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Preview Pillars of Eternity Beta Preview at Rock Paper Shotgun

Infinitron

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Tags: Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

It looks like Adam Smith has replaced Nathan "nth notch on Zoe Quinn's bedpost" Grayson in the role of chief Kickstarter RPG reporter over at Rock Paper Shotgun. Today he posted his impressions article on the recently released Pillars of Eternity backer beta. Have a snippet:

If Pillars of Eternity were nothing more than an attempt to recreate the past with a new paintjob, I’d be happy enough to play but might not be quite as curious about the end result. The Infinity engine template forms the outline for Pillars and the broad strokes are D&D-ish, but the deviation is in the details. Rather than pulling apart every alteration to the expected systems, I’m going to focus on camping, resting and healing.

It’s an integral part of the game and an aspect of adventuring that has traditionally been an afterthought or means to access a ‘quick heal’ button. Obsidian have made it part of each player’s personal narrative, by adding flavour and building a set of healing and buff mechanics around the need for rest. Checking into the beta village’s inn provides a choice of rooms, each named and some with implied backstory.

One of the rooms looks out onto a stinky workshop, which means that you’ll do little more than recover while you rest there. Other rooms, pricier rooms, provide buffs to stats, which last until the next time the party rests. That provides an incentive to utilise inns whenever the chance arises and to spend as much time between bouts of snoozing as possible. This seemingly slight change creates a tension – venturing out into the wild unknown leaves the party reliant on their limited supplies and requires intelligent management of short-term and long-term damage, as well as any abilities that are reliant on resting.

On higher difficulty levels, the limit on camping supplies is stricter and with party member permadeath enabled, Pillars is the rare RPG in which combat has consequences and mortality makes itself known.

The classes are immediately recognisable but skillsets and playstyles are very different from one to the next, which provides a variety of tactics to master, and raises the potential value of a second or third playthrough. Sawyer says the game has been designed to provide paths for any character build and reckons each should be as interesting as the next, or thereabouts. A high Might stat is as likely to open up dialogue/interactions options as a soaring Intelligence, and a clumsy wizard should be as viable a character choice as a muscular rogue.

The proof of all that will be in the pudding, of course, and the beta is little more than a spoonful of sugar. Mechanically, Pillars is close enough to an Infinity engine game to be mistaken for one, but it’s shot through with novel ideas and tweaks to the formula. The same is true of the setting, which is packed with all the usual fantasy bits and bobs, but appears to be at least aspiring to thematic coherence and interesting inventions.

As with the rest, the deviation is in the details. There may be an ogre stomping around the place but don’t presume to know exactly what ‘ogre’ means in this new world. There’s a lovely sense of rediscovery while uncovering lore and filling in the bestiary. New thoughts and histories attached to traditional types and tropes. The first time I saw the beta content, Obsidian were playing through it themselves, and a combination of overconfidence and haste left them with two maimed party members as the presentation drew to a close. Outwitted by spiders and limping toward the end of a quest, they answered my questions about permadeath and injuries while keeping some of their attention on the screen.

“What happens if the player character gets maimed? Is that a permanent injury?”

“Here, we can show you.” They instructed the party’s warrior to attack the leader. Evidently the spiderbites had taken their toll because the blow didn’t knock her out or maim her, it killed her outright. Death of the party. I’ve fared somewhat better but I’m picking each class apart as I go, learning the tricks of the trade. The possibilities in battle can be slightly overwhelming at first but that’s at least partly due to plunging in with a full set of characters at level 5. Less time to learn each ability as it is gained.

Nostalgia may be the initial draw, for some of the audience at least, but Pillars doesn’t map directly onto any of the Infinity engine games. The layers of interaction and intricacy of class roles are evidence of a developer comfortable with the familiar, and able and willing to flex the creative muscles where appropriate. It may be partly an exercise in nostalgia and looking backwards but, along with Original Sin and a few other potential bright spots, Pillars is making me super excited about the future of CRPGs for the first time in years.
I think it's safe to say that he likes it.
 

SuicideBunny

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i think it's safe to say that you really should stop linking to (or reading) rps.
besides, the people at rps have shitty tastes in terms of games, so them liking something doesn't mean squat in the best case scenario, while meaning that it's shit in the worst.
 

Crooked Bee

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Wasn't it Grayson who'd always bring up the topic of Obsidian bugs, blowing it to a ridiculous proportion? That interview about Stick of Truth was p. try-hard and embarrassing to read. I hope Adam Smith will break with that tradition.

At least there doesn't seem to be any emphasis on bugs in this particular preview. :P

Also, mainstream PC sites like RPS liking games like D:OS and now PoE is never a bad thing.
 

Roguey

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I always knew Grayson was a piece of shit. Roguey Cassandras again.

This was surprisingly positive, though I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised since game journos are used to playing unpolished betas-as-opposed-to-release-candidates and evaluate them with that in mind.

It'll be December at the earliest when this comes out though. :M
 

Roguey

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Oh my, is that the sound of doubt I hear
I still believe it'll come out this year, it's just a question of which week it'll be.

Of course this means D:OS will win arpeg of the year unless Obs wants to delay it till next just to win a forum award.
 

MicoSelva

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Wasn't it Grayson who'd always bring up the topic of Obsidian bugs, blowing it to a ridiculous proportion? That interview about Stick of Truth was p. try-hard and embarrassing to read.
But, now he needs to praise PoE as a contrast to his bashing of TW3. Dfferent goals, different tools.

And yes, I know that this is a good thing for you because you hate The Witcher. ;)

Could be much worse too, he could be praising DA:I instead of PoE.
 

Sensuki

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At this rate, December is wishful thinking. I really think PE needs a longer beta period much like Larian and inXile did with their games. Otherwise it just won't be as good as it should be.
 

norolim

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I hope it doesn't get delayed to February, 2015 and overshadowed by Witcher 3, Batman and other big releases of that month.
 

Roguey

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At this rate, December is wishful thinking. I really think PE needs a longer beta period much like Larian and inXile did with their games. Otherwise it just won't be as good as it should be.
D:OS's beta period was only actually three months (and it was never and still isn't content complete). inXile's will end up being 4 months since feature/content completeness. Obsidian also has up to four months.
 

Black

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I hope it gets released as soon as possible. This way people will get the ultimate ObsIEdian™ experience.
 

SuicideBunny

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Also, mainstream PC sites like RPS liking games like D:OS and now PoE is never a bad thing.
mainstream getting interested in proper rpgs brought us shit like oblivion and mass effect. nothing good ever comes out of it.
 

Crooked Bee

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Also, mainstream PC sites like RPS liking games like D:OS and now PoE is never a bad thing.
mainstream getting interested in proper rpgs brought us shit like oblivion and mass effect. nothing good ever comes out of it.

I fail to see how mainstream PC sites praising D:OS and PoE can "bring us shit like Oblivion". I don't think there was any major D:OS review that wanted it to be closer to Mass Effect either.

What I'm seeing is "oldschool RPGs" finally being recognized and accepted as a niche alongside AAA RPGs like DA:I or Witcher 3. Which is, again, a good thing.
 

Hormalakh

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D:OS's beta period was only actually three months (and it was never and still isn't content complete). inXile's will end up being 4 months since feature/content completeness. Obsidian also has up to four months.

uhh except PoE isn't feature complete either at this point. I'd point to a variety of things, but I'll just stick with UI not being complete yet. Then there's the art pieces, music, portraits, I could keep going...
 

SuicideBunny

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What I'm seeing is "oldschool RPGs" finally being recognized and accepted as a niche alongside AAA RPGs like DA:I or Witcher 3. Which is, again, a good thing.
no you aren't. gaming journalists don't make or break genre niches, the consumers do, and they already proved that oldschool isn't dead when they backed this or dos or any of the other kickstarters.
I fail to see how mainstream PC sites praising D:OS and PoE can "bring us shit like Oblivion". I don't think there was any major D:OS review that wanted it to be closer to Mass Effect either.
nobody wanted oldschool games to be closer to mass effect or oblivion before those existed either, but whenever mainstream gets interested in something, what inadvertably follows is a corruption of said thing with the excuse of making it accessible to a wider audience, hence abominations like the aforementioned are born (along with a lot of shitty "we don't really get it but we'll try to ride the wave anyways" imitations).
 

Duraframe300

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D:OS's beta period was only actually three months (and it was never and still isn't content complete). inXile's will end up being 4 months since feature/content completeness. Obsidian also has up to four months.

uhh except PoE isn't feature complete either at this point. I'd point to a variety of things, but I'll just stick with UI not being complete yet. Then there's the art pieces, music, portraits, I could keep going...

Its feature complete. Everything important is in in some form and with programming done. Missing portraits and art placeholders don't really play a role here.

Having every feature in some form programmed in the game. Thats what feature complete means. How buggy it is doesn't matter.
 

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What I'm seeing is "oldschool RPGs" finally being recognized and accepted as a niche alongside AAA RPGs like DA:I or Witcher 3. Which is, again, a good thing.
no you aren't. gaming journalists don't make or break genre niches, the consumers do, and they already proved that oldschool isn't dead when they backed this or dos or any of the other kickstarters.

Ugh, what you're saying doesn't contradict what I said at all. Sure, it's obvious that the KS craze/consumer interest made the "oldschool revival" possible. However, it has also led game journalists to recognize and accept "oldschool RPGs" as a separate niche alongside the AAA RPGs, exactly like I said. And yes, I believe it's a good thing. This may be just a fad, of course, but it's a good kind of fad.

And sure, if by chance e.g. Larian will want to appeal to the widest possible audience, they'll basically stop making oldschool RPGs (i.e. abandon the aforementioned niche) and start making AAA-type RPGs (i.e. focus on a different audience). That has nothing to do with game journalism, especially since D:OS' high review scores make it possible for Larian precisely not to chase the elusive "AAA-type mainstream" appeal.
 

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At this rate, December is wishful thinking. I really think PE needs a longer beta period much like Larian and inXile did with their games. Otherwise it just won't be as good as it should be.
D:OS's beta period was only actually three months (and it was never and still isn't content complete). inXile's will end up being 4 months since feature/content completeness. Obsidian also has up to four months.
I am with Roguey on this one. Balancing/bugfixing is a relatively fast process when developers are focused on it. Three months is plenty of time.
 

SuicideBunny

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However, it has also led game journalists to recognize and accept "oldschool RPGs" as a separate niche alongside the AAA RPGs, exactly like I said. And yes, I believe it's a good thing. This may be just a fad, of course, but it's a good kind of fad.
what i am saying is that whether gaming journalists accept something as a niche or not is completely irrelevant to itself, its actual status as a niche, or to anything else for that matter, because gaming journalist opinions are absolutely irrelevant and the only thing they are good for is expose something less known to wider audiences. the only thing that matters is the reaction of the masses, and we are well past the point where oldschool has been accepted by them.
so yeah, what you are seeing is acceptance of oldschool by games journalists, but it doesn't matter because games journalists don't really influence the masses and are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
 

Rake

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At this rate, December is wishful thinking. I really think PE needs a longer beta period much like Larian and inXile did with their games. Otherwise it just won't be as good as it should be.
D:OS's beta period was only actually three months (and it was never and still isn't content complete). inXile's will end up being 4 months since feature/content completeness. Obsidian also has up to four months.
I am with Roguey on this one. Balancing/bugfixing is a relatively fast process when developers are focused on it. Three months is plenty of time.
Those aren't the only things this games needs
 

Black

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Since when isn't it?
 

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