I recently finished my
first playthrough of Pillars of Eternity. I played on Easy (default
difficulty), did some side-quests, completed the Caed Nua (fort/home
sub-storyline) but this was not a completionist playthrough.
Obviously there are some spoilers within but I’ve kept them as
light and possible and don’t believe they compromise the story
significantly.
Character Creation
There’s a huge degree
of choice here, which affects both combat and roleplaying. As well as
both genders, there are six races, each with at least one subtype,
eleven classes (I erroneously said thirteen in my early impressions
blog), customisable attribute stats and numerous background options.
Of the races, there are
the fantasy staples of men, elves and dwarves, along with the unique
aumaua (reptilian beefcakes), orlans (pointy-eared midgets), and
godlikes (who look a bit freaky). The classes include standard fare
(rangers, fighters, rogues etc) and some more unusual options
(ciphers, chanters etc).
The only real downside
to character creation is that there are so many options it can be
hard to pick what to go for.
Story
The protagonist begins
as part of a caravan headed for Gilded Vale, where the local lord has
offered a good deal for new settlers. However, the protagonist has
fallen ill, and so camp is made beside some ruins. What could
possibly go wrong?
After the wrongdoing
occurs, the player learns their character has become a Watcher, able
to see into people’s past lives. It’s a bit freaky, and you
continue on your journey to find out more…
The game is text- and
lore-heavy. Personally, that’s not a problem (although it is a
little overdone early on) but for some people this will be
off-putting. One thing that did irk me was that there’s a lot of
voice-over but sometimes (in the same conversation) the voice will be
absent entirely and it’ll be just text, which is a little jarring.
I found five (there are
more, it seems) companions on my playthrough, and each was
distinctive both in combat and story terms. They’d have banter
together, interject into my own conversations, and sometimes you can
take them aside for a chat. They’re a good little crew, each with
their own motivations and character.
World-building is
extensive, and if you want to delve into it there is extra
information (both lore and gameplay relevant) in the bestiary, as
well as an encyclopaedia of information about gods and so forth.
As for the central
plot, it hangs together well whilst allowing plenty of scope for
side-questing. I don’t want to say too much. I did enjoy it, though
here and there the twists were a little easy to see coming.
Gameplay
Combat is real time but
can be paused easily and commands given to each party member
(including animals following rangers, or summoned beasts). There’s
a nice array of interesting commands that enable magical or physical
effects and make, as usual, a balanced party more than the sum of its
parts.
One thing that was
absent which would’ve improved things was tactics. You can set a
basic disposition for companions but you can’t pre-set tactical
commands (as per FFXII or Dragon Age: Origins). On the upside, you
can determine one or two customised formations, putting your
beefcakes on the front row and having the weedy wizards at the back.
Combat isn’t scaled,
so enemies have a certain toughness. If you wander into an area
that’s beyond you, you will know, as the enemy sets about
transforming your party of adventurers into worm food. There also
isn’t random combat (you can sneak past enemies sometimes, if you
like) and once you kill all enemies in an area, that’s usually it
and they’ll be gone forever.
Experience is granted
both for combat victories and advancing quests, and proceeds on an
increasing basis (so, 1,000 xp for one level, then 2,000, then 3,000
etc) so the rate of levelling declines over time. I was level 10 when
I finished the game, but I suspect it would’ve been possible to get
significantly higher.
There is crafting of
potions, cooking of food and enchanting of weapons and armour but
this isn’t given a particular introduction (check the bottom of the
inventory menu) and I missed it for some time. Good incentive to
collect shiny rocks and magic weeds, which take up no inventory
space.
If party members are
knocked out (and they can be killed permanently but this is easy to
head off) they acquire injuries that damage their stats, and if
they’re tired much the same occurs. Both fatigue and wounds can be
removed by resting either at a camp (camping supplies are limited,
you can’t lug around 20 odd) or an inn. These rests can also confer
bonuses, so paying for the swankiest room at the inn can be well
worth it.
As well as a number of
fleshed out party members, you can also make your own at any inn.
Especially useful for higher levels when getting the balance just
right will matter more.
Whether you fix up the
fort of Caed Nua or not is up to you. There is a related quest line,
and certain features offer resting bonuses or other advantages (I
particularly enjoy the bounty tasks).
Away from combat the
gameplay focuses upon the numerous decisions the protagonist makes.
These vary a lot by choice (being nice or nasty etc), and by unique
opportunities your particular race, class, background might afford.
This gives a real sense of your adventure being a unique one rather
than running through the exact same routine every time you play. In
most RPGs nowadays, decisions that change things are actually pretty
rare. Here, they seem to happen in pretty much every quest.
Graphics
The isometric view
can’t be rotated but you can zoom in or out and the camera is
rarely problematic. The nature of the game doesn’t place the
emphasis on graphics, but they’re clean enough, and I like the
style of art used in the rare ‘cut-scenes’ (parchment with ink
drawings and options to do this or that) and bestiary. Functional and
fine would be the way I’d put it.
Sound
The music practically
oozes fantasy, sometimes reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, sometimes
Final Fantasy or The Witcher 3. Sound effects are pretty good and
voice-acting is generally strong. One quibble I’d have (and this
might just be me, because I’m quite into voice-acting) is that
sometimes you can tell when two characters have the same
actor/actress and it makes my VA senses tingle (although it’s a
long way from Oblivion…).
Longevity/Replayability
The game advertises
itself as 70 hours. Not sure how long I spent, but I can easily
imagine exceeding that amount. Varying difficulty settings,
roleplaying opportunities, and some extra settings (like having your
save file auto-delete if you die) certainly open up the possibility
of multiple replays.
Bugs and Other Issues
I’ve mentioned a few
things above and shan’t repeat them, but one I’d add would be
that load screens are both frequent and long. Usually this sort of
thing doesn’t bother me (Dragon Age Inquisition/Skyrim never made
me gripe) but they are excessively long/frequent.
I only had the one
freeze throughout, during a load screen, which isn’t too bad. So,
loading aside, not much to complain about.
Conclusion
Some rough edges to
sand off and polish, and if you dislike lore/text-heavy games then
avoid this one, but if you like an in-depth story world with a great
range of roleplaying opportunities then this is very much a game you
should seriously consider buying.
Thaddeus
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