An OK game, but with some rough edges.

First of all, the combat feels really awkward, don’t know how else to describe it. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve died when critical people walk into my own fireball, or just runn through a bunch of enemies to do something stupid. The end result is that many of the abilities out there are pretty useless because they are almost impossible to use safely, they will almost always do more damage to you than to your enemies.

Similarly, the story feels a little disconnected. Lots of things going on, and introducing a lot of lore, but it feels like they are trying to build out too much at once. I find myself running back and forth, from one place to another, often not really sure where I should be or what I should be doing. There are also a lot of encounters I’ve found which are nearly impossibly difficult, again, not a reason to hate a game by itself, but it just adds to the feeling of overall chaos in the story..

Lastly, there are some mechanics that feel like they could be great, but are really just broken. The stronghold is nice, but it’s almost empty, so it always feels like a spooky ghost town. In addition, you earn income based on “turns” which advance when completing quests, but your expenses are based on actual days. As a consequence, once you have the stronghold, you have a race against the clock to finish quests quickly, before your stronghold bankrupts you. This doesn’t seem like the feel they were going for, it’s just a broken mechanic.

All told, the game is OK, but I wouldn’t call it great.

Asp217 about Pillars of Eternity, v3.0.2