Obsidian Entertainment and publishing partner Paradox Interactive have announced the digital pre-order of Pillars of Eternity.
If you’ve not heard of it before, Pillars is an RPG inspired by role-playing classics such as Icewind Dale and Baldur’s Gate. Like the titles that have come before it, the game will use pre-rendered backgrounds shown from an isometric perspective. Pillars of Eternity got its start as a crowd-funded game, netting a cool $4,163,208 from Kickstarter and Paypal, making it one of the largest Kickstarter video game success stories.
Players interested in pre-ordering will be able to get a 10% discount on the total cost of the game, and also access to two special in-game items. Kickstarter backers who pledged enough will also get access to these pre-order items, at no additional cost. Players who want more can purchase the Champion Edition, which includes a soundtrack, making-of documentary, and a bag of holding’s worth of digital goodies in addition to the game.
In addition to announcing the pre-order availability, project director Josh Sawyer and gaming personality Jesse Cox will be live-streaming “never-before-seen game content” tomorrow, November 13, at 1 PM (PST) on Paradox Interactive’s Twitch channel. Until then, they’ve released a new trailer to whet fans’ appetites.
For fans of traditional isometric RPGs, there should be a lot to pique your curiosity here - particularly if you’re a fan of Baldur’s Gate or other classic Infinity Engine games. For modern gamers, its tough to say whether or not the old style of play will resonate well; Pillars is opting for a far more hardcore approach than we see from the likes of, say, Bioware these days. But the success of Daedalic’s recent Divinity: Original Sin shows that there’s thankfully still a sizeable audience for a more old-school RPG experience, and player impressions of the recent Early Access version have been largely positive.
Either way, there’s certainly plenty to be interested about when it comes to Pillars of Eternity, so even though it may very well end up not being for everyone, expect it to generate quite a bit of buzz upon release.
