Pillars of Eternity Hype/Review Thread GS=8 MC=90

GS still hasn't posted the reviews yet

They become quite good in midgame on, especially if you get good a spell placement.

GS shouldn't have given this game to Kevin for reviewing. He just finished bloodborne and I think its gonna affect the overall review of this game.

Being the go to guy for RPGs, this is a different type of RPG and Kev will understand that. If it's a 9.0 quality game for this specific type of RPG the score will not be affected.

AAA quality is AAA quality and being a different type of RPG, different things will determine if the game receives an AAA score or not.

Personally, for the type of game it is and what Iv'e seen of it, I think it's AAA easy, but it's not my type of game as I don't like the gameplay style.

Honestly, sad to see hermits under hype this here when I see a lot of these guys in console exclusive threads saying if fans are don't hype their exclusives AAAAE they are cowards. Just an observation that hypocritical mentality of those fans who spat that criticism reveals it was better suited for themselves.

proof?

They should have brought Greg Kasavin back in just to review this. :D

Updated with the IGN and Destructoid review. Wonder if GS will publish theirs today.

Anyway, loving the game so far. Only 8 hours in. Gonna take a short break today to save up for the weekend ahead. My Aumaua Paladin is ready.

@kinectthedots: Captain Toad hype thread was a one time thing. It was meant to send a message that we are not afraid to go big or go home.

Regardless of the score, it would be true hypocrisy if Kevin bashes PoE for its old school difficulty when Bloodborne is the same thing.

I really want to get this game, but I am worried about performance... there are no demos to download..... For a game like this the reqs seem awful high. My PC is not exactly a gaming PC, I really use it mainly for older stuff off GOG. I will list my specs, if some more PC centric people would give me a recommendation on if my machine will run it well enough to justify the purchase I would appreciate it .

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 @ 2.66 Ghz

4 gigs of ram

Radeon HD 5450

14 hours in and I am just loving it. Great dialogue, fantastic characters, good story, brilliant art design, runs well, no bugs yet, great soundtrack, fun combat and its just a huge ton of fun to play. Early GOTY imo so far, Obsidian hit a homerun on this game.

Uses 2d backgrounds, be surprised if you couldn't it.

@evilross: I would recommend upgrading your graphics card to a 750ti for starters.

I really want this game but I can't justify spending $30 bucks on it. Come on Summer Steam sale!

This game is everything BioWare games should strive to be. Far superior to anything BioWare has shat out since BG2.

Writing and Story

• The lore treats you like an adult with the game expecting you to read between the lines.
• Doesnt seem to be flooded with fantasy tropes thus far
• Companions are actually moderately interesting

Party

• 6 Man parties
• 10 companions you actually dont want to murder or have killed
• Option to create player created companions if you prefer a fully created party. Or if you want a mix between companions and heroes.
• What party members you bring along can actually affect you outside combat.

Character Creation

• 11 Classes or so
• 6 races each with multiple 2-4 subraces
• Thanks to Sawyerian Balance, EACH of the 6 attribtues (that thing BioWare seems hellbent on removing and Bethesderp already removed) will be useful to your character, no dump stats here.
• Character backgrounds galore, with ways to actually affect the gameplay other than just being mentioned in the intro and then effectively forgotten aside from one sidequest >_>

Roleplaying

• Character backgrounds affect your dialogue options. So do your attributes and skills.
• Speaking of skills, there are skillchecks EVERYWHERE, and same goes for attribute checks.
• Unlike what BioWare loves to advertise, this game actually has choices and consequences, the earliest consequence is something you see really early on, where one of your actions will determine if someone lives or dies.

Dungeon Design

• Dungeons have multiple paths.
• Dungeons have varied encounters.
• Dungeons can be tackled in multiple ways depending on your characters skills and choices he has made throughout his journey.

It surpasses even last year's GOTY Divinity: Original Sin in nearly every way. Aside from Combat. D:OS is still untouched in that area for fantasy RPGs.

I am playing on Hard. Best encounter design that way from my knowledge.

This is easily better than most $60 games and about twice the content at least.

This game has at least 60 hours of content.

And the quality of said content is significantly higher than the likes of BioWare, Bethesda or Square Enix.

Well this game is officially f*cking amazing for me. I have never had to take so many grey choices in my life and I am still in the 1st chapter. So many quests, and almost none of them is black and white. I do not want any spoilers, so i will be most vague possible - now I on my way to kill a good guy because two villains that had killed many people actually managed to convince me that they had done it for a greater good. And I was life OMFG if I kill them, it will severely hobble the progress for cure made so far. So, Good Guy, nothing personal, but you will die for a greater good. And besides he has the weakest guards than those two. So no black/white paths in this game.

This game is much better than divinity and it's as hard as nails. Dark Souls my ass. Try to play this game on hard difficulty. I have to use everything at my disposal: recruits, potions, food that actually gives pretty awesome and usefull buffs, without all them, your ass will be delivered on a silver plate.

My team is fighter, paladin, mage, chanter, priest, cipher. Might restart with druid or chanter.

@KungfuKitten @Maroxad
My Wallet doesn't like either of you... :P

I'm sorry ....but where the dafuq is GS review ?

Kevin wants to give it a 10 but Gamespot won't let him due to it being a PC game. They actually want him to score it an 8 at the very most. ;)

@GarGx1: how so ?! didn't GS gave divinity a 9 score ?

@the_master_race:

I'm only joking, GS has never and will never give a PC game a 10. Even if it was the most perfect game in existence.

PoE isn't a perfect game and probably shouldn't get a 10, from what I've played so far it does deserve a 9 though :)

gimped the spell usage?

This is how mages USED to operate before someone decided that mages will be able to cast all their doomsday spells each fight. Now they are more in line with how they should be.

Druids are indeed the most overpowered class.

They are better offensive mages than wizards, they have competent healing spells, if bear shapeshifted they can tank like a warrior and if stag shapeshifted they are basically a barbarian.

wish you weren't joking , a 10 score .. lol ... can't remember that last time I seen a 10 score on GS :D

So Bloodborne vs Pillars Of Eternity? Who wins?

20 hours on the game now, still blown away. Early GOTY favorite imo.

Kevin seems to need some time. He did just finsih Bloodborne and they're both huge, dozen hour long RPGs.

They're different types of games..

Console games get 10 from time to time (Bayonetta 2 last year) but PC games don't. TBH, it's a miracle that World of Warcraft won GOTY back in 2004. Gamespot must have tried hard but couldn't resist and finally gave a PC game, GOTY (still no 10 though).

Kevin seems to have ran into some bug that only a few people have had, doesn't seem to happy on twitter. I have 22 hours in the game yet to have any bugs or crashes at all myself.

@kozzy1234:

Oh man. I just looked at Kevin's twitter.. 8 spot guaranteed now (joking but who knows). I'm at 15 hours without a issue thus far. Been a great game. Its like I am controlling a army (3 rangers, 1 priest + 2 spellcaster guys) with all the companion pets and folks. Loving it so far. Love that you gotta stay on your toes with enemies and keep your spell cast count correct before you engage some group of guys.

hehe, nice man! I have 6 man party atm (the one ranger has a bear to).

I made a monk, then I got a fighter companion, mage companion, then hired(created) a new Ranger from the Inn keeper, then I also found a Priest and a Chanter that wanted to join me so I now have a pretty big army as you said! hehe. Great game, I have not had a 2-3 day session of gaming this fun in awhile, so pulled in by the dialogue, characters, story, combat, art design, soundtrack, etc..

Guys any idea on a good class or build for a gun character? I just got Kana in my party and the fucker is one shotting stuff with his gun lol. I want to do that!

The Pathfinding could be improved, thats really the only thing I have run into that is negative so far personally after 25 hours.

I see Obsidian has said new patch will come next week (week of 30th)

How accessible is this to someone who has never played such a game before (or at least not much)?

The rest system made whatever limited spells in the spell-book irrelevant and the player could exploit the rest system via quick load.

On hard difficulty, the player is limited to 2 campfires, making it (as far as I'm aware) impossible to exploit.

It's probably worth mentioning as well, Spell usage before used turns in DND games. Certain spells (e.g. stinking clouds) would allow the player to waltz through most of the game. The timer system for Pillars Of Eternity makes skills such as blind and confusion, useful, but not to the point the player will easily wipe out an entire mob purely using it.

@soulitane: This is a lot more accessible than the older Infinity Engine RPGs, because this has easier-to-read rules.

For example, damage in Baldurs Gate would be written like "2d6" or "1d12+3"...which can be confusing to newcomers, especially once you throw in the fact that better armour *lowers* your Armour Class, while a higher THAC0 increases your chance to hit things.

Meanwhile, Pillars just says things like "1-5 damage" or"+5 accuracy". Pretty self-explanatory.

The game comes with a built in encyclopedia as well as pop up tips. The difficulty selected will matter as well.

Easy/med is probably recommended if you are new, and, if gets too easy as you learn the mechanics, it's possible to increase the difficulty up during a game.

Specific step by step mechanics can still seem confusing, it was to me, if you want finite details. this fellow does a good job of explaining specifically how the game mechanics work.

Probably worth mentioning as well, the game has a crafting system as well, which is very simple, no tools or facilities are required, not convoluted or random guess work like Divinity:OS, just collect stuff and apply if you have the ingredients.

Not sure about other difficultly settings but for hard applying specific types of damage has been useful.

I wonder when Gamespot's review will go up. It can't be sooner than Monday, we know that. But will it hit Monday? Or will it be some time later?

Cipher's are best with a Blunderbuss (shotgun). The focus they generate is absurd.

Some games implemented aging systems where exploiting the rest system would result in your characters growing old and getting far inferior bonuses on level up, and even die if they abused it too much. Other games implemented a time limit for various quests, making resting take up precious time. Problem is when time doesn't become a resource. Which the IE didn't do. Others dont allow you to rest anywhere causing the player to get potentially ambushed while walking back to a viable resting zone. Meaning that if you try to exploit resting you wont get anywhere. Likewise, Might and Magic also uses the same camping supplies system.

This game did not gimp mages spellcasting, it just put the balance to exactly where it needs to be.

On a side note. In Baldur's Gate 2, I played with a certain rule. One rest per chapter.

And this just shows how confusing THAC0 is. When even someone who I deem to be knowledgeable in the RPG genre gets it wrong.

THAC0 determines the minimum roll needed to hit Armor Class 0. The lower that shit is, the better. Hit chance would translate to,

(THAC0 - Enemy AC) * 5 / 100

With a minimum of a 5% chance of missing (a 1 always misses).

*yawn* strategy games that's why i dont game on PC but ANYWAYS dont care what it gets since everyone doing it i'll join everyone and say AAA

Plenty of tooltips. Easy to understand names that were not made to make sense on a tabletop game as opposed to a cRPG. 8 companions which give you plenty of subpar, but ultimately functional builds (you could also make your own if you prefer that). A fairly detailed manual. The battlelog is far more detailed than the one in the IE games and if you hold tab you can tell the health states all nearby characters. The UI will also tell you what enemy mages are casting, which is VITAL on higher difficulties. On hard (cant say for normal, difficulty settings alter encounter design), enemy clerics would have AoE spells which would instakill weaker party members.

If something is too hard, this foolproof tactic always works,

Just dont expect to win everything the first time you do it.

It is an RPG.

An RPG with far superior dungeon design, world design, story, companions, encounter design, combat design, character system, RPG elements and has far more depth than FFXV.

@charizard1605: Can your computer run this game? Just curious.

.

"Some games" do not equate to 99%. nor the adopted game series primarily based on.

Gimping, is used as a form of balancing, seem to be making a separate distinction when there is none.

When effectively every cRPG did at least one of the above before Baldur's Gate was released. I think my point still stands.

Furthermore, what you are calling gimping is nerfing. Yes, it is definately nerfed compared to modern RPGs. But compared to pre IE games, it is on par.

Who knows - Kevin Van Ord encountered a bug that nerfed his characters, so I'm guessing that slowed down the review a little.

It's a subtle bug that only happens if you double-click to equip items, so...I can see how it was missed during beta testing, and hopefully it should be fixed really quickly.

Again, their is no distinction between the two.

Not quite getting this concept, are we?

Gimping would indicate nerfing to the point of underpoweredness or uselessness. Nerfing would indicate just well... nerfing.

Furthermore, my point is, that pillars of eternity basically just did what was the norm right up until the Infinity Engine. This is not gimping, this is where spellcasting should have remained in, in the first place.

@Maroxad: @uninspiredcup: @Planeforger:

Thanks for the answers! I'll look into it when it drops in price a bit.

"Gimp". as a word is adopted for both informal and formal speech with several different exact formal definitions and loose informal definitions. including infinitive forms.

To indicate in informal terms something is gimped, be it hobbled, limping or a more abstract sense such as game balance does not, by default, mean "too much", "too less" or inherently "bad". That is you, using modifiers in the santa clause.

My friend: this argument attempts to measure past tense sensibilities with a comment that was a present tense.

it also seems to be disregarding that the game is "gimped" (indicating nothing has changed), while acknowledging change, stating it should be "X" reality, which is unchanged.

This is a paradox, a very dangerous one.

1. That is exactly what it means though. It means weaken something to the point where it is practically crippled or broken. Nerfed is the terminology you might have been looking for.

2. What hte hell are you talking about? All I am saying is, that what they did with Pillars of Eternity spell usage was to bring it back to its original levels. Just because RPG devs went full derp in the late 90s and above doesnt mean they gimped it with this game, fixed it would be a better term ;)

3. No paradox as far as I am concerned.