I personally became a huge fan of Obsidian Entertainment when they brought me the sequel to one of my top games of all time, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I loved being able to jump back into that world and wield The Force so perfectly, the ending could have been better, but Bioware took up the mantel of bad endings. I remember being excited for Alpha Protocol as well, but feeling disappointed after getting my hands on the title, I stopped looking for titles from them. Then I heard from the grapevine that Obsidian was going back to RPG’s, something that I loved them for at the onset, that rumor was Pillars of Eternity. I was suddenly excited for this title, but super bummed once I found out the platform it was coming to, PC only; and seeing as I’m not part of the PC Master Race I feared I would never play this RPG. Then Obsidian decided to put the game on consoles and I jumped at the chance to play this title even though I’m very new at Real-Time Party RPG’s. I knew the world they would create would be amazing, and I wasn’t wrong; this game lures you in and keeps you trapped.
Since I’m a newcomer to this type of series I decided to play on Easy so that I could enjoy my experience and not freak out at every battle I would lose. Thankfully Obsidian gives many levels of difficulty to play, there was even one that was easier than Easy, which I declined, I wanted to experience some of the battles so that I could tell you about them. I knew that I was in for a huge experience in this game when I opened up the character creator and greeted with so much text that would ultimately lead me to chose my character. You can chose from six different races, Human, Aumaua, Dwarf, Eld, Orlan and Godlike; the most interesting design was Godlike, but I passed on the race. Once you pick a race you can pick a Sub-Race that has even more special attributes for the character you are creating. After reading everything several times I decided to go with a Pale Elf due to the fact that they had increased burn and freeze damage reductions. Once you chose Race and Sub-Race you get to chose class; Barbarian, Chanter, Cipher, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Priest, Ranger, Rogue and Wizard. I chose Barbarian because I like to swing my sword a lot. If you are a super picky gamer or just have some major OCD you could easily lose hours just creating your character and reading all the lore.
The look, feel and sounds of this game took me back to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, which to me is a very good thing. I like it when games pay homage to some of the very best of what came before, it reminds you of something great and adds to it, at least that’s what I think. There were times when I was in an Inn and decided to just sit there and enjoy the ambiance, the wooden floors, the dirty glasses and the wonderful music that played softly in the background. It made me wish there was actually a pub like this when I live, sadly there are not and I would probably have to go to England at some point to experience the real life version. What made everything stand out the most though was the fact that the backgrounds in the world were actually hand drawn. They are gorgeous backgrounds and they make the character models pop out on the screen, plus the way dialogue is handled makes the game seem like a real movie. When you speak the isometric camera heads towards you when your campaign speaks the camera shifts overhead to them which gives the game the feeling of cut-scenes without really having them. Instead, you are greeting with lots of dialogue boxes and wonderfully performed voice-over work.
The story is typical of all RPG’s, you, the lone hero, must cure what ails the world you are currently inhabiting. In this instance you find yourself in Dyrwood a place where all of the babies are being born, are being born without a very important thing. They are being born without their souls. Weird right? Well you, the lone hero, must find a way to stop this madness in this monster of an RPG. And when I say monster, I mean monster, you must be prepared to read a lot of dialogue and ask a lot of questions so that you can get new quests and learn about this strange land you are in. You also learn that this land in divided in thought, some people agree that animancy can be used. This animancy involves the manipulation of souls, some people are abhorred by it and others embrace it; you must remember this as you ask and answer questions throughout the world. One wrong answer could ruin your day in Dyrwood.
The controls for Pillars of Eternity are simple yet somewhat annoying. You control your avatar with the thumbsticks and interact with objects by pressing X, the world prompts you to press X when items are available or when there is a point of interest. Combat it when the game shows that it was made to play the best on a PC. When combat begins the game pauses and you use a little star reticle to command your characters to attack or cast spells. You place the reticle on your enemy and can press attack when prompted; Right Trigger opens the combat radial menu. When you open up the menu you can use Spells, Abilities, Quick Items and different Weapon Sets. You can choose them on the fly to defeat your enemies or to save your life when you health gets low. This is where I began to lose my enjoyment in the game after you attack or use a spell your little icon needs to refill before you can attack again. This made combat pretty boring to me, and reminded me of Dragon Age: Origins a near perfect game had the combat been better. I’m glad the story was so good in this game that it made me want to continue playing, had it not been I would have stopped because the combat irritated me.
I would suggest that long time RPG fans pick Pillars of Eternity up, it feels like a nice blast from the past and really sets off your nostalgia feelings. I loved the pop-up conversations even if they seemed to drag every now and then, and you must pay attention or you would lose parts of the story. I will say that it is very difficult for gamers new to these types of RPG’s, I have been playing video games since 1988 and I have a very difficult time succeeding in this game. If you are new to the series and have an undying love for Obsidian like I do, give the game a chance. When I saw it was coming to consoles I was considering pre-ordering it before my editor told me that I get to review it. I will say that after playing a substantial chunk of this game, I would have regretted not buying it, even though it is so foreign to me. I’m glad that I got to take a chance on it, and I think you should as well.
An Xbox One Review copy of Pillars of Eternity was provided by Obsidian Entertainment for the purpose of this review