Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher: Paradox Interactive, Versus Evil
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Pillars of Eternity Complete Edition – Review
Pillars of Eternity was a Kickstarter project several years ago, and the game was released in 2015 for PC. Years later the game would still be popular and eventually, it was released for Xbox One and PS4, with now the Switch release in tow. While the second game is already out and also received a lot of good reviews, we decide to dive back in the Complete Edition of the first part. We were ready to once again be an Awakened soul in a brand new world.
Story
The game starts off with you creating a character out of the different races and classes available to you. After that, you will find yourself accompanying a caravan that will take you to a ‘new world’ to start over with your life. Sadly things go awry and the caravan is brutally butchered by some of the locals; safe for you and two others. You make it out, only to find your allies dead after witnessing a strange ritual. Not only has the ritual murdered the last remaining survivors, but it also awakened something in you, as you now see strange visions. Things don’t get better when you arrive in Dyrwood, the place you were supposed to start over, as you’re only met with a cold shoulder. The village is being plagued by what they call the Hollowborn Plague, where children are born without a soul, rendering them pretty much paralyzed without any signs of life, safe for breathing and heaving a pumping heart. From here on out your real journey begins.
The story is told with a lot of text and some drawn intermezzos. Overall the story is pleasant and the amount of voice acting does add a lot of weight and value to the story that is being told.
Graphics
We can’t say that this game is the epitome of beauty, but the environments are exceptionally well crafted and feel like a piece of art you’re wandering through. The same cannot be said about the inhabitants of the world who feel a bit dated and underdeveloped against the superbly crafted backdrops. The top-down perspective allows for things to be a bit simpler, and the Switch does its best to present you with a good-looking and fluent experience.
The UI is quite clear and there are enough hints on which button(s) to press if you’re looking for another menu. Things have been handled with the selection wheel, which is quite common in games such as this.
Sound
The sound design has been exquisitely handled. The cinematic soundtrack accompanies everything you do on your great, but arduous, journey. You’ll hear a soothing orchestra play on the background, which gets a bit heavier when the situation desires for it. The game also has a lot of voice acting present, and while sometimes certain dialogues stop being voiced, there’s still plenty of good acting to enjoy. All of this makes the game feel alive, and very interesting to immerse yourself in what is going on.
Gameplay
Pillars of Eternity Complete Edition is a traditional RPG, with some D&D influences, very much like the Divinity series, albeit a bit less polished. The game will have you explore a gigantic world, talking to many NPCs, killing off enemies and gathering new gear. The game will throw many quests at you, choosing whether or not you’ll complete them. There’s a lot to discover in a game such as this, and it’s one of those games that will require longer playing sessions in order to actually accomplish anything during your play-time.
The combat in Pillars of Eternity follows a very typical format in which you can pause the game and give your orders to the members of your party. You can pause and unpause at will, allowing you to fine-tune the commands you give. The mechanics prove to be simple and allow for smooth battles on the Switch.
For a Switch port, the controls work very well for a game that is clearly designed to be played with keyboard and mouse. It does take some time to get used to the different button combinations and the overall control mechanics of the characters. Nonetheless, the game does feel fluent in how it plays and that’s the key ingredient for a decent port. The only thing that feels a bit bulky and uneasy to work with is the inventory screen. This is a pretty big damper on the fluent controls and it does take you a while to properly navigate through the menu and equip your character with what you desire.
While we didn’t encounter any regular bugs, the game’s build is still very wonky. More than once we encountered a full crash of the game, which is terribly annoying for a game that has a manual save, rather than an occasional auto-save function. This means, that if you’re immersed in the game, and you forget to save, and the game dies on you, you might lose several hours of progress if you’re doing a lot in one sitting. Of course, a game such as this screams for you to save often, but still, it’s no excuse to justify frequent crashes of a game that has been ported by a decent developer and is supported by a fairly big publisher.
Conclusion
Pillars of Eternity Complete Edition is a proper port to the Switch, but the game shouldn’t crash as much as it currently does anymore. That being said, if you save regularly and wait for an update, you’ll be in for a thrilling experience and have many hours of fun. The game’s mechanics work decently on the Switch, and even the handheld experience proves to be very clear and entertaining. If you’re a fan of the Divinity series, but never tried Pillars of Eternity before, then you’re still in for a treat.
No Comments