Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

It's a very good game with probably the best subclass mechanic in all video games. I'm writing this review because i want a PoE3 one day. It's nice to see Obsidian at a fallout game again but, i still have hope for a third installment that is not Avowed!

Was für ein großartiges RPG! Anstatt einfach nur mehr vom Gleichen zu bieten, schlägt Pillars of Eternity 2 mit dem Deadfire-Archipel eine ganz andere Richtung als der Vorgänger ein. Das neue Setting ist wunderschön, steckt voller abwechslungsreicher Inseln und macht das Erkunden zu einem echten Highlight. Auch das Kampfsystem fühlt sich noch einmal runder an und macht von Anfang bis Ende richtig Spaß. Dazu kommen hervorragend geschriebene Quests mit interessanten Entscheidungen, die einen immer neugierig auf die nächste Aufgabe machen. Ich konnte kaum aufhören zu spielen und habe es in kürzester Zeit regelrecht durchgesuchtet. Große Empfehlung!

Amazing game with so much content, especially if you get all the DLC which are all really good. Highly recommend!

This game beats its predecessor in almost every aspect, though some things have stayed pretty similar. I'd say the soundtrack, graphics, pacing, and plot are all superior here, without mentioning the execellent DLC (excluding SSS). Companion quests and combat mechanics are almost identical, with one big exception being that health bars are no longer split up in a long-term and a short-term one, which, I think, served to make players overly cautious when completing a dungeon or map in the first game. Now, there's just one health bar that fills up after every fight, which makes individual encounters both more interesting (by not having to play it as safe as possible against every enemy to avoid taking damage) and less interesting (because resource management becomes a non-issue and individal fights are far less important). The main story is a lot more coherent in this game, as well as the player's and Eothas' motivations. It also involves different factions, among which you have to choose near the end of the game. Their questlines were pretty interesting, especially because all of them have representatives in one of your companions (Tekehu - Huana, Serafen - Principi, Pallegina - Vailians, Maia- Rauatai). Because of this, all of them are much more involved in the main story than your final group in PoE 1. To be fair, this game profits massively from the fact that its predecessor was as exposition-heavy as it was, having to explain the entired world from the ground up. Even considering first game's anti-climactic ending serves the purpose of allowing this one to widen the plot's conflict considerably, although the new ending may also be anticlimactic to sum. Despite the exposition work I mentioned previously, the game is still relatively text-heavy, though far less so than PoE ever was. Naval exploration and naval battles are not necessarily better or worse than the BG1-style of trodding through the landscape and occansionally encountering groups of monsters or people in the wild, but profits from the fact that bounties and charting-quests both incentivize you to fill out the whole map. The battles are pretty text-heavy, and the boarding becomes pretty old pretty quickly, but they are almost always avoidable. It's a very whole, complete experience, involving two of the DLC. You get several big, impressive locations and quests, lots of low-stakes stuff sprinkled in between, with both being accompanied by a solid flow of gameplay and a very polished feel overall.

I don't think it's better than Pillars of Eternity 1 in terms of story, characters and writing, but everything else is superior. Hope they will do Pillars 3 is the same isometric perspective.

Excellent game for those who played PoE1 first. It took me a couple of tries to get into it, as the first time I started a playthrough I had not finished PoE1 yet. After getting to PoE1 properly it felt a must to continue the story and it is done so well that it feels like you just fluidly continue the story. For BG1-2 lovers a must try, but I definitely recommend playing PoE1 first to get the full story. The world and politics of Eora is much more complicated than in D&D games so you really have to get into it properly to appreciate it... at first it can feel overwhelming.

TOP 3 RPG ever created. If you are a fan of CRPGs then this is a must play. Can't believe more people are not playing this. Obsidian should make a 3rd one ;)

Still one of my favourite CRPGs and holds up really well despite its age. Got into another playthrough after turn-based mode was added to the first game. A unique setting, rulesets, lore, and world building, all with a story that allows you to carry over your character and choices from the first game. This gives you a sense of familiarity with the world and what to expect while still managing to throw curveballs and throw you into new, interesting scenarios. The MC is probably the best part of the series as you shape your character through interactions and choices, and that leads to very different outcomes to quests, companions, and how the world perceives you, especially after building up your reputation from nothing in the first game. The companions are hit or miss depending on your taste, but each has an underlying complexity to it. Eder is the best and acts as the Garrus to your Shepard. A shame Kana was not part of the companions, as it made the most sense due to the setting. The quests have weight and consequences, and the side content (which is the majority of the game) is fun and engaging, especially with the great DLC selection, with Beast of Winter offering the best expanded story. It's easy to get into and learn, and offers replayability for the many outcomes the game offers, even more when considering the save import ability from the first game. It deserves a third game to give players closure to the Watcher’s story. A shame to see the same bugs and technical issues not resolved years later, though there were issues with the publisher involved. Looking forward to seeing how Avowed will shape these games going forward.

A must buy if you like real time with pause RPGs. Pros: - Unmatched mechanics, kind of ruin the other RPG games - Tons of replay value, just had so much fun creating new builds, new party compositions. Cons: - Turn based didn't felt great. - Some of the math doesn't work as expected at first but there's a huge community that have answer almost every question.

I beat this game some 7+ years ago but wanted to leave a review with some hindsight. Pillars of Eternity 2 is an amazing game, certainly with some flaws, but one thing it did really well was have a diverse and interesting party that actually interacted with eachother. In Pillars, each party member had a distinct interpersonal relationship or quirk. They butt heads with each other, they challenge each other’s ideologies, their dynamics develop. Xoti and Pallegina bicker at each other constantly over their beliefs. Serafen keeps warning you about the messed up things he sees in Xoti’s dreams and tries to take care of her. Pallegina resents her God-like heritage because it made her an outcast to her people, despising Tekehu whose culture put God-likes on a pedestal. Their resentments and conversations with each other give you unique insights about themselves and the world. These relationships aren't purely scripted, either. Each character has tendencies and dispositions that determine their views towards the player and other party members, constantly morphing based on your choices, dialogue options, party composition, etc. I don't think any games since have really done this quite as well, with the same impact. Unfortunately this reflection comes on the heels of the Xbox-related layoffs, and so it seems like the world of Eora may be shuttered for good. I still hold hope that we see a Pillars 3, with these systems and ideas expanded and improved.