Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Stop Ahead; Pay Troll

Replaying Pillars of Eternity one last time before its sequel comes out, I just noticed that one of your first fights against a troll happens on a bridge.




You hear "it's the little things" that matter, but computer game developers too often slash budgets on all the big things like playability. If your product's a mindless grind, crashes every five minutes, makes no sense from start to finish and kills me at random intervals via abstruse mechanics no-one could have predicted, then no amount of bells and whistles will mask the stench of bullshit. However, once a game gets its basics right (as PoE certainly did) these tiny little implicit jokes, artistic flourishes, flavor text, a good piece of music, all become critical in holding my attention.

From troll bridges to Grieving Mother's comments foreshadowing the ending to the meaningful little ditty being sung in the tavern in Stalwart, this game's only grown on me as I revisit it.

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