PC Gamer - Best RPG 2018: Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

[Ethics Gradient]

Obsidian's seafaring sequel dazzled us with a great world and fantastic quest design this year.

[Link]

[juanval]

Great news. Well deserved. Congrats to Obsidian

[fortuntek]

Wow! I mean, I feel a bit bad at being surprised, but wow!

[AndreaColombo]

Well deserved! Congrats!!!

[IndiraLightfoot]

For the most part, I still like most of the stuff coming from PCGamer, so this is absolutely fantastic news!

A huge congratz, dear Obsidz! What a X-Mas gift after all of your hard work.

Edited December 18, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[Enoch]

Gellarde!

 

(What was it up against?  Apart from this, I've been playing back-catalogue stuff this year.  Haven't really kept up with new releases.)

Edited December 18, 2018 by Enoch

[dukeisaac]

Very happy to see this ! Hopefully, this will result in more sales and... POE 3 !! (I'm a selfish guy)

[Triple - A Foxy Lad]

Congrats. Poe is indeed a formidable fortress in the old style.

[rjshae]

Nicely done. This year was a somewhat of a disappointment, cRPG-wise, what with Underworld Ascendant, The Bard's Tale IV, and Fallout 76 getting not so great reviews. There was Kingdom Come: Deliverance plus Monster Hunter though, so some decent competition.

[Wormerine]

I think this is time for Deadfire to get some serious praise and, hopefully, sales. For all the nitpicks that can and have been made, it is still a really well crafted game with a lot of talent behind it. I enjoy playing it every time I return to it.

[Saito Hikari]

I mean, I suppose the only other real contender this year was Pathfinder Kingmaker, and that one literally released in a half broken state. Still a good achievement though.

[Flouride]

What? Finally someone that didn't consider Monster Hunter as a RPG.

[rheingold]

Congratulations Obs.

[gloomseeker]

What? Finally someone that didn't consider Monster Hunter as a RPG.

 

That pisses me off. These days any game gets an RPG tag and it's just silly...

 

Monster Hunter World is in no way an RPG unless going on a loop killing monsters and upgrading gear is what RPing is about. I'm not saying it can't be fun but people keep stretching the definition so much that frankly it has become meaningless.

 

Hell, even Assassin's Creed Odyssey with its binary choices is more of an RPG than Monster Hunter World could ever be with its silent protagonist... Yes, that's right, the main character in Monster Hunter World never talks and nobody finds it weird (imagine Commander Shepard never saying anything at all, that wouldn't fly) maybe it's a Japanese thing (Dragonball Xenoverse was the same) but surely it doesn't make up for great roleplaying. 

 

Bard's Tale IV got a shoddy release which is rather unfortunate and explains why it barely created a ripple. 

 

Kingdom Come Deliverance is a bit too janky to qualify as the best (and I really do like the game but to say it is rough around the edges is an understatement). 

 

A better RPG pick would be Pathfinder Kingmaker but it is still broken despite being full of promise.For an old fan of IE games it ticks all the right boxes but it's only fair to say the game still needs some more time before it gets there. 

 

The only real contender for Deadfire would have been the Definitive Edition for DOS2 but the original game came out last year so it doesn't qualify. 

 

Frankly going over this list I can't really think of a game released in 2018 that could qualify over Deafire. 

[Manveru123]

It is a japanese thing, yes. Silent protagonist is normal in many greatest jRPG titles of all time, like Chrono Trigger or Persona series. I personally see no appeal to this trend and I'm glad it's becoming somewhat uncommon in actual jRPG titles (the big ones at least) as of late.

Then again, if the game has full VO, what's the difference between a silent protagonist and just clicking on dialogue lines without voiceovers? I prefer voiced protagonists in western RPG titles too.

 

Kingmaker is very playable now, there are some minor bugs, but then again Deadfire still has bugs too. They patched the game quite nicely. Unfortunately, the way it looks now is how it should look on the release day, and since it didn't.. it barely scrapes 7/10 on Steam. Shame, because it's actually very good.

[Saito Hikari]

You won't really find anyone arguing about Monster Hunter World being an RPG or not. Even the Monster Hunter World community was bewildered at how it could ever be considered a RPG back when it somehow won the VGA RPG award a week and a half ago.

[gloomseeker]

JRPGs are not in the same category IMHO. It's not that they are better or worse, they just are different and it's like comparing apples and oranges. 

 

I'm pretty sure that most of us wouldn't have the same expectations if we knew a game is a JRPG or a Western RPG. 

 

The silent character in Monster Hunter World is jarring because cutscenes make it is obvious that he (or she) never says anything while NPCs keep rambling on and on. It's definitely a Japanese thing but it's still a bit weird and creates some distance with the narrative. 

 

Still, it depends on the game. I was never under the impression that the main character in Fallout New Vegas was dumb and couldn't speak despite being voiceless. 

 

If the game is a story driven game with a predefined protagonist then I'm all for it. For instance I don't like that the main character in Far Cry 5 is silent because having a voiced character in Far Cry 3 and 4 gave them a personality (even if the main character in Far Cry 3 was a spoiled brat). I know these are not RPGs but that's exactly the point I'm trying to make. 

 

If I'm creating my own character I'd rather have the freedom to imagine how the lines would sound in my head. That's one of the reasons why I couldn't care less about the main character in Fallout 4 and why I'm glad that Obsidian's Outer Worlds won't have a voiced protagonist. 

 

Bottom line full voice overs are costly and don't necessarily bring much to the table. For instance I see many people complaining about the narrator in Deadfire. Plus there is always the problem that if you read faster than the voice over (which is most certainly the case) you're tempted to skip to the next line in which case the voice over is just a source of annoyance. 

 

Last but not least how effective is it to pick a dialogue option just to sit back and listen to the voice actor saying the exact same line you've selected? Worst case scenario you realise that the phrase is not exactly the same and that the option you've picked was misleading so from then on you have to second guess every choices you make... 

 

Plus when it comes to mods not having voice overs make things so much easier. 

 

 

 

Kingmaker is very playable now, there are some minor bugs, but then again Deadfire still has bugs too. They patched the game quite nicely. Unfortunately, the way it looks now is how it should look on the release day, and since it didn't.. it barely scrapes 7/10 on Steam. Shame, because it's actually very good.

 

I really like it (I've preordered it just like I did with Deadfire) but the bugs did prevent me from getting beyond the opening of the game. I will probably get back to the game once I'm done with Deadfire. 

 

The problem is that you can't judge a game on its potential if it consistently fails to deliver. 

[Triple - A Foxy Lad]

Ye, silent protagonist common in many jrpgs. Features in smt, zelda, dragon quest, shining force, golden sun, bahamut lagoon, breath of fire, chrono trigger, etc. nowt wrong with it. is just a decision like any other. Have spoke of my fondness for smt3 elsewhere. Dont think that would work without silent protagonist.

 

fair play to owlcat. Theyre listening to folk and doing what they can to bring game up to scratch with qol tweaks and bugfixes. Game aint on poe's level but its got real heart.

 

Theyre still making sort of rookie mistakes tho. Just got that latest companion dlc. Tsk tsk. Shouldve kept ur powder dry there lads. Good enough concept that they shouldve kept it back for another game - given it adequate development and pacing. Writing feels like someones first draft.

 

Way is implemented now, it feels jarring and fanfiction-y - like one of those bg2 mods with someones beloved oc. Dont get me wrong, i have all the love in the world for the enthusiastic folk who make such things, but what i expect from them and expect from devs are two different things.

 

Anyhoo tangent.

 

Not played kingdom come: deliverance. Ill lay my cards on the table. Male protags are a hard sell for me. Im a dude irl and id rather be free from being a dude when playing games. Fem protag not be all and end all for me but its a factor.

 

Male protag + low-fantasy/'realistic, setting esp rough combo for me. It often feels in service of enabling some macho/practical/rational fantasy, which is fine. Weve all got our horses to ride. But it aint my kind of ride.

 

Man. Not to minimise obs achievements but it seems like its been a dry year for big studio made crpgs. Eh... I guess we should be used to it by now. Genres been pronounced dead plenty of times before.

[Ancelor]

Congrats - great news

[juanval]

It seems that PoE 2 and its sequels are going well on steam right now in rpg sales section.

 

Deadfire is at the same level than Mutant Year Zero.

[Manveru123]

 

The problem is that you can't judge a game on its potential if it consistently fails to deliver. 

 

Need I remind you that Deadfire had a huge overhaul patch shortly after its release? We were playing a different game every two months or so. That was maddening.

[Boeroer]

Speaking of exaggeration...

[IndiraLightfoot]

What I really liked was the new and fresh setting with Deadfire. And the art team, along with the fab music, shanties and sfx, made this world come alive like no other isometric party-based game. This often tropical archipelago, and all of the cultural elaborations and colonial intricacies actually turned into a really good CRPG. That's no mean feat! My only gripes, and they are rather minor, this being a CRPG, and not a tactical 4X game or an ARPG, is that I feel that the combat system isn't really perfect, it's even in a way inferior to that in PoE1, but most of the spells and talents and weapons are very neat indeed. And the other gripe is the great number of limited dungeons. Still, to compensate, we got a really meaty city with Neketaka. Deadfire is for sure the best pirate-themed CRPG I've ever played during my decades of playing, hands down. 

Edited December 19, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[Dr <3]

Congrats to Obsidian! Well done!

Edited December 19, 2018 by Dr <3

[InsaneCommander]

Gellarde!

 

(What was it up against?  Apart from this, I've been playing back-catalogue stuff this year.  Haven't really kept up with new releases.)

 

Well, unlike the Game Awards, maybe it was running against RPGs this time?