It’s time to get those character sheets completed and pick up those odd shaped 20-sided dice and start rolling them. Today’s offering on the gaming table (pun intended), Pillars Of Eternity 2 : Deadfire, whilst inhabited with the usual cast of monsters seen in a standard RPG strays away from the prevalent action RPG formula that crowds the current gaming landscape and instead is a throwback to the days RPGs were more akin to an actual game of Dungeons and Dragons instead of the fast paced action of games such as Skyrim or Diablo. If you are old enough (and heaven knows I am) then games such as Baldurs Gate or Icewind Dale will serve as a good reference point as to what POE2 has to offer. This is a thinking mans RPG with a deliberate slow pace that is used to flesh out the incredibly detailed tactical combat system this game is based on.

Having never played the original Pillars Of Eternity that was released back into 2015 I jumped into its sequel not having any idea of its backstory or even what to expect as far as actual game mechanics. The opening scenes in the game do an acceptable job of explaining what transpired in the previous game and prepare you for the world you are about to step into. The short version of events is that in the previous game the god Eothas decided to inhabit a mortal body and send his followers on a holy crusade, the other gods rallied to destroy him and were successful by using a gigantic bomb called the Godhammer. After the destruction of Eothas a mysterious plague known as the Hollowborn began to sweep across the lands causing children to be born without souls, the plague was thought to be a curse placed by Eothas as revenge for his defeat. The Watcher Of Caed Nua (the main protagonist and the character you play) discovers that the plague is actually the work of Thaos Ix Arkannon (a near-immortal being tasked with safeguarding the god deepest secrets.) It is in the current plague stricken landscape of Eora where the sequel begins and it is here that we discover that the god Eothas is not actually dead as he bursts forth from under the ground destroying the castle perched above his resting place to wander the lands again, you as the watcher are tasked with following him in order to find out why he has returned and what his plans are.

Be prepared to spend a very long time staring at the character customisation screen in this game when you first create your character and it’s not due to the usual reasons of trying to get your character to look as close to your visual representation of what a hero should look like, it’s due to the massive array of options presented to you in regards to classes and stats. There are 11 classes to choose from ranging from Paladin through to Wizard, however in addition to choosing a starting class you can actually decide to pick a second class and create a hybrid character which opens up even further options in regards to character and skill customisation, I spent at least an hour alone reading through all the character descriptions and skills that came with them before I finally decided to play as a Paladin/Chanter hybrid which to me seemed useful as it allowed me to be fairly proficient with weapons as well as possess and array of buffs, healing and crowd control magic.

I was then faced with the task of putting points into base stats as well as choosing starting skills and putting the finishing touches on my characters appearance and was then finally ready to step into the lands of Eora and begin the game, which finds you after a brief battle with a pirate ship washed up on the shore of an unknown island with a badly smashed up ship and the majority of your crew perished and the rest scattered across the island. Your first task is to gather up your crew and find a way of repairing your ship. As usual for an RPG game these goals will be completed by exploring the island, gathering up your crew members and finding people that will help you repair your ship, though of course you will have to help them first before they will help you, this will involve your usual quests that involve fetching an item for the NPC or convincing one of their rivals to stop committing acts that they disapprove of or you could even just straight up murder their rival to complete the quest instead, the choice is yours, but all choices in this world have ramifications that will need to be faced as you travel along your journey.

This is one of the great things about POE2, the way it gives you so many different choices in dealing with situations, you can decide to go straight in swinging swords and launching lightning bolts or decide to choose a more diplomatic approach and achieve your goals through conversation instead, whether this be through intimidation, bribery or by manipulating the person you are dealing with into seeing things the way you want them to, the fact that many of the numerous options in dialogue trees are more successful based on not only your skills but your whole groups skill pool adds an immense amount of depth to the way you choose to pay and even shape the world you are inhabiting. Combat also provides a plethora of options in regards to how you wish to control the action. The first of these is whether to control battles in real time or take a turn by turn approach to the action. It has been years since I have played an RPG in the style of this game and so I opted to take the turn by turn approach so I could ease my way into the games fighting mechanics and I am glad I did as it slows the pace down and allows you to weigh up your options before playing them out…do I buff my entire party now and give them a higher armour rating or do I use my turn to slowly flank around the back of an enemy to hit them from their weak side.

I did experiment with playing in real time but the game turns into utter chaos and I found it incredibly stressful trying to manage my party of intrepid adventurers as the battles played out in real time, though this faster paced style of gameplay may be more suited to veterans of this type of fighting system or to those who purely enjoy chaotic situations and trying to manage them, both combat options are dissimilar that depending on which you pick POE2 will be a vastly different experience. You can also choose whether you wish to control all of your party members individually or choose to let their actions play out via AI, the base AI system does a respectable job of making characters play their roles at a respectable level, healers heal when needed and paladins buff when they should however you can choose to completely customise the AI of your party and the amount of options contained here are truly staggering and would need a document bigger than the size of this review to fully explain the intricacies of what can be done.

Combat is quite satisfying though apart from the AI customisation the system is your standard D&D fare with nothing truly ground-breaking to set it apart from previous games in the genre (though the fact you can recruit a crew for your ship and partake in naval battles is a very nice touch) characters gain experience, level up, gain new skills and then take those skills into their next battle, rinse and repeat. It’s a tried and tested gameplay loop that I have always found to be a satisfying one.

The real stand out here is the world, the characters that inhabit it and the stories that they have to tell. The voice acting and writing are top notch, I am not usually one for listening to characters in RPG games finish their entire speech, I usually read through the displayed dialogue and skip through to the next screen before the character can finish their monologue, however in POE2 I found most of the voice acting and writing to be at such a level that I stopped actually reading the dialogue and instead listened to the characters talk instead, it is truly riveting stuff. The world itself is also gorgeous with excellent lighting and highly saturated colours as it takes you through a journey from deserts and lush tropical forests through to deep, dark and dank dungeons, the sound is equally up to par with some fantastic orchestral scores playing in the background as you chop your way through enemies as well as wonderful sea shanties accompanying your voyages at sea.

The user interface, though it can be confusing at times when trying to navigate through its various screens is also elegantly designed with pleasing fonts and access to most of the information you want right at your fingertips, though one complaint I do have is that the text can be very hard to read @ 4k resolution if you are sitting at a fair distance from your TV and to my knowledge there was no way to enlarge the font size, this is a minor niggle though and probably more to do with the fact that I am getting old and over the hill and need a telescope to even read a newspaper. POE2 is definitely not for everyone, its slow plodding pace and walls of text and lengthy dialogue will unfortunately turn a lot of people off experiencing this wonderful journey through the lands of Eora, it is however understandable though as to experience everything that is offered here will take many, many hours and a lot of dedication and some people just do not have that amount of free tie to dedicate to gaming.

Let’s just say if you go into this game expecting something like Diablo or Torchlight then you are going to be disappointed, not because POE2 is not up to the same quality but because this is a different kettle of fish entirely. There is incredible value offered here as the game also comes with the 3 DLC from the PC version for free. So that’s it then…for people that are into D&D or into cerebral games that require thinking, planning and strategy we have got a home run here…so why am I not screaming GO OUT AND BUY IT! THIS IS A MASTERPIECE!!!! Two words; Loading times.

I have never in my 40-year history of playing games been confronted by such abysmal and frequent loading times that plague this game. Walk into a small building, 3 minutes of loading, walk out of the building 3 minutes of loading, accidently click on the door again, 3 minutes of loading, go back out again, 3 minutes of loading, leave town, 3 minutes of loading, enter new town, 3 minutes of loading, die 5 minutes of loading, scratch your you know….well I think you get the point by now. Unfortunately this one minor detail while not making the game unplayable just ruins all of the immersion which is such a shame since so much time has been spent meticulously crafting this world, it not only wrecks the immersion it is utterly frustrating especially if you have limited time to play and most of that time is taken up by looking at a load screen. I am so utterly divided here on whether I can recommend the game or not and it is all based on this issue, there is so much meat to this game and it is so well crafted but for every little thing it does right, the loading times just destroy all the good there is to experience, the only thing I can recommend is having a book or your smart phone handy whilst playing so you have something to keep yourself occupied, either that or play it on PC as from what I have seen most of the loading on that platform is pretty much instantaneous.

I want to recommend this game, I want to shout from the rooftops about how great it is, but I simply can’t with such a major flaw that inhabits the core of the game, hopefully a future patch can remedy the loading problems though I have my doubts due to this running on the Unity engine which is well known for being the cause of long loading times in many other games.