"Obsidian's Infinity Engine Revival Still Earns Its Reputation"
About
Pillars of Eternity is a party-based fantasy RPG set in the world of Eora, where you create a custom character and recruit companions to investigate a supernatural phenomenon causing newborns to be born without souls. You spend most of your time exploring towns and dungeons, managing your party's equipment and abilities, and engaging in real-time combat with tactical pausing that lets you choreograph your team's actions.
Verdict
A dense, intelligent CRPG with worldbuilding that outclasses most of its genre and a combat system that finally became readable when turn-based mode arrived a decade late. The writing is divisive and the pacing front-loads its dullest act, but the systems depth and companion work hold up better than nearly anything from 2015.
You'll like it if …
- +you enjoy deep class and build systems that reward experimentation across party compositions
- +you want dense, original worldbuilding over recycled D&D fantasy
- +you like dialing difficulty so the math demands real tactical decisions
You'll dislike it if …
- −you want a story that grips early rather than after a slow opening act
- −you prefer brisk action over patient, paused combat choreography
Breakdown
- +Turn-based mode transforms once-chaotic real-time-with-pause combat into legible tactical choreography
- +Five difficulty tiers let you dial in exactly how much the math punishes you
- +Class and weapon systems reward experimentation across multiple viable party compositions
- −Real-time-with-pause combat asks a lot of patience and overwhelms newcomers
- −Framerate trouble on older machines disrupts the pacing of exploration and combat
- +Worldbuilding that feels grounded and original rather than recycled D&D
- +Distinct, well-written companions and a deep class and build system
- +Multiple classes, party compositions, and notorious restartitis keep players coming back, with turn-based mode giving veterans a fresh reason to replay
- −Act 1 is a slog and the main story doesn't find its footing until late
- −Some players hit a wall at the stronghold and never push to the end
- +Grounded and original worldbuilding that several players wished extended into novels
- +Companion writing holds up better than nearly anything from 2015
- −Writing swings between dense and dry, splitting the room on readability
- −Main story's pacing buries its best ideas in the final stretch
- +Hand-painted isometric environments still look striking and pull people in at character creation
- +Score and voice work draw consistent praise, with sound design that holds the tone together
- +Beauty that scales gracefully across hardware
- +Years of free updates including a full turn-based combat overhaul make this an unusually generous package for the price
- −Turn-based mode still crashes in places despite years of patches
- −Carries real rough edges, with crashes and framerate trouble that persist into later patches
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