Review RPG Codex Review: Pillars of Eternity - By Vault Dweller and the Spirit of Grunker

[Zed]

Tags: Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

We just cannot help ourselves from posting even more impressions and reviews of Obsidian Entertainment's Pillars of Eternity. This one comes from Codex old-timer and Age of Decadence designer Vault Dweller (with a special ghostguest appearance by Grunker).

Vault Dweller has written some of the RPG Codex' most seminal reviews in the past, and perhaps this review will finally have you make up your mind about this much-discussed title. If not, we may have even more reviews coming your way.

Here's a bit about how RTwP is shit. Enjoy!

I’ve read many discussions where people argue to death over things like the engagement system or encounter design, forgetting the bigger picture: RTwP is flawed by default.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, the pause is an honest admission that fast-paced, party vs party, real-time combat is too chaotic to be controlled on the fly and the AI is too retarded to be relied on, and thus you have to pause this interactive movie to issue some basic orders and show the AI how it's done.

Sequential combat is a lot more complex and a turn, yours or the enemy's, isn't a pause - it's a window to plan, respond to what the enemy's up to, execute strategies, and most importantly, ensure that your party members will survive the enemy's turn. In fact, planning for the enemy's turn is what makes TB so engaging. Any idiot can pick some targets to attack during his turn, but making sure that all your men survive the enemy's turn and the battle (like in XCOM, for example) is the real challenge.

To be honest, I think Obsidian did a fantastic job designing the combat mechanics and I couldn’t help but admire some of Sawyer’s design decisions. Had PoE been a challenging TB game, the system would have shone. Sadly, its potential and all the clever ideas are wasted on a game that often plays itself and goes extra mile to ensure that all your choices are totally awesome (because you’re awesome too!).

Still, neither Black Isle nor Obsidian games were known for great combat. In fact, they’ve mastered the art of making great RPGs with Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Combat: PST, KOTOR 2, MotB, New Vegas, so let’s leave the combat talk to people who have nothing better to do than compare one RTwP system to another and debate which one is worse all day.​

Read the full article: RPG Codex Review: Pillars of Eternity - By Vault Dweller and the Spirit of Grunker

 

[Bubbles]

In memoriam

 

[TripJack]

in before brazilian butthurt

 

[Ulminati]

 

[Delterius]

I wonder who's going to write the next review.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Is this the "real" review at long last? I'll wait for a conformation before I read it.

 

[Sitra Achara]

We need only one more review.
Rosh

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Not a bad read. Even a couple of punchy lines for the twitter feed:

like a retarded baby it has no idea that its head-wound is leaking pus

 

[Athelas]

definitively the very best Kickstarted game thus far

A positive review in sheep's clothing.
This must have been Infinitron's plan all along.

 

[Infinitron]

definitively the very best Kickstarted game thus far

A positive review in sheep's clothing.
This must have been Infinitron's plan all along.

No, but I did unsuccessfully lobby for the the addition of a "Must buy, must play"!

 

[Copper]

Sums up my own frustrations with the game quite well, good job.

 

[Delterius]

definitively the very best Kickstarted game thus far

A positive review in sheep's clothing.
This must have been Infinitron's plan all along.

Meh, that last portion is mostly correct (if you don't count Larian's not-really kickstarter D:OS, that is). The review is fine, it touches every aspect of the game and describes where Obsidian succeeded and where they didn't in a way that doesn't really veer too much towards dismissing or exalting the damn thing. In short: it treats PoE as the rough gem it is.

Let us link this review on Steam and seal the eternal drama away once and for all.

 

[likaq]

This is so far best PoE review on codex.

 

[Athelas]

This is so far best PoE review on codex.

Emphasis on 'so far'.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I extend a maximum brofist to Vault Dweller

 

[Diablo169]

Good review experience, 10/10 would read again.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Ban everyone who does not submit his own Pillars of Eternity review by the end of the week - that would've been a good codexian solution.

 

[felipepepe]

in before brazilian butthurt

Nah, I really enjoyed reading VD and Grunker's review. Instead of writing pages upon pages of mechanical analysis, they go straight for the heart of why the game feels so underwhelming. Sure, you could expand each individual point, but the core of why PoE sucks is right there. The finer details, which Roxor, PJ and I wrote verbosely about, it's just the consequence of it.

I'll just add that playing Path of the Damned made me fully realize the value of PoE's system and the extend of Obsidian's cowardice. They made an interesting system, then nerfed it until it was barely relevant anymore.

 

[Lhynn]

The review calls the game a retarded abomination, frustrating in the sense of being wasted potential, boring, lacking, and a whole list of etcs but then it calls it Best kickstarter RPG? i chuckled. having DF, sits and D:OS that statement is stupid.

If anything this review is even more negative than roxors in a lot of ways, but also less helpful. There are some things wrong in the review tho, the character system does offer trap choices, its just that your choices have close to 0 impact on the performance of your character or its ability to stay effective. Levels are all that matter, etc. Overall decent i guess.

 

[J_C]

This was a nice review. The review the Codex deserves, I might say. Not a negative, trolling, edgy, nitpick the game to death review like Roxor's, and not the fanboyish review of decado (or what's his name). It is a fair review, in the style of Codex (read, there are some cynicism and nitpicking, but not too much).

Not that I agree with everything is says, because I think that the game is better than the sum of its parts, but it definitely has problems.

 

[Jaesun]

A local faction is attacking people on sight because the prices in a brothel are too high for the common folk. Who writes this shit?

 

[J_C]

A local faction is attacking people on sight because the prices in a brothel are too high for the common folk. Who writes this shit?

 

[Delterius]

There are some things wrong in the review tho, the character system does offer trap choices, its just that your choices have close to 0 impact on the performance of your character or its ability to stay effective.

Trap choices do not have 0 impact on performance.

 

[tuluse]

The review calls the game a retarded abomination, frustrating in the sense of being wasted potential, boring, lacking, and a whole list of etcs but then it calls it Best kickstarter RPG? i chuckled. having DF, sits and D:OS that statement is stupid.

If anything this review is even more nagative than roxors in a lot of ways, but also less helpful. There are some things wrong in the review tho, the character system does offer trap choices, its just that your choices have close to 0 impact on the performance of your character or its ability to stay effective. Levels are all that matter, etc. Overall decent i guess.

I'm pretty sure that statement was written before SitS was released, just fyi.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Some Grunker bits are really good, especially regarding the difference on how the setting's lore is conveyed to the player (in comparison to PST):

Consider how Torment has a much more confusing, lore-heavy world than PoE, yet everything we know of Sigil we’re told though its characters acting, behaving, being. We are told about the Mercykillers not because Vhailor goes on 6-page rant about the structure of the order, but because Vhailor IS the principles, because the philosophic debates with him tells us something about the way he thinks.