The White March Part II automatically becomes available to Expansion Pass owners as soon as it is released this Winter. Pillars of Eternity: The White March - Expansion Pass contains both The White March: Part I and Part II for a rebated price. Pillars until now has relied almost exclusively on vicious combat encounters requiring intense micromanagement to the point of tedium, and as my five deaths to the same merry band of no-name cultists attests, that's still true of the higher settings.Please Note: The base-game, Pillars of Eternity, is required to play. For players who just want to enjoy Pillars' rich tale and flip through the lore without mastering spellbook juggling, it's a godsend. But more to the point, the update also introduces "Story Time," a new difficulty setting that takes its cues from the Normal setting and, to use Obsidian's language, "biases the math heavily in the player’s favor."It still presents challenge in spots, but it comes closer to being a true "Easy" mode than what Pillars had before. The release of Part II coincides with Pillars' latest general patch for the game proper, which brings numerous tweaks as well as a fun scenario in which you have to fight for your stronghold in the face of a local lord's violent objections. Happily, the journey needn't be as taxing as it was in the past. And all that says nothing of the varied battles with foes like tentacles and angry flowers that fill in the spaces between. That honor mainly goes to the monkish followers of the goddess Ondra, who rove about their cloisters in balanced flocks with powerful casters and dodgy acolytes who demand careful planning with every pull. As imposing and heavy-hitting as these giants are, though, they're not the main challenge in combat here (nor, somewhat hilariously, is the towering final boss). The New Faces of EvilIt doesn't hurt that the main antagonists are fun to look at, sort of like half-metallic, half-fleshy Groots with hammers and spears standing in for hands. Though a touch formulaic, this is the stuff of great fantasy: the awakening of a forgotten evil rumbling in the bowels of the earth and the emergence of an army that threatens to kick aside civilization like a beachside sandcastle.
Set seemingly months in the future, it kicks off by chronicling the consequences of improved fortunes at the hamlet of Stalwart in the wake of the White Forge's relighting, and ends with actions and sacrifices that feel almost as momentous as those capping the events of Pillars of Eternity proper. It's just that the second half does everything so much better. High praise, you might say, from someone who wasn't exactly fawning over the expansion's first half (and my opinion on that hasn't changed).
0 kommentar(er)
