![]() In my 44 hours with it so far, I haven’t experienced any crashes, any characters walking through buildings, freezes, or any of the other bugs. ![]() This the first game from this studio that I’ve played in which I haven’t experienced any real problems. Obsidian has a reputation for releasing buggy games. Want the mage who throws fireballs while peering through a helm atop a set of heavy plate armor? Go right ahead - just be sure you’re willing to deal with the drawbacks of wearing such mail. And it gives you more choice on how you create your own character. Its applications go deeper than merely needing blunt weapons to fully damage skeletons or how a fire elemental is resistant to, well, fire. I appreciate how this system does a couple of things. The price for wearing such protection, through, is a penalty to your recovery time - heavier armor means longer waiting times between taking actions. But it’s weaker against corroding damage with a 7. It has a damage reduction of 12, but it is also stronger against crushing damage, with a DR of 15. Take a piece of brigandine, a heavy armor. Plate armor and the like take a bigger bite out of the incoming damage (which comes in eight forms) from a foe’s attack. Where heavy armor comes into play is with damage reduction. It’s not just solely the armor you’re wearing that determines your defense, and spells can improve it as well. ![]() You character’s attributes (like Might or Constitution), class, and items all factor into these defenses. Instead, attacks go up against four different defenses: Deflection, Fortitude, Reflex, and Psyche. Pillars of Eternity ditches the Armor Class system of other RPGs. You learn to read the text of each conversation carefully to see how your decisions shape your story - and the world around you. Investigating a mysterious church leads to attacks from assassins. You can decide who rules in a dispute between a lord and his dissident cousin, whether you assist in helping someone craft walking suits of armor filled with souls. Helping one faction in the city of Defiance Bay results in closing off interactions and quests with another. In Pillars of Eternity, your decisions are important. You learn early on that your choices can lead to the life and death of those around you. This also gives you a handy way to experiment with different classes without starting a new playthrough - or have a little fun and see what it’s like to fight that nest of reptilian Xaurip (Obsidian’s homage to the lowly but beloved Kobold). Later, I realized I had no rogues, so I rolled up an Orlan (Pillars’ take on halflings). That warrior’s still part of my roster, now handling quests on her own that come in through my stronghold. I availed myself of this a couple of times: Early on, I needed a tank, so I created an Aumaua (think orc but cultured, smarter, and not evil) fighter to help my mage and his lone companion, another wizard, to get through the early hours. Image Credit: Jason Wilson/GamesBeat What you’ll likeĭon’t care for the party members you find as you make your journey? You can create other party members in the taverns and inns you visit - and in your own stronghold. At times, you feel like you’re interacting as much spiritually as you are physically with the world and its inhabitants.Īnd in doing so, it created a fascinating world, where new ideas buck traditional ways of doing things and where a person’s soul - and memories of the past - could mean the difference between survival and death. As you dive into the story, this idea of the soul threads into many quests and conversations. Your character encounters a mystical storm, and through it and the actions of a mysterious man, become a Watcher, one who can peer into the souls and memories of others. While it certainly took inspiration from other role-playing games, the studio created original systems, races, and lore. All of these games have one thing in common: They’re all licensed worlds.īut for the first time, Obsidian has made a world of its own, not a universe belonging to other companies. Coming from Obsidian Entertainment (Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas), Pillars of Eternity is representative of the studio’s even earlier work … when many of its members worked for Black Isle, making Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. 2 most-funded video game project of all time on the crowdfunding site) has been in the works for more than two years. This Kickstarter darling (this ode to old-school role playing is the No. Forty-four hours in, I’m still marveling at the freedom that Pillars of Eternity gives me.
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