It may be surprising to many that it took me so long (relatively speaking) to get around to Pillars of Eternity 2 given the fact that I enjoyed both the original and the classic games that inspired it, but May is proving incredibly hectic. I requested a key for this game ages ago, only to receive no acknowledgement either way; unlike acceptance or refusal, silence makes it incredibly difficult to figure out how to fit games into my schedule at the best of times. Because of that, my primary focus at the moment is a different game that’s currently under embargo, with Pillars 2 being a title I picked up solely to have something to write about while I work through that other game. Depending on how good POE2 ends up being, I may end up dropping it like Divinity: Original Sin 2—which was an almost identical situation, ultimately exhausting the limited time I had to devote to it between other games—or finished. After the joke that was Tyranny, I don’t feel that I owe Obsidian any more than that.

I don’t remember the first game much

While I remember the happenings of classic cRPGs (Planescape: Torment, Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, Arcanum), the original Pillars of Eternity hasn’t had anywhere near that much of a lasting impact on me. Thankfully, the sequel spells out the original game’s plot right at the beginning, and it’s hilariously efficient. Basically, an ancient civilization ascended to become gods, a god’s incarnation was murdered, the cycle of rebirth stalled so that babies began to be born without souls, and in the end it turned out that it was the work of a baddie who we promptly murdered. Along the way, the main character (who became a “Watcher,” or someone who can see and be seen by dead people, at the start of the first game) had some dealings with the world’s supposed gods, and now they’re on semi-friendly terms. All caught up.

The second game begins with the god whose murder everyone was so sad about in the first game (and whose death stupid villagers originally believed to be the reason for children being born without souls, as I recall) possessing a giant statue conveniently located under the Watcher’s castle, murdering everyone in the vicinity and stealing their souls, including the Watcher’s. Apparently this god was less dead than everyone thought. Something something divine intervention on behalf of the gods, and boom, you’re tasked with fixing the whole situation. Simple enough.

There’s always time to boogie

A flicker of recognition hit when I entered the character creator. I vaguely remembered playing as a non-human “godlike” in the first game, but it wasn’t until I went back to my screenshots just now that it dawned on me that I even selected the same portrait in both games. The place the second game appears to revolve around seems to have a fire theme (obviously), so my goal was to select someone who’d be good against fire and/or possibly respected by the locals. I’m also big into horns, apparently. My fiery godlike is named Li’ar Panton Fire, and if you can’t tell by the name, he’s a lying, stealing rogue. I intend to steal everything that’s ever existed. Also, I couldn’t resist the urge to make Li’ar dance a little when selecting a pose.

Oh right, traps suck in these games

As a rogue, Li’ar is good at disarming traps. I figured that I’d end up using them for myself, spamming tons of traps and then leaving enemies to run right into them.

Then I tried actually setting more than one trap down, only to watch as the last trap magically disarmed itself and disappeared each time I tried. This is a game where you can only use one trap at a time, which effectively renders them useless. What a waste of a potentially fun mechanic. Not exactly hitting the ground running, here.

CYOA sections

I remember the first game having some of these choose-your-own-adventure kind of sections like the one in the video above, though I don’t think I mentioned them in my review. It’s no wonder, as I recall them being fairly tacked on and lacking in depth, but all the cool cRPGs include these nowadays, so Pillars 2 brings them back. It’ll be interesting to see how substantial and justified they end up being this time around.

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