REVIEW – Old School Role Playing Game, Baldur’s Gate style, adapted to consoles! What seemed impossible (and was indeed a failure in the case of Torment: Tides of Numenera), the veteran Obsidian team makes it come true by taking PS4 and Xbox One which is one of the best RPG of the last few years. In the review of Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition we enter the dark fantasy world of Eora to live exciting adventures with a varied group of heroes while enjoying a magnificent storyline.

Both Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin has shown recently that the great adventures of traditional role-playing games of PC could work to perfection on consoles, but being like games with a system of combat by turns was, it was still uncertain to know that a title of the size of Pillars of Eternity, true heir to the classic RPG inspired by the legendary Baldur’s Gate, would respond with the same efficiency to the control system of PS4 and Xbox One. The short answer? Yes, it does, and in what way !, thanks to the good work of Obsidian Entertainment, who has managed to adapt to the control of both machines the complex action of this exciting adventure successfully financed in Kickstarter. It was no simple task. Six are the heroes under our command, each of them with a varied repertoire of special abilities and magical spells that, in many cases, have effect on the battlefield and not only on the enemies, which means that we have to think a lot, meditate every action, if we do not want our allies to die frozen or explode into a thousand pieces because of an explosion.

That game is one of the best examples of the old-school, mythical Western RPGs, that delighted us in the nineties, and as such, it is a complex, difficult video game that requires all our attention to escape with our life of the many threats that await along the way. But let not that discourage you from the game. Although sometimes the trip can be tortuous, terribly cruel with unsuspecting players, it is well worth it to enjoy this great epic RPG developed by the authors of Fallout: New Vegas or the more recent Tyranny. Let’s also take into account that Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition brings with it all the improvements that this RPG has received over the last few years, in addition to its two content expansions, The White March, which transports us to a new and extensive snowy territory known as The Calcareous Route. That is, there are no excuses! Unless you don’t like western role-playing games, this is a must buy. We give you some reasons.

For the nostalgic, old timer in you!

Starting a game in Pillars of Eternity is like returning 20 years in time, to those years where role-playing adventures were deep games that offered great freedom of action and adult story-lines. Just what its creators promised when they began their development. So the veterans of the place and you can get an idea of what this game offers, starting with the creation of characters, which regains a taste for freedom of choice; by giving the player lots of alternatives to create the hero he wants.

There are eleven archetypes to choose from, with traditional options such as barbarians, sorcerers, explorers, priests or fighters, and other more striking as the declaimers, who perform the function of bard with their songs and poems, or ciphers, who will have to extract energy vital of the enemies to be able to make use of his special abilities. And the best thing is that the choice is not based solely on what kind of character you control and point, because depending on what skills you choose, the equipment you use and how you invested experience points, adventurers can go in one direction or another.

Sex, race, class, initial abilities, attributes, background … very generous in personalization options and with many variables to keep in mind, the best thing about the game is that at it will never intimidate you with those like they did in the  great classics like Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale, in which the simple fact of creating the initial character already required a master in pure and hard role. Does this mean that Pillars of Eternity is less complete than these games? Not at all. Because although it is true, there are fewer options for personalization to choose since there are no, for example, dual classes, once you enter this dismal universe of fantasy the sensations are identical to those of those role-playing myths.

And that’s not to mention the weight they will exert outside the box. In Pillars of Eternity, stealth, diplomacy and the ability to detect alternate routes will be as much or more important virtues as knowing how to use a sword or having a good aim with the bow. In this sense, I love that the vast majority of missions can be solved in many different ways based on the type of hero we control, with dialogue options unique to certain races, cultures or religions. And yes, you have read well, because if you choose a priest or paladin as main characters, you will have to decide also what gods pray or what schools of thought follow, which will influence how they behave during the development of the action and in how they see other characters. Like old times!

Also, the design of the missions is excellent, with varied objectives, extensive mapping with many alternative routes, traps, and secrets only given those with a good perception, and infinity of treasures and written documents that will allow us to learn more and more about this incredible fantasy universe. A sinister, dark world, in which the good are not so good nor the bad ones so bad. And that goes for you too. Will you kill that ogre for the simple fact of being an ogre? Or will you let him explain himself? Maybe your answers will make you change your mind. And like that, a thousand and one more examples that denote the affection with which Obsidian has developed this imposing adventure of role. A video game also extensive, which will have more than 50 hours hooked on its main adventure, closer to 20 additional hours with its expansions, while we solve only the history missions, having at our disposal lots of secondary tasks that can extend its duration up to 100 hours.

No less fascinating is that the game, in no time, takes you hand in hand from one to the other side. Act as you please. Research, explore the mappings and talk to everyone to find out for yourself where you should go. Even Pillars of Eternity presents some other very ingenious puzzle that you will only solve if you have previously searched and searched for the necessary clues. There is also a simple craft system with which you can create your own potions and scrolls with spells, and lots of weapons, defensive equipment and amulets with which to increase the power of your heroes.

With gold pen

Pillars of Eternity is deep in customization options and also offers us great freedom of movement, represented perfectly by that World Map that will give us access to the many locations of the game. But this is also an adventure written with exquisite taste, which surprises by the strength of his dialogues, the appeal of his staging and the adult of his argument. The story told is exciting. And it does not matter if we talk about main missions or the more mundane of secondary tasks.

The descriptions that are made not only of the characters but also of how they behave in front of us is another of the strengths of this adventure that conveys as few the feeling of being an authentic literary story. The best example of this we have in those moments of the game in which, based on decisions, we have to solve situations of the most varied as if a book “Create your own adventure” was about. In these cases, the game will not only take into account the skills and class of our heroes, but also the equipment they carry.

Fight to the death!

And what about the fighting. Exciting, epic and above all very strategic. So much, that the slightest mistake is usually paid with the death. To perfectly combine the abilities of each of our heroes, choose the targets well before attacking, decide which weapons we will do and from what position … even if the first encounters can be solved by attacking all our adventurers, in the long run the contests will increase in difficulty and complexity, being able to lengthen the time for several minutes.

A feeling she already missed. Walking pausing action every second to pose a combat strategy; to execute a movement and immediately stop the game to observe the environment and the alternatives within our reach, or to throw a cry of joy after ending the life of a powerful head and his henchmen.

Pillars of Eternity recovers the essence of the old school, and its combat system is the best example of it. It is designed with great care, the balance of power is achieved, and the options are as broad as the imagination of the players. That is why it was so important to create a control system that would give access to all these options without going crazy in the attempt. Obsidian has succeeded, although obviously there is nothing so intuitive in a game of these characteristics as the binomial keyboard and mouse.

Your bet? Two radio menus, one for the management of the hero plus other options such as access to travel diary, and another completely linked to combat, special abilities and weapons of the protagonists. Navigating between all these menus by alternating the control of every character can be somewhat cumbersome, and even with the tactical pause, it is not always easy to manage battles effectively.

There have been times when I was not sure how to respond to certain situations, such as that the adventurers stop following the main hero. The question of practice, it is true, but perhaps some options could be better explained. And since I speak specifically of AI, it should be noted that this edition of Pillars of Eternity includes a lot of improvements in this sense, allowing us to establish guidelines for every character, who will not need our direct orders to know how to respond to the threat of enemies. As for the exploration of the scenarios, I like that we may do it directly controlling the hero, as in an adventure to use, or using a PC point-and-click system.

The adaptation of Pillars of Eternity to consoles also comes out with good results in the technical, although this is not exactly a video game of which captivates with the spectacularity of its graphics. The stages have been designed with exquisite taste, they are a marvel, but the modeling of characters and, for the most part, also enemies is somewhat more discreet. The catch on PS4 and Xbox One is that the loading times are, at times, too high, which gets frustrating when you go from one game area to another. There are also slight slowdowns that are somewhat annoying, but nothing critical. As far as sound is concerned, the Pillars of Eternity soundtrack is excellent. Epic as she alone will make us vibrate with emotion with each of her chords, with those melodies that will accompany us in the moments of action, and with those more lugubrious pieces that will sound in the moments of exploration. Also, the effects of sound and the dubbing to English present a great finish. Which is very grateful given the enormous amount of texts that the game includes.

A memorable RPG

Expectations were high, but Obsidian Entertainment has created what may be its best gameplay to date. Pillars of Eternity is a memorable role-playing adventure. A video game that will go to the annals of history as in its day did the great classics like Baldur’s Gate or Planescape: Torment, in which it is inspired to recover that essence that we missed so much that we missed and adapted it to the new times. There are perhaps fewer options in aspects such as the configuration of our heroes, but in general, this is the logical evolution of a genre that screamed to recover that playable depth and freedom of action that delighted us so many decades ago. Undoubtedly, this is an essential RPG.

-BadSector-

Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Genre: Role-playing game

Release date: August 29, 2017