If you´re wondering if
Pillars of Eternity is any good you probably have read a lot of reviews by now and most of them are very positive. I however, must agree to this persons
review. Most of his criticism is something I share. Instead of writing my own review, you can read it for yourself
here at RPGCodex.
But to summarise. PoE is a very generic and bland RPG although with good graphics and an ok interface. The story is nothing special, the writing uninspiring and there are too many long boring dialouges like for example, you could read other peoples souls and get information from their previous lives. This results in long texts that doesn´t add anything so I have stopped reading them. Instead of letting ordinary people have something to say you get these boring texts that never leads to any follow up dialogue anyway. This goes for the voice acting as well.
The combat also becomes pretty boring pretty fast since - even at normal difficulty - you most of the time select all party members and attack one target. No need to use potions, scrolls or other consumables. But increase the difficulty setting you might ask. Well, that only brings more opponents or stronger ones to the table, reduce my pool of camp supplies and only makes the game slower to progress in. Because you don´t get any XP for killing monsters if you have already met them before and filled up your bestiary. So there is no way to grind here. I am not saying that is bad, but since the combats are boring and you are not given any XP or interesting loot. Well, then it becomes quite boring after a while.
There are of course exceptions regarding combat. The tougher battles requires you to be fully rested and disposition your party properly but the majority of them is just cumbersome to wade through. Especially so when no XP is gained.
The crafting system is also boring and the loot as well. You could improve all kinds of weapons and shields but all originated from the same type of improvement so you can´t really do any unique stuff. The good thing is that you could use this ability anywhere but you often find items that are equally good so it is not much meaning in sacrificing essential ingredients.
There are very few really unique items in the world. Most magical items you find doesn´t bring much to the table so to speak. There are many different spells...on paper. In reality they don´t differ much at all.
The first 10 hours was very good but then the game started to repeat itself. Combat after combat after combat. It became boring. The story never lifted. There are a few sidequests that are intersting but most are very lame.
I really appreciate Obsidians effort and the graphics is very good but it just don´t bring any enthusiasm to the table. So in the end I am a little bit disappointed with the game. I have had about as much fun as I had with last years Icewind Dale. I had hoped for more regarding writing and combat in this game. I would still recommend it though if you like this kind of game. Just don´t expect it to be better than the the decades old originals.
Rating 3.5 of 5.
