Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

It's taken me a long time to figure out what I feel about the Pillars Of Eternity games. The first one was rougher in so many ways, and I thought I hated it. The second one, this one, Deadfire, I thought I hated, too.
But with both of them, I just kept playing for some reason. All the way to the end. Multiple times. And then I realized that really, it's not that I hated them, it's that I wasn't really seeing them. I was seeing what I was projecting onto them.
Deadfire is the (slightly) larger of the two and most recent, so I'll put the review here, but the first one really is a masterpiece in its own right (ragged edges inherited from clumsy D&D paradigms and all). Both games benefit tremendously from a few judiciously chosen mods to either polish or expand or balance certain little things.
Mechanically, if there were ever a spiritual successor of the famous Infinity Engine RPGs like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale or the Electron / Aurora Engine NWN, it must be Pillars Of Eternity. Which should surprise no one, given the lineage of the designers and direct references. Absolutely luscious, gorgeous environments, tactical combat with just enough complexity and depth to be tactical, and a good basketful of companions to take with you, both games are the perfect archetypes of classical western RPGs. No one could say they have a right to comment about the RPG genre without having played these two.
And so now I'm gonna give critical comments about them.
Although the companions are diverse and usually have compelling personal stories and interesting or attractive personalities, they (almost all) suffer from a crippling problem: they're extremely "safe". They tell boringly predictable stories about tediously superficial drama and your relationship with them resembles nothing quite so much as being their unpaid therapist. This is a problem born of the demands of corporate-governed game design, and it's just tragic. Thus, the companions come across as shallow Saturday morning cartoons for tweens. For one example, Tekehu is an obnoxiously blunt token hypersexual himbo whose story mostly revolves around his privileged immaturity... but his confrontation with the exhaustively-demonstrated injustices of his culture consists of approximately three lines of dialogue in which he mopes that he wants you to hug him. So brave. A man asking for a hug. Such radical progress. What an amazingly non-toxic masculine - NO, he actually is just a shallow slut dumping his insecurities onto you and requires you to tell him what to think about it all. After a short exchange of melodramatic navel gazing and clumsy, rushed pleas to be your lover. Eder's major foible is that he's supposed to be "racist". Not racist like ... *racist* though. No no no. That would be too much. He's "racist" with quotation marks because he wants to pet the Orlans like he pets literally anything smaller and hairier than he is, and sometimes he says so and ohhhh isn't that super awkward and racist you guys?! Woooooow... If he were allowed to be portrayed as unlikeable or hateful somehow, that would be a line too far for the game's main character. Yes, Eder is the main character.
This pattern is one demonstrated through virtually every dialogue interaction. Your companions just can't help themselves but to constant provide vapid one-liners and trivial interjections begging for a giggle that's almost never deserved. Why? Because any sincere humor would be risky. The horror is mostly just a muddy old ruin where there's some stinky piles of poop laying around. There is one dungeon that attempts to really go all the way, showing how the lives of the underclass ~~slaves~~ workers rot in heaps where they were disposed in the dank bowels beneath the city. But this is not really a point ever remarked upon or brought up elsewhere. You see the environment, but it may as well just be a random undead-themed dungeon. Once you emerge from that place, none of your companions ever talk about it. There's a token throwaway comment about it in one dialogue when turning in the quest and that's about it. When you go to the island where the ~~slave~~trade is being conducted, this shrieking silence continues. The game obviously wanted to confront the ugliness and realities of colonial-era labor rights and industrialization, but absolutely and completely failed to do so. Except for the technicality that the plot designers took care to point out that no one in the Deadfire is actually "the good guys". But that was a perfunctory, bare minimum. The overall moral of this fable about the responsibility of divinity is handled in such abstract terms that it actually fails to have emotional impact because even the few moments during which the player is confronted by this plot point are presented in such a casual, nonchalant manner.
If you are able to understand the constraints placed upon a work of art like this by the accountants and executives at Obsidian, you can probably forgive them for not really exploring these things in the depth they would need. For one thing, it'd be rather expensive. The plot could easily sprawl far beyond its scope just to discuss and illustrate those things (the Watcher is able to subvert and weaken certain factions in some ways, but leading a revolution to liberate the oppressed and exploited slave-caste of Neketaka, for example, is just not possible).
Similarly, if you can overlook the now-well-examined frustrations of ancient D&D game design mechanics (Vancian spellcasting, I'm looking at you...), or if you can install a few mods to help alleviate the most egregious problems, you can fairly well enjoy the tactical combat while also having an immersive fantasy life experience. The multiple difficulty settings allow you a great deal of power to determine the degree and type of difficulties you face.
Perhaps the only fault that truly is the responsibility of the game developers (rather than their managers, marketers and financiers) is that the character models are... ugly. Especially if you want to wear robes.
Last notes: don't use the turn-based mode. It was added eventually just to satisfy some loud, toxic voices of their playerbase. Mechanically, it is absolutely not balanced (since the fundamental design of your action economy being affected by your choice of equipment just goes out the window), and is simply not necessary, either. And use a mod to get rid of the absolutely stupid non-party-friendly AoEs. Yes that will make you "more powerful", but in practice it's only a quality of life improvement.
These many years later, the Pillars Of Eternity games are both masterpieces of their genre, only surpassed by the more modern Pathfinder games by Owlcat.

The best written story I have seen in any game.
You have to make choices, and there is no clear good option. By helping someone and trying to do what is right, you will always hurt someone else.

Surprisingly great
Pillars of Eternity I
The first game was a good game for me, however it had a huge BUT, it was annoyingly boring after several dozen hours.
For me, the were two main problems:
• Lack of interesting events over a time
• Lack of voice acting and overwhelming amount of text
Pillars of Eternity II It is a lot better than the first one.
I loved the world
• I finally understood what was happening during the Saint War (major event in POE I)
• I was captivated by talking to the Gods
• Neketaka (the main big city) is an enormously interesting location
• Side quests are very good and they have several different outcomes
I loved the text
• The text is much shorter, Thank God!
• Everything is fully voiced, and voice acting is reeeeeally good
I loved the combat
• Real-time combat is much-much better than in the first game, I finally understand what is happening on the battlefield
• The game has a turn-based mode, and though you can't switch modes during a fight you can change them via the command console, just type:
SetTacticalMode RoundBased for turn-based combat
SetTacticalMode Disabled for real-time
Unfortunately, I dislike the open world
• It has no markers! I have to come back on all Islands to know if I missed something or not, It's ridiculous!
• It would be better if the game had the same map structure as the first one, location exploration would be so much interesting
And I find the main plot controversial
• It's interesting, yes, but it's too short and isn't tied to side quests unlike Baldur's Gate 3, for instance
• I do not mind the ending, though it's a bit too hasty and has a cliffhanger. The good part is I still feel the weight of my choices, so I remained satisfied
All in all
The game is great. It's not perfect, nevertheless, It's a solid role-playing game with many choices, outcomes and captivating stories.

don't play this game. it will make you want every other rpg to have this level of care poured into it's story, world and character building. and high expectations are not it in this economy. (ignore everything i said and buy it)

I enjoy Pillars of Eternity 2 more than Baldurs Gate 3. I got burnt out on BG3 at the end of Act 2.
Here’s some things that I adore about POE2. I love how the spell pool replenishes per encounter. I love how all stats are useful. I love the simple multiclass system. I love love love the unique item customization with most having several distinct choices to tailor powerful items to your characters.
The setting isn’t my top choice but boy do they freaking nail the tone and it’s a fresh fantasy setting that’s exciting and sparks feelings of adventure and not the dread and foreboding flavors of BG3 in Act 2.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is also great but eeeeeeeeeeveryone now knows that and not enough people played POE2 it seems. Damn shame. It’s the better game for me.

The next game in the Pillars of Eternity series is an interesting specimen. Overall it is a great improvement over the first game. There’s full voice acting, graphics are improved (marginally from what I can tell), combat is “improved” (We will get to that), and they added sailing and ship battles, cool! However there are some issues that I have with this game that need to be discussed. In this review I will break down the game and discuss various categories including: Factions, plot, combat, ships and sailing mechanics.
Factions:
The faction system has been greatly expanded over the first game. You now have primary factions that branch off into several different secondary factions that are roughly related to the primary factions in some way. Four of these primary factions can be joined and have their own quests to complete. You have the Principi, the pirate faction (you can guess what they are about). The Vallian Trading Company, they are about making as much money as possible through mostly legal means. The Royal Deadfire Company, they try to maintain order and law around the Deadfire. And finally the Huana, who are the natural inhabitants of the Deadfire and try to keep their culture alive and in power. Each of the factions is shown as being “morally gray” with no clear good or evil option. They all have their own agendas and sometimes use shady tactics to get what they want. The player technically doesn’t have to side with any of the factions if they don’t want to. The ending when you have to reach Ukaizo will be a bit more difficult but the game lets you not pick sides if you don’t want to. Based on your actions you can lose or gain reputation with a faction. Having high or low reputation does have an effect on gameplay whether it's through dialogue or affecting whether certain guards are hostile or not. In the end I think the faction system is well done. Each one is unique and has its advantages and disadvantages. This was one of the exceptionally designed aspects of the game in my opinion.
Plot:
The main plot is pretty simple but it works. Eothas ( the god of light, renewal, redemption, rebirth), has somehow materialized himself into the giant adra statue underneath Caed Nua and digs himself out. This destroys your fortress from the first game and ends up killing you. Eothas then starts treading far across the land destroying and killing everyone and everything in his path as he makes his way to Ukaizo so he can break the wheel, stopping the process of reincarnation and trapping all the souls in the in-between. Your character is then brought back to life by the god Berath with the catch of being her servant and tasked with stopping Eothas.
So, throughout the main story you are following Eothas’s footsteps to find where he is and try to talk him down of what he's doing. However, along the way as you progress your quest, you will be forced into councils with the various gods who debate and argue on what to do with Eothas and Kith, with the option to chime in once in a while to voice your opinion. You will eventually have to make a choice if you agree with what Eothas is trying to do or not, however I don’t think there is much of a difference. I might be wrong but I don’t think you can actually stop Eothas from breaking the wheel, but you can tell him how you feel and tell him how to “inspire” Kith to move on after the wheel is destroyed. I think the main plot and villain was more nuanced in the first game. Thaos, while he had his problems with how they incorporated him in the story, was still a much more interesting character and “villain” than Eothas in my opinion. I hesitate to even call Eothas a villain since while yes he is murdering a lot of people just to get to Ukaizo, couldn’t he have at least tried to be a bit more careful not to step on people along the way? But his end goal wasn’t really malicious and he is viewed as more of a “morally gray” character. Of which is a recurring theme with all the characters in this game, there really are no “villains” except maybe the Crookspur slavers or the vampire lord in Splintered Reef but they are such a small part of the game. Overall I think the plot is one of the weakest aspects of the game, being so simple and lacking much real choice in the end.
Combat:
The combat is mostly the same from the first game. One big change is that now each spell and ability are all per encounter instead of per rest. This lessens the amount of down time between encounters. Since spells and abilities are all per encounter, there is almost no need to rest. You can go through one tough encounter to the next without having to manage your spells or needing to stop and heal. Another big change was how the health system works. In the first game characters had health and endurance. When they took damage, their endurance would lower along with a small amount of health. When their endurance reaches zero, they would be knocked out and would re awaken after the battle is over or by being revived from a spell or scroll. After a battle endurance would regenerate, but health did not. To regain health, you had to rest. Now in Pillars 2, you no longer have endurance, instead it’s just health and “injuries”. Your health works the same way endurance works in Pillars 1. Injuries would occur if a character takes damage in some special way like through failing a skill check, or sometimes, but rarely, in combat. Once a character becomes injured 3 times, they die. I actually don’t really know what happens at that point because that never happened to me, but I am assuming they have to be revived in some special way. To recover from injuries, you have to rest. There are also special bonuses that can be gained from resting, like in Pillars 1. These are gained by resting at an inn, or by resting with certain types of food that you have on you when out in the field. So, you no longer need to rest to regain your spells, abilities, or heal. Now the only reasons to rest are to recover from injuries or to gain some bonuses to your stats. Honestly it’s hard to say which system is better for combat and resting mechanics. The original focused on resource management and made each fight feel like there is more on the line. You can’t just throw all of your spells and abilities at the enemies constantly and have to decide which is necessary to use depending on the situation. While in Pillars 2, being able to use your full arsenal in every fight does allow you to utilize and experiment more spells and abilities than you otherwise would if you were limited. This does also have the consequence of making each spell and ability feel less special and makes each fight feel more homogeneous. Ultimately I think I prefer the system in Pillars 1 which takes its inspiration from D&D and the infinity engine games.
One last important thing to note about the combat is that there is an option now to pick either real time with pause or turn-based. I actually picked turned-based for my playthrough. Even though the first game was RTWP, I wanted to try something new this time around. Well lets just say I ended up regretting that choice about half way through the game. The game was originally designed as RTWP, like Pillars 1. However turn-based was added later as an update, and it shows. The turn-based mode functions fine and actually feels pretty good for the most part. The problem however is that many encounters were not designed with turn-based in mind and also the dexterity stat becomes pretty much useless. Some combat encounters start really far away from enemies, so you have to sit through turn after turn to slowly get your characters over to the enemies in order to actually attack them or do something. Luckily this is pretty rare and I can only think of a couple instances when this happened, but it was rather annoying and concerning.
Review continued in the comments.

This game is fantastic. At the time of this review i'm only 27 hours in, and it's everything I want in an RPG. Great characters, interesting side quests, imaginative world, and engaging combat. I get that we're getting Avowed later this year, but please just make Pillars 3 already. We don't need it to be the next Baldur's Gate. We just need it to be the next Pillars of Eternity.