14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Obsidian wants its upcoming Pillars of Eternity title to be a worthy successor to the series of role-playing games created with the Infinity Engine, which means gamers will have the freedom to create characters that are unsuited to their chosen class and see how they can interact with the world.
Speaking to CVG, Josh Sawyer, the leader of the studio, explains that his company has created a complex world and that gamers will have the option to approach it in any way they see fit, even if their results might be less than optimal.
He states, “If you want to build an idiot muscle mage or a clumsy thief, you can do it. You have to find ways to play to the strength of the characters, but you can't create bad ones. It's very good to support players' choices.”
The game offers a large number of races and character classes, and by mixing and matching their unique skills, gamers can take almost any idea they have and build a game experience around it in Pillars of Eternity.
Sawyer adds, “We wanted to make it very difficult to build a bad class. If someone has a very specific idea for what they want to create, they can see that through without creating a bad character.”
Obsidian has also taken the classic dialogue trees that exist in almost all role-playing games into new territory by introducing unlockable answers, based on skills, while making sure that they do not represent the best way to deal with a situation.
Basically, a gamer needs to actually try to understand a situation and work out how to answer rather than rely on the mechanics of Pillars of Eternity to deliver the best reply.
The role-playing game will also feature situations where gamers need to try and think like their enemies do in order to see their reasons and understand their strategy.
Sawyer also says that Pillars of Eternity is designed to primarily appeal to those who liked classic titles like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, but his team is also aiming for commercial success in order to make the new universe viable as a long-term franchise.
The title was created using money that Obsidian had raised via Kickstarter, and it will be launched only on the PC before the end of the year, with no plans to deliver it on consoles.