What is… Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire?
“Baldur’s Gate with a Modern Twist”
Like the first entry in this series, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire takes elements of tabletop RPGs and adapts them for the PC, streamlining away some of the less fun things for players to worry about (I’m looking at you, third edition D&D attack rolls) while keeping some of the best parts of tabletop RPGs— the wild combat, the expansive world, and the ability to immerse yourself in the role of a fantasy character.
How does it play?
PoE II offers a wide variety of experiences, some more successful than others. During story moments you’ll use your character’s stats and skills to make conversational choices which can drastically change the direction of the scene or story. These are generally nothing short of excellent, offering enough different outcomes and pathways to reward players differently no matter what sort of character they’ve built.
Dungeon crawling and combat are fine, although combat is a little… wild. There’s a lot going on during combat and often you’ll win without knowing what your opponents were doing, exactly. You also might lose for the same reason, which is a bit less fun.
Ship combat- a new focus for Pillars of Eternity II- is not terrible, but isn’t an especially successful game element. Generally you’re better of foregoing ship combat and simply ramming those pirate suckers and boarding them for some hand-to-hand (or sword-to-spell) combat.
What I liked about it:
The wide cast of party members are well-written, beautifully acted, and offer flexibility for party builds.
Quality of life additions such as automatic pausing for combat and fast forward.
Each party member’s detailed, programmable AI routines for when you’re not directly controlling them in combat, reminiscent of FF XII’s Gambit system.
TONS of character customization options, both in terms of aesthetic, ability, and story role.
Beautiful soundtrack
Phenomenal voice acting (with one small exception)
A rich fantasy world made easy to learn about (or not learn about) through a conversation mouseover system
What didn’t I like about it:
The inventory is a bit clumsy.
Combat is, as mentioned before, sometimes chaotic to the point of complete confusion. There’s a reason the Final Fantasy games have spell names appear on the top of the screen- it’s so you can know what’s doing what.
Ship vs ship combat ain’t great
Xoti’s weird accent, an unrealistically exaggerated Southern United States affectation which makes her sound like Rogue’s sister.
This game is perfect for:
Players who crave a lengthy RPG that harkens back to the late ’90s, early ’00s era without becoming trapped by the excruciating shortcomings of the past.
Would I recommend it?
Yes.
This review is based on a publisher-provided copy of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire for the PC