Game News Pillars of Eternity Released

[Infinitron]

I find the interface extremely intuitive and easy to use with one single nigger

The fact that you're replying to some alt dude who calls himself "Obama Phone" makes this even funnier

Spoiler

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/niggle

 

[LeStryfe79]

Was that an autocorrect?

 

[Prime Junta]

Sawyer's influence is mostly evident in the game mechanics - I haven't seen anything annoyingly political / hipster or whatever in the game so far. I don't agree with everything Sawyer says or believes in either, but I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. It's a legit return-to-form of the classic isometric CRPG.

Except, of course, an Inuit dwarf mother-of-five companion, a Polynesian companion, a black woman paladin companion, a raging misogynist companion with the other companions needling him about his raging misogyny, a deity embodying the rage from social injustice, a main theme related to religious oppression and persecution... little things like that.

P:E's politics are really, incredibly, awesomely progressive. It's a testament to the writers' skill that all you good folk don't even notice. It's the antithesis of typical fantasy games which are politically reactionary. P:E is the embodiment of :inclusive: done right.

 

[Alchemist]

Prime Junta That quote tag is borked up.. FYI..

Well I haven't gotten to all the companions yet - but simply having a diverse cast doesn't mean the game is heavy-handed in a SJW way. Like I said, I haven't seen anything annoyingly political.

 

[Beowulf]

Yeah, the game is pretty liberal.

 

[hiver]

Im not sure is this human fault of over-reacting to what one dumb superficial guy blurted out without thinking (literally) and then making assumptions because of it - despite a dozen other much better posters saying otherwise - funny or disgusting.
And copper seems to have a major mass effect trauma since thats what comes up as a major horror example/accusation anytime he doesnt know something, it seems.


btw, yesterday i was playing and i noticed im getting xp for killing creatures. Who said there is no xp for combat?


Playing with a fighter-mage build now, btw. And its just fine.
having two mages in the party is pretty good. You can even take a grimoire from one and copy the spells to the other.

Also tried a barbarian and its good. Wish i could push one into the party but i dont want to miss on companions stories and i already resurrected Heodan the rogue. Since i have all these soul powers it wasnt a bit problem.
Kana is getting the shaft (not that kind of shaft, thanks) as soon as i get to the Grieving Mother so im full for now.

The good thing is that you can practically run all the way to Dryford without doing anything in the maps before it, except taking on the keep, which i really dislike being forced onto the player.



man this game sure needs more written companions.

 

[zero29]

...
btw, yesterday i was playing and i noticed im getting xp for killing creatures. Who said there is no xp for combat?
...

you mean bestiary xp? that's been part of the game for more than 6 months now (backer beta build 333)

 

[hiver]

yeah, i wasnt following that closely.
But the talk about no xp for combat is still going on around.

 

[Jigawatt]

You do realize this isn't a solo Sawyer project right?

That's where you're wrong

 

[Jasede]

Very misleading picture, nobody has ever seen Sawyer smile.

It's oddly terrifying.

 

[Prime Junta]

Alchemist That's the thing with propaganda, if it's done at all well you never even notice it's propaganda.

It's only when it's done badly that it gets irksome. -> BioWare

 

[Jigawatt]

As for my actual review so far (about 14hrs):

It's been glorious. Decided to go straight for the (non-solo) triple crown blind (didn't pay any attention during kickstarter updates) and got my Barbarian ass handed to me by the tutorial boss. Re-rolled a ranger and have gotten her to level 5, really enjoying each fight along the way because any screw-up feels like it could spell the end, but thoughtful playing seems to be keeping me alive for now. For some reason I got it into my head to do Raedrick before going to Caed Nua, but got busted wearing priest clothes on an upper level and had to basically retreat from the whole map via the sewers... good times.

Basically it's been a long damn time since a game's made we wish so much for less working/research hours.

Main gripes so far:

Backer content is glaringly out of place. I didn't realise those yellow named NPCs were backer written so I was trying to figure out what was up with them. Everyone in Gilded Vale was either dirt poor or in league with Raedrick, except these guys all seemed to be blinged to the hilt. I actually thought they might be spirits of the past only visible to watchers or something. But nope, just walking fanfiction dispensers. Likewise those memorials - I think one was to ',,,,'.

Haven't had any show stopper bugs, but I have had items vanish into thin air moving them from stash to main inventory. Pretty annoying when you've got no savefile to go back to.

Also what kind of madman writes the equation 'Health = 40 + 10 / Level'? I get less health as I level up? Whilst I do get what it's trying to say some of the other help is even worse, it often feels like I've got to guess what the tooltips really mean.


But in the end it's easy to list these sorts of problems but they don't override the rest of the experience so far. This year's well on track to bring even more incline than last it seems

 

[zero29]

...
Backer content is glaringly out of place. I didn't realise those yellow named NPCs were backer written so I was trying to figure out what was up with them. Everyone in Gilded Vale was either dirt poor or in league with Raedrick, except these guys all seemed to be blinged to the hilt. I actually thought they might be spirits of the past only visible to watchers or something. But nope, just walking fanfiction dispensers. Likewise those memorials - I think one was to ',,,,'.
...

 

[KevinV12000]

I'm not reading much about the game, as I wish to remain happily in the dark both about the game story/mechanics and what other people feel about it. Here is my first impression after six hours last night:

-- Brilliant updating of the Infinity Engine games, with all the same controls and feel, but much smoother, intuitive and functional.
-- Beautiful maps and terrain
-- Combat is tactical and quite enjoyable; I especially like the half-speed option to stay on top of things
-- Character creation is a blast and the different classes really are very diffent in play style and tactics
-- Story is well written, with the new IE style drawed page cut-scenes now incorporating choices, sound effects and voice acting
-- Wide array of weapon types and damage types
-- Stats, stats, stats

Obsidian really hit it out of the park with this one. I wish them much-deserved success with this, obviously made with a real love for the genre, plus intelligence and wit.

Well done.

 

[Jasede]

It's growing on me as I keep playing. The beginning is a little badly paced so it took some time to grab my attention but now I feel a lot like that guy above.

 

[zeroprometheus]

I can't help but make constant comparisons to DnD and i find the lack of ranged weapon usage in melee penalties, armored casting penalties bizarre. So is it possible to to have a heavy armor battlemage from the get go? Oh and if the area of effect spell marker doesnt highlight party members does that always mean it targets enemies only? the whole red yellow targeting radius thing is actually a great idea that refocuses positioning tactics for mages and the party bit why do healing spells have them too, i see no documentation for this. Also am I the only one who is constantly scouting every inch of fog of war?

Another thing that is bothering me are the weird names and neologism in the game. I like that theyre original but reading so much of them in the verbose lore background is a pain.

 

[Decado]

I think it's fair to give Dragon Age Origins credit for creating a lively set of characters, who felt three dimensional in their motivations. Dialog is something that Bioware usually does well, to the point that they've let that particular strength of theirs overwhelm all their instincts towards game design.

DAO's dialog was pretty lame. It is like Joss Whedon dialog written by a 14 year old trying to create a fantasy novel.

 

[tuluse]

I can't help but make constant comparisons to DnD and i find the lack of ranged weapon usage in melee penalties, armored casting penalties bizarre. So is it possible to to have a heavy armor battlemage from the get go?

Yes. The penalty is slower action time and casting tends to be slower than weapons so it's compounds.

Oh and if the area of effect spell marker doesnt highlight party members does that always mean it targets enemies only? the whole red yellow targeting radius thing is actually a great idea that refocuses positioning tactics for mages and the party bit why do healing spells have them too, i see no documentation for this. Also am I the only one who is constantly scouting every inch of fog of war

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking and I play with expert so I don't get to see them but AoE should have an inner and outer line. The inner line marks an area that has friendly fire and the outer line marks the total area enemies will be hit.

Another thing that is bothering me are the weird names and neologism in the game. I like that theyre original but reading so much of them in the verbose lore background is a pain.

They're not original, they're celtic.

 

[VladimirK]

How is Pillars of Eternity's writing? Is it at least Dragon Age: Origins caliber? For the record, I prefer Fallout 2's writing to Planescape: Torments' any day of the week. I've never played the Icewind Dale series or Baldur's Gate. Is Pillars better or worse than Icewind Dale?

I'd say it's extremely variable. PoE's best is indeed simple dialogue that doesn't try to be grand and majestic. The worst is when it does try, but ends up being horrible overwrought shit.

I've been screenshotting examples of both good and bad writing, here are some (minor spoilers).

Spoiler

Only one of them is good, but that doesn't really represent the distribution in the game--it's more 50/50, just that most positive examples I have so far are too spoilery.

 

[Tigranes]

You seemed to have picked out very ordinary and mundane examples...?

 

[VladimirK]

You seemed to have picked out very ordinary and mundane examples...?

In what way? Quality-wise there's an immense difference between one of them and the rest.

 

[Duraframe300]

They're not original, they're celtic.

Not only

Theres several languages at work here.

 

[Obama Phone 3]

I think it's fair to give Dragon Age Origins credit for creating a lively set of characters, who felt three dimensional in their motivations. Dialog is something that Bioware usually does well, to the point that they've let that particular strength of theirs overwhelm all their instincts towards game design. Nowadays their output feels more like friendship-simulators with a bit of RPG-lite thrown in between cutscenes.

The problem is that Dragon Age just didn't set any of these characters in a particularly interesting world. In Dark Souls, by contrast, everything you learned about the lore gave way to a greater mystery. There were riddles within riddles, cleverly placed throughout the game which lured you into a gradually unfolding, grand mythology.

The DA setting is shit but not nearly as shit as most of the characters. I liked the dwarf in DA:O because he wasn't a bioware character, he was a time tested stereotype which any idiot could nail (not figuratively, I figured I should clarify that since we are talking about a bioware game). Everybody else OTOH ranged from mediocre to shit.

I agree that DAO has almost zero replayability. It's of considered to be a classic of course, but it has not aged too well.

Hopefully Pillars doesn't suffer the same fate. Booting up now.

 

[V_K]

Another thing that is bothering me are the weird names and neologism in the game. I like that theyre original but reading so much of them in the verbose lore background is a pain.

They're not original, they're celtic.

More like celtic-inspired. I don't remember any of those terms in actual celtic myths (not that I'm a huge expert ofc).

 

[Darth Roxor]

They're not original, they're celtic.

particularly the fampyrs and guls

and ducs and pands