Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

 PlayStation 4
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Image
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77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews What's this?

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4.8

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 123 Ratings

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  • Summary: 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. Bend the world to your will, as you explore the depths of infinitePursue 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. Bend the world to your will, as you explore the depths of infinite possibilities, including detailed character customization, total freedom of exploration, and more meaningful choices at every turn.

    Features:

    * Immerse yourself in a deeper single player RPG game experience -- enriched with cutting edge technology and features, Deadfire builds on the foundation of classic D&D gameplay with vastly improved graphics, deeper game mechanics and a whole new hand-crafted adventure where choices truly matter.

    * Discover the new region of the Deadfire -- plot your own course by ship and explore the rich and exotic islands of the archipelago region, discovering new places interacting with their inhabitants and engaging in a variety of quests at every port.

    * Build your party and customize your companions -- choose from 7 different companions to join you on your quest and assign multiple classes and deeper abilities for each. Witness their personal relationships and interactions unfold with the addition of the new companion system.

    * Captain your ship across the seas -- as your stronghold on the seas, your ship is much more than simply a vessel for exploring. Upgrade your ship and crew and choose what skills you improve in order to survive dangerous encounters along the way.    … Expand
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Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire Lives The Pirate's Life In The Upcoming CRPG Adventure

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. PlayStation Universe
    Jan 28, 2020
    95
    A soaring achievement in the genre, very minor technical issues aren't enough to detract from the fact that Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire: Ultimate Edition is the first must-have game of 2020 and the finest RPG in an age. Adventures don't come much more essential than this.
  2. Digital Chumps
    Jan 28, 2020
    90
    The branching storylines and miles-deep character and world customization are soul food for players yearning for experiences similar to 90’s cRPGs like Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale. Obsidian Entertainment is a master of this craft, knowing that the best way to draw in players are vivid worlds unlike any other and unforgettable stories. Console players shouldn’t be intimidated by a game with its roots in anything but a controller. Menus, combat, and controls are surprisingly easy to navigate and the game runs incredibly well. Having all the updated content only further adds to the value of an already valuable package. If you’re willing to wade in these salty waters, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Ultimate Edition is worth its weight in gold.
  3. PLAY! Zine
    Apr 8, 2020
    85
    Pillars of Eternity II arrives on consoles in it’s the best edition with all additional content, completely bringing all of it’s best aspects to console gaming. With its rich non-linear narrative, astonishing world and lore and interesting characters and both real-time and turn-based gameplay, it still is a great game, even with its bad optimisation and confusing control scheme for controllers.
  4. Hobby Consolas
    Feb 3, 2020
    80
    It's the amazing RPG of 2018 with all the systems and mechanics well adapted to console controls, with a superb writing and translation. But, all that great things get muddier because of the long and habitual loading times: 60-90 seconds for every single time we cross a door, change area... Until a patch fixes it, it's a pain in the ass.
  5. TheGamer
    Feb 4, 2020
    80
    It's advised that people play this gem of a game on PC in order to experience the best version of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, but the drawbacks of the console version can be overlooked by people who are really patient or don't mind messing around on their phone every couple of minutes when going back to a town to restock on times.
  6. PlaySense
    Mar 2, 2020
    70
    The story's definitely worth experiencing, as is the unique artistic vision conveyed within the game. However, glitches, framedrops and an overabundance of loading screens unfortunately kill the joy a bit.
  7. Cubed3
    Mar 10, 2020
    50
    It is mired by a litany of hurdles, that perhaps a more patient player can deal with, but many will really wrestle with this - for them it is advised to seek out PoEII on a platform that it's design is more inherent. At very least, wait until a patch can fix some glitches, and the egregious loading times, in particular. Someone that can get beyond those inconveniences will discover there is a deep novel-esque adventure to be had. This adventure is full of loot, bounties, ship battles, and engaging fetch quests; all of the usual RPG fare that would keep aficionados happy. The island setting is memorable and full of lyrical, witty writing to be discovered which is great. When it works, it can be immersive and no doubt extensively replayable. It's just a shame that it didn't quite nail the port execution.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 46
  3. Negative: 36 out of 46
  1. Teela
    Jan 28, 2020
    10
    This and Divinity Original Sin 2 are the best isometric RPG there are. As a big fan there is only one rating i can give this and that is fullThis and Divinity Original Sin 2 are the best isometric RPG there are. As a big fan there is only one rating i can give this and that is full 10/10 with high recommendation to any RPG fan out there.

    Much better than first one. Fully voice acted, nice graphics and functional gameplay.    … Expand
  2. Lord_Khey
    Feb 16, 2022
    6
    Bear with me, guys and gals.

    (or don't - TL;DR = buy this game, but do it on PC. The story and writing is PHENOMENAL. The execution on    Bear with me, guys and gals.

    (or don't - TL;DR = buy this game, but do it on PC. The story and writing is PHENOMENAL. The execution on PS4 is excruciating.)

    PoE2 takes what was an excellent tale and adds about 5 layers to it. I dumped about 130 hrs into this bad boy, but that might be a little misleading (more on that in a bit). I have the Ultimate Edition, so I tried to complete as much of it as I could without driving myself bonkers, but the main story is a pleasure and gives you many choices of how the ending will play out and which of your companions stand with you at the end.

    The stakes in this game are as immense as could be made - the fate of the world, and the fate of any world to come - as your party sails across a chain of islands to stop a rogue god from destroying the Wheel of reincarnation. Gameplay cycles between: roaming through towns in search of clues, gear, companions, etc; sailing between and exploring several islands of varying difficulty; two modes of ship battles - one regular ol' melee, and the other, a strategy text-based game of trying to out-cannon the other; and the occasional text-based "choose your path" points that determine if you get the extra treasure, or if you're treated to a rash of injuries instead.

    You can buy different kinds of ships, from a voyager to a galleon, and outfit them with crew members with specific skills (cannoneer, cook, surgeon, boatswain, etc), and they gain experience in those roles the longer they stay there. You also have to provision your crew with more than just hardtack and water, or morale may fall and they'll mutiny against you.

    The voice acting is quite good. Many epic games have strong leads, but the supporting cast is meh or worse. PoE2 is pretty strong top to bottom. How good? Well, i bothered to read the credits this time, and I JUST found out after playing BOTH games and having BOTH Eder and Aloth in my party that they were voiced by the same guy and I HAD NO IDEA.

    Much to my dismay, the game appears to have been purposely designed that you can only arrange to have one of the various factions in the game join you at the end, and you will NOT be able to keep your full compliment of companions no matter how you try to finagle it, but I suppose that's only right.

    Now to my complaints. If you've read many of the negative reviews, you see that common thread that load times between screens are -lengthy-. Roughly one minute every time you enter a store, then leave the store, then enter another store just next door. When you travel to the next section of town, leave the town, enter a cave, leave the cave...you get what I'm saying. This is why I wonder if I actually played 130 hours, or if it was really only, like 100, and the other 30 were loading screens.

    The game would also crash with a frequency that far outpaces when other PS4 games glitch out on me. And apparently, there is no user support coming for the console editions.

    A couple of consistent bugs would rear their ugly heads from time to time. Most notably, the "Manage Party" function. You can only carry four companions (plus yourself) at a time. So, if you want to change your "starting 5," you have to do so at a Port or an Inn. And when you drop one character, then select another, sometimes, the character you dropped still appears on your screen, but you cannot control them. So, you have 6 people on the screen. If you enter a store/go to another level (load screen), that "dropped" party member follows you. So, again, you kind of have to finagle a bit to ensure that the dropped character doesn't follow you. Why is this important? Well, if you're in a battle and that "ghost" character dies, they DIE. No injuries, they're gone for the duration of the game (thank goodness for multiple save and auto-save files).

    So, again, this game is a 10 without the technical issues. The game from an software-execution standpoint is a 2. Hence my final score and my suggestion that you bite the bullet and get it on Steam. Make sure to play the first one, too. PoE2 plays a lot better if you have the background of PoE1.    … Expand
  4. TheGrackle
    Apr 4, 2020
    4
    A truly great game that is totally ruint by technical issues. If you buy this game you will literally spend half your time staring at the loadA truly great game that is totally ruint by technical issues. If you buy this game you will literally spend half your time staring at the load screens. The game feels like a horrible beta nightmare.… Expand
  5. MasterGibz
    Jul 5, 2020
    1
    Obsidian and VE have proven that they couldn’t care less about their console ports. The game is unplayable due to game breaking bugs that theyObsidian and VE have proven that they couldn’t care less about their console ports. The game is unplayable due to game breaking bugs that they have shown absolutely no initiative on fixing.
    The game is terribly optimized for controllers, and as many have mentioned, the load times are abysmal. Load times lasting upwards of 5 minutes per room. God for it you have a fetch quest, where they force you to pop through 12+ load zones in a single area. You can get trapped in an Interact State completely removing your ability to fight, making it impossible to progress in the game. Do not buy this game, your money would be better spent as fireplace kindling.    … Expand
  6. AlexKhor
    Dec 12, 2020
    0
    Errors and bugs. Game doesnt work even 5 minutes. No patches. Playstation store does not make a refund after playing game.
  7. LordAnakin
    Mar 13, 2020
    0
    Just unplayable "PC port".

    Through my 20 years of videogame expirience - it is first time i see such broken game on PS4. 1) Huge,    Just unplayable "PC port".

    Through my 20 years of videogame expirience - it is first time i see such broken game on PS4.

    1) Huge, enourmous time of loading areas. You are playing 1 hour - and 3 hours waiting untill area will load.
    2) Bugs which didnt let you end quests
    3) Awful controller usability.
    4) Many game mechanics is broken.    … Expand
  8. Phillygreen
    Feb 12, 2020
    0
    I love this game but it's unplayable on the PS4. Load times are ridiculous and makes it unplayable. Hopefully they can patch it because II love this game but it's unplayable on the PS4. Load times are ridiculous and makes it unplayable. Hopefully they can patch it because I really regret spending $60 on this.… Expand

See all 46 User Reviews

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#60 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2020
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