Rewiev of the Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Until a few years ago, we were overwhelmed with the situation of genres close to PC platforms. We cried as there were no games like Baldur's Gate, Commandos, SimCity, Heroes of Might & Magic ... And then came games like Banner Saga, Divinity: Original Sin, Cities: Skylines, Shadow Tactics and Pillars of Eternity. All these games were originally developed for PCs and although they were not sold in billions of copies, the love for these genres is very much felt by both the public and the developers.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a game that seeks this love to an even higher level, and thus the title that fans of dark fantasies can easily adore. If your first Pillars of Eternity was good (and there were not many reasons for it not to be), Deadfire is like its continuation for the class better.

Deadfire starts pretty demotivating, especially if you've played the first part. Immediately at the start, you lose the Caed Nua Fort in which you spent some hours restoring. Somewhere, God Eothas appears, taking over the look of a giant statue and beginning to demolish everything in front of him, including your fortress. But this start set you free of one location and leads you to the open sea of the Deadfire islands, a new territory full of interesting research sites. Certainly, the goal is to find a god who has got you in the swing and avenging him, but in the meantime you will find it difficult to resist solving the mischievous drama and disarray.

Of course the destiny of the whole world depends on your character, but the deadlocks in Deadfire are quite interesting and financially worthwhile. It derives from the fact that the world is well-conceived as it has its own economy, theology, and a space for free life as a rebel, or a pirate. The game does not give moral guidance or valorize any aspect of its world. Instead, it gives you an opportunity to question yourself by making your own decisions. Whether you are a trader or a robber, a devotee or a godparent - the decision is really right for you.

This is not the first story of this format and at times it may seem that it does not bring anything you have not seen anywhere else. In the worst case, your character's specialty may be more burdensome than convenience because there are always heavy choices in front of you, and you know that you can not just rescue everyone. It is a comforting fact in all that you are not alone again. There are some new characters along with you, but most of the settings are old acquaintances. They often remind you of your previous adventures, which is a particularly nice dose of nostalgia if you played the first part. At the same time, they remind you that from last adventure they have been through for a while and are now in new situations and have new (no) opportunities for you.

Adventures are mostly based on the principle already seen, with a combination of real-time combat (with pause option) and textual adventures. Both aspects of gameplay are a little refined and well complemented. The text is now most commonly phrased, and the fight is enriched with several welcome options. It is now possible to set the speed of battle at several levels, separately from scouting or research mode. It is also possible to program the behavior of a suboraca according to different criteria so that you do not have to pause the game every second now and issue new commands to each.

The way the characters develop in Deadfire is far more flexible thanks to the secondary class system. Eleven of the main classes in the game (and each has 3-6 subclasses), but one does not rule out the other, so you can do the barbarians of the illusionist or sniper priest. Combinations are numerous and crazy, and can result in something good and something bad, which is why they are not recommended for players who are not sure what they want and do not know what they are doing.

The most notable innovation in Deadfire is the ability to explore the open world, both onshore and offshore. Islands and isles are exploring the mainland to find resources for the crew of their ship, and some locations may be named if they "release" them. The mechanics are simple enough not to be exhausting and interesting enough not to be like scanning planets in Mass Effect. Marine extras are explored by boat, in Pirate Sida Meier's manner, at least until the fight with other vessels begins. This struggle takes place in textual form, on moves, and thus brings the element of tactics.

You can upgrade your ship by buying better cannons, sails, rudders, etc. Just as you need to invest in a boat, you invest in the crew by recruiting a doctor, a chef, a topman, etc. The crew gets experience over time, but you have to keep them going "food and drink" and there would not be a riot. All this makes a good substitute for fixing the fortress from the first part and motivates you to explore the vast islands of the Deadfire. It takes about fifty hours of playing, which is a decent decency.

Significant progress has also been made in visual game play. There is more diversity in the environment because Deadfire brings deserts, jungles, caves, dungeons, volcanic temples, veletrad Neketaku, etc. All these sites are fuller details compared to the first game, and there is a more advanced lighting system, so you will surely notice one of the better simulations shadows in isometric 2D games. New animations have been added, the characters' models have become more detailed, and in the sound field one has to emphasize once again that texts and dialogs are fully sounded for all those players who do not like reading much. And if you were wondering - yes, the game has pirated "rafters" when sailing.

The desire to find out what's on your next island / next room is your constant companion during the adventure in the rich and value-neutral world of Pillars of Eternity. Changes that refreshed the gameplay and solved the defects of the previous game, Deadfire has surpassed the already original quality and fulfilled most of the expectations.
The CRPG genre may not experience this new game or the Pillars will be close to multi-millionaire earnings by the end of 2018. Still, the fact remains that Deadfire proudly carries some of the best elements in its genre, and deserves to be remembered as a classic of the same.