RPGWatch - Pillars of Eternity Opinion Article

Fluent & Aubrielle collaborated on a new article for Pillars of Eternity. Now it must be said this is not a review as Corwin is working on that, and it will be posted in two parts.

As an avid RPG gamer and Wannabe-RPG Developer Extraordinaire, lately when I've been playing RPGs and picturing the game I would like to develop in my mind, I often ask myself an important question of the game I'm playing. It's simply this:

"What is the genius of this game?"

That simple question will cut right down to the heart of any game you can think of. Try it now - ask yourself "What is the genius of Skyrim, Arcanum, Neverwinter Nights, or any game you can think of." You will soon start thinking about those extremely important core elements that stuck with you the most; the things that defined the game in your mind. The genius aspects, if you will.

So, by taking this question and applying it to a game like Pillars of Eternity, I have come up with this answer:

"The genius of Pillars of Eternity, is that it's basically Baldur's Gate 2015."

It's that simple. Pillars of Eternity is one of the purest RPGs since Baldur's Gate. That's more than 15 years for those of you who aren't up on your RPG history. Pillars is a game that doesn't try to redefine the genre. It doesn't try to rewrite the classic RPGs it was inspired by. It doesn't try to do too much that it can't pull off. The sheer genius lies in this simple fact. It is basically Baldur's Gate 2015.