Rating of
4/5
The First Pillar of the Modern RPG Revival
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 01/11/17
“Pillars of Eternity” (“Pillars”) is the long-time coming spiritual successor to the Golden Age Infinity Engine PC RPGs created by the likes of Black Isle and BioWare around the turn of the millennium. Unfortunately for PC gamers who enjoy high quality RPGs, the platform (and, indeed, all PC-like console platforms as well) became overrun by so-called “W”RPGs shortly after the release of “Neverwinter Nights 2,” which are not actually related to the genre in any way. Obsidian Entertainment, a development studio formed from the remains of Black Isle shortly after the collapse of Western publisher Interplay and its entire stable of dedicated dev houses, saw that there was a crushing lack of true RPGs being produced in the modern era, and so turned to KickStarter in 2012 in order to crowdfund a new one. 77,000 people apparently agreed with Obsidian’s proposal to create a spiritual successor to the Golden Age of PC RPGs, thus funding the project quite handily, raising nearly 4 times the original funding goal and providing enough of a budget to produce a two-part expansion pack, entitled “The White March,” to boot.
Fortunately, while many modern game development projects try to invoke past glories, yet fail for any number of reasons, “Pillars” is actually incredibly close to the likes of “Baldur’s Gate” and “PlaneScape: Torment.”
Presentation
“Pillars” is very retro in its presentation. It uses 2D, pre-rendered backdrops for environments, mixed with fairly low-poly, low-detail 3D models for characters and enemies. The only reason these low-poly models work in a modern game release is because the traditional, functional birds-eye-view camera is so far away from them that any painstaking details would be lost during normal gameplay. In fact, the only time it’s possible to see how bare-bones these character models are is when looking at the character’s inventory. As is traditional in this particular style of old-school RPG, character equipment is visible on their model. However, in “Pillars,” the character models just don’t look very much like their hand-painted character portraits in most cases.
Lack of detailed character models aside, the 2D environments look amazing. They are packed with detail, but never to the point of being cluttered or overly ‘busy.’ “Pillars” also includes the traditional and very useful ability to highlight interactive environmental objects by holding down a single button.
In general, though, I feel like the “Pillars” user interface is not particularly well-designed. It feels like the entire game is afraid to use up the available space on a screen running at a modern resolution like 1080p or 1440p. Sub-screens like the inventory and character sheets never take up the full screen, and nearly every aspect of the game’s UI relies on tiny icons and miniscule bits of chrome that are very hard to see. The combat log, which displays all of the dice rolls as they happen in the game’s real-time combat, is such a tiny window that it’s practically useless due to how many things happen in combat and how quickly they scroll off the top. While it is possible to expand the combat log, it doesn’t occupy vacant UI reserved space, but covers 1/5 of the player’s view of the game world, making it completely impractical.
The audio in “Pillars” is generally well done. The soundtrack is beautifully orchestrated, though could have been a bit more assertive. The voice-acting doesn’t employ any big names, but is competently done, despite some noticeable overlap among the actors and characters.
Technically, “Pillars” is, as of this writing, quite solid. It has gone through a number of patches, though, and currently sits at version 3.05, meaning that Obsidian has been hard at work squashing bugs. There are still a few minor, cosmetic issues that haven’t been fixed, but nothing game-breaking.
Story
“Pillars” is set in the world of Eora, a custom campaign setting created by Obsidian’s Chris Avellone. In this world, which shares much in common with typical High Fantasy settings, the cycling of souls on the Great Wheel – in a process reminiscent of the Buddhist tradition of reincarnation – is central to all cultures. People obsess over who the chunks of soul-stuff that make-up their own souls belonged to in former lives. Mystical cults and sciences, like Animancy, have popped-up in Eora, based entirely upon the idea of strengthening one’s soul, understanding where it came from, or fixing ‘problems’ that have a soul-based cause.
Our hero, a custom character who can be chosen from Folk (Human), Elf, Dwarf, Amaua (pointy-toothed Giant), Orlan (half-Hobbit/half-Brownie wee folk), or Godlike (Fantasy X-man), begins the game in the company of a trade caravan making its way into the Dyrwood. This caravan stops near some ancient ruins, which are fiercely guarded by local tribesmen, and after a short introduction is set upon by a magical, soul-shredding storm called a Biawak. Barely surviving the Biawak and witnessing some mysterious cult behavior by a group known as the Leaden Key, our hero suddenly finds themself possessed of the ability to see spirits and to read the souls of others.
As our hero travels on, they will be presented the opportunity to join up with a large number of NPC companions (8 in the base game, 3 in the expansion). These NPCs all offer their own story threads which are woven quite well into the game’s base narrative. The core narrative itself is built around an epidemic of Hollowborn children in the Dyrwood – that is, babies that are born as fully-functional biological husks with no soul to give them sentience. An entire generation of children in the Dyrwood has been lost to the Hollowborn curse, and the residents are, naturally, divided as to the cause. Some think unchecked, unregulated Animancers are behind it. Others think it’s the lingering wrath of the god Waidwen, whose earthly avatar was obliterated by the cult of Magren, Dyrwoodan Goddess of Fire, as he tried to march on the Dyrwood and conquer it for a neighboring nation. Our hero, however, soon learns that they are uniquely qualified to determine the cause of the Hollowborn due to the fact that surviving the Biawak transformed them into a Watcher: A person with an ‘awakened’ soul that can not only remember all of its own past lives, but also see and manipulate the souls of others.
The mysteries of the Leaden Key cult and the Hollowborn provide a strong core narrative for the game, as it branches out into a large number of side quests. There are factions to befriend or alienate, as the player chooses. There are optional quests that invariably reveal more about the game’s setting and the history of Eora. There are also numerous books of lore to peruse, for those who want a little more novella in their games.
“The White March” two-part expansion further fleshes out the world of Eora with two additional story threads to pursue before following the base game to its bitter end. Part I of “The White March” involves solving the mystery of an abandoned fortress in the bitter, cold Northern reaches of the Dyrwood. Part II revolves around stopping an invasion of mysterious giants that our hero sees in one of their Watcher-powered visions. Both parts of the expansion are fairly beefy, with a significant number of new locations and quests to follow. They also further expand upon the world’s lore in meaningful ways.
In general, the writing in “Pillars” is very good. It often seems like the story is beating a dead horse with its obsessive discussion of key elements. I feel that this absolute focus on the core narrative elements is due almost entirely to the setting being a custom job by Obsidian’s staff. “Pillars” is not a Dungeons & Dragons-based game with over 30 years of source material to dredge through for tidbits of lore or compelling tie-ins, and it comes across as such. Even so, between the base game and the expansion, I got a solid 100 hours out of “Pillars.”
Gameplay
“Pillars” is a 100% faithful spiritual successor to the Infinity Engine games that put D&D-based RPGs on the map after the abysmal Gold Box series by SSI. “Pillars” features a 6-character party, real-time-with-pause combat, lots of dialog trees, and equipment slots.
In addition to these classic mechanics, “Pillars” makes great use of a number of modern gaming features. Characters have access to a Stash at all times, so looting defeated enemies is no longer a game of “Inventory Tetris.” Characters are now K.O.’d when reaching 0 Endurance instead of killed, as Endurance is the new HP, while Health is a numeric indication of a character’s long-term condition. “Pillars” is also significantly non-linear, providing the player with a base of operations early on and allowing them to explore the game’s locations at their leisure. However, despite the more open nature of “Pillars” compared to, say, “Baldur’s Gate,” it still isn’t a typical open-world game, with lots of meaningless fluff to pad out play time.
Perhaps the most significant… oddity – I can’t really say ‘negative’ – about “Pillars’” gameplay, much like its story, comes from the fact that it is not a D&D-based game… though it does try to seem like it. “Pillars” isn’t based on the crufty old AD&D 2nd Edition that powered the Infinity Engine games. Nor is it based on the excellent D&D 3.5 Edition that powered the narratively-terrible-but-mechanically-excellent “Temple of Elemental Evil.” No, “Pillars” combat mechanics are a homebrewed customization of the unimpressive D&D 4th Edition ruleset that most D&D fans abandoned in favor of the Pathfinder RPG’s maintenance of 3.5E.
Characters have four defenses, Deflection, Fortitude, Will, and Reflex, plus one attack stat called Accuracy. A 100-sided die is involved in every attack, which pits Accuracy against a specific defense (depending on the type of attack). Character ability scores are likewise a bit weird and unexpected. While they at first look like typical D&D-based scores, with reskinned names like Might, Perception, and Resolve, close perusal of the rules reveals that many things about “Pillars’” mechanics don’t work in the way a D&D player would expect. Granted, a lot of things about D&D can be unintuitive and weird to a cRPG player who never played the tabletop version of the game, but I really can’t see how “Pillars’” system being unintuitive to everyone is better.
In addition to the general weirdness and unintuitiveness I just mentioned, “Pillars” features D&D 4E-inspired per-encounter and per-rest abilities for nearly every class. And many of the classes aren’t what anyone returning to “Pillars” after enjoying previous Obsidian RPGs would expect. Yes, there are fairly straight-forward Fighters, Rogues, Rangers, Paladins, Barbarians, Wizards, Clerics, and Druids that work more-or-less how a D&D player would expect. But there are also Chanters, who are kind of like souped-up Bards that provide passive buffs and can unleash big spells after accumulating enough ‘phrases;’ Ciphers, who are essentially Psions from the never-frequently-used D&D Psionics Handbook; and Monks, who can only unleash their powers in combat by being injured first.
Despite its weird homebrew mechanics for so much of its core gameplay, “Pillars” does feel fairly well-balanced. I played the game on Normal, which should be the only difficulty, yet Obsidian provided a number of other options. Players who have problems with “Pillars” can play on Easy or even dumb it all the way down to Story Time. On Easy, Normal, and Hard, enemies all have their basic stats, but the difficulty determines how many appear during encounters. Story Time weakens enemies while the appropriately named Path of the Damned buffs them. The Steam version of “Pillars” has an obnoxious number of achievements that don’t seem like they would ever be fun (one is so impossible that NOBODY has it yet), especially when the most-balanced Normal difficulty has a number of difficulty spikes that require either stupidly-nitpicky min/maxing or returning to deal with them later, after a few level-ups. Yet Obsidian really took it upon themselves to pander to the insane ‘people’ who love lopsided encounters and permadeath, which pisses me off in general. They should not be pandered to! Don’t feed the Trolls!
Overall
“Pillars of Eternity” is a vindication of a number of different things: The enduring greatness of the (true) RPG, the power of crowdfunding, and the pursuit of a vision that bucks Mainstream trends. Despite its quirks, I greatly enjoyed “Pillars of Eternity,” and heartily recommend it to anyone who is tired of “W” RPGs that really aren’t.
Presentation: 3.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
