Review: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (Steam)

Pursue a rogue god over land and sea in the sequel to the multi-award-winning RPG Pillars of Eternity. Captain your ship on a dangerous voyage of discovery across the vast unexplored archipelago region of the Deadfire.

Pros:

• Crisp highly detailed graphics.
• 40319MB Download size.
• Steam achievements.
• Graphics options-Window mode, Resolution, Quality presets, MSAA, V-Sync, Glows, Lights, High-quality ocean, Font scale and frame rate slider.
• Can rebind keys.
• Auto pause- Set the conditions for when this kicks in.
• Five difficulties- Story, Relaxed, Classic, Veteran and path of the damned.
• Level scaling- Set if enemies scale in difficulty for you. Options available to you are- All, none or critical path only.
• Gameplay modifiers. Make it harder like limited saves or stronger enemies.
• RPG gameplay.
• Strong soundtrack.
• Free DLC packs.
• Rewrite history- You can answer a few questions and transform your previous life. This is more in relation to players coming from the first game.
• Scroll text speed as well as being able to fast forward in the game.
• Adjust game speed on the fly in the game.
• Powerful voice work.
• The story is narrated to you in a way that feels like a DM from DandD is reading to you, It is very impactful.
• Six default races- Aumaua, Dwarf, Elf, Godlike, Human, and Orlan.
• Detailed character creator-Sex, Race, Subrace, Single or multiclass, 11 classes-Barbarian, Chanter, Cipher, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Priest, Ranger, Rogue, and wizard, Adjust your stats, Job, starting weapons, pick the first ability, colors of gear, Portrait.
• Strong Dungeons and Dragons vibe throughout.
• Every menu choice has a helpful description.
• When creating a character you get a brief pop up on what stats get affected by your choices.
• Tutorial/pop-ups happen as you encounter new things and can be re-read.
• Multiple choices in conversations.
• Save when you want.
• Isometric view.
• Jaw dropping locations.
• Controls are simple enough to pick up.
• Can respec your character.
• Full group management.
• Well paced story.
• The menu has neat touches like when equipping items, The required slots will highlight.
• Full crafting table.
• Main mission as well as a huge variety of side missions.
• You have a certain amount of freedom to play how you want.
• Has a lot of replayability as every choice you make real changes to the outcome of events.

Cons:

• A lot of loading screens with long and short waiting times.
• A lot to take in.
• Slow pace.
• Menus look daunting.
• Takes a while to get used to the controls and mechanics.
• Creates a lot of autosaves.
• Few mission bugs.
•  Built-up areas can slow the game down.
• No controller support.
• Single player only.