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Congrats to Obsidian on Pillars of Eternity release!


theacefes

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Just wanted to do a small post here and say that the game is amazing and has surprised me in just about every aspect. Not only is it the most fun I've had playing an Obsidian game, but I think it is also one of the most polished works they've done in recent memory.

 

I hope the modding scene for this becomes a real thing. I truly believe it was communities like ours that helped fuel some of the support for their Kickstarter and the reboot of the isometric cRPG era.

 

Also, the box is shiny.

 

 

 

EPZHIMz.jpg

 

 

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Looks like you've accumulated a bunch of loot already.

 

I've also been enjoying the game. I had good impressions before the release and so far, I haven't been disappointed. The artwork, music, and lore is very inviting and everything manages to evoke the IE experience. I still have a lot to see and figure out, though, and I'm taking my time.

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A seconded congratulations to Obsidian from me. I'm still waiting for my loot box to arrive, but your pic has me rubbing my hands in anticipation.

 

I still haven't had a chance to play the game, crawling through Dragon Age as I am, but it's great to hear the game's looking so good in a finished state. Hopefully we at G3 will do some modding for it and the age of the Isometric more tactical RPG will continue on!

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just don't doubleclick to swap equipped items or use spells that alter your weapons. Some serious bugs like that remain ...

 

For me, I can't say it has an IE feel, but so far the experience has been good. And it worked out of the box on linux! :)

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just don't doubleclick to swap equipped items or use spells that alter your weapons. Some serious bugs like that remain ...

For me, I can't say it has an IE feel, but so far the experience has been good. And it worked out of the box on linux! :)

Yeah, there are lots of critical bugs around, from what I've read. I'll be waiting for the patches to roll out, I want to play this one as clean as possible.

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Choo Choo and I have been playing nonstop and either we just don't think to double click or we're extremely fortunate, as neither of us have encountered any criticals. Hopefully it'll get patched soon though. :)

 

I've also turned my eyes to the new Torment game coming up, and have backed that as well. Very exciting time I think. :)

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How long is the campaign, guys? 40 hours? 50?

Haven't finished it yet. There is a lot of content though and the walkthrough portion of my guidebook is pretty long. Dunno if that says anything. The areas are beautiful and they've improved greatly on the character models since the first look at it.

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While I can confirm that it is very text heavy (easily readable though - I like the way they've structured it), I'm going to avoid giving hourly estimates for this as DA:I offered something like 150 hours total. That game took me 50 hours to beat the main quest and get a fair amount of the side quests done. DA was amazing, but I feel like throwing out hours is becoming a new "standard" for game devs to quantify their quality.

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I haven't been here in forever due to disillusionment and bleh, but I did want to post about Pillars now that I finished it, and figured I'd come here for it.

 

 

First: wow. Really, wow. It's pretty good, tactical wise- there were times when I did have to turn down to easy (on first playthrough, but still!) to get through things. Combat is engaging, though I wonder if they took too much influence from the D&D games. The story is very Obsidian: you have mysterious powers and awaken to a past that is mysterious and may be the only one who can stop mysterious crisis that at it's core may be black and white but has a lot of grey involved (similar to say, Planescape, KOTOR2, Mask of the Betrayer). It, however, lacks the big problem of say, KOTOR2, in that there actually is a finished ending and wrapup. It does have the standard Obsidan bugs, but most of them should be fixed in today's patch- of course, today's patch then broke mechanics for some characters, so there you go. Altogether, I think it adds up to something pretty awesome.

 

Second: wow, the companions are well written. I don't know if they'll find a place in people's hearts the way some Baldur's Gate companions did... the sterotypes we get from Bioware companions aren't here. There's not really a proud warrior race guy, a goofy cheerful person whose a fountain of memes, there's no spirited young lady, there's no broken bird you have to coax out of her shell... each companion feels unique, rather then 'Okay, need to feel this trope, need to satisfy this romance hole'. I'll say this- the priest companion (who you can pick up on the mouth south of the starting town, bright and early) is a horrible human being. He's not what I'd call evil, persay, but he's sexist, racist, shows a bit of homophobia, treats every other member of your party like shit generally, mocks everything that doesn't fit his perceptions of the world... and yet I think he's probably the best written NPC I've seen in a game in well, a damn long time. Likewise, the cypher is also brilliantly written. Perhaps fittingly, they're both Avellone's- and both the two companions that I could not see writing a romance for no matter what happened.

 

(The ranger is married and seems happy enough about it, but one could probably write a romance for her. The paladin... it may have to be an asexual romance, if the druid's speculations are right, but she's definitely romancable. I got the feeling the wizard might be gay, but I could write that, and then for the other males, the fighter and chanter would be very easy to write romances for, and even though the druid's a silly orlan, I could write one for him, too. I don't think this game needed romance, though, as much as I love romance in games. I think it's better modded, as the creators didn't want to go that direction- and I think the bonds you can make without romance are pretty neat on their own.)

 

Third, I really liked the graphics in the game. They did have a tendency to reuse the same cave map, but that's my only complaint. The details are actually pretty amazing: if you zoom in, you can see the little pixels stopping to reload their gun or crossbow, even. Cool.

 

Fourth, crafting was easy, non-stressful, and yet allowed customization. Enchanting weapons and armor in the early game helped the mid game quite a bit, and then enchanting the badass midgame weapons and armor I got till I got the endgame stuff was nice. You don't find too many named weapons/armor in this game: at best, you find 'fine mace' or 'exceptional mace'. So once you find say, that exceptional mace, you may want to enchant it with an attribute boost and kith slaying, and, well, there you go.

 

Fifth, the story overall was, I think, done well. The setting surrounding you is fairly dark: I wouldn't call it grimdark (or the even worse 'shitdark' when you've gotten to the point of making things horrible just to make them horrible (looking at you, Exalted 2E)), but it is definitely dark. Still, you can help a lot of people, be a ray of hope, make things well again, and in the end fix the problem... or make a ton of new problems.

 

And finally, sixth, I really liked the dialog. Sadly, the tradition of talking final Obsidan bosses out of fighting with you didn't carry over to this game- but there are tons of dialog options with the non-voiced protagonist, tons of choices, and your personality can play a huge part in how people treat you. You can also go off the rails a tiny bit: even the very beginning prologue, you can just murder EVERYONE (pretty hard, by the way) and then still go on with the game rather then doing the prologuing stuff. Though that would be mean.

 

 

The major things I didn't like? I know they were backer rewards and allowed the funding of this game, but I'd get rid of in a heartbeat the yellow tagged NPC's with the reach out the soul option. Only a rare few held up to the writing of the rest of the game: the majority were meh fanfiction, with some of them being straight horrible fanfiction. Likewise, graveyard jokes have been a staple of RPGs since forever, but I don't need someone who is a Ratonga (an Everquest race, jeez) on a headstone, nor someone named haxx0r. Still, the graveyards you can just not click on, and the yellow tagged NPCs you can ignore or just kill (with apparently no side effects, so that may be a problem on their own...)

 

The bugs could be pretty major: I equipped a drinking horn on my cipher, for instance, that was supposed to get her +2 INT. Apparently, it gave +2 to her INT everytime I reloaded, leaving her with godlike INT (48 or so?)- but that's okay, because INT was bugged so that it didn't increase the size of your AOES anyway. Go figure. That is supposedly fixed, but now there's the mechanics problem...

 

After you get to (the second big city) the game starts to lack in sidequests as it pushes you towards the big bad and the ending. It's not rushed, but compared to first big city, you'll notice it. They also did their best to have your personality, reputation, race, and class matter, and for the most part it does- but some times it clearly didn't. (IE, I was a Godlike from the Republics, too, and I could still bother the paladin with 'SO U A GODLIKE' 'HOW R GODLIKES IN THE REPUBLICS TREATED?', doh.)

 

There's also the off the rails thing: mechanics can lead you places you maybe shouldn't be. There's a house in the first big city that is a part of a murder mystery later in the game: you can wander in to it immediately, pick a few locks, and then start talking like you know what's going on and like you've been set to investigate this mystery when that won't happen for five more hours or so. Which is problematic.

 

 

It was around a 50 or so hour game for me, not including how many times I spent reloading trying to beat a certain thing.

 

 

Some Tricks and Tips (as nonspoiler as I can make them, and if there are spoilers, they're not major)

 

++ If you don't want to overlap with a companion, be a barbarian, rogue, or monk.

++ Resolve is by far the most checked attribute in dialog: if you can push it up, do it. No class seems to really 'favour' it but it's a secondary for most classes.

++ Likewise, Lore is the most checked skill in dialog, probably followed by survivial. I found one occasion where Mechanics was used: it was a good option, but I could have gotten that way by other dialog. Lore and survivial were popping up all the time. Thus, unless you're a wizard/priest, Lore should probably be your priority.

++ In return, have one of the first companions you meet (you can meet three of them very easily, and the fourth without too much difficulty- the last for your party will come later, though I usually make a custom companion in the Inn to serve me) start going up Mechanics, which is extremely important. The wizard is a good choice, if you want him around: as he can use the spells anyway, he doesn't need lore for scrolls. Likewise, someone in your group should have athletics, but the fighter will do for that.

++ Your companions should be basically min/maxed, when it comes to skills. Because you need more for dialog checks, you can flirt around a bit, but if you are making a custom party, do a member with stealth, a member with athletics, a member with mechanics... if you do have extra points, put them in survival for lasting longer without needing to rest. (On that note, I think the highest Mechanics check in the game is 12, so yeah, you basically have to sink all your points there to make it- though you can find a way around).

++ The Endless Paths are NOT meant to be done all at once. Definitely not. Do them slow, as you level. The final two levels probably shouldn't be done until you're max, unless you want to cheese it.

++ Your companions are influenced by the way you act to them throughout the full game, not just one final decision (save for maybe one of them). Not that all of them are influenced by you, mind.

++ You don't get XP for killing enemies after you've filled your bestiary. If the enemy has no real loot (a pack of animals, for instance), it makes perfect sense to avoid them, or send your stealth expert around looking for loot avoiding the enemies. Also, there is more then enough XP in the game to get you, your party members, and the extras you leave at the keep to max level through sidequests. So don't worry too much if you fail something or mess up somewhere.

++ Once you take the leap of faith, you're done. You can't go back and do sidequests. So watch for that leap of faith.

 

 

Now, some super spoilers up to the end:

 

I played a Moon Godlike Cipher. In hindsight, despite the tiny buffs given to them, Godlikes aren't worth it. Moon is the best of the lot, but your ability is certainly not worth trading the helmet slot when say, both Oran's have a much better ability and a helmet. Cipher, oddly, mostly gave me options when dealing with other ciphers- in paticular, the Grieving Mother. I also had an option in E's quest, but I couldn't give him the answers he wanted.

 

I've heard Durance kills himself if you convince him he betrayed his goddess rather then that his goddess betrayed him. Considering his goddess was fabricated, I went with the 'she betrayed you' thing (she tried to kill him!), but I think my second character (a Skein priest) will convince him that he betrayed her, because my second character will be Cruel and Horrible. My first was Very Nice.

 

There are two options you can get for the final decision besides the four offered you in the temple. People I think are still trying to figure out what exactly the criteria of those are. I got both, despite being Honest, Passionate, and Benevolent (and in no way cruel or deceptive), which shouldn't have made Wael or Skien too fond of me. Wael, I suppose, I did bury his scroll- maybe that's it? No idea bout Skien, though. Some people say you have to be 'lawfulish' (maybe siding with the knights?) to have him approach. It's been said if you have the slave background he definitely will approach, though. Hm.

 

I don't get why Gilded Vale didn't like that I killed their crazy Lord (who they hated) when he came back to life as a monster. Ruined my Champion streak.

 

There is sexuality pretty much everywhere in this game. Hetrosexual... and homosexual, to a degree, but only of the female kind. (Besides my musings on Aloth, who I'll need to look at all the dialog for.) Aloth's passenger is female and likes woman, the animast gal you need to meet for the knight's quest is meeting her female lover (or thinks she is), the gal in the brothel shoots down a guy flirting with her by telling him she's there for the gals, and your past life can be a lesbian if you choose that I was your lover in your conversation with Thaos. But guy on guy? Not anywhere to be seen, besides the fact that males can grab a male prostitute if they so choose. (Okay, and H mentioning that the chanter's voice is terrifying but sort of arousing.) Of course, mention that probably anywhere but here and there would be WARGGH SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR WARGGGHHHH bitching.

 

E is adorable beyond adorable when it comes to your pets (and S's). He's actually adorable all over, really. How how he doesn't strangle Durance when Durance is talking all about killing his god and then purging everyone of his religion and wanting to keep doing it is beyond me.

 

I'm still sort of surprised that Thaos didn't see through the Grieving Mother's caul. He has bitchy notes for everyone but her about the gods. I could see through it, but he can't? Win to her, I guess, though she's the one trapped there forever...

 

...Probably going to mod at this game. Maybe. We'll see. In the end, though, highly enjoyable.

 

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I've played one hour so far and all I can say is very Baldur's Gateish. Its distracting me from a project I'm working on. Why did it have to be released now? Unfortunately it uses a game engine that isn't mod friendly. A shame really since this game and Wasteland 2 use it and mods for these games would be be great.

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