What then? You’re constantly presented with this kind of choice, and they seldom get easier.Īnd yet Pillars's roleplaying strengths go deeper still. Pillars's narrative greatness, however, is that it makes you question even this normally cut-and-dried situation by giving the killer a powerful and borderline justified motive. Lesser RPGs would stop at this and let such a quest devolve into a simple revenge and bribery scenario. Murder mysteries, for example, become much more interesting when the victim can show up to testify posthumously.

At times, that ability pushes what appears to be a humdrum side quest to greatness. But the appeal here is that the Watcher's accidentally obtained ability (not unlike the Inquisitor in Dragon Age: Inquisition) allows him to see through the lies of the people around him, and that's a handy skill in a world where people openly hang soulless children from trees like Christmas ornaments. Rest assured, there's still plenty of that.

The formula works well here because it helps Pillars avoid falling entirely into the cliché trap of the predictable Western fantasy RPG, in which a cocky young hero arises from humble origins and kills whatever dragons and bandits need killing. Pillars of Eternity casts you in the reluctant role of a Watcher – essentially someone who can 'read' the souls of those around him or her (living or dead) for insights into their past lives or motives. That 'reaching out to their soul' bit isn't stylistic cheesiness. It'd be a roleplayer's dream come true, if it weren't for the slight annoyance that some of the characters are voiced and others aren’t. Reach out to their soul, and you're slapped with a personal story that spills out over fascinating walls of text but has nothing to do with the main story, and the quality of writing involved is such that these moments never entirely lose their appeal. Pillars of Eternity is something of a welcome novelty, in that such elaborate characterizations aren't just reserved for main characters they extend to everyone, even random folks found on cobblestones of Defiance Bay or dozing drunkenly in the corners of weathered taverns. Countless other characters crossed my path in the coming days, each with their own stories and personalities and each usually (but not always) voiced by a competent actor.

Pillars of eternity multiplayer