Pillars of Eternity

An older game but with great RPG, multi path scenarios and interlocking adventures. 3/4 overhead view. Runs smooth with only rare glitches. Can't beat the price.

Review: Pillars of Eternity (2016) – A Triumph of Classic RPG Design

Pillars of Eternity is a love letter to the golden age of isometric roleplaying games, and it executes that homage with remarkable finesse, depth, and heart. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment and funded through Kickstarter, this 2016 release revitalizes the genre with a rich narrative, intricate world-building, and a tactical combat system that rewards strategic thinking.

From the outset, the game impresses with its world—Eora—a setting steeped in lore and philosophical depth. The central theme of souls and reincarnation isn’t just window dressing; it permeates the game’s quests, characters, and moral choices, giving the player’s actions real narrative weight. It’s rare to see such a mature, thoughtful exploration of metaphysical ideas in a game, and Pillars pulls it off with nuance.

Character customization is vast, allowing players to craft a protagonist that fits their playstyle and moral outlook. Whether you prefer the brute strength of a barbarian or the intricate spellcraft of a cipher, every class feels distinct and valuable. The companions you meet are also richly developed, each with personal storylines and complex motivations. Dialogue choices, often shaped by your character's background and attributes, make the roleplaying experience feel truly personalized.

The combat is a standout feature. It strikes a fine balance between real-time and pause-based strategy, reminiscent of classics like Baldur’s Gate while incorporating modern improvements in interface and mechanics. Encounters require thought, preparation, and tactical awareness, especially on higher difficulties.

Visually, the game is gorgeous in its own unique way. The hand-painted backgrounds are lush and atmospheric, blending nostalgia with modern graphical polish. The music, composed by Justin Bell, is haunting and memorable, adding gravitas to pivotal moments and enriching quieter scenes.

Ultimately, Pillars of Eternity succeeds because it respects its roots without being bound by them. It brings deep, choice-driven storytelling back to the forefront of the RPG genre while offering new players a gateway into the isometric RPG experience.

Verdict: 9.5/10
A modern classic. If you have any love for roleplaying games, Pillars of Eternity is not just worth playing—it’s essential.

I'm giving this a thumbs up, but I experienced a bug in the game that completely ruined the game for me and stopped me from finishing it.
The game would randomly drop to the easiest difficulty mid play session. I would do one area on hard and the next would be set to easy. The only way to "fix" the issues would be to load an earlier save from before I entered the area.
I found threads regarding this bug from back in 2015, but no answers. I played like this as long as I could, but eventually it just became too much of a hassle.

you can introspect your inner confusion about all existential ideas, ideals, and nonsenses in this game (along side it). oh, it's a fantastically made cRPG that hearkens the beginnings and ends. oh, it's a great game.
[jank at times in terms of positioning, but you can manage stategies, typical rela time with pause stuff. loads of beautiful items and locales. characters are surface level and relatable, and the game gives room for silence to drive in the deep introspection and ego, etc. the score is on of a kind. and no the dev's did not just repeat the tropes of the 90's era cRPG's. this game is unique.]

great game. but it's hard to understand this game because my english is not so good

Got it for a long time, but just recently got into POE and its amazing so far.

Great story but just not fun mechanically to play, should of just made it turn based. You'll get more enjoyment watching someone else play for the story aspects of the game.

Classic story-telling in a slightly quaint and dated but still thoroughly enjoyable format. A must for BG3 players looking to learn more about the history of the genre or any old school isometric rpg fans who somehow missed it when it was released.

A masterpiece. Everything I loved about the old Baldur's Gate games, but with massively improved QoL and mechanics designed from the ground up for a computer game as opposed to a TTRPG. If you like CRPGs, this is a must-play.

If you're in any way a fan of isometric RPGs, do yourself a favour and buy this. Even if you're not usually into the kind of classic CRPG style of game give it a try, especially if it's on sale- amazing value for a great game- as it completely changed my opinion on the genre and opened up a new world for me. I love Pillars so much.

After playing and enjoying Avowed (especially the world-building), I figured I'd play Pillars as I'd never gotten around to it before. I was a little worried it would seem dated and old, but actually found it to a really great game and I have even more appreciation for the originality of the world-building.

Never read so much in game like in this one. It's a very immerssive even thought I couldn't follow the stories all the time. Sometimes I left the game for 2 or 3 weeks which always required a ramp up getting used to it again.

I would recommend to play it and start it every day to not loose the context otherwise you may forget about your intention and role you wanted to play this game. happened too often which made some decision just random.

You still can just save a reload but that's cheating :D

A good solid game. One crash and no bugs. GOOD JOB DEVS!

A wel thought out story, nice game mechanics and a treat for Baldur's Gate lovers.

If you love CRPGs then you owe it to yourself to try this game! I'm playing this game in the Real Time W Pause mode but they will be releasing a turn based mode soon that i cant wait to try as well. The world is unique and the story is intriguing and filled with great characters and tough decisions. The story constantly delves into topics such as the meaning of life and different perspectives on death and loss, loyalty, power and faith. Fantastic stuff and great abilities and spells. Try it out!

Some mechanics and progression felt good in the beginning.
I started the game in the highest difficult and even though I managed it, it just made the experience worse.
Overwhelming amount of enemies plus overwhelming amount of text everywhere worn me out by the middle of the campaign. By the end I just wanted to be done with it.
Companions with little charisma and reactivity didn't help it either.
4/10 The game is massive in all it's boring aspects.

I tried this first about a decade ago, not long after the Kickstarter, and I found it a bit forbidding to get into, a bit staid, and the combat messy. With Avowed releasing I decided to give it another shot; not really expecting to play too long. Well, I finished it, with DLC, all companion quests, leaving only a handful of bounty quests undone. What changed? Well, I did. I'm a decade older, and my tastes shifted. But also I felt like the bittersweetness of the themes and the deepness of the characters beneath their outwardly tropey exteriors was more accessible to me now. I also turned on the "auto-pause on almost every combat event trigger" and that made the combat feel a lot more coherent to me. Finally, before I dove in, I read the supplemental material: the Collectors Book, the Almanac, the maps. Going in with that grounding was tremendously rewarding, feeding right back into the characters and events of the game. This is one to luxuriate in; not rush through.

I like RPGs a lot but I am not very good at this game, still, I really like the writing and do enjoy the combat when I'm not getting obliterated

If you like world building, very well written dialog, and fun/ interesting characters then this is the game for you. combat can be super challenging and also come out of no where which can keep you on your toes.
I did notice some bugs that would pop up here and there but a quick google search helped me figure it out.
P.S. make sure you do all the fun side quests in this game before jumping down in the hole. its worth it.

If you want to experience an awesome RPG, similar to what Fallout or Arcanum used to be, this is it.
It's not perfect, but it blows most others out of the water. PoE was so good that many people like myself would autobuy any game set in this world, just hoping it would be 3/4 as good.

I finished it two or three times, and when they release Turn Based Mode for this, I would just immediately install it again.

If you enjoy reading dense fantasy novels with prose that's immerse in its world-building, this is a treat. I'd go as far as to say that, in terms of emulating a fantasy novel, PoE is contender for being the best RPG at this.

The story is very engaging, interesting and entertaining. The mechanics are tweaked beyond the standard RPG and everyone of those additions I enjoyed. The art style it pretty great as well. I never got bored looking around at the maps etc.

Один из лучших представителей своего жанра. Имхо такой формат боевки в разы предпочтительнее пошаговой запары

If you're into lore-heavy RPGs, go for it. Just be aware the lore is dense and you probably won't understand all the nuances of the various races and nations on your first character.

I have tried to play this game over and over since it came out. Could never do it, I am forcing myself to play it now, and it's ok, there's still the odd bug that was never fixed that you'll come across. It feels like a mediocre experience at best. Owning your own keep sounds cool and all, but some of the features it brings are terrible (I'm looking at you prison cells). The market value on items is ridiculous as usual, thankfully you can just travel around with an endless storage of near worthless items. But somewhere in there is an okay story.

It's an alright experience, a solid 7 out of 10.

I tried getting into this game couple of times. You have to babysit AI path finding during combat to go around table etc.

Really great writing and characters and a good ending. I played most of the game on "story mode" difficulty because I did not like the combat system at all. I understand that real time with pause was a nod to the old Baldur's Gate games, but it got repeatedly in the way of me enjoying the story. Still worked well as a package, I did not miss more intense fights.

here's a random review out of nowhere because I saw this in my steam library again even though it's been a while.

I wanted to be more immersed in this but I wouldn't say I would never recommend it. that said, I highly think that this is a matter of preference. I like some characters (few) but a lot of them just felt like generic DnD troupe (I'm not normally anti-DnD troupe or archetypes at all) and I find it difficult to deeply empathize with them as if they're beyond video game characters living their lives. I find myself feeling a separation between me and the game and experienced a constant reminder that I'm not in it (I rarely felt that divide with some other RPGs like say shadowrun: hongkong). I say this even when I like some other games with heavy ttrpg/DnD elements such as divinity original sin 2 (I like that one a lot better and was much more immersed) because there's just something about it that humanizes characters better imo. I feel like some characters in this game are just stereotypes of those commonly drawn archetypes to the point that they feel less dimensional and it feels a bit off despite the fact that the voice acting is good.

the main plot is awesome on paper to me but I don't know why I'm just not that into it in practice. love the concept of characters coming from different cultures and background but it doesn't feel like some parts of the game harmonize that well so stories might feel a bit fragmented and less natural when they come together. that said though, I can see people being into this stuff more than I was (still have to finish the game but got bored semi-bored really).I feel like I might eventually regret this review (who knows) if my opinions change after I go back to finish it (if I do) but also I'm speaking from 83.7 hours of gameplay experience at this point in time. I love the graphics. love the pause option (I'm more of a turn-based person). don't hate it.

if I'm feeling very generous I'd give this a 7 something out of 10 but for now I guess 6.5~ or a bit more or less. I don't really want recommend it but I also don't want to say I absolutely don't recommend it so the thumbs up or down system feels arbitrary to me at this point in time.

First off: I don't like real time with pause, now based on reviews from people who like that kind of gameplay it is good though.

Now with that said, is there something in this game for those who don't enjoy this gameplay? Yes! The game was slow to start and there's a lot of side quests I didn't care for, but there's also a lot of interesting questlines and characters. My biggest problem in the writing is that it sometimes felt lacking, there are many factions in the game but it rarely felt like we got a lot of engagement with them. A few quests here and there and a reputation sign and that's about it. The ending slides will be a bit different and such.

Despite that it is still a great story with a very fashinating lore, the companions are interesting and have very unique personalities with good voice acting.

For the downsides it all seems to be based on a relatively low budget, I don't know the budget of this game but have to assume it was pretty low for an RPG of this scale. Only parts of the game is voiced, with majority of side quests and parts of the main quests being written instead of voice. It is not a very pretty game, with mediocre graphics and non memorable artstyle (beside when they use actual art and Caed Nua). While understandable and by no ways a dealbreaker I consider this a negative for the game.

Overall very solid game, but didn't quite grab me as I had expected leading to playing through it slowly over a long period of time.

Good game play and characters. Your interactions have an effect on how the world sees you. Though it's in isometric view, it wasn't too much of a hindrance on game play. There are multiple paths to take during this game as well as multiple tasks and missions. I like building a team to see what works with the circumstances given.

Good game with interesting history, but not my kind of game.

Isometric 4 the win!

Really good game. I've owned it forever, but finally pushed through to the end including both DLCs after getting Deadfire on sale. I wanted an endgame save. This game mostly stands the test of time, with no lack of features to aid QOL. My overall hours are inflated by starting and quitting several runs.

I play these types of games more for the character/party/base building and battles rather than the story. I felt like the story was good, and presented a lot of different choices, some more consequential than others.

Character building was solid, maybe even great, but not amazing. A lot of repetitive build choices in terms of feats or whatever they are called in this game.

The combat is fun and many battles needed to be approached strategically and were quite challenging. Satisfying to finally win sometimes.

Looking forward to Deadfire.

not a big fan of real time with pause gameplay but i liked the little bit of poe2 that i played so i want to play this one and get to use my save file for the second game, and i dont wanna wait until they add turn based in like 6 months or so

i really like the worldbuilding and lore though so thats enough to push me through

Very fun. I kickstarted this way back when and I do not regret it.

Easily one of the greatest CRPGs ever made. I wasn't expecting much going in, but came out with a genuinley philisophically moving game with some of the best worldbuilding I've ever seen in an rpg.

Gameplay tragedies

But in terms of the gameplay itself, it's kind of mediocre. The RTWP combat hasn't aged too great, it feels pretty janky and not entirely fun, either. The pathfinding is kind of atrocious. A lot of times companions choose the worst possible route to reach their destination and end up spazzing trying to get there. There are, admittedly, some pretty interesting ideas for the classes and their kits. I especially like how customizable wizards are and how the grimoire system works. I'm not particularly excited for the turn based mode they said was coming later this year, given how that turned out in Deadfire.

Worldbuilding

But if you disregard the combat, Pillars has one of the richest fantasy worlds that's ever graced this format. I love Eora, I love its weird but plausible gods, its nations, its history. The whole game feels historically grounded without feeling too much like a 1:1 allegory onto the real world. The world feels extremley lived in, and a lot of little details go a long way to sell that. How you can find all sorts of different currencies depending on where you are in the world. How you can see the impact of thousands of years of different wars, occupations and past religions on various areas. How intricate and realistic the dialogue feels, not like the characters are in a video game, but in a real, breathing world.

Act 1

The exploration is one of the highlights of the game, too. The music and the nostalgicly beautiful landscapes makes your treks through the Dyrwood feel both moody and cozy. This makes the first act, Gilded Vale and its surrounding wilderness, really work for me. Gilded Vale is such a gnarled and hopeless place, the first entrance into the town and seeing how dark and gloomy it was with that iconic tree really set the tone for the rest of the game. Raedric and the general reaction to the legacy as a whole was a really interesting look at human behavior when confronted with something unknowable. Raedric was a great villain to start the game off with and show how morally messy the themes and motivations of the game were going to be.

Act 2

I've seen a lot of people say they loved act 1 but then dropped the game in act 2 because there were "too many side quest". They're not entirely wrong, but it's a shame, because I think they've robbed themselves of some genuine peak. Defiance Bay (despite its really stupid on the nose name for a revolutionary city) is a really intricatley crafted fantasy city and its quickly become one of my favorite video game cities, in general. It all flows so well together. Yes, there are a lot of quests, but I think that should kind of be the point of a big city in a game, right? The quests and "exploration" of the city all flows really nicely. You get into Copperlane, for instance, and are overwhelmed with quests, with factions, with locations; you hear people mentioning something with the catacombs. You find a man with a quest for said catacombs, you go do the quest, and in the process you find the temple of Woedica for the main quest. You go wipe out the temple and emerge in First Fires, where you meet the Crucible Knights, and now you're tangled up in the conflicts between the three factions. The three factions, by the way, are great. I was expecting them to be pretty one-dimensional, but I was surprised at how complex and multi-layered they were. The Knights, for instance, weren't just a fantasy law enforcement group. They had their own strange culture, their worship of Abydon and love of smithing as well as their strange fascination with the purity of actions in their members past lives. I love how doing quests for the factions puts you at odds with the other factions. It's all great stuff, good job to Obsidian.

Act 3 and the Kickstarter problem

There is a pretty big issue with the game's foundation and conception as a whole, and that is that it was born out of a Kickstarter. The ugliness of the Kickstarter is all around you with those annoying Kickstarter npcs littered everywhere with their boring walls of text and those horrible grave epitapths. The effects of the Kickstarter go further than just the individual donation rewards with the stretch goals. I love having Caed Nua being a stronghold as a concept, and some of its features are pretty neat. The petitioners who come and visit your keep had a fair amount of reactivity, for example. Having a giant, 15 level mega-dungeon undeer your keep that you revisit throughout the game obviously sounds pretty cool, and its executed pretty well, too. Most of the floors are unique enough with their own quests, loot and little backstories. By the last 5 floors, though, it starts to kind of fizzle out, some of those floors feel like filler. Yenwood field was great, too, but that's where the good of the Stronghold kind of stops. The prison system is laughably pointless, you can't take any notable antagonists prison, stronghold security and bandit attacks never feel like they work the way they should, the bounties are kind of lazy. An even bigger issue with the Kickstarter is act three. It might've been a bad idea to link the entire last act of the game to a "big city number 2!" stretch goal. I loved the first thirty or so minutes of Twin Elms, I loved learning more about the Glanfathian culture, about their tribes and weird customs, I loved how beautiful and serene the music was throughout. It seemed like it was going to write itself, too. You were going to have to garner the support of some of the tribes in order to gain access to the rest of the city? The alliances or enemies you make with the Tusks, Fangs, Arrows (etc etc) would affect things later on in the act? I was getting really excited for this but then there's some stupid orlan spirit who shows up and tells you that you can actually explore the city and they won't care because you're a watcher. The druidic orders you can gain reputation with have almost nothing to do compared to the Defiance Bay factions, and you have to wipe them out in their entirety to progress the main quest. There's a lot of giant interior spaces with nothing to do but a lot of low health enemies you're forced to kill. There are still some highlights in act 3 (talking to the delegams and the gods, for instance) but it mainly left me disapointed.

Act 4 and the companions

The end made up for that, I think. The final reveal, the conversation you have with Iovara and Thaos at the end, it was all genuinely kind of perfect. It was really where the philosophical messages and claims of the game really came into view and it left me kind of speechless at the end. The ending slides were really well done too, I loved seeing the fates of the places you visited and the companions you traveled with be impacted by your choices throughout the game. The companions, who I haven't mentioned yet, were all fantastic too. Eder was a peak fiction character, he felt like a real person in this fictional but grounded world, Durance is one of the greatest rpg companions ever (too bad his quest glitched for me and he ended up killing himself in the end slides), Sagani's quest and ending was one of the more raw and moving things in the game, Kana could be a little much at times but he's just really happy to be alive which I can't really fault him for.

Final Score : 9.7/10
Held back by some kickstarter tragedies, but overall a beautifully written and philosophically engaging game with a really captivating setting, great companions, great quests, great exploration, okay combat

I never played a RTWP game before, but after Avowed I wanted to play more of this series. Pillars of Eternity is awesome, I love basically everything about it.

Perfect Steam Deck game btw

Fantastic game one of the best CRPGs i've played since BG2 and that is saying something.

If someone told you that you don't need to play this game before Deadfire, they clearly have no idea what they are talking about... and you only hurting yourself not play this game.
Although they change and revamp alot of stuff in Deadfire...

Re-purchased on Steam after playing on GOG a few years ago.
It's my favorite CRPG ever. Matt Mercer voice the best two characters in the game: Aloth, and Eder. And there are other Critical Roles voice actor in there as well :)
The world or Aora lore is rich and deep. There are plenty of books, short stories, and the game guides and manual is filled with RPG lore. It's great stuff for RPG enthusiasts.

Took me a long time to actually get around to playing it, but it was a great game. Very deep story and world, look forward to the second game & Avowed at some point.

This is the first Real Time with Pause combat game I've played essentially, and at times it was simply chaos, but I got better as time went on.

I'm more comfortable with turn based combat, but it was unique for me in this instance.

The visuals and world are beautifully detailed.

I played with Developer Commentary enabled and it was nice to hear some insights into development and design decisions for specific areas as I was playing them, I do wish they were pause-able in game though.

Great RPG. Hits all the right notes? Polished and engaging. Highly recommended,

essential CRPG with one of the best stories. It is showing its age somewhat, and Deadifre is much, much better, but this is still one of the classics of the genre

This is the first CRPG I have played through to its end, I have tried a few in the past but never really took to the genre. I'm a bit older now so I decided to stick with it and try to understand the appreciation people have for these games, wow have I had my mind opened.

Pillars of Eternity is an incredible experience. It's engrossing, pulsing with vitality, teeming with endearment, a great story well unravelled, rewarding of effort, nourishing of the mind, it's simple but with depth. There is a learning curve when you start out which will determine whether you continue with the game and a lot of reading that can put you off, but it is imperative to be able to weave the rich and captivating tapestry of the game's character. If you can endure the acclimatisation process and you are still in decent shape, everything from that point just starts to grow and flourish.

It really felt different to other games I've played, it was refreshing and rejuvenating to play, not a grind or inconsistent. I enjoyed the vast majority of my time in Eora and it has reignited the affection I have for gaming in general, reminding me of what the art can be. You can feel the love and passion infused into Pillars' creation, it takes itself seriously and in turn is life-affirming.

I'm a bit undecided on the story's ending but it really is only a minor contemplation in the grand scheme of things. A great game I will remember for a long time, thank you Obsidian.

This is going to feel right at home for anyone who has played the classic Infinity Engine titles. It is a fantastic spiritual successor to those games, an inspiration that it wears on its sleeves. It plays much like a modernized version of those games, with the same Real-Time with Pause combat and old-school CRPG aesthetic, but using its own well designed ruleset rather than adapting an existing tabletop system.

Character creation is fantastic, with lots of options for builds. No matter what class you pick, every attribute has some level of benefit. Int gives spellcasters bigger AoE, for example, but that also applies to melee class abilities. It's a very forgiving class system, and while it is certainly possible to create a sub-optimal character by not paying attention to what the different attributes do, there's no need to min-max your character on regular difficulties.

It does require some legwork from the player, as there's not much in the ways of a tutorial. The game throws a lot of information at you, and expects you to figure it out. It's by no means a difficult game to learn, it's all fairly intuitive, but you'll have to thoroughly read through the combat log, ability descriptions, and your character sheet to get a full grasp of the game mechanics.

The world of Eora absolutely delivers on the worldbuilding, and it delivers it through a copious amount of lore books and exposition, some of which will even be relevant to the main story.
The start of the game I found especially compelling, with the hollowborn crisis and the surrounding conflict. The game has a lot of really creative ideas, but the execution of some of those towards the latter half of the game is a little unsatisfying. Still kept me engaged the entire way through, the writing of the game is incredible. There's lots of nuance both in its quests and its characters, particularly for the companions that follow you throughout the game. Their conflicts are all deeply rooted in the world, they all have their own perspectives and beliefs, and their own side quests tying into the main storys themes. Durance in particular ended up being one of my favorite RPG companions, in all his insufferable glory.

While the main story has a few kinks, its DLC, The White March, delivers some of the best content in the game. Its story feels more focused, with stronger pacing, more companions, further expanding upon and exploring the themes of the main game.
The DLC is available as a side adventure during the main story, and I'd recommend playing it before you start the third act of the game.

Whether someone wants a more polished entry point to this style of game than some of the older titles, or if they just want more of that style of game, I can strongly recommend Pillars of Eternity.

You must gather your party before venturing forth.

Great Game, after 65 hours of playtime im absolutely hooked. The Story is greatly written and the tactical aspect of the fights is sometimes a bit much but its very interesting and has a very high learning curve.

This is a good RPG, and they sale the type of DLC that I consider really worth buying. A high res map, wallpapers, a freaking novella, that's just cool.

More devs should strive to make games like this.

If they patched health/endurance and resting to work like it does in Deadfire this game would have been a masterpiece, as it is right now I can't recommend the game.

That said, I love this game.

Played on easy mode, story was lame. I died a lot to lame interactions, waste of my time.

For someone who's not a huge fan of CRPGs, it's challenging but pretty good.

Personally, I don't mind the text walls which I know many complain about. I could not read all the dialogues in BG1 and BG2, but this one is fine in this aspect. The combat is on the harder side but also pretty ok, considering I've played through a lot of classic CRPGs and beaten honour mode in BG3.

What's difficult for me is, broadly speaking, that things are a bit difficult to navigate. My biggest obstacle so far has been getting stuck in a big dungeon because I explored most of it but couldn't find my way to complete the quest.

Can't really speak on the lore and world building since I've not gone that far yet, but I've played Avowed and really enjoyed the lore there. I can only say you'd like it if fantasy worlds and pantheons are your thing.

Honestly, it might fall into my backlog if it was a standalone game, but Deadfire seems so good and I thoroughly enjoyed Avowed, which presents the RPG elements in a format much more friendly to me and I believe most people, so I will power through this game before Avowed gets any expansions.

Enemy AI in this game is really good. Get the game people. Play it and import your character into poe2 and enjoy.

Excellent CRPG with a well fleshed out original setting with unique, yet familiar trappings of the genre.