Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

This is a birds-eye-view tactical RPG with a decent story.

THE GOOD:

• The game is quite fun.
• The tactical combat can be quite challenging and interesting.
• There are lots of places to see, characters to talk to, and moral dilemmas to consider.
• The epilogue felt like a satisfying accumulation of my decisions along the way.
• The story definitely fits well with the Pillars mythology and is a good sequel to the original game.
• I got 80 hours of fun game play out of the game, and hadn't quite tapped all the game's potential.
• Worth the money. I'd buy a sequel.

THE BAD:

• Director Josh Sawyer said that sales of this game were low and he didn't know why. I can explain what the missing "je ne sais quoi" is from my perspective. While the game is fun (as stated above), the story is very fragmented. There are tons of side quests and factions to support, but the main storyline is pretty short and not well-developed at all. The game starts off well, with lots of richness in the story and characters, but that fragments into a ton of little side quests and things to keep you occupied. Don't get me wrong, those things are fun, but they don't add up to a story that feels really satisfying. There are plenty of hack & slash and MMO games that offer tons of diverting side quests. I think people play an Obsidian game for the story. Pillars of Eternity II did not deliver here. The ending is interesting, but getting there felt... meh.

THE UGLY:

• Two of the playable characters are cardboard cutouts—this is apparently due to the game having gotten insufficient funding from backers. Some of the characters are full of personality and have things to say at various points in the game, and have their own personal quest and epilogue, whereas there are a few that say virtually nothing and seem like ghosts. I would have preferred that the cardboard cutouts be removed entirely rather than haunting the game.
• I didn't really like any of the factions presented. They were all unlikable in my opinion. At least, on the bright side, the game-makers gave me the option to go independently.