Pillars of Eternity

Very good game.
I work a lot, don't have much time for this kinda thing, and still it fits in small bursts of gameplay from time to time.
The story is compelling (nothing outstanding, but good entertainement).
Game mechanics are not complex and it doesn't take much time learning it.

I am unsure how many people actually read all the countless dialogues and details hidden in the game. I absolutely loved POF. The plot, lore, and characters are memorable, interesting, really deep and somewhat relatable. The voice delivery is top notch (even if not many lines are voiced), the pace is great and never overwhelming.
The optional dungeon feels appropriate, challenging and rewarding.

If you like CPRG like Baldurs Gate, this is probably the closest you can get in immersing yourself in a deep, rewarding system in a world filled with backstories and interesting prospectives.

Absolutely adored.

Enjoyable game. Deep story (a little too wordy at times but I knew that going in).

I like the modernized CRPG combat. Many games are held back by the fact they're based off tabletop rules. But this game was built as a CRPG, and takes inspiration from the best elements of the genre. Great game!

Growing up in a cult and what this game means to me

Positive

• Fantastic story and characters
  
• Fantastic player agency, lots of great quests. Many solutions to quests that trust the player's intelligence and don't hand hold too much which was awesome
  
• Lots of dialogue skill checks and role play opportunities
  
• Satisfying almost Diablo-like combat (although very chaotic)
  
• Great music, a lot of tracks stick in my head, the battle track can get really annoying though
  
• Creating builds for different classes and gearing them out is very fun, you can retrain your character pretty much whenever you want for relatively cheap
  
• Upgrading the stronghold is just simple enough to be addicting
  
• You can choose how active you want to be in combat, the AI is pretty decent and I did use that through most of the game switching parameters for different fights but you can be as meticulous as you want which is great
  
• The gibs are so fucking satisfying, I cannot describe the quality of dopamine rush you get from literally punching an enemy so hard they fucking explode into bloody chunks
  

Neutral

• Combat was chaotic which was very entertaining but very frustrating as well. Never enough to get genuinely angry but 90% of the fights came down to positioning. The games health mechanics and cheap camping supplies balance this out so while it is messy it is still satisfying
  
• Woedica is a really funny name to say if you say it super loud like a producer tag, I stimmed hard on yelling that name in my apartment over and over again and I laughed my ass off every fucking time
  
• The game didn't really need any crafting or alchemy, I managed just fine barely touching these mechanics at all, but they are there for those that want to partake
  
• Exploration is just fine
  

Negative

• Pathfinding and positioning can be a struggle, there were many times when a character would circle the battlefield doing nothing or get stuck behind a teammate. Sometimes I would have to reposition by literally randomly clicking around until all the characters could reach an enemy
  
• I would have appreciated easier access to unique loot or just more of it, this seemed sparse in my playthrough. The prices for unique items are prohibitively expensive for early-mid game, especially if you have a full roster. It becomes very easy to amass money as you progress but by the time you have enough money to splurge on these items a lot of them are useless.
  
• I ran into some bugs in the late game, nothing game breaking but annoying nonetheless. At one point I was able to walk through a wall and trigger a story event and I had to reload my save but that was as intrusive as it got
  
• There were so many spells and damage types that didn't seem necessary for the length of the game and depth of battle BUT this might be something that flourishes under harder difficulties, I just played the game on normal
  
• Though I ended up absolutely loving the story, it is a slow start, I had a hard time caring about what was going on until a few hours in.
  
• Traversing the world can be a gigantic pain in the ass, you can only fast travel out of an area when you reach the edge of the map so there is a lot of pointless walking around. This is fine for the first trip to a location but when you're jumping between places rapidly for quest reasons, etc. it gets infuriating having to drag the map to the edge and clicking on the compass to fast travel and then just waiting for an entire two minutes for the characters to make their way there every single time. There isn't enough content density in the world to justify the amount of walking around.
  
[*] There needs to be a way to turn off the Kickstarter pledge content as I would sometimes forget and running into it would frequently ruin the immersion. The Kickstarter pledge NPCs were fun for flavor but it got extremely annoying to run into them at almost every corner of every populated area when I was just looking for quests.

Why this game matters to me personally and the very positive effect this game has had on my life as a victim of religious abuse

The characters are some of the best written characters I have ever seen in a game. A bit of a learning curve, but once you get the game down it is a blast!

Some of the best writing in cRPGs, maybe in games in general. Took me a couple tries to commit to it, thinking I wouldn't like RTwP. It's still not my favorite combat system, but the characters, lore, beautifully drawn maps, and music keep me coming back. Only in act 2 but so excited to experience the full story. Only kicking myself that I hadn't played it sooner.

Really fun game for someone who enjoys a well written isometric party based RPG. Great lore, story, combat mechanics and a Interesting and captivating adventure awaits you.

I missed this one when it came out so bought the bundle of 1 and 2 with the DLC during the Steam Sale. I like the story and quests but some of the game mechanics are very strange and annoying like going to the map edge to travel. Hope this is fixed in 2 and the upcoming new game from the company.

A familiar style in a new area with a fun take on real time combat with pause. The creative character stats and unique classes are familiar enough to allow for a lower barrier to entry but create enough of a new feel to challenge the casual player and demand the attention of a min-max gamer. Like some of their other masterpieces, this game delivers a great story with engaging combat worthy of the Obsidian studio name. If you're a fan of old school CRPGs, fantastic story line and creative combat scenarios then you cannot go wrong in giving Pillars of Eternity a try!

I already own this game in another launcher; I bought it again to have it on Steam as well. This is one of my most beloved games ever. It's peak dark fantasy with well-written characters and lovely worldbuilding. It's a story that brought me to tears and made me think and reflect on many things in life. The music is stunning, and I adore the voice acting. If you like isometric cRPGs and/or dark fantasy, I urge you to go for it!

RTWP (Real-Time-With-Pause) can basically be turn based if you time it decently. It makes auto-attack companions very viable and speed up the overall pace of combat. Very engaging story too.

No longwinded, self indulgent and overly verbose verbiage in this particular instance. Just a quick little itty bitty thumbs up because this is one of my favorite games of all time (of all time) and I just realized I never upvoted it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2570396048
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2553090645
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2555095305
Strap in for a hot-take, and hold onto something before reading on: I prefer realtime with pause over turnbased, possibly due to my early and torrid love affair with Dragon Age Origins. And there's just something about Pillars' take on it specifically that I really enjoyed. I will be forever thankful for what this game did for the genre as a whole.

The worldbuilding, aesthetics, that satisfying click the UI makes.... Dear god, let Avowed not be a total pos plz plz plz kthx

Pillars of Eternity: A Missed Opportunity

Combat: A Real-Time Mess

The story

Conclusion

Incredible game that I slept on for too long. A true successor to Baldur's Gate.

Great game once you get used to its version of real time with pause combat

A modern classic CRPG, not much more to be said. Horribly underrated and underappreciated

Great CRPG with an awesome story and awesome combat mechanics. Obsidian never disappoints.

This game is absolutely stunning. Love the challenge aspect of controlling all characters in battle. The dialogue is great and interactions with characters is immersive. Of course I need to mention that the soundtrack is beautiful.

Great game the only big flaws are the voice acting, which comes out of nowhere and disappears just as suddenly, and the pacing if you decide to read everything you come across making you spend entire gaming sessions doing nothing but reading.

Mad respect for the pillars/dev team and lore! Game is so good and one of those true blue crpgs out there! Started with pillars of eternity 2 and then on to pillars of eternity! Story, gameplay, music and character customization just draws you in! Play with your headphones or earphones on! One of those games, i'd give the perfect score to! Now, if only avowed was this good...

GO PLAY!

Cheers!

Absolutely love the characters, world building and atmosphere. a bit jacky but the combat is fine. party ai can be a bit dumb at times. agreat starter for those who wanna get avowed as it's set in the same world.

I've owned the game since its release. Every couple of years, I'd give it another shot, only to drop it shortly after reaching the first village. This year, I felt like trying again, fully expecting the same outcome. However, this time, I pushed through. I managed to get past the initial challenging dungeon and its oppressive, grim atmosphere… and then something clicked. The story started to unfold, the world's lore became increasingly vivid, and the dialogues and characters grew ever more engaging.

Let me put it this way – I adore Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios and consider it one of the finest RPGs I've ever played. That said, when it comes to atmospheric density, the originality of the narrative, and the depth of the world's lore, Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity takes a significant lead.

P.S.
The music is an absolute masterpiece.

I love how the game draws me in and the slow advance and power curve. Feels like playing old Baldurs gate but better done and less clunky where it matters.

The writing in this game is simply incredible. Most of your companions have a great story attached to them and the main story explores philosophical and theological themes. It's definitely exposition and text heavy at the start which is an understandable turn-off but if you power through all the text you'll find one of the best stories and settings in the genre.

They also did a great job with the system, you can build your characters in so many ways due to the way attributes work and almost all classes are really well designed. Most of the attributes and classes are similar to what you'd find in say Baldur's Gate 3 but with some differences that are honestly way superior to what you would find in that game. I was enjoying this part of the game so much that I was planning my build on the 2nd playthrough before finishing act 1 on my first playthrough.

The game isn't perfect though and lacks polish in a lot of areas. The combination of not being able to change your class or attributes after character creation and not showing what every class unlocks makes for a frustrating experience that lead to lots of googling which is never good. Also of note is that once you learn enough about the system and how to optimise your party composition the game becomes extremely easy even on the hardest difficulty.

Overall though Pillars of Eternity and it's sequel are some of the best games in this genre and they deserve way more attention than they get.

Loooved the game, the story, mechanics, graphics, music, highly recommend it.

I did enjoy this one quite a bit. My biggest issue with it is the wildly swinging difficulty levels where some areas are super easy and then the next mob you find just ganks you completely. It also does a lot of loading even when put on an NVME SSD.

If you're after an older school style of CRPG this will fit the bill. Just be prepared for the foibles.

Great story, meaningful decisions, deep conversations. The created world is rich rounded out with history and characters.

Damn good. Veilguard blows VS this game. The first ten minutes had more dialog and depth to it then 10 hours in VeilGuard

has baldur gates vibes, good voicing good story and world building so far (act I till now)

Love Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, I really hope they make a third game, this feels like a classic BioWare game unlike the garbage they make these day I recommend this game for anyone that loves Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 for the PC.

The story is bleak and I never felt like I was able to make the choices I wanted. Everyone decides to fight you to the death at the slightest disagreement (or immediately on sight in the case of wild animals).

Never got the hang of understanding how defenses, accuracy, etc. worked in combat. Didn't really matter anyway since I was on easy. Every enemy seems to have an AOE paralyze spell. Most buff spells felt useless since you needed to already know what the enemy was planning to do for them to be useful, and by the time you're familiar with an enemy's abilities, you're strong enough to just auto-attack it to death. Most damaging spells are useless due to friendly fire.

Inventory management is a pain in the butt.

I liked a couple of the companions, I guess. Most were annoying.

It tries. But doesn't succeed.

It tries to be pretty. But paints everything with a depressing layer of dank, dark, and decay.
It tries to be clever. But ends up just having weird difficulty spikes and whole segments of the tree that are pointless.
It tries to be unique. But ends up just being confusing and a hassle to play.

This could have been a good game... if the creators had gotten their heads out of their collective asses and used more "tried and true" elements of classic isometric fantasy RPG mechanics.

10/10. If it only had a regular castle economy (not quest-based) and a slightly more dynamic world, it would be undeniably epic.

I've tried to get into this on multiple platforms and I just can't. It especially doesn't help that there's no gamepad support on the PC version, and I'm disabled enough that mouse and keyboard for a game this long isn't happening. I respect what they tried to do here but I rolled right into this after replaying Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 and bounced off hard. There's a lot of silliness in those games, intentional and unintentional, that helps the generic fantasy go down smoother than this dark and self-serious take.

Really enjoyed the story line, particularly how different characters' backstories and smaller quests nicely came together to add complexity, depth, and richness to the overarching plot. I think I will miss Edér and Aloth's personalities for a long time. The only thing I quickly got tired of, thought, was the load times between basically all transition between areas. You may need something to fidget with.

PoE was an incredible RPG for me with a richly tailored story set in a dark fantasy world built with beautiful music, that is supported by a rich craft of artwork and phenomenal atmospheres. Its game-play offers deep character creation and non-turn-based combat.
The game has deep profound story, rich lore and dark fantasy settings, creating a rich complex world that demands to deep dive into it. It has been a remarkable gaming experience, from stressful and intense battles with stubborn deities to unscrupulous road robbers, accompanied with harmonious atmospheres and multiple narrative choices that compels a fantastic experience of the ancient, vast world of Eora and their gods to its remote and detailed crafted warm taverns in Defiance Bay with your companions. 10/10

The gameplay is a bit weak, difficulty is nearly non existent even in path of the damned except for the DLCs that provide challenging enemies. Class design is great and the skills are fun and creative, but it's undermined by being a realtime with pause game. The skills are complex and require coordination, unlike baldurs gate or neverwinter nights (or any other crpg really) where you would pre buff before a battle and then only worry about enemies, here the buffs are only possible during battle and NPC IA is extremely lackluster, moving in undesired directions and choosing often nonsensical targets, making the area of your buffs frequently inaccurate and combat generally frustating and imprecise. Luckily difficulty is not there so most of the time you can just ignore any requirements for coordination.

As for the story, main quests are great but sidequests are more of a goosebumps episode than a narrative per se, they range from "I accidentally hired an assassin" to "I'm into daggers get me one". The most memorable sidequests are at the first big city you get to, afterwards it's more of a mmorpg vibe.
The main quest is well written and pleasant, so are the companion quests, the setting is not refreshing but it's well executed.

Not a big fan of the "real time" battles because I have to pause every second to make sure the team doesn't get stuck or gets wrecked by an AOE spell. I didn't feel compelled to play the DLC as I approached the end and unfortunately once you beat the ending of the main story you don't get to go through and play the DLC you have to do that before you beat the game. But the story is good and the party characters a enjoyable to be around.

I never really got into Baldur's gate. I came to it late, and the game was too dated for me to really sink my teeth into it. After finishing my first Pillars of Eternity run (clocking in at a whopping 65 hours!) I'm excited to revisit the old classics. This game is exceptional. The attention to detail is pretty much unprecedented. The story is compelling, the characters are interesting, the writing is (mostly) excellent and combat is a fun challenge. The challenge with this game is this: it isn't flashy. There is plenty of text to read. Combat is hard and the learning curve is high. In other words, you need to accept a much slower pace then in most games. You need to let your imagination take over for what other games accomplish with flashy cinematics and motion capture. This is a game to be imagined as much as played, and that is by no means a bad thing. But, if you aren't willing to settle into the slower pace, you will probably think of this game as a waste of money. You've been warned. For those who give this game a chance, it is an experience you will remember! PS: At first I was overwhelmed by the walls of seemingly pointless text from the Gold Names **** then I realized this was the backer developed content, and I could ignore it entirely! The pace of the game picked up considerably :)

Love love LOVE the writing. the combat took some getting used to from my usual turn based but the auto pause options can make it close.

The Pillars series is a phenomenal case of story, world-building, and character. In Pillars 1, the world sometimes feels bare of NPCs and the factions are underdeveloped, but Pillars 2 more than remedies this issue.

For me, Obsidian has a certain subtle touch to its writing that makes the Pillars experience feel so much more grounded and satisfying.

Great story, awesome setting, feels great picking this up again, loving every minute of it. This is a must play for all CRPG fans.

I love the Pillars games. The story, setting, and crew are all fantastic. I'm a big fan of crpgs and this one is in my top 5 ever. Highly recommended.

I don't hate it, but the dialogue and lore books are very very dry, gets kind of hard to read after a while. Combat's what you'd expect, not a terrible buy on sale. Here's hoping the sequel is a decent improvement.

POE is an absolute gem, I have spent a good amount of time in this game and have gotten much enjoyment from it.
10/10 will play through again.

First of all, the writing of this game is very, very good. I will not say exceptional. for the sole reason that there always need to be room for improvement but as soon as i learned that this was funded by kickstarter i immediately wondered: How much were the people who wrote the story and dialogues paid?? I hope a lot!

Being a diehard fan of everything tagged as an RPG, this is a breath of fresh air and extremely satisfying. It is obvious that the graphics engine can only do so much but who cares when the story is so engaging, the characters so interesting and the gameplay no more or less than what i would expect to be happy.

Well done, please do more of this!!

One of the best written stories I have experienced in my time gaming. If anyone is curious about the CRPG genre or living through a story instead of reading it, this is the game for you.

Classic gameplay, coupled with mature gloomy story and excellent visuals. The overall sound design and music are amazingly evocative. It's a 10/10 and I would recommend it to any real old-school CRPG fans.

Might be the best RPG writing ever. A lot better than in all recent games of the year combined.

Gameplay closely follows the original Baldur's Gate and other Infinity Engine games. With a few much welcome differences.

A great selection of classes beyond your basic Fighter, Wizard, Rogue. A somewhat original selection of races beyond your basic Human, Elf, Dwarf.

Only two downsides: 3d models are ugly AF (but 2d art is good), and sometimes the devs try too hard to hit the nostalgia spot -- even the music resembles the original Baldur's Gate too much -- while the original ideas in this game deserve a lot more, and in ways are more interesting than the AD&D games this game strives to resemble.

9/10, a great game so far.