5/5 ★ – eatpotatochip's review of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

Obsidian’s Pillars Of Eternity games have been the RPG series I’ve spent the most time in. The series is sort of an underdog at present, with the first game setting records in its attempt to revitalize classical isometric cRPGs, but the second falling short of sales expectations and being all but shelved (though a new Elder Scrolls-like game in its universe has been announced by Obsidian recently). The most interesting thing about the Pillars setting, Eora, which started off as a spiritual successor to D&D’s Forgotten Realms setting before adding so many tweaks that it became a wholly different beast in its own right, is that it makes the existence of souls, reincarnation and gods explicitly and tangibly real. Firstly, people can, in incredibly rare cases, awaken to the full memories of their past lives, which is implied as being extremely traumatic and almost assuredly driving them insane - and your protagonist starts off having gone through the same ordeal too. Secondly, souls themselves can be stored and even used as fuel in prototype machinery, which itself is a new and feared development in the history of the setting. Lastly, the gods themselves often interfere in mortal matters, with the first game having been preceded by a holy war led by an incarnation of one of them. Playing Dragon Age again recently has made me compare the way the two settings choose to reveal their histories. While Dragon Age delights in teasing out incomplete and subjective snatches of history, Pillars Of Eternity usually resolves its mysteries with clear, unambiguous answers, with the first having a great ending that unfortunately clears most of the questions you might have had about the ancient forerunner species in that setting, as well as about the gods. Pillars Of Eternity: Deadfire, the sequel, has to deal with a lingering lack of mystique, so it smartly uses the majority of its sidequests (which are what you engage with for nearly all of your playtime) to focus on the different factions you meet in the seas, and the clash of culture and economy both between and within them. However, the main story still focuses on a conflict within the gods, where you’re sent on behalf of most of them to pursue the remaining god that seems to have strange plans for all the people of Eora - and with no mysteries remaining, most of it is spent witnessing the squabbles between these divine beings who feel completely mundane.