Pillars of Eternity

i think the portraits are actually pretty good, but you can totally import custom portraits if you want.

edited 26th Mar '15 5:48:00 PM by higherbrainpattern

@Mukora: There are like 50 portraits or something, I don't remember, but at least one for all gender and race variants.

Yeah, the selection is pretty impressive. Especially when you compare it to, say, Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights (the latter of which did have a large selection, but most were... pretty hideous.)

So what's the deal with the NP Cs that have gold nameplates? Are those, like, backer reward characters?

Probably. But they are mostly npc you can use your watcher thingie on, try talking to them

I have, I was just wondering if there anything more to them than that.

86 portraits, I think.

Some people on the internet have been talking about how boring the real-time with pause combat is, but I think I disagree. Here i might not be fast-paced, but you can die in a minute. You won't be pausing every few orders, you will be pausing every few games. Formations can be a party-saver, and defeating enemies is less about getting to the same level and more about how you positioned pasrty members so that they can have an opportunity.

This is an RPG that stands on it own and not rely on nostalgia (Other than isometric camera and pre-rendered background, there is nothing else), it requres the full attention of the player. Of course it is not for everyone.

edited 27th Mar '15 10:40:50 AM by YoKab

So now that the game is released, what do the opinions on it seem to be?

Critical acclaim, fans of RPGs loved it, smaller sites calling it a masterclass. The game is easier to get into than the older ones, but it still needs a thinking player who isn't looking for flashy shit and is willing to actually read. The game reward exploring and discovering secrets more than manslaughter which I like, some parts of the game transform into a choose-your-adventure style pages which was pretty heartfelt. This is not a game that relies on nostalgia, it stands on its own as a successor to those games. Obsidian Entertainment might be a smaller developer now, but they have improved, this probably one of thier best games, and probably because they did not have a publisher who rushed them to release the game.

edited 27th Mar '15 12:04:26 PM by YoKab

I'm liking it well enough, despite never playing the old-timey isometric games. I rolled up a few characters to see which gameplay direction I wanted to go. Probably gonna run with the fighter or the ranger, maybe the wizard.

So, I know this is probably going to make some people mad, but if I have one complaint about the game so far it's that literally every party member I've picked up so far is a dude.

And looking at the wiki, there are apparently only three female companions. That's kind of annoying. Like, I really like the party members I have, but would it have been too much to make, I dunno, Aloth a lady? Or Kana? Or maybe not kill off both tutorial companions regardless of what you do?

It's a minor complaint, and the game is still great otherwise, but it still bugs me.

Yeah, it kinda bugs me too. Especially since one of the teaser companions was a priest lady with plate armor and a blunderbuss, which would have been rad.

Oh yeah, I remember her. She would have been a really cool party member, I'm sure. I wonder why she got cut.

Good question. I wonder if the dev commentary mentions it.

I mean, I'd much rather have her than the priest we got. Fuck that guy.

edited 27th Mar '15 12:52:51 PM by math792d

The Monk himself didn't make it to the party in the end as well. Other than more diversity in the already well-written party cast, the game is actually really really good at almost everything.

Godammit I really wish the tutorial companions got to stick around, they were cool as well... Rest in peace friends, you were really helpful

edited 27th Mar '15 1:06:54 PM by YoKab

So the response is positive? That's good to hear. I'll be sure to pick it up once it goes on sale and I have time for a big RPG. How's the writing for the characters and story?

edited 27th Mar '15 3:11:20 PM by Pannic

The writing is pretty good. I'd compare it favorably to Planescape Torment in that regard.

It's definitely pretty close to everything Planescape wanted to be. And the Pplayer dialogue options are a lot more robust than they were in actual Infinity Engine games.

The flavour-text is really well-done, and the character writing so far is top-notch (The only party member I'm not sold on right now is the priest- who I care so litle about I can't even remember his name. But Eder, Aloth and Kana are cool. I also just picked up Sagani, and she seems neat.)

The only thing I'd say is a problem is that there is so much fantasy mumbo jumbo dropped on you right at the start. Obsidian are really proud of their new setting, and they want you to know that.

I will admit, based on what I've read and seen (including a half-watched livestream on GOG's Twitch account last night, I think it was), I'm very excited to get to play this.

Overall, it looks like... well, it looks like Baldur's Gate (there's even a "magic missile" spell), with better graphics and, from what I've gathered, rather improved gameplay—and not shackled to D&D, the mechanics of which I'm not a huge of, for video games, at least.

I'll admit that it does seem to hew a little closer to its roots than I'd like in one or two elements, but otherwise I'm really liking what I've seeing in this game.

Wow. Both Eder and Aloth are voiced by Matthew Mercer. That's amazing! They sound nothing alike.

Acting!

Well, shit. Turns out you can reduce some of your starting stats to increase the ones you actually want. I thought 10 was the minimum, not the default and now I'm too far in to start over just for that.

Yeah, you can reduce your stats, but doesn't that give you a penalty or something related to the stat you reduce?

Yeah, this game seems to do its best at avoiding any Dump Stat for any class. Everyone wants a little bit of everything.

The penalty is equal to the bonus for being the same number of points above 10.