![]() At any point in an encounter, the player has the ability to completely halt the action and either make tweaks to every individual’s tactics or force the execution of a special move from the unit’s arsenal. Pausing takes center stage when the true micromanagement comes into play. Once these core behaviors have been established, party members will fall into line when a battle starts and follow this plan unless instructed otherwise. Personally, I was all for having my characters with short-range weapons aggressively go on the offensive, while those with more distance-centric, precision weapons or magic powers hung back in a primarily support role. When facing off against adversaries in real-time, every member of the party will conduct themselves in whatever manner they’ve been previously trained. It may sound like a bit of a paradox but stay with me on this. Oddly enough, the battle system is at its most rewarding when the player is interrupting the action at their every whim. While most gameplay styles consider the consistent pacing of the action to be a core design tenant, this is a genre where the exact opposite is true. If hadn’t grown up playing these micromanagement wet-dreams, it would likely be a hard sell. ![]() The methodical mechanics inherently associated with this style of game is admittedly a bit of an acquired taste. Then along came two installments in the Pillars series, which made me completely change my tune. I primarily mention PC because up until fairly recently, I wasn’t even entirely sure that the genre could work on console. RPGs have come a long way since the heyday of the “real-time-with-pause.” While I’ve heard the argument that the genre died out for good reason, personally, I always had a soft spot in my heart for these callbacks to PC gaming of yesteryear. It’s easy to see why it was widely considered one of the best-written games of 2018. That is all part of the beauty of the stellar writing because it never feels like it’s forcing the player down a single path. Or you could always just choose to remain unaligned. His actions come in direct contact with each of the game’s core three factions, so this also becomes an opportunity to pick a side. Throughout the main storyline, players will get the opportunity to make new friends and reunite with plenty more, all while trying to get to the bottom of Eothas’ oddly erratic behaviors. In this case, the task is following Eothas, who also just so happens to be the God of Light, in order to determine what he’s up to back in the land of the living.Īnd so begins the adventure, spanning numerous islands and a wild, untamable ocean, infested with assloads of swashbuckling scumbags. As you might expect when striking a bargain with a deity, this comes with a few strings attached. Set in a world that’s seen five years pass since the events of the original installment, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire once again summons players to fill the role of “Watcher.” After nearly dying in events that preceded the start of the campaign, the character makes a deal with the God of Death, in order to be revived. Can this sequel manage to stand on its own as a towering success or will it end up lost in the wide shadow cast by its predecessor? Cheating Death Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire follows in these same footsteps, having laid siege to PC back in May of 2018, it’s now setting its sights on the console. Taking cues from the likes of Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, what was once proposed on a whim has now become a full-on resurgence, all while inspiring a later console port to boot. What was old is back again, with vengeance! The Pillars of Eternity franchise has come a long way from its humble origins as a Kickstarter that was a mere glimmer in the eye of developers that missed the “real-time-with-pause” genre of RPGs.
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