Pillars of Eternity is a 'spiritual successor' to the Baldur's Gate series, set in a traditional fantasy mileu but with a few twists based around the concept of souls and soul magic. The game is also set in a colonial society rather than the traditional European imperial fantasyland.
As Obsidian, the same team was responsible for Fallout: New Vegas and Knights of the Old Republic II, two of the most interesting RPGs of the last decade (not to mention Alpha Protocol, Neverwinter Nights II, Dungeon Siege III and the forthcoming South Park: The Stick of Truth). In their former incarnation as Black Isle they also created Planescape: Torment, the Fallout and Icewind Dale series and provided technical assistance on the Baldur's Gate games from BioWare. As giants of the RPG genre, it'll be interesting to see what they pull off with this game, which eschews complex (and ultra-expensive) 3D graphics in favour of deeper gameplay, more immersive combat and stronger writing.
Pillars of Eternity is expected in mid-to-late 2014, and is one of my most eagerly-awaited games of next year.
5 comments:
This has Game of the Year written all over it :)
It will be good, but I doubt it will be Game of The Year with Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, LOTR: Shadow of Mordor, Telltale's Game of Thrones and Elder Scrolls Online coming out as well. And that's just the fantasy games that will outrun it. A great year for fantasy RPGs. :)
I know this is off-tropic but I don't understand why Obsidian is on Kickstarter. The team responsible for Fallout: New Vegas, Kotor, Alpha Protocol, Neverwinter Nights & Dungeon Siege games should have no problem getting funding. Kickstarter is for guys and companies with no foot in the door, not for companies who has passed through the door several times already.
"I doubt it will be Game of The Year with Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, LOTR: Shadow of Mordor, Telltale's Game of Thrones and Elder Scrolls Online coming out as well"
GAME OF THRONES isn't an RPG, but could be a real contender in the story/character stakes if Telltale maintain their current form. Of the rest, I see only WITCHER 3 as being real competition. There hasn't been a really good LotR game in years, ELDER SCROLLS looks very MMORPG-by-the-numbers at the moment and INQUISITION would need to be a hell of a lot better than either DA:O or DA2 to really stand much of a chance. The early videos showing a high focus on action and combat are not particularly encouraging.
As for why Obsidian is on Kickstarter, they took the proposal for a top-down, old-skool RPG to Atari as ICEWIND DALE III and were rejected out of hand. They talked to other publishers and were told that 2D, top-down RPGs were dead. The only way to do this project was by Kickstarter. Obsidian have also - famously - been screwed over by publishers on multiple occasions and wanted a project they had more direct control over, which Kickstarter gave them.
Oddly, since DIABLO III came out and was a massive success, and since the success of the Kickstarters not just for ETERNITY but other top-down RPGs like NUMENERA and SHADOWRUN RETURNS, Obsidian have reported a lot more interest from publishers in this project and other ideas.
This article is lacking a link to Eternity's backer site I feel...
Wait... what's this?
http://eternity.obsidian.net/
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