Pillars I is my favorite game of 2015-now which, while less impressive due to the low volume of games I play these days, has me stoked for Deadfire's arrival. Looking at my Steam playtime list, Pillars 1 is second only to the original Defense Grid, which was a time suck to the nth degree. Pillars is closing in on topping Torchlight I and II combined. Sheesh.
Anyway, it was really, really good. The story was engrossing, the companions for the most part had interesting backstories, I found the game system--while a bit intimidating out of the gate--to be logical and fairly deep, and I thought they did a great job with the engine--effectively recreating the Infinity Engine in Unity with modernized graphics. Further, Obsidian did a number on the game via patches over time, and by the time the White March expansion hit, I felt the game was substantially bug-free and well-taken care of.
And this time, they started with that engine rather than Kickstarting an idea from scratch, and they are a year into development (though granted they are just expanding beyond a small core team now). They have also said they're going to take the apparently-groovy pop-up lore system from Tyranny and include that in Deadfire. I haven't yet played Tyranny, but given how good I felt Pillars 1's pop-up lore/instructional content was, this sounds good to me.
That brings us to 2017, and Obsidian's Fig campaign for PoE II: Deadfire:
- YouTube Pitch Video
- Multiclassing update
- Graphics update
- Audio update
- Companion interaction update
- Neketaka update (big city)
Last night they crossed $3M in funding, and will certainly hit their final released-thus-far stretch goal of sidekicks, which will be a step between generic adventurer party members and full-on companions. Basically, they won't have the full interactivity, individual quest line, etc of a companion, but they will have their own voice sets, exist as NPCs in the game prior to recruitment to your party, etc. The idea is to provide more interesting party options for the player in a way that doesn't involve over-promising a dozen companions...
I know they have other stretch goals in the works and they'll likely be releasing them later today or tomorrow. I'm hoping they crack $4M and can really go hog-wild on this one. In my book, they've earned the right.
For any of you who are fans of the Infinity Engine games, please check this one out.
A few tidbits that may interest OOers:
- If you backed Pillars 1 (rather, Project Eternity) on Kickstarter back in 2012, you should see an add-on in Fig for $5 off of any pledge level as a 'super-backer thank you'. Just make sure you register for Fig with the same email you used to back PE.
- Backing Deadfire will net you a Steam coupon for Tyranny--33% off if you back at the base level ($29, or $24 if you backed PE), or 50% off if you back at the 'Premium Digital' ($45/$40) level or higher. That means that if you do want Tyranny and were considering a full-price $45 purchase, your net price for Deadfire is reduced by $15 or $22.50.
- There's a 'Complete Pillars Bundle' for $79--this gets you Pillars 1, its expansion, Pillars 2, and the 50% off coupon for Tyranny, plus all the extras from the Premium Digital level (soundtrack, novellas, guidebook, tabletop RPG ruleset, etc).
- Rumor is they are going to add a 'season pass' option that will also add any Deadfire expansions that end up coming out.
Oh, and try the veal.