I’ve been playing some Pillars of Eternity 2 again, prompted by the recent addition of turn-based battle mode. Funny enough, I’m not actually playing using that mode, because while it’s a mode I normally enjoy in games, it just doesn’t quiet work for me in PoE2.

The big problem is it slows the game down to a crawl. Every battle takes 10x as long, and while that’s maybe ok for the major battles, it makes the more mundane battles simply too long. PoE2 is already 60+ hours in length, and that’s with skipping a large chunk of the side content, so drastically increasing the playtime via combat is just not something I can sign up for.

The shame in this is that in turn-based mode, you really notice more of the nuance in the combat, plus you get to actually watch all of the animations without worrying you are missing something else happening. And those animations are pretty cool, plus watching the impact different abilities and spells have lets you really understand what is going on in a way that real-time just does not.

I would love if Obsidian released a game build from the ground up using turn-based combat, because I think they would nail it and it would be a ton of fun. I know their next game is a ‘true’ Fallout-like FPS RPG, but maybe after that?

Combat mode aside, PoE2 is really an excellent game, and has a scary amount of content. I’ve previously beat the game, and this second run has, so far, played out completely differently. Yes the one main quest line is somewhat linear (though what character you make and the choices you make during that quest line changes things a bit), and the small one-off quests don’t have much variety, but many of the larger side quests and especially the factions can be approached from many different directions. I’m having a blast, and really looking forward to exploring the three DLC content pieces that have since come out.