In-Depth Character Creation

Character creation can be an exciting time.  Adding the features and attributes to your desired character is definitely fun.  The Pillars of Eternity character creation panel was an intense experience.  Besides just picking basic aspects like race, class, and hair color, it also required me to choose a sub-race, and a former profession or background.  The great part about this complicated process was that each choice carried with it special skill or attribute bonus.  For certain races or classes there were many sub-races, each offering unique skills.  This is a whole new level of character creation.  It seems like the indie/Kickstarter games really lend themselves to more customization.  Wasteland 2 also gave players many choices when it came down to creating their character.  Players are able to pick a religion for their character and write their own unique biography.

Character creation for a barbarian.

Sadly I got so wrapped up on looking at all the possible options for every race/class that I didn't actually play much of the actual game.  The gameplay seems a little strange to me--it's not really turn-based, it can pause for you to issue orders, and you can have a rather large party.  My party didn't make it above three and neither of those characters fared very well...in fact they both died as part of the story.  I'm also a little boggled by the speech choices.  Players are sometimes able to choose special speech options but a prompt mentions that just because there is a special option that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best option.  Huh?  Doesn't that go against everything we've ever been taught in a game?  It's always best to choose the special option!  Why provide a special option if it doesn't do something special?  I guess it's going to require more time to figure out.

One complaint I've read about the game, but which doesn't bother me, is the amount of reading that is required.  There is some voice acting, but many descriptions are at least partially written out.  The writing almost reads like a story or novel, so it's very pleasant.  I think we've become too spoiled with many modern games which are almost completely voice acted.

It's going to take much more playing and investigating for me to finally get a good grasp on Pillars of Eternity.  I like what I've seen so far.