Pillars of Eternity

Wow this game is amazing.

If you can check two of the following boxes you will love this game:

[ ] Temple of Elemental Evil
[ ] Baldurs Gate 1/2 (enhanced versions in 2014!)
[ ] Fallout 1/2
[ ] Arcanium
[ ] Planescape
[ ] Divinity : Original Sin
[ ] Ice Wind Dale (honorable mention)

I ran though all of these games once in the past year some of them for the first time like Fallout and IWD and of course Divinity, but PoE is turning out to be amazing.

Seriously this game may surpass all of the previous ones, though I can't say for sure as I'm about midway though my first playthough.

Best moment so far, besides the gorgeous graphics is when the elven wizard npc in my group told a villager to go fuck his sister. Some seriously funny and adult banter from your group in this one.

 

I absolutely loved TOEE and D:OS.

The problem that I can't get past is RTWP combat. After playing TOEE for so long, I can't even imagine a CRPG without turn based combat.

 

I've played the game a little bit and I love it. I made myself restart after a few hours to change a few character creation and leveling points, plus I wanted to recruit a pair of generic PCs as soon as possible. This has set me back a bit, but I am extremely happy I backed the project. If someone is looking for a new CRPG, Pillars of Eternity is a great way to go.

 

So what is it?

 

It is the same folks that designed, engineered and developed some of the best RPGs made to date putting their efforts together to create the game they always wanted to make. Crowd funding has given them the ability, ($4,000,000 worth) to make exactly that game.

As for the RTWP and turn based issue, you can set up the auto pause to freeze the game at the end of every turn, or start of combat, or when a certain character gets hurt, or just about anything you want.

I too love turn based, but I've found with the way the encounters are so well thought out and your group follows whatever formation you set, that I have not needed to pause except at the beginning of the fights to issue special commands.

Also, there are three distinct speeds the game flows at which you can change on the fly from the gui.
I use slow for combat, normal for exploring and fast for moving through areas I've cleared or large cities.

You simply have to play it to appreciate it and I guaranty you will not be disappointed.

 

Imagine Baldur's Gate 1+2 made in the year 2015, (I've been playing six hours a day for 5 days and I'm in Act2 still!) using an alternate rule set of dungeons and dragons and set in an alternate DnD universe. This is that game and the music and graphics though still isometic 3D, are incredibly beautiful.

There is a menu that allows over 20 options for pausing the game. For example you can pause the game every set number of seconds, every time combat starts, every spell, etc, essentially it's easy to make everything turn based if you want. I only auto-pause the game at the beginning of combat and use the space bar to pause every few seconds if required to issue orders.

I especially like the lack of restrictions on armor, weapons and skills. Warriors with mechanics (lockpick), mages with heavier armor, clerics with 2 handed swords. Though each comes with a side-effect (less healthy warrior (lower athletics) slower casting speed on mage, less defense on cleric.. it's all done well to be balanced.

 

PoE is definitely a keeper :thumbsup:

 

The story is nice, but the combat is terrible and off-putting. I wish they used ToEE engine
Using autopause is not a help when targetting an AoE spell. Additionally the spell range is pitifully small, usually 5m, what means that the Wizard needs to stand almost next to its target.

 

The range and the size of your AOE spells is tied to your intelligence score, higher score = farther casting distance and larger area of effect.

Myself, I find the combat rather manageable on the slow speed. I am playing on the normal setting though, not the hard core or the heart of fury mode.

 

I find the overwhelming amount of weapons and armor to be a bit of overload, I'm curious how others choose armor and weapons. Right now, regardless of which companions I have in the party I basically have 3 guys in plate and 3 guys in medium with ranged weapons. The mage has a wand, 1 other uses a bow and another has some kind of firearm. It seems like anyone can use the wand, bow or firearm equally well and it's a bit muddled in that way. The mage talent for implements (wands/scepters) seems.. bad. My main guy is a warrior and Eder the warrior both took shield talents, but I find picking talents rather difficult, I don't really like committing to a single weapon type or style, when I know the next dungeon is going to give me something better of another type.. So far my worst regrets in talent choice was field triage, but I generally think interrupt talent is a great pick for the whole party, so everyone has it.

 

Heh heh, my wizard is wearing leather armor enchanted to the max and his wand is "Kith Slaying" . He does often find himself flat on his back at the end of many fights.

 

I've just finished Deadstate which I can highly recommend.
Might have to wait for a price drop before I try Pillars.

 

At level 11 of 12. I've completed the 15 levels of the "endless" dungeon.. it's not really that endless, but it's dam long. I'm pissed I have no chance in hell of killing that dragon with the standard NPCs. I also have a problem collecting the last bounty on the Ogre Druids because of that bugged spell - insect swarm. Kind of lost some of my interest in this game and have not been able to play it seriously in several days. Maybe I'll rush off to the final fight once I get some energy to play. (tbh nothing on my PC looks interesting these days, so it might not just be PoE).

The game is definitely good, but has some flaws. For example, the rules for spells and stuff is way more complicated than needed and it's really hard to know what spells or spell-like abilities are going to be useful when leveling up.

 

Having the cypher in your party petrify the enemies makes many of the later battles much easier.

The cypher has a spell she can cast on one of your front line tanks that will AOE a petrifying status that lasts long enough to for you to clobber the heavy damage dealers.

I'm beginning my second play through and this time I'm going for the hardest setting. I wonder how long I'll last before a total party wipe.

 

My party is currently looking and armed like this:
Meadow Folk Fighter using Hatchet and Heavy Armor also has a Hunting Bow for pulling purposes
Fire Godlike Chanter using Hatchet and Heavy Armor
Hearth Orlan Druid using Arbalest and Clothes
Boreal Dwarf Priest using Arquebus and Clothes
Wood Elf Cipher using Blunderbuss and Clothes
Island Aumana Wizard using Wands and Clothes

General rule with armor is that your damage dealers (At least the non-melee ones) will want to be using enchanted clothing. Recovery Time is big deal, especially for casters. You do not want them to be in heavy armor as it'll ruin your casting times.

As for weapons, from my experience Arbalests seem to be the best overall ranged one. Blunderbuss though, is a staple for Ciphers, since it generates a ton of Focus. Hatchets have a Deflection bonus so they're great for your tanks. For melee, I find Pikes (Extended range) and Maces (DR reduction) to be the best choices. Though, there are some really great Stilettos, so they're another option. Estocs are also really good, for their accuracy bonus.

Blast is alright for early levels. Deadly Implements actually works with Kalakoth's Minor Blights, but its not very useful beyond that. That said, assuming you get all 4 element talents, you'll have 2 spare left over anyway (Max level is 12 atm). It really doesn't matter all too much what you pick. Starting at level 9 1st-level spells become per encounter instead or per rest so your weapon becomes irrelevant at that point. At level 11, 2nd-level spells also become per encounter.

For my Fighter I went with:
Weapon and Shield Style - Easy bonus Deflection.
Wary Defender - Buffs your most important modal skill.
Superior Deflection - Another deflection bonus. The more the better.
Hold the Line - Increases the number of enemies glued to him.
Fast Runner - Filler, but the increased move speed is helpful.
Weapon Focus: Peasant - Also filler.

Looking at it, I probably should've gotten Rapid Recovery. Though to be fair, when my Fighter does actually take damage, its from spells not enemy's auto-attacks.