Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

The sea is a beautiful and dangerous element, but also an unrestrained, life-giving force. Which - as it turns out - also accelerates the evolution of RPGs. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire takes advantage of it with a punch, with the accompaniment of cannons and the clash of sabers. And he does it damn good.

I've always wanted a Baldur's Gate 2 review . One from the period just after the debut of this game. So far, however, I do not have a time machine, but for you I have something equally powerful. A review of a new production of a similar measure and class. This time for real and no fool. Obsidian has finally managed to create a work that stands next to the king of RPG and does not fade away in the face of his majesty . It has everything that the aforementioned representative of the classic had - his power, wealth and momentum, but also things that could not be achieved then.

Of course, times change and the developers from Obsidian are not the only professionals to create a giant with limited resources. Recently, a similar level, albeit with other methods, has been achieved by Larian with the excellent Divinity: Original Sin II - therefore both studies have left behind the competition with Torment: Tides of Numenera at the forefront. It's too early to judge which work is better, it takes a moment for the emotions and the wow effect caused by the game to subside . And believe me - there is then to cool down.

Essentially, Deadfire does what the other Baldur used to do - stuffs familiar themes with steroids, mixes them up, and adds a few more surprises. A proven method, and finally a mix that seduces players with a lot of possibilities. The creators took to heart the remarks that appeared after the premiere of the first part. Pillars of Eternity II has undergone a million smaller and larger improvements, a plethora of decorations and fresh ideas were also added, while maintaining the charm of the old-school isometric RPGs of the BioWare and Black Isle duo . Not everything turned out perfectly, but the final effect is still impressive.

Pillars from the Caribbean

Do you remember the sluggish, not very engaging beginning of the first Pillars ? Then forget about him. The "Two" takes off with such an impetus that it enters our imagination together with the door and frame. The plot begins with a strong Hitchcock strike, already announced in the trailers. Our fortress is blown up by the statue that was used as the main pillar of the structure. It is unfortunate that we, the Seers, and most of the inhabitants are flying into the air together with the fortress. Giganta, like a robot from the Pacific Rim , is piloting Eothas himself - the god of light, who before the events of the first Pillars descended to earth in the form of the prophet Waidwen and ... was killed by mortals.

In the skin of the Seer, we date the female aspect of Berath, the god of death, and follow in the footsteps of the adra giant to find out why he actually went for a walk through the Deadfire Archipelago. Thanks to such a coincidence, we visit a new land, known so far from the stories and mentions of the heroes of the first part. This is a piece of the world completely different from Jelenioborz, which has been replaced with the European Renaissance.

The archipelago is an island land where pirates, reminiscent of the indigenous peoples of Central and South America (Huana), and two powerful trading companies fight for dominance - there are also many smaller parties that are trying to steal their piece of cake or at least survive. We are thrown into this complicated system of dependencies - weakened, with the rest of our belongings, on a shell, pompously known as a ship, and with one faithful friend by our side, Eeder (or without him, depending on our choices from the first part). This is how a really long journey begins.

A huge world awaits you to explore in Pillars II , full of collectibles , secrets, paragraph mini-games, ships to loot and full-fledged locations to explore. We cross the sea on our own boat, and the land on foot. This time we are dealing with classic map exploration in the style of the first Fallouts or Arcanum . These are not random comparisons - in terms of freedom, the new Pillars really resemble those two games, already considered classics. It is actually an isometric sandbox with a dense and multi-threaded plot like in the third Witcher .

We sail where we want, not only according to the designated points. We can go too far, overcount with supplies or get whips from a stronger ship (you can protect against it and enable level-scaling, but what a fun; let me calm down, it's only an option on the menu, the game does not force us to do so) in addition, you can also raise the difficulty level this way, thanks to which hardcore fighters will not suddenly seem too easy). And most importantly - the pilot during this cultural and sightseeing trip is an excellent plot .

Breaking the law

The above heading is not an accidental reference to the song Judas Priest. Deadfire is a story about balancing on the border between divine and human rights. Often just about breaking them. We play high stakes gods, but this at no point is a story about saving the world. About shaping it, changing the course of history, yes, but in Eora's universe there is no place for heroism or cheap plot tricks.

Just remember that Pillars of Eternity II is not one of those RPGs that can be completed without firing a shot. The story presented here has a more adventurous character than in such Torments , but Obsidian did not hide it for a moment - this is Baldur of the new generation, not a philosophical discourse. However, surprisingly many problems can be solved here without violence, be it through diplomacy or with the help of stealth . Besides, paradoxically, the game leaves us with many uncomfortable, silly and often very topical questions.

Everyone on board

Obsidian really did his best to make the companions we travel with. Again, the focus was on quality, not quantity (we have four new and three returning heroes - Eder, Aloth and Pallegina), but this time it turned out one hundred percent. While in the "one" some of the characters stood out and did not quite fit, so here we feel the real chemistry between them. We often experience it in the form of quarrels and taunts, but there are also charming, mate-like themes (in the capital, I recommend going to one of the pubs with Serafen and Tekeh). Excellent texts have been written for our companions and they have been equipped with interesting characters, thanks to which we have the impression that we are not dealing with bots with a number of statistics, but with living, thinking people (or nonhumans), firmly rooted in the world presented in the game.

It is a very distinctive team and I can assure you that you will be worried about the fate of the majority. Old friends gained more interesting tasks and threads, while new ones do not stand out from them at all. There is a place for romances, friendships, disputes, jokes, companions can support each other or hold a grudge. Their relationships - as well as the parties' attitude to us - reflect a fairly well-conceived system of reputation and interdependence.

If you don't have enough interpersonal contacts, I would like to add that we also meet helpers along the way. They work just like full-fledged companions, they have some personality, but they are not affected by any particularly large threads. The level of complexity is reminiscent of the teammates we encountered in the first Baldur's Gate , and at the same time a nice change. In addition, we recruit and hire crew members, but we only send them to fight at sea.

Machine modes

Pillars have also received a number of other, smaller and larger, improvements in other fields. This time, we are not managing a six-person team, but a five-person team, so we must be more careful with the selection of companions. At the same time, the creators gave us more freedom in leading the heroes thanks to the rearranged development system. Now we select combat and passive class abilities from trees. We can also strengthen skills by selecting one of two or three bonuses (the other paths are then cut off). Thanks to this, it is difficult to find two the same heroes even within one class.

Finally, Obsidian introduced the long-awaited two-class structure that allows for almost unlimited juggling with job combinations . Nothing prevents you from creating a shaman by combining a barbarian with an enigmatic (let me remind you: he is a kind of battle mage, influencing souls and minds). I gave one of my comrades such a combination and had a lot of fun watching the hero first turn the minds of his enemies to jelly and then end it with a pistol and a saber.

For each companion, we choose one of three classes or a combination of them in which they will excel. Thanks to this, there is no fear that there will be someone important in the team - which was the case in the first Pillars , where the creators forgot about a decent rogue to choose from, so we had to be one ourselves (by the way, I recommend it, playing such a rogue gives great satisfaction, at least in Deadfire ). For example, Eder can become a warrior, rogue, or a two-class combining both these professions.

In addition, we also have at our disposal subclasses straight from Dungeons & Dragons . These are variants of basic professions that gain powerful bonuses at the cost of certain penalties (e.g. weakening a factor). These are all tools that greatly deepen the gameplay mechanics and encourage you to repeat (or even several times) play, differing not only in moral but also purely mechanical choices.

Artificial intelligence scripts prepared in the "factory" work very efficiently - you just have to be careful not to let Aloth throw a fireball at the crowd during fights in the cities, the rest is perfect - and if someone does not want to deal with micromanagement, then the classic difficulty level is completely they are enough. I only turned off the AI for the Seer because of the immersion and because the Rogue is a class that requires a bit of precision in driving. The problem with finding paths to the exit has also disappeared. We can safely let the team go with one click, it will politely hit the spot from the other end of the map.

Vermin on board

Unfortunately, the beauty of the new Pillars comes at a price. The purely technical side of the game is sometimes very bad. I haven't encountered any bugs preventing me from completing the game (I still wake up at night screaming at the mention of third Siberia , so I would have noticed), but some sins have accumulated.

Liquidity drops the most, especially with the build-up of witchcraft effects - God forbid that it coincides with rain, especially at sea. A slide show is guaranteed. One or two three-dimensional objects had problems with textures, and one of the companions invariably got stuck in the hideout of a certain Dareo of Nekata and had to be led by the hand to the exit (fortunately we're talking about a place the size of a postage stamp).

You should also be familiar with the loading screens. I named mine and we became good friends, he gave me the time I needed to brew a new tea. Fortunately, this mainly happens when you load a save for the first time after restarting the game and when entering a fresh, large location.

Once, the conversation included solving a task that I had not yet undertaken, but it did not hurt the game and did not spoil the mission as such. The same exchanges between comrades repeated several times. For fun and harmless things - passersby often called my bully "Captain", so probably the algorithm responsible for the reaction to gender is still to be improved.