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Daedalic Daedalic's The Pillars of the Earth

Boleskine

Arcane
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
4,045
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-pillars-of-the-earth-review/

The Pillars of the Earth review
By Andy Kelly 3 hours ago

NEED TO KNOW
What is it?
A historical adventure set in medieval England.
Expect to pay £27/$30
Developer Daedalic
Publisher In-house
Reviewed on GTX 1080, Intel i5-6600K, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer None
Link Official site

Whether it’s rewinding time, surviving a zombie apocalypse or becoming a famous pirate, adventure games tend to hinge on a specific theme or gimmick. And that’s what makes The Pillars of the Earth so refreshing. It’s an understated story about ordinary people, with a rich setting based on a fascinating and rarely explored period of history.

The result is a game that is, admittedly, not as immediately thrilling as some, but that rewarded my patience with one of the deepest, most mature stories I’ve ever encountered in a videogame. The pace is glacial and the mood is almost unrelentingly downbeat, but you soon settle into its peculiar, steady rhythm, and I found myself wishing more games were as confident to just slow down and give the story room to breathe.

Based on a novel by Welsh author Ken Follett, the game is set in England in the 12th Century, telling the story of the village of Kingsbridge over a number of years. War, poverty, and corruption are rife in this period, known historically as The Anarchy, and we see three very different characters’ lives unexpectedly intertwined by the turmoil of the era. There’s Philip, a devoted monk in over his head; Jack, a boy raised by his mother in the woods; and Aliena, a noblewoman whose family has been disgraced.

Split into three episodes, all of which are available now, the story hops frequently between different points of view. You’re introduced to Philip as he visits Kingsbridge in the wake of its Prior’s death, finding the village poor and destitute, and the abbey falling to pieces. Meanwhile, Jack and his mother struggle to get through a tough winter in the forest, when a chance encounter with a family changes their lives forever. And Aliena, who is being held prisoner in her own home, plans a daring escape.

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Pillars of Earth is strikingly atmospheric. The painted backgrounds are wonderfully detailed, bringing snowy forests, rolling farmland, grand cathedrals, and bustling cities to life. Artful use of light and shadow, and subtle moving details such as gently falling snow and flickering candles, give the world a vivid sense of place. Medieval England was not a pleasant place, but there’s beauty in the bleakness. The characters are just as well-realised, with impressively nuanced animation and big, expressive sprites relaying a lot of personality.

The sound design is also fantastic, particularly the howl of the wind echoing through the cavernous abbey in Philip’s introduction. The voice acting is superb too, which is a good thing as you spend much of the game in conversation with people, choosing how to respond and shaping their opinion of you. A timer ticks down as a character awaits a response, giving arguments and other fraught encounters extra tension. I also like how Philip can respond to people by reading from the Bible he carries around everywhere, defusing situations by quoting scripture.

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Like many narrative games, the larger story follows an unavoidably prescribed path. But you can dramatically alter your relationships with people, and steer other events, along the way. And at the end of each chapter you get a summary of your decisions, which is worth taking a screenshot of to remind yourself, because there are a lot of small, seemingly innocuous choices that can suddenly resurface later on. Fans of Follett’s original book (or even the Ridley Scott-produced TV adaptation) will enjoy the chance to reshape some key moments from the story.

While Pillars is indeed a point-and-click adventure with character movement, exploration, and object interaction, anyone expecting something heavily puzzle-focused like, say, Broken Sword will be disappointed. There are some simple environmental puzzles here and there, and a few rare QTEs, but story and dialogue take precedence. This suits the game’s grounded, realistic tone, however, because having these characters wandering around combining random objects would have just felt a bit silly.

While Pillars deals with religion, politics, and war, and uses the complicated real history of The Anarchy to flesh out its setting, the characters keep the story grounded and relatable. Nothing else on PC tells a story quite like this, and although it will be a hard sell for some, the slow pace is worth persevering with if you value storytelling above all. Sometimes it slows to the point of dullness and interaction is limited at best, but I loved immersing myself in this evocative medieval world.

The Verdict
80
Read our review policy
The Pillars of the Earth
A beautiful medieval adventure that uses real history and interesting characters to tell a compelling story.
 

Tom Selleck

Arcane
Joined
May 6, 2013
Messages
1,203
I played through chapters 1-7 tonight since I can deal with the Telltale-style well enough, and it's... actually kind of okay? Like, a relatively intriguing medieval setting during The Anarchy with *almost* reasonably-well rendered characters, as a 'story' and 'setting', it sure beats fucking autism magnets like Borderlands or Guardians of the Galaxy (both of which I played, I am an agent of the decline) and Minecraft (which I won't play, because I have limits, low as they are) and this is like monks and shit, so it's a little less candy corn? There seems to be C&C but I'm assuming it's railroaded in the same manner as the Telltale "choices", i.e. you say yes or no, but you just get a different dialogue and the same choice is made. I played the little forest twerp like a feral wolfboy as best I could, but I imagine you still end up the same way in the same place with the same fate.

Seems like there are different protagonists in each of the different 'books' or whatever. (Collections of chapters?).

It does make me think I should re-read The Name of the Rose, though. I need to order that supplementary Key of the Name of the Rose book.

The Name of the Rose is really good. Just read that instead.
 

lophiaspis

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
379
Just started playing this, great game!

What I don't understand is: how on earth would this be better with puzzles? You want puzzles, go play sudoku. Weirdos.
 

Jvegi

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
5,031
I'm playing it right now. I like the artstyle, voice acting is great. It's good for a motion comic. Not sure if it's a good game. I'll have to play more.

The main problem I predict is that I already know the whole story from the show. Does the game differ much from it? I liked it a lot but watching it two times was enough.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,099
That... was actually pretty good. I was surprised by how authentic it tried to be for the most part; the way marriage, potential church heresy, absolution of sins, etc are treated. Being familiar with the source material I also really appreciated the somewhat atypical plot structure it employed compared to usual video game approach and reveals its adaptation origins. You don't have to end with a stinger every time to hook the audience. Major props for not really going with emotional manipulation shit Telltale did with The Walking Dead series and characters who seem to be grounded and believable. Penultimate chapter was way too rushed in my opinion, though. Some elements, like Alfred and Waleran's fate, are kinda glossed over after you do a brainstorming session to figure out basically everything game built up to, perhaps too subtly for some. It also doesn't really make a big deal about "your choices MATTER", but they are summarized at the end of chapters and they do come into play. Needs replaying to probably see to full effect.

Verdict:

25.gif
 
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
195
Insert Title Here
Still haven't played the third part, but I enjoyed the first two enough to read the book and watch the TV series. Never thought I'd be so emotionally invested in the building of a cathedral. Also, Alfred is a dick.
 

WallaceChambers

Learned
Joined
Jul 29, 2019
Messages
311
Played the first book of this and it was better than I expected. The performances are good & the drama is pretty compelling. The one character who's a super evil dickhead feels kind of over-the-top in a way that sort of strikes me as forced, but that's mostly a nitpick. There actually is some light puzzling/inventory interactions, they're just not typically tied directly to a progress halting roadblock, rather they're side objectives that you can pursue or miss to get the best outcome. Which makes it feel more fleshed out than the purely-choice based narrative adventure gameplay.

I've got some other games to get to but I'll def swing back around to Pillars and finished the last two books eventually. Pretty cool game.
 

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,906
Strap Yourselves In
I've also been 'playing' this, on Book 3 now. I'm impressed. For a pretty-much-VN, this feels quite good and satisfying. Full of great historical slice-of-life tidbits and down-to-earth story, it's greatly captivating. I think I've gained a lot from it. It's obvious they've tried to be very historically accurate, can't compare to the source material though. Really good character development, too.

Certainly time better spent than trying to adjust your Burning Hands cone in Pathfinder.
 

Rean

Head Codexian Weeb
Patron
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,906
Strap Yourselves In
Oh, and there's only one melanin-enriched person throughout the whole game and no pozz. Nice.
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,737
Are there any other Daedalic adventure games with similar sensibilities to this one? Specifically the audio-visual.

I know it's sacrilege around here to say so, but I actually don't particularly care that PotE was VN-lite. I wouldn't mind a full throated adventure game, but it's the quality of the presentation and writing here that really stood out to me. Granted the devs had Follett's work to draw from for story beats, but the writing is all them (I believe) and it's quite good. So is the VO and animation.

So set aside the VN-like mechanics, any other Daedalic adventure games of a similar presentation and writing quality?
 

Boleskine

Arcane
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
4,045
While I haven't played PotE, the following games would probably scratch your itch for similar presentation/art/mood:

The Whispered World
The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
The Dark Eye: Memoria
The Night of the Rabbit
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,737
While I haven't played PotE, the following games would probably scratch your itch for similar presentation/art/mood:

The Whispered World
The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
The Dark Eye: Memoria
The Night of the Rabbit
Thanks, The Whispered World may be my best bet but unfortunately none of these have the same grounded style of presentation as Pillars did. They’re all… too cutesy.
 

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