It’s wonderful to see so many developers breathe new life into the wonderful computer role-playing game (CRPG), which like so many others, would have been swallowed up in time. Thank the stars for games like Wasteland 2, Divinity: Original Sin II, and Transistor, all revitalising the genre by putting a different spin on the isometric CRPG. However, Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny are a slightly different breed, as they not only improve the formula, but are also deeply grounded in keeping the legacy of games like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale alive. That is, to tell resounding stories, fill it with memorable characters and have a challenging battle system.
- Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
- Publisher: Versus Evil
- Price: ₹1,200 for PC, Mac. Coming soon on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
It also helps that Obsidian Entertainment, comprising of the talent that made Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment, is part of Pillars of Eternity. Things are a bit different for the latest in the CRPG offering, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire though, as Chris Avellone, the creative talent on most of the games mentioned above, has since left Obsidian. Let’s see if the game can still manage to have the same magic touch.
What’s it about?
Deadfire carefully sidesteps the issue of bringing players who have not played the the first part up to speed. You get to choose your own version of the path you took through the first game. Complete newcomers may be hit by a tsunami of lore, but Obsidian does a good job of explaining each choice and consequence. They helpfully have also given you quick presets, from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil, that chart your progress through the earlier games, based on who you want to be. It neatly drops you into a completely new adventure with a clean slate.
You play a being known as a Watcher, who is capable of seeing through people into their souls, as well as memories of your own past lives. Set in the world of Eora, Deadfire is a deep, intense metaphysical game about souls and the process of rebirth. It begins a few years after the events of the previous game, seeing you settled down in your own keep. All was peaceful until the awakening of Eothas, a god of rebirth, directly under your keep, reanimating the body of a colossus monster. Sucking up all the souls to fuel its incarnation, it has left you soulless. Being a Watcher, you are the only one who survived the onslaught, thanks to Berath, the god of death, who has tasked you with finding Eothas and stopping him. You must take sail to Deadfire Archipelago, a series of islands.
The game is a standard journey story, where you chart your course across the Archipelago. Narrated like a novel or a play, a voice describes nuances of the scene and character features before you jump into descriptive swathes of expertly written dialogue. As you discover islands with their distinctive races, witness how the monster has wreaked havoc on lands, destroyed lives and families. While the story is not as satisfying as one would have hoped, it’s still a good journey with a few twists on the normal CRPG formula.
How does it play?
Embodying the spirit of most CRPGs, Deadfire is played from an isometric top-down perspective, giving you a bird’s eye view on your characters and actions. While this view does not give you that personal connect with characters, it does flesh out the game from a first-person perspective. This allows you to navigate simply by clicking on objects. Think Diablo but a lot deeper in terms of exploration and storytelling.
Sailing forms a small part of the story, where you guide your ship to the islands. Though the sailing aspects are not as immersive as Black Flag, they work the same in theory. If you get into battle, it plays out in a turn-based combat that’s very much like the game FTL: Faster Than Light. On land, the dynamics change, as you venture forth with your party to explore, meet people, and collect more party members. The combat itself is about making strategic selections, forcing you to plan your attacks based on your party members’ strengths. The system goes one step further by introducing a sort of ‘programming’ method that lets you assign behaviours to your characters to deal with situations.
The best part of the game, though, is the way Obsidian spins the world and builds it, making it feel alive with not only different characters, but different viewpoints. You are consistently thrown into dozens of decisions that have a very real-world impact, that governs the way people react to you. The story throws concepts and philosophies at you, forcing you to think a lot more than the average game. Pillars of Eternity II’s narrative does flounder here and there, but it’s built on a strong scaffolding of lore and gameplay. As a game, Pillars of Eternity II is visually rich with beautiful little microanimations.
Should you get it?
For fans of the genre, and newcomers alike, there’s a lot to love about Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. It’s got deep exploration, metaphysical philosophies, deep environment-based combat, party-member behaviour assignments and lots more. For those who prefer playing on the go, the game will soon be available on Nintendo Switch, so it might be wise to hold out for a while.
