Pillars of Eternity

Pillars of Eternity is an isometric role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux in 2015. It was later released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Two expansions, Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part 1 and Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part 2 were released in 2015. A sequel, called Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire was released in 2018.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Gameplay that is akin to the Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment series.
 * 2) Great setting based on the Renaissance.
 * 3) Awesome story based on the contrast between science and magic.
 * 4) Well interconnected world. You can even visit the wilderness between an area and another.
 * 5) The world, while not very huge, gives you plenty of things to do.
 * 6) Eleven playable classes, each of which changes your combat style and unlocks new dialogue options.
 * 7) Nice real-time with pause combat.
 * 8) The game does not give experience for killing enemies, but only for completing quests and discovering new areas, which means that there's no penalty for following a non-lethal approach.
 * 9) Early in the game, it's possible to seize a fortress which acts as the player's stronghold and can be upgraded in many ways.
 * 10) Great graphics.
 * 11) Side-quests can increase the player's reputation in a specific area and can unlock sub-stories.
 * 12) After obtaining the stronghold, the player may opt to enter the Endless Paths, a 15 floor dungeon which contains a super-boss at the end.
 * 13) The game gives you many different ways to complete quests, depending from your character's lineage, class, stats and background. It's almost always possible to talk your way out of things. Sometimes, this can even make you avoid battling super-bosses.
 * 14) Some weapons can be Soul-Bound to a character, giving them extra bonuses, but making them useable only by the character whom they've been Soul-Bound to.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The level cap is locked at level 16. There are mods out there that fix this though.
 * 2) Typing "iroll20s" in the command console in the PC version to allow the player to enter cheats blocks the Steam Achievements, which can be as shame for trophy hunters.
 * 3) The White March DLC was criticized for being too based on combat.
 * 4) The Path of The Damned difficulty setting allows you to save only once, and whenever you die you have to start the game all over again.