Claim and soul

These are precisely the two attributes that come off the vast majority of games today. Each longtime gamer knows what I mean. I'm talking about the generic, interchangeable titles from EA and Co, of the Battlefields, the Call of Dutys, the Assassins Creeds, the Far Cry's, etc.
One plays the part of it and has basically played all. Mass market compliant, multi-platform capability, something for everyone and everything and always nice casual, but not too heavy.
With sadness I have sometimes thought back to another time when the overall density of gems was still much larger. I think back to a time of Jagged Alliance, of Lands of Lore, Knights of the Old Republic, Monkey Iceland etc etc

In this series also Baldur's Gate is. Common has it and the other from the time that it was not a mass market level and also did not want to be, with its still strong degree of difficulty, the intense story where you could not have showered so, as with the aforementioned games today Today the unusual Isoperspektive, including so little suitable playability on consoles. After the brilliant second part there was no successor. Another milestone less dusty than license in a drawer of a big publisher.
Now the scene has changed but highly in recent years. The major publishers serve in principle a time and the same public. Edge genres as RPG's with Isoperspektive are now once a day, be dismissed as too little lucrative. Although it but still would be a large fan base, thought is rightly the guys at Obsidian. A game developer, staffed with veterans who have contributed to the old gems like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. The success proved them right. About 70,000 supporters and nearly $ 4 million came together. For a dusty niche genre, which now wants to play any more, when it comes to the big publishers. For Kickstarter conditions this game has all been made before seen in the shadows.

Hope we had all that time. The hope that this game could revive the good old days again. The former hopes and expectations were pulverized with the release yesterday, simply. The ratings of the trade press speak for themselves.
There is a reason, because Pillars of Eternity does not make mistakes and go its announced path which long ago lost strengths, senior party role playing and still planted on it's own, new ideas.

This starts as early as heroes creation menu. There really are many options, from bard to wizards, from the origin to the race. And also because there is a lot to read. This is expected to continue later in the game. Much text, around the figures and the handelnen describes the plot drives forward and Kopfkino anschmeißt. Generally I find the dialogue system very well. It must, can and should be like beyond black and white moral choices, most with corresponding consequences. Mostly as one has not expected in advance. There are not just good or evil, there is also something in between, something that changed in perspective, depending on the angle from which one approaches a problem.
This dilemma can be accommodated in a game a high art. Exactly that is ultimately the point where you as a player notices that this game is something special. That it is which differs from the others that are somehow banal, simple insignificant, for that matter. Pillars of Eternity awakens to the effect emotions. Sometimes I am angry right without spoilers now, when I realize in retrospect that I have formerly decided evidently wrong. The considered the evil of evil was only one-dimensional and it looks different again in retrospect, one has then obviously the wrong umgenietet, and so on. Bright Lights!

Well-written, consistently exciting quests. Clearly a great strength of the game and I think in general the most important ingredient in addition to the story in an RPG as well as different Pillars of Eternity of its current competitors. Mir is still not generic for the brand: "A Collect and bring to the B" noticed. The quests are always running in an exciting context, often with unexpected output. As already described above.

The graphics were not that important to me actually in advance. Nevertheless, I must say that they are now in the final game extremely well like that. Of course one must not show alá Dragon Age 3 awaiting his Frostbite engine or of Mass Effect 3. Pillars of Eternity awaits with static, drawn and rendered backgrounds. With a large variety, one (despite the static Hintergünde) large animacy (traveling salesmen etc) and lovely day and night cycles. The 3D models of the protagonists are already modeled in detail, for example, one sees at once when applying other equipment. True to the hackneyed architects slogan "Form follows function" works also the graphics. The game is just not a Blender. The graph is a building block on the whole, more than adequate for the envisaged purpose - creating moods, emotions densify.

The combat system and the struggles are exactly what we previously imagined, if one thinks of Baldur's Gate and co. Pausierbar, very tactically and also quite anfordernd, je ne difficulty. There are a wide range of spells. I had really a lot of fun in the past hours. Each time a party RPG had in the hands can be found here cope after 5 minutes. For example, if Diablo was for Hack'n slay, so the stupid totklicken of monsters of all kinds, which is the exact opposite of design here. On the higher difficulty straight is tactical approach and a little tinkering essential. If you have but then what "big" managed a tough opponent has done, leaving a game but back scary satisfied.

Weaknesses won the Game if then a few. I have some blurred textures, just fallen in caves and dungeons, in the eye. The pathfinding could use a little improvement. But well, that appears somehow banal when looking at the big picture. The strengths outshine these small weaknesses several times.

Finally, can now say that Obsidian my opinion this game a great success has been achieved. It has set a new benchmark, just with demanding and varied quests, game mechanics As storytelling and the teeth of this story itself. All core attributes when it comes to RPG's. Nevertheless, few succeed in this goodness. So if you described just a little bit of what can do with the above, so, then this game is definitely something for you. Here is concentrated on essential elements of the genre, on strengths, who then made RPG's so desirable for me. Strengths that have been lost over time anyway. The were diluted in Call of Duty bombast, which is so typical of this new era. Here you will find something again, what they probably believed already lost in combination, as I do, and what brings me back to my heading. Quasi the essence of this game: claim and soul. The biggest compliment I can make a game.