Pillars of Eternity
It seems a travesty to review Pillars of Eternity in only three articles, but that's all the schedule can contain to complete the year of 2018. The first article examined Pillar's characters, companions, and combat. This second article will review Pillar's open world, its dialogue, and the Endless Paths of Od Nua.
Divinity: Original Sin was
almost entirely composed of three incredibly vast areas, aided by a
few smaller ones. In contrast, Pillars
is constructed from thirty-two locations, connected by a map screen.
To move from one area to another, the protagonist and party must exit
off an edge of the current area, which opens the map. In the
beginning, the areas are locked, but the player unlocks them by
exiting off the side of the map closest to the restricted location.
Once unlocked, these locations can be accessed any time the player
uses the map screen when exiting an area. Unlike Divinity,
this method of travel involves loading screens, but they offer
unusually insightful information for playing the game.
To travel the player highlights the heroes. Drag and and collect. But if the player wants
to select one hero, they can be clicked on. Unintuitively, clicking
on the body of the character has no effect. In Pillars,
selecting a character requires clicking precisely on the feet. This
is an odd choice, which generates frustration for the average gamer,
because they have been condition by the majority of similar games to
click on the body. Pillars contains other frustrations in the
crucial aspect of travel. Unlike Divinity
which allowed the player to split the party, traveling on different
maps, to encourage creative thinking, Pillars insists
all heroes remain in the same area. They can't be separated to allow
one hero to scout an area, which makes stealth useless as a tool to
avoid combat or search for non-violent solutions. If a quest
requires entering a house, the whole party must enter, and
immediately encounter the hostile enemies within. Instead of stealth
and diplomacy, Pillars offers extended options to kill
everyone.
Still, stealth is useful for scouting
large maps, except for its limitations. Stealth slows
movement to a crawl, so Pillars compensated by allowing the player to
chose from three speeds: slow, normal, and fast. Slow is useless, but in fast mode a stealthed character moves at normal speed (but with a
silly animation). Pillars also encourages the player
to maintain stealth at all times, because it is a part of the
Scouting mode which exerts two effects. One, if not in Scouting
mode, enemies attack immediately when they spot the hero. Scouting
prevents this. Enemies notice the hero and move closer to inspect,
allowing the player time to retreat. Two, in Scouting mode the hero sees hidden objects (if their Perception Attribute is high
enough). Hidden objects can not be seen in regular mode, no matter
how exceptional a hero's perception. Similar to Scouting, Pillars
requires the player to constantly hold the shift button. This allows
the player to see all containers visible to their characters. With Shift, containers are highlighted; blue for regular, and purple
for secret. One might believe this inconvenience unnecessary, but
they will miss the many small or oddly shaped containers.
Traveling the world of Eora is a matter
of navigating the areas successfully. They are beautifully
crafted, though many in the countryside seem somewhat empty. In
contrast, every building in the cities, even those which are empty
initially, are used for a quest. A few maps are effected by
the passing of time. Nighttime may unlock terrain which was impassable during the day, but most are the same. Unfortunately, for
the quests where the time of day matters, there is no method for the
player to choose the time. Instead they must wait patiently.
Resting, described in the last article, is not an option in most
cases, because it would either waste a scarce Camping Supplies, or is
forbidden because the area is in a town, where resting on the street
is prohibited. The passing of nights and days are recorded, but have no effect. Pillars of Eternity is divided into four acts, and
just before the conclusion of Act 1 the protagonist acquires a
stronghold. The player can purchase additions to Caed Nua, which are
built with the passing of time, but these offer insignificant
benefits.
Aside from the restriction on unlocking
locations, the player is free to roam wherever they will. Pillars
includes few (figurative) signposts (though the missions are clearly
defined in the journal), indicating where the player must go.
Monsters do not display their level prominently above their head,
unlike in Divinity, because
they are not blocking the player from proceeding until they've
attained a particular level. I almost never found an area too
difficult (on medium difficulty – same as my play-through of
Divinity), though sometimes a collection of foes required a
second or third try. Only a few times did I leave an area where I
was clearly underleveled. The most difficult battle in Pillars
was The Battle of Yenwood Field, an incredible clash between two
forces, fielding at least twenty-five soldiers each. I abandoned it
after the tenth attempt, to train my soldiers and acquire enough
experience to reach level seven. Upon my return, I vanquished the
foe on the first try. This massive battle was one of the coolest
experiences in the game, and the developers should have included more
of them. I hope they did in Pillars of Eternity 2. On the
other hand, there was also a few times where I found an area too
easy. This did not render them significantly less enjoyable.
Before The Battle of Yenwood Field,
Pillars includes a section like a choose-your-own-adventure.
The screen changes to resemble a graphic novel, where some text
describes a situation, and offers the player choices. These occurred
fairly regularly throughout Pillars. Often the text required
the player to take a risk, and if they did the game considered the
relevant Attribute or Skill. A success allowed the story to proceed
as normal, while a failure often Maimed the hero.
At the conclusion of The Battle of
Yenwood Field I expected to take Lord Gathbin prisoner. The
protagonist can order the construction of a dungeon at his
stronghold, and it was one of the first parts I built, to avoid
killing so many enemies. But Pillars didn't offer this
option, and Gathbin died on the field. Unfortunately, most quests
offered insufficient resolution (unlike the companion quests which
were great). Quests offered a binary choice with no nuance for
outside the box thinking. For example, in the Old Queen and the New
King, the player is forced to fight either one foe (the Queen) or
another (the King), instead of tricking them into a duel. In another
quest, the protagonist rescues a teenage girl who was raped by her
uncle. When she asks the protagonist where she should go, Pillars
allows the player to reply: the city of Defiance Bay, to a nunnery,
back to her uncle, or travel the open road. It does not allow the
player to offer the safety and security of their massive stronghold.
The game seemed unable to offer the protagonist subtly,diplomacy or
mercy as choices. The Stronghold of Caed Nua contained a dungeon,
but the game insisted on a trail of bodies, left behind an otherwise
calm and peace-seeking protagonist. In fact, through over forty
hours and at least a hundred human bodies, Pillars only allows
the player to take
seven people prisoner. Not seven at one time, but only seven
distinct named characters can be imprisoned throughout the entire
game.
Oddly, Pillars insists on a few
restrictions to its preferred solution of kill everything. Killing
one particular NPC immediately ends the game in defeat. At least one
NPC is invulnerable to death, and is needed to complete an essential
quest. There are also a few restrictions on the open world. Even
though the player can unlock ninety-nine percent of doors with a high
Mechanic Skill, a few require the proper key. It should also be
mentioned, that in this open world game, there are almost no puzzles,
unlike Divinity which contained many frustrating, obscure,
search for the correct object or the hidden switch puzzles. No
puzzles beats poorly constructed puzzles, but loses to good puzzles.
When the player enters Defiance Bay and
begins Act II, they encounter the many factions competing for power
in the Dyrwood. Most are only relevant for this Act, but it is the
longest section of the game. The factions represent the
establishment vs the upstart, the good vs the evil, the chaotic vs
the orderly: the usual sort of stuff. Also in the city, the player
encounters the multitude of Golden Heroes. Obsidian's Kickstarter
included many tiers of support. Of the 77,000 supporters, one
hundred and twenty-four backers paid enough (minimum $1,000) to name
and design an NPC. While I am grateful for these souls supporting
the project so generously, after I realized why some NPCs displayed
golden names, I no longer talked to them, because they contribute
nothing to the experience.
These NPCs don't have dialogue options,
only a description, but dialogue is a key component of Pillars of
Eternity. Many of the important dialogues contain excellent
voice work, which enhances the already stellar writing. Oddly, a
conversation may contain both silent and spoken lines. For example,
the first paragraph of dialogue might be spoken, but after the player
chooses a response, the next paragraph will be silent, only for the
third paragraph to be spoken again. This breaks the immersion of the player. Another aspect of the dialogue was confusing.
Sometimes the player was asked to respond to a question about their
past life (more on this next article) even though the player doesn't
know anything about it. These questions allowed the player to
construct their past life, but because the answers are irrelevant, the whole aspect is strange and disturbing.
Offering a piece of advice here. In
Defiance Bay the player should go directly to the Temple of Woedica,
because many side quests are restricted until the protagonist
initiates this investigation. In the city, the protagonist's
behavior earns additional relevance. Pillars records the
protagonist's choices, both as they define the character and their
effect on the various factions. The first is called the character's
Disposition,
or personality, and includes traits such as Aggressive, Benevolent,
and Clever. The second is termed Reputation,
and records how each faction regards the player. It is difficult to
know how much these matter, except for the few occasions where
Disposition unlocks dialogue options.
A few other facts about the world. A big issue with the map: the player can not mark it
for later. With so many areas, it can be difficult to remember where
there are unresolved quests. Pillars is also without a quick
save button, a requirement in a RPG, where the player needs to save
before and after every battle.
When one tires of the main quest, and
longs for a break, they can seek treasure underground. Beneath the
stronghold of Caed Nua traverse the tunnels of the Endless Paths of
Od Nua. Fifteen levels of increasing danger and death. At the very
bottom resides the Master Below. Everything within the earth is
irrelevant to the main quest, but does some world-building for the
game above. There are two methods to completing the Endless Paths.
Complete it bit by bit while doing the main campaign, or do it all
once when the heroes have attained a high level The Master Below offers the most difficult fight in the
game. I tried ten times, and then discovered a solution. I lied to
the Master, agreeing to be its friend. Then I walked past it and
killed its allies. Afterwards I was able to position myself spread
out around the Master. With this strategy I defeated it on the first try. Was it
worth it? I am not sure. The Endless Paths were interesting but not
nearly as great as the rest of the game. If you want a dungeon
crawl, sure, but otherwise consider skipping it.
Next week Awkward Mixture will conclude
its review of Pillars of Eternity, with a look at the lore, themes,
and ending.
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