Developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive comes the party-based highly tactical role-playing game Pillars of Eternity. Unanimously regarded as the spiritual successor to the classic RPG Baldur’s Gate, Pillars of Eternity is a blessing for those in search of a truly challenging RPG that requires frame-to-frame pausing and tactical adjustments. Built on Unity Technologies’ Unity game engine, Pillars of Eternity first started off named as Project X during its Kickstarter campaign. It was a crowd-funded project that received more than enough attention and funds from the fans from the get-go and managed to surpass the $4 million mark by its completion, securing its place as the most-funded videogame at the time.

As one of the two highest-rated PC game releases this year, alongside Ori and the Blind Forest, and among the highest-rated RPGs of all time, this Obsidian Entertainment masterpiece has garnered the attention and appreciation of gamers and game critics of the highest regard.

Story

The story takes place in the mystical land of Eora, which is highly inspired by the Dungeons and Dragons settings; but it packs more than enough punch of its own to establish a memorable connection with the players. Your character starts off as a foreigner who has made a long and hazardous journey seeking the promise of land and wealth for new settlers as made by the ruler of the small village of Gilded Vale. You reach your destination, and shortly thereafter, are hit by a tragic supernatural disaster; you also bear witness to a bizarre ritual, and when you reach Gilded Vale, you are met by rotting corpses hanging from the branches of a withered tree. That is when you realise that you are a ‘Watcher,’ someone who can communicate with souls and manipulate them to get answers to the questions that have haunted you and drove you to Gilded Vale. However, there are more questions to be answered, and as you progress through them, you will discover more that has remained unanswered. You are in a world where children are starting to be born without a soul, and you embark on a chain of quests that unravel the mysteries of Eora, its past and present, all the while shaping your own character and filling in the details of your murky past.

The writing is highly commendable, and the painstaking attention that has been paid to the details of Eora and the different races that inhabit the land is top-notch. The fictional land has its own rich history, and almost every character you encounter will lead you further towards understanding the realm you reside in. The story is complex, thrilling and highly immersive and feels no less than an RPG version of Skyrim. Every gamer who values a complex narrative and believes in “living” the game, rather than just playing it will get hooked even if they are new to the genre.

A masterpiece.  10/10

Gameplay

Pillars of Eternity is a great tactical partybased RPG game, which uses a format we have previously witnessed in Final Fantasy X-2, where a pause after each frame is almost mandatory. Inspired by games such as Baldur’s Gate and Planescape, the gameplay resembles similar game mechanics and highly complex decision-making scenarios that will scare away casual game enthusiasts. Make no mistake, this game is aimed at the purist gamers who do not mind taking stock of each enemy’s damage levels, armour, damage reduction, casting animation, spell immunity and hit points (most definitely), among other factors, after each turn—which makes for about a handful of frames; and you’ll have to start the process all over again on the next turn. Did I mention the game is aimed at purists?

Fortunately, the game also features an Easy mode, which should bring a smile on the face of casual ‘right clickers’. Anyhow, Pillars of Eternity is not just about quests and complex battle scenarios that need to be won; it follows a narrative as complex as its gameplay, which together make for a rewarding challenge that provides an unforgettable gaming experience.

The game starts off on a character-selection screen, where you manually select the gender, race, religion and physical appearance of your character. You also get to choose how your character will sound, which is a bonus. There are 11 classes to choose from, which will determine the spells and attacks your character will use in the game, and also determine how you will tackle the quests and the entire character inventory. For example, a Ranger will have an animal companion to assist her/him in battle, while a Druid will shapeshift into a beast to strike with increased damage. Players can also decide which stats they want to favour for the development of the character, which will define your overall experience. A character with increased points on ‘Perception’ will be able to pass observant comments during dialogue exchanges, which can save you from a lot of hassle during quests and also help you gain party members; more points on ‘Intellect’ will help you solve problems quicker.

The game also grants you a ‘Reputation’ as you progress, depending on the decisions you made while making a comment or because you, for example, sank your blade on unarmed villagers. This will affect how other characters you meet in the game react towards you. The levelling up

of characters is very different from other games of the genre, as the experience points are not awarded for slaying an enemy but only after you complete quests and explore new areas. There are plenty of side quests, with multiple endings, to keep you engaged. You can expect to be occupied for hours on end, depending on whether you read or simply skip the texts in the game, and which difficulty level you opt for; at the highest difficulty setting, the game starts from scratch if your character dies, so good luck with that.

The more we talk about the gameplay, the less justice we might do to it, so we could just cut to the chase and say that Pillars of Eternity is a masterpiece indeed.

10/10

Graphics

The game is made on a one-of-a kind modified version of the Unity game engine. Pillars of Eternity is an excellent

example of a 2D world that has been created with so much attention to detail that it puts 3D environments to shame. From the starting dungeon to the landscapes that follow, the details give you an idea of how it was created by a dedicated team that did not leave any stone unturned for this crowd-funded project. The level design is top-notch, with even minor aspects of the environment rendered to perfection. Pillars of Eternity has decided to take a nostalgic approach on the genre and kept their level design strikingly similar to other Infinity engine RPGs, a decision that has worked in its favour.

While developing a game with a modest budget, Obsidian Entertainment have set the bar sky-high for games with mammoth budgets backing them, and they have kept up with the trend of indie and small-budget games beating the big ones on ratings.

9/10

Sound

The sound, however, falls short of the other aspects so meticulously created. Don’t get me wrong; the background score throughout the game is great and adds to the atmosphere, but there are a few moments where the characters sound dull. To be sure, it can be difficult to give each character a unique personality when there are well over a hundred of them, but maybe I was too taken in by the level of perfection everywhere else that I decided to nitpick.  It could be just me, but the sound is not on par with the other particulars of the game.

8/10

Verdict

Pillars of Eternity reminds us why desktop gaming ruled a decade ago and serves as a reminder that it is still going as strong as it was. It’s the best game of 2015 so far, and the best one in the genre yet.

9.5/10