Is Pillars of Eternity worth playing?

[Zboj Lamignat]

I have nothing but sheer respect for a guy who spent dozens of hours playing BG2 in the nineties despite the game being released in late 2000

 

[Theldaran]

I have nothing but sheer respect for a guy who spent dozens of hours playing BG2 in the nineties despite the game being released in late 2000

The 90s encompass more than we expected, m8. Glory to the 90s!

 

[Zibniyat]

After 60 hours and 55 minutes I've finished POE (1.0.).

Verdict:

 

[FreeKaner]

Why would you put so many hours to PoE 1.0?

 

[Zibniyat]

Because I started with 1.0. and had already invested some 15 hours into it. Was too lazy and disinterested to slog through the beginning again, apparently slogging through the remaining 46 hours was less of a hassle to me...

 

[Mexi]

Because I started with 1.0. and already invested some 15 hours into it. Was too lazy and disinterested to slog through the beginning again, apparently slogging through the remaining 46 hours was less of a hassle to me...

You missed a great game then.

 

[Zibniyat]

Perhaps. I'm now eyeing the White March expansions. Perhaps I'll replay the game with 3+ version, I must say I'm somewhat curious to see the differences first-hand.

 

[Iznaliu]

I have nothing but sheer respect for a guy who spent dozens of hours playing BG2 in the nineties despite the game being released in late 2000

I have nothing but sheer respect for a guy who memorises the release date of every single RPG in existence and uses that to argue with people online rather than accept that other people might not be in the habit of doing that.

 

[Theldaran]

BG2 is not "every single RPG in existence". It's from top tier.

Besides, it was for the lulz, you Flanders Iznaliu.

 

[vivec]

You can safely skip it.

 

[mfkndggrfll]

I reinstalled it multiple times trying to get into it but it simply is too bland. The writing is eye bleeding material. They honestly thought ''Lets just add more useless details just in case people complain that there isnt enough''. If you pay attention to detail you can clearly see that some parts of the dialogue contain a 'core' sentence plus something that was clearly tacked on afterwards to pad it with filler, sometimes going way out of context because the writer forgot what the original sentence was about.

The game has many instances of borderline broken English too. Overall the writing is the biggest flaw of this game that pretends being a RPG.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

Oh no

 

[AwesomeButton]

Makkab is that you?

 

[Delterius]

I reinstalled it multiple times trying to get into it but it simply is too bland. The writing is eye bleeding material.

yeah but is fallout 3 better than poe?

 

[mfkndggrfll]

The writing is objectively better. I played PoE for the sake of analysing the text and I swear I saw mistakes that would have earned me an F in high school. Like with Durance at one point the descripotive text says ''...the next comparison is...'', clearly telling the writer's intention rather than showing it. F3's dialogue might be stupid but it's properly written unlike PoE's.

I still remember the first 'metaphors' PoE tried to deliver, Calisca seeing visual horror and then warding her mouth like to ward off a vapor. The cult leader wearing a hat 'like some sort of malevolant creature'. Like another guy who has a 'fox-like' aspect its like the writer ran out of words and had to like keep writing because the game needs to have like a lot of descriptive text like the older RPGs like baldurs gate. Like its almost like he didnt even try to like reread his text.

Also just imagine how BG1 would have played out had Gorion sent you to grab some berries to fix his diarrhea and you came back to realize hes dead. That whole intro is the laziest effort I have ever seen, even BG had an epic scripted fight while being 20 years older, PoE didnt even bother.

 

[Sizzle]

Epic and scripted fight don't really go together

 

[2house2fly]

I wish PoE had had an NPC named "Dad" for the baddie to kill so I know I hate the baddie.

 

[Theldaran]

Also just imagine how BG1 would have played out had Gorion sent you to grab some berries to fix his diarrhea and you came back to realize hes dead. That whole intro is the laziest effort I have ever seen, even BG had an epic scripted fight while being 20 years older, PoE didnt even bother.

Well to be honest

Spoiler

the Sarevok ambush is pretty stupid in itself, as he should have left no survivors (a certain survivor that will be his downfall indeed). Then you spend 6 chapters doing other things until you meet him again. Of course, when you meet him again the situation is different than it were if he hadn't killed your foster father, for dramatic effect. Anyway, Sarevok is, hands down, the star of the show. And the ambush thingy is no worse than what actual FR writers delivered while being paid for it. So.

Plus the game rocked in 1998, and the texts at the start of each chapter really kept you hooked.

 

[Lord_Potato]

It seams the disease is spreading

Btw, Pillars are definately worth playing. The most recent version with Whitemarch 1&2, that is.

 

[Serious_Business]

You know what the real problem with this game is. It was made professionally, with a clear picture in mind, that of reproducing some "classical" experience ; they're trying to imitate fat slobs who liked dungeons and dragons. These DnD fatsoes tried to reproduce the pnp experience. Now with Pillars you're trying to make a replica of a simulation of the pnp experience. This shit is so out of its original material, it doesn't mean anything anymore. It can't do anything, subvert anything, play off any kind of cultural expectations ; it exists in a vacuum. It becomes an entirely artificial experience. You tolerated the shitty real time strategy with pause system (this is what the IE was in the first place), because it kind of allowed you to play DnD without having to bother with friends and schedules and goddamn dices. You could create your damn chaotic evil necromancer and run around and this was great (you know necromancers are great). Now what the fuck do we have left. I'll tell you : a fucking knife in the gut. Come on asshole, do it! I'm ready to die

 

[Ibn Sina]

I recently decided to brute force my way through the game after a year of trying to complete it but failing. Basically it was very hard to get back into the game if you drop it for a week or so. I did not have spare time to play because I was traveling around and I always found it hard to come back to the game. The plot was so convoluted and the dialogues confusing and long and you have no idea what the npcs are saying are relevant to the plot or not. If I am not mistaken about 90% of the dialogue in the game was written like this:

Tell me about this
Tell me about yourself
Tell me about your tribe.

A raging autist trapped in a basement must have written those dialogues because who talks like that in real life? It was so jarring. I would like to add that I always took my time with rpgs and it took me many months to finish NVN 2 OC for example and I did not experience any problems jumping back in if I abandoned the game for a month or two. Pillars was the first. Here is hoping the second one is better than the first!

So my recommendations skip the first and jump into the second, it looks so much better than the first.

 

[bminorkey]

I recently decided to brute force my way through the game after a year of trying to complete it but failing. Basically it was very hard to get back into the game if you drop it for a week or so. I did not have spare time to play because I was traveling around and I always found it hard to come back to the game. The plot was so convoluted and the dialogues confusing and long and you have no idea what the npcs are saying are relevant to the plot or not. If I am not mistaken about 90% of the dialogue in the game was written like this:

Tell me about this
Tell me about yourself
Tell me about your tribe.

A raging autist trapped in a basement must have written those dialogues because who talks like that in real life? It was so jarring. I would like to add that I always took my time with rpgs and it took me many months to finish NVN 2 OC for example and I did not experience any problems jumping back in if I abandoned the game for a month or two. Pillars was the first. Here is hoping the second one is better than the first!

So my recommendations skip the first and jump into the second, it looks so much better than the first.

It has some nice writing in the DLCs. The Archmage stuff, and the entirety of the second DLC. I hope to see some of that in PoE2.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I just recently started playing Pillars of Eternity (with White March), for the first time.

I don't know how much it changed from when it was launched in 2015, or what your parents did to some of you, but it's a very fun RPG. Definitely one of the better RPGs (so far) in the last few years. It's not perfect, there are various things that could've been done better, but as a whole package, it's pretty damn good.

The writing is pretty good. Yes, it's not PS:T quality, but this is a huge open-world-esque game, and the storylines/dialogue here put other recent releases like Divinity: Original Sin, Underrail to shame. Exploration is pretty good for an isometric game, combat is not the greatest ever but fun, character development is very enjoyable with constant abilities and talents to get (even if they are mostly number adjustments), graphics are gorgeous, there is C&C and some puzzles. Shit load of quests and things to do (massive dungeons, stronghold mini-game, bounties). Great loot tables.

For those of you who are controlled by the hivemind, cast if off and play this.

 

[mfkndggrfll]

Stop misleading people, the writing is probably the game's biggest flaw. Its more of a commercial product than a RPG, if McDonalds were to start making RPGs they would follow the exact same model as PoE.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Stop misleading people, the writing is probably the game's biggest flaw. Its more of a commercial product than a RPG, if McDonalds were to start making RPGs they would follow the exact same model as PoE.

Care to elaborate, Mrs. Alt? I have no idea what you are talking about. Bethesda and Bioware games are the McDonalds of RPGs. PoE has mature, quality writing. You have a well developed interesting lore (Aedyr, Dyrwood, Readceras, Valian Republics, wars for independence and different cultures, Engwithans and Glanfathans, indigenous savages vs incoming settlers, etc), a combination of reincarnation and various deities and science/animancy built on top of that, and the usual RPG secret cult/organization angle. The dialogue is a little heavy sometimes, but still pretty damn good by RPG standards. I haven't played through it yet, so I dunno, maybe it gets way worse later on, but so far, it's better than Baldur's Gate games. The only better written RPGs I can think of are PS:T and Mask of the Betrayer.