I dont care about income or profit, really if thats your argument go to work for free.

Pillars is exemplary in bringing that 'new car smell' to RPG. I love the story, I love the art, I love the everything! I really do. I hope they do another exactly the same. There was a crux after the command and conquer series, first couple. I played them all, and loved them all but honestly they got it right the first time. Baldurs Gate got it right, the first time. Technology shouldnt guide art, the Sistine Chapel would not have benefited from 3d graphics.

Rant aside, love this game. LOVE it. So many goodies, so many yay moments for your character. If your on the fence, buy it. Personally contact me if you dislike and I'll do my best to refund. This game is tops.

*edit*
OOPS, forgot my criticism.
A clearer color scheme in spells for hurt or help, thx!

Hi all
My 1st impression wasn't that good, because I was lost in the new game mechanics (no it's not BG3), and didn't like much the start of the story - too much text, I felt as if they tried to get the lore down my throat- and the first village is so empty the game world seemed rather lifeless ...
But well, I've gotten past this, learned the ropes, and a few gameplay hours later I began to fall in love with most of the game, now after 30 some hours, halfway through the game I'm totally enthralled !

Kudos Obsidian, my pledge money was well-employed, I look forward to expansions and PoE 2 !!

An excellent game

I'm decidedly neutral on the game.

I thought the beginning was very promising. But after I got to Cilant Lis, I felt it was a real mixed bag. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people that does not enjoy the Engagement mechanic, so that's the first strike against it. I found a lot of the quests were just run-of-the-mill fetch or kill quests. I found the combat tedious. I found Defiance Bay rather disappointing, with only one of the five areas having a decent amount of content. I found the story, while I thought it was good, was presented in such a disjointed way that it became difficult to get fully immersed/engaged in it and there was no real sense of urgency. The items and gear were less than awe inspiring (I'm not looking for tons of uber-powerful items, but there just seemed to be little to nothing remarkable). I didn't particularly like the companion quests that I did (granted I only completed Kanas - very lackluster - and Sagani's - rather ho-hum).

Having said all that, I still see a lot of really good potential in the game and I hold out hope that Obsidian will be able to ramp it up in further installments in the game universe. I don't regret my kickstarter pledge in the least, but I certainly don't feel I got the game I wanted out of it. Yet.

For me- the game is very good. It reminds me a lot of BG 1. It’s good but you can sense a possibility for greatness in the sequel.

My main criticism is they went a bit too much “high concept” with it. Like we are gonna tell you all those things about souls and human nature. That thing works once in a hundred chances. And that one chance was Planescape Torment.

There are points where the dialogue is convoluted just for the sake of being “intellectual”. At one point you read four lines of text to get the information “I haven’t seen him”. Don’t get me wrong- I love reading but sometimes you just have keep it a bit shorter.

Second point- it’s a bit too serious. These guys are famous for bringing humor into their games and here- it’s almost all doom and gloom.

I also had a bit of a problem with the ending but let’s not spoil it here.

NPCs- they were fine. Combat didn’t bother me that much. Really liked the graphics. Some music was just taken right out of BG which was fine.

So in the end- very good game. But just like (for me) with BG1- just very good. I really hope they are going to kill it in the sequel.

PS. When I heard “You must gather your party” I felt a bit like Han Solo in the new trailer. Wanted to say “Minsc, we’re home…”

I've been wondering what you've thought about the game and how far you were with it. I really appreciate this review, and from everything I've learned about the game so far without playing it beyond character creation and the opening scene, it seems that I will probably feel the same way. Kind of disappointing but I am still looking forward to playing it, just wanting to keep any sort of hype/expectation out of my playing. I like the sound of it being dark and without much humor.

Can I get your (and anyone else's) input/opinion regarding my GF playing it?

She is really interested to play it (has her character all set to go once there is one more patch) but she has never played any RPGs of any sort, and really doesn't play video games much to begin with (she's more familiar with consoles but hasn't played anything at all in years and has only ever played a handful of computer games at best.) I'm not sure PoE will be a good one for her to start with as far as getting her further interested in playing the great RPGs, which she has a distant interest to play maybe at some point, but has no motivation/real interest to try and learn how to play a complex RPG outside of PoE any time soon. She briefly started Torment once years ago and got overwhelmed a bit (not too much, she will probably come back to it/start it over at some point, but it'll probably be a couple years), and other than watching me play some RPGs here and there, she has no exposure to them. Do you think PoE would be interesting enough to her to enthuse her to play more RPGs or should I warn her it might just be disappointing and not to waste her time? (though I still intend to play regardless, she is going to get to it before I do so I can't pre-evaluate it for her.)

Comparatively, with me knowing her, I *know* that if she took the time to learn and played Fallout 1 or PS:Torment, she would love them and be open to trying more RPGs (Arcanum, Fallout 2, Gothics, maybe even the Geneforges and Inquisitor.) I'm not expecting she will love PoE, but is it likeable enough to not turn someone like her off to more RPGs?

This is a tough one to answer. How does she feel about combat? If she's not that much into it, warn her that there's a lot of combat in the game. But she can set the game to Easy and should be fine that way. If she's fine with combat and willing to figure out the mechanics, she shouldn't have too much issue with it. Just warn her that it's very possible to go into an area that's above her party's level. Which is something I thought Obsidian got right, actually, but it does mean you can get waxed and have to leave and come back later when you're stronger.

Character building (what talents and class abilities to select) may be a bit tough for her since there are so many to choose from - and you have to level up all your party members (so she'll have to build several different classes). But there are some decent guides out there if she's not opposed to looking for some outside input.

The Lore and world building are great. The visuals are very good, as well as the music. So she should enjoy that for sure.

Honestly, I don't think the game would be a bad choice as far getting into RPGs goes. There's a decent story there, but like I noted it's sometimes a bit scattered. But it's still tough to be objective, since I've been playing them for years and years so i find it hard to pull back and see them from a beginner's eyes.

First of all: Don't let her play Inquisitor until she grows extremely forgiving and patient :-P

Seriously tho, I think I'd need a bit more info on her - does she understand how RPGs work, in general? Does she understand general ideas concerning character development and roleplaying (don't get excited, not that kind of roleplaying)? Does she understand the concept of making choices and facing consequences in videogames (it's actually not as obvious as it might seem)?

After experimenting on my wife, I can say that good introductory games into RPGs are Heroes of Might and Magic to get a firm grasp of how statistics and character development works - and you can play it hotseat, always a plus - and games like the new Telltale's Walking Dead, Wolf Among Us or Game of Thrones - especially if she happens to be fan of one of these shows - to explain concepts of dialogue trees and making meaningful choices. Then there's board games which serve to introduce similar concepts just as well, Arkham Horror being my most popular example - gameplay revolving around choice and consequence, big deal of roleplaying and need to understand how character stats work, all of that neatly packaged into board game, so ruleset can't be too complex (that's not to say it's a simple game. Oh god no.)

With all of that out the way, is Pillars of Eternity a good introductory RPG? Well, it's a game extremely similar to the original Baldur's Gate, and it's designed in such a way that you can't do as many mistakes which would doom you to fail, amongst other polish. And the original Baldur's Gate turned out to be a great introductory RPG. However, Baldur's Gate also had very simple story to follow, intriguing enough to get attention of RPG noob - for such a person, I'm not sure highly philosophical and a bit difficult to follow storyline of Pillars would be ideal. After all, videogames present story in a manner which is massively different from other media and people not experienced with them will probably have problems, regardless of how complex literature they're into. All in all tho, if you sit and play it with her, you'd probably manage to ease her into it - whether she's then be capable of playing it alone is another matter entirely.

And I also attempted to get my wife to play Planescape back when she was a girlfriend. Didn't go too well :-/ After a time, I figured she's a gameplay-first kind of person anyway, so Age of Wonders 3 is what rules our computer now. And in a few months I'm ordering the new XCOM board game. Damn that game looks awesome.

Stop reading about the bloody thing and wait until you play it, I think we can all agree that it's damn good, aside from some personal grievances. You'll spoil it for yourself before you even start, it's not like you're going to give it away after receiving it :-P

Obsidian actually had to add their own funds on top of the KS money to finish the game in a state they wanted to have it in - one of the devs said that on GOG's Pillars of Eternity stream. I like their dedication.

Thank you both for your replies! Very helpful. A few things:
She'll most likely play on easy because of how I understand combat to be. Heck, I'm tempted to play on easy because I don't want to get over-bored by redundant/non-exciting combat. Is there an XP difference if you go down to easy? - I mean reward XP for quests/progress or a significant reduction in the level your characters can reach by the end of the game? Of course the beastiary will fill slower and that XP will not come as quickly, but I mean otherwise? I seriously might play on easy just to avoid as much combat as there is if I can still essentially reach the same level as on normal by the end of the game. I was going to play on HARD myself, but after reading a bunch about combat, I'm tempted to easy!

She'll be fine to figure out combat and interface mechanics and is aware of the way RPGs work well enough from me talking about them/her watching me to know she'll get her ass handed to her sometimes depending.

She'll be fine figuring out character and party building with some of my guidance, it is one of the aspects of RPGs that appeals to her most (she loves being stealthy and to roleplay a stealthy character appeals to her a lot. Which reminds me, she's going to play a Moon Godlike Ranger.)

She does understand conceptually how RPGs work with there being multiple avenues of choices and dialogue options and how that stuff affects the game, character, world, and all the varying options of consequences/even possibly different endings, etc. Definitely a good idea to check and make sure she's aware of those things first though, thanks for making sure! She watched me do character creation for Wasteland 2 and I explained a lot of things to her then (and has watched me play W2 and some other RPGs and I explain things while she watches), and she created her PoE character already and so got more explanations then since she had to do her stats and animal-companion choice.

The variety of choices is also one of the biggest appeals to her about RPGs/what made her even want to try them in the first place. I kept trying to get her to play Torment and have talked about it a lot over the years trying to entice her, and at one point early on I was telling her something and it clicked in her that choices matter and that it just doesn't unfold how it unfolds with no variability and it kind of blew her away that you could affect what happens in the game that much. But I honestly don't think she fully understands how awesome it is to be in control and make the choices and have the consequences unfold. I'm really excited for her to get hit with the wow-factor over and over once she truly realizes the depth and variability of these games!

The complexity of the story and too much to read and lore that is slow to come together might turn her off, it might not, it just depends on how it is presented/how it unfolds. Time will tell, I suppose! Then I'll tell you folks!

I'm not reading much about the game other than combat mechanics, really (because to me it is the huge question-mark factor that will lean me towards either liking or disliking the game.) I'm very careful not to spoil myself. I want a raw experience. I know nothing about the story or lore of the world yet at all (beyond the very little I know about the Godlike and Orlan from character creation.)

Oh and there's no way I'd suggest Inquisitor to her until she's played at least a few other RPGs and then comes asking "what should I play next?!" I *know* it is going to be the stories and how the choices that she makes and how they influence the stories will be the things she likes best about RPGs, as well as growing her character through those choices within the stories (hence really wanting her to play Torment, Arcanum, and Fallout 1+2.) If she plays those 4, I think Inquisitor would be the next suggestion. I'll probably never recommend BGs, IWDs, or NWNs to her.

Thanks again for the inputs!

Go with normal. I am actually enjoying the combat a great deal, I'd say even more than in Infinity Engine titles, and you can change difficulty at any point in time to make the game harder or easier, as you wish. Here's how difficulty settings and their differences work.

Well crap, now I can't think of RPG with proper stealth mechanics which would also allow you to influence the game world in a reasonable manner... 'Cause neither Infinity Engine games nor Pillars are such a game :-P I suppose you could try soloing it with a stealth-focused character, but I don't think it would be a pleasant experience. In IE games because of all the XP lost and in Pillars because Stealth works in such a way that there just are places where you can't bypass enemies completely. Oh, Skyrim sort of works I suppose, they actually ramped up dialogue choices there. And Fallout, of course. Fallout works for everything, it's Fallout. Meh, just a thought.

Eh, she'll simply enjoy the mechanics of sending her ranger ahead in stealth-mode and discovering what is there before bringing her whole party to it, disarming the traps, unlocking the doors, picking pockets, and attacking from stealth to unsuspecting mobs even if companions are already engaged. She knows enough to not expect to be able to solo and that they are not "stealth games" to get that true-stealth feel. She's played some of Thief and Dishonored and doesn't expect to be able to play like that in a standard RPG.

I swear if she would just spend 30 minutes playing Fallout, she'd be hooked. She's so stubborn!

Unfortunately, you can't do this. There is no individual stealth. When one party member is in stealth mode, they all are. And once you engage the enemy, the entire party is kicked out of stealth. You also cannot cast most spells or use many abilities outside combat. So no pre-buffing (there are food items that provide buffs which you use prior to combat, but that's all).

A note on stealth and trap finding/disarming as well as finding hidden objects: Your Mechanics skill determines whether or not you can find or disarm a trap, as well as whether you spot hidden objects. BUT, you must be in Stealth mode to detect them. The Stealth skill has no bearing on this (it simply determines how hard you are for other creatures to detect)

So, if she wants to be able to sneak around to scout, she needs to invest in Stealth. If she wants to be able to handle traps or find hidden objects with the same character, she needs to invest in Mechanics as well.

Re XP awards: as far as I'm aware the rewards are the same no matter the difficulty, but you get more XP if you have fewer members in your party. If you poke around and do all the quests you find as well as explore all the areas thoroughly, you'll hit the level cap before the end of the game.

Again to you both, thanks!
She already likes the post-apocalypse aspect, and the FPS elements of F3 and NV make them not appeal to her, live combat just gives her too much anxiety. Walking around and then being shot at/engaged is not fun for her/she's not able to get used to it and enjoy it (I remember how FPSs were when I started them and it was like that and for me it was fun, but for her it is not.) Another reason I want her to play Fallout 1+2 and Arcanum, because of the turn-based aspect vs. RTwP which will absolutely cause her more anxiety, but she thinks she can deal with the RTwP combat because of being able to pause and relax at any moment.

As for the clunky-ness, if I were sitting next to her for an hour while she played, I'd be able to help her overcome it easier than her having to learn on her own and I think it'd be no sweat. I know the controls so well it doesn't even feel clunky to me anymore, other than inventory management.

If she can handle pausy games then the kotors are good. Also, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is pretty wonderful.

I assume that you are looking for a good rpg experience. If not, then she might like the Fallout Tactics experience.