14 DAY TRIAL // Pillars of Eternity initially delivers an experience that's so close to a potential Baldur's Gate 3 that it is impossible for a fan not to fall hard for the game.
I spent the entire weekend playing with the options in the character creation department and then getting through the first few quests with two different builds, and there are a few more I would love to try out.
After about 15 hours, I found the writing a little bit weaker than I expected initially, mostly due to the relative lack of humor and the complexity of some of the lore that's introduced.
The combat starts off engaging and becomes one of the best parts of the game once characters get some more abilities and spells to try and use in new ways.
Even the party members that initially seem a little uninteresting open up in very interesting ways and offer big choices for the player to make, pushing a variety of ethical and philosophical conundrums.
Pillars of Eternity is a video game that takes about 70 hours to finish on the first go and can then recapture the attention of the player for at least two or three play sessions.
An expansion needs to add some interesting locations and more humor
Obsidian has already said that it is planning to create an expansion for the video game and that it is exploring how it can make it very different from the core experience.
The studio understands that much of the success of Pillars of Eternity is linked to the nostalgia gamers have for older titles, but that they also need to see new ideas being introduced to the genre.
The cipher and the chanter classes and their associated mechanics are great to use, and the company needs to deliver similar innovations in the planned expansion.
The game also needs to add some lighter moments and to make sure that it presents areas of the world where people are simply happy rather than under constant threat.
Obsidian has also announced that it is planning to work with a partner to create a card game based on Pillars of Eternity.
The idea of a full tabletop RPG is also being explored.
Pillars of Eternity is great for the role-playing genre and needs to expand with new and engaging content in the coming years.