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[Review] Pillars of Eternity: A Modern Classic
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Pillars of Eternity exploded into the limelight with the massive success of its 2012 Kickstarter and lit the fire that would ignite the CRPG revolution. Nearly two and a half years later, the game has finally arrived. The question is, did it deliver?
Read more of Christopher Coke's Pillars of Eternity: A Modern Classic.
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Comments
I recently bought Wastelands 2, and I get the same feeling. It's turn-based combat, plethora of non-combat skills that maintain usefulness throughout the fame, and the delicate balance that has been struck in providing me viable options for a satisfying (even if unintended) resolution to any problem using the skills of my party members has me wondering how mainstream has strayed so far from these RPG roots.
Kudos to Obsidian for bringing another great entry to the players from Kickstarter and further providing evidence for the potential of crowd funding to deliver experiences the big-name publishers and mainstream developers are too afraid to deliver.
"Never before has it been so painfully apparent just how much I missed by not being a PC gamer in the 1990s."
I've been saying this since the early 2000's to my friends who were console gamers their whole lives or just hit PC games late. It's sad to say, but you guys have no idea what kind of games you missed in every genre from 1990 and early 2000 PC gaming. Video games, in my opinion, have gone backwards in a lot of ways since then compared to the games of that era. Its annoying that most gamers don't even recognize most of the classics from that time.
Its all about money todays
Excellent review Christopher! I am lucky enough to have owned and played all of the titles that influenced this game.
I look forward to spending some of my free time with POE.
Life IS Feudal
2 hours left....twitching to get in there and start my first character.
Your article only made the waiting worse.
Thank you!
I will buy and play Pillars.
Now, they just need to do a game using Pathfinders rules, classes and IP. I'd love a game like this that let me play through Rise of the Runelords.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
Obsidian was already a tried and true company who knew their shit and proved they could make a good game. This isn't evidence that Kickstarter can come through for people. It's evidence that Kickstarter only works when tried and true people put their projects on Kickstarter to get funded, which happens like 1% of the time.
It's filled with first timers who don't know shit about the difficulties making a game involves and fall for traps of game development that a freshmen in college would have learned how to avoid. If you think people only go to Kickstarter because they couldn't get investors or publishers to front money, you're wrong also.
Investor money has to be paid back for one. Kickstarter money doesn't. It only makes sense you should try to get money that you don't have to pay back, even if your product sucks. If you take investor money, and your product sucks, and you wish to get investor money in the future, well they're gonna look at your history and say you wasted x- amount of investors money before...but you don't get that with kickstarter.
Names a bit unfortunate as it could be easily confuse with Path of Exile.
Good to see MMOs being done in a way that could make players rethink why they are playing. Zero xp for mobs, that's grinding smacked on the head with warhammer.
Pretty sure the name was a strategic decision. They pay Google just enough to make their games search results show up as number 3-4 and thats huge advertising for them given how many people search up PoE information daily.
They'll see Pillars of Eternity in search results and check it out and bam, new fan of the game.
Please release this on the ps 4.
Why no one wants to kickstart System Shock 3???
I mean, Bioshock it's good but not the same thing...
At least I got Ultima Underworld to look forward
Great review BTW
Did you read the first paragraph of my post, I wonder? Specifically, the part where I said Kickstarter allows good developers the freedom to buck the need for extreme accessibility in favor of the depth and art the reviewer says this game includes?
Of course there are tons of folks, who shouldn't be given money to make a game, pitching ideas on Kickstarter. However, there are also many vets going this route, specifically in the MMORPG genre. And that's a great thing for those who are tired of being anchored to the "mainstream" of big-name publishing companies.
Richard Garriott, Starr Long, Brad McQuaid, Chris Roberts, Mark Jacobs, Ryan Payton and Brian Fargo are all long-time vets of the video game industry that turned to Kickstarter for projects. And though the jury is still out on MMORPGs, the RPG genre proper has produced more than a few critically acclaimed entries already.
To act as if all Kickstarter is a bunch of Joe Schmoe's trying to steal money is, at this point, paranoid and ludicrous. Do they exist? Sure. But when there's an incentive for folks to cheat others (such as free money), a certain percentage of folks will always try cheating. I, for one, was very weary with crowdfunding at first glance. However, if Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, The Banner Saga, Faster Than Light, Shadowrun Returns, Don't Starve, Republique Remastered, Darkest Dungeon, and Sunless Sea (list is not exhaustive of the successful Kickstarter games released) are any indicator... It can and does work. Writing Kickstarter (and crowdfunding) off as the sole territory of con artists is a silly thing to do.
Its all about graphics now. But those early pc rpg's were really epic.I will never forget Baldur gate. After leaving the first town to go on my own. I ran into some guys in the next town asking me question and answering them when i was told to be careful about talking to anyone. They killed me on the spot. Blew me away.
Goodbye MMO's....Here is the real deal!!
Ahhhh the nostalgia.....
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
Not to mention the lack of an auction house and guild chat!
Really pleased with what i'm hearing. Just bought this bad boy.
I loved balders gate, arcanum and all the great games of old. games you could get lost in the story, the depth and the complexity.
God, I miss those days in gaming- Fortunate for us, the new crop of crowdfunded RPGs (NOT MMOs) are scratching that itch for good gaming. Loved Wasteland 2, Shadowrun and Divinity. Now I have another game to add to this awesome list of recent games.
WHAT? No AH? Forget about the praise I just gave- I wants me money back.
FFS, yes! Thats the way to go.
An absolute must-buy for an old Baldurs Gate/Planescape Torment addict.
Hodor!
Not goodbye, this should be like a huge, blinking arrow to all the MMOs. HELLO STORY!!!!! I mean, damn! I think maybe I had become a bit numb to it, but story really is what's missing in MMOs. Think about all the clicking through quest text, bypassing cut-scenes, etc. Actually, it's like a kickable offence to watch a cut-scene during a dungeon or raid.
Gawd, I really hope that it's not the last time we'll see a strong story in a game. Torment is coming this year too!!!
Crazkanuk
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