheet of ice stemming from it, upon arriving it is discovered there is a strange cult anticipating the end of the world. (As if having a giant statue stomping its way around the islands wasn’t enough!) This story is accompanied with some really challenging puzzles and combat that really freshens the experience, easily adding an additional ten hours of content. It’s safe to say that Pillars of Eternity II has some fantastic DLC and updates!
On the sound design front, Pillars of Eternity II features an incredible amount of voice acting. Nearly every NPC the player interacts with are relevant in some fashion to the story or a side quest and even errands have voice lines. The voice cast features the cast of Critical Role and Matthew Mercer lends his voice to two of the main party characters, really showing his range. I wasn’t able to tell until I was specifically listening for it! It really helps the world feel more immersive to have all of these characters voiced with various accents, making it easier to distinguish them from one another. Even their speech patterns, unique words, and slang is a testament to how well-written this game is on top of the voice actors’ performances. It is clear the team spent a lot of time building this world and creating language based on this world as a big part of their world building.
Ambient sound is ever-present: the sound of ocean air, crowds of people, sailors singing, animals, and anything else expected to hear in a location adds to the already immersive Deadfire. The quality of these ambient tracks is so well done that on quite a few occasions while playing with headphones, I thought I was hearing my housemates and family chatting in the other room and thought they were trying to talk to me, only to find confused faces staring back at me. The music in Pillars of Eternity II is appropriate to tone and environment at any given time, but very little of it tended to stand out, which is really the function of background music, but I won’t be buying the soundtrack anytime soon.
The storybook presentation is perfect for skill tests!
The writing in Pillars of Eternity II is phenomenal, so much so in fact it deserves its own paragraph here as it ties into a couple of the quality of life things included in the game as well.
Aside from the engaging and interesting main plot, just as much if not more attention was given to writing everything else. This keeps the pace of the game going, no matter what direction the player decides to go. Whether it’s helping one of the party members with their personal quests or coming across a letter that indicates a possible mutiny and deciding which side to take in it, it all has an air of quality about it. Each faction that inhabits this world has their own storylines to follow and interesting characters to interact with. Knowing this already has me planning future playthroughs as I’m sure to encounter great storytelling no matter the path chosen. The world building is solid; a lot of time had to have been spent developing each nation, city, and faction. They all have their own specific mannerisms, names for things, accents, cultures, it’s an impressive amount of detail rarely given to things that aren’t related to the main objective in a game. The game features a few things to help with all of this. Unique words and names will appear highlighted and when the cursor hovers above that word, a brief description of what it means will appear. This is crucial in knowing what a conversation is about if for some reason the player can’t quite remember the God of Death’s name or what a specific group of people call another group of people in this fictional world. There is also an in-depth journal that keeps track of every active and completed quest. They are well categorized based on importance, nation/faction, and progress. Showing previous progress made in the quest if something distracted you along the way or if a decision was made to return to it if there was a difficulty spike. Included in the journal is an encyclopedia that includes a massive amount of information related to the world and story of Pillars of Eternity, and a notes section where personalized and custom notes can be created. Another aspect I appreciate is that the writing team knew when not to write. Being able to name characters, companion animals, ships, newly charted islands, and make important decisions that impacts Deadfire make the entire experience that much more personal.
Behold the dashing hero of my campaign!
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is the culmination of twenty plus years of learning from what made those classic isometric RPGs great, how they could be improved upon for a modern audience, and improved upon based on feedback from the first game. The incredibly talented writing team made every choice feel important and impactful, weaving all the threads of those choices into an adventure that expands beyond the horizon of its central plot into a campaign that rivals those seen on Critical Role or a favorite series of novels. The active combat offers a good amount of challenge without the archaic rules that dominated games like Baldur’s Gate and IceWind Dale (frickin’ THACO), combined with a lot of modern conveniences. Free DLC, paid DLC, and the patches added over the last few months since release makes for a game that well exceeds expectations of what the genre can offer, all wrapped in a setting that begs to be explored. It should be noted that this game is a time investment, a single playthrough taking well over sixty hours. Though like a good book or movie it doesn’t feel that long.
Pillars of Eternity II gave me the tools and the inspiration to spin a yarn of my own design that rivals those told in my favorite epic fantasy series and novels with the opportunity to go back and do it all again and for that, Obsidian, I thank you.
For more information, check out the official website. For more reviews by Joseph, check out his Ni No Kuni II review.
A copy of the game was provided for the purpose of review.
