radditsu
Silver Knight of the Realm
- 4,676
- 826
It definitely is held back by using its own system. Some of the design choices I was not happy with due to how much I love D&D and how that system works with expansion. Might being the most primary stat for most damage casters/classes, Int for barbarians, the feat selection and lack of a multiclass system made the game feel like AD&D when 3.5 has been put in a computer game and is MUCH richer than 2nd edition. I also could have cared less about most of the NPC's. I liked the one eyed druid. The maps seem ...claustrophobic? Compared to BG 1 where the maps were huge and there were random encounters and bandit traps and all that jazz. I hope there is a more ambitious sequel..but I am not expecting one. I think big budget crpgs are going to be a niche...dwindling market. Are the even going to be modding tools? BG1 and BG2 has some fantastic mods.I've played the game a good 50 hours now, I quite like it but I actually feel its cRPG roots are mostly what is holding it back. They should cast off those outdated core systems and just make a really good pausable real-time tactics game with exploration, story, and progression systems.
To explain what I mean, I think they did they best they could have with old school RPG mechanics, but if anything Pillars showed just how uninteresting those really are. The core combat, the tactics of a battle, is basic to the point of totally uninteresting and relies utterly on "decisions" (I use the term loosely here) made outside of combat. The difficulty slider's only actual effect on the game is how much you need to min-max characters, which is also supremely basic.
Might & Dex for damage dealers/healers, tank stats for the rest, combat is nothing but tank & spank. There is a little play in there depending on the difficulty setting, but really your only decision is "how much do I want to gimp my party?"
The game does a good job in other areas, but I keep finding myself wondering how much better it could be if they built a tactics game with behaviors and AI first, then constructed the other elements around it. There is nothing preventing a tactics game from having content structured like a cRPG with exploration, recruitment, quests, and dialogue interaction other than tradition. I say we do away with traditions that don't work in favor of better games.
The best race seems to be the halfling cat eared dudes really bothers me too.