A Decade Later, Obsidian Introduces Turn-Based Combat to Pillars of Eternity

For a decade now, Pillars of Eternity has been celebrated as a quintessential CRPG, and today it hits the remarkable milestone of ten years. Recently, it’s been thrust back into the gaming spotlight, grabbing the attention of both longtime fans and newcomers, largely thanks to the release of Avowed—a game set in the same fantasy realm of Eora that Pillars first introduced us to. As if riding on this renewed wave of interest, Obsidian has treated fans to an exciting revelation. Despite juggling the development of Avowed, gearing up for The Outer Worlds 2’s launch later this year, and likely secretly cooking up other intriguing projects, they’ve somehow managed to carve out space to enhance the well-loved Pillars of Eternity. This year, they’ll be rolling out a turn-based combat system for the game.

Stepping back to its roots, Pillars of Eternity emerged in 2015 as a spiritual successor to those classic Baldur’s Gate titles, and now that Baldur’s Gate 3—widely acclaimed as one of the greatest RPGs—has opted for turn-based combat, it seems Obsidian is eager to craft a similar experience for its cherished creation. On the developer’s forums, they expressed their enthusiasm, stating they’re “excited to explore this new way to experience encounters in Pillars of Eternity.”

Even for those who’ve adventured through Pillars multiple times—whether once, twice, or tenfold—this feature affords fans a fresh invitation to plunge back into its world. Plus, it’s especially enticing for Baldur’s Gate 3 aficionados intrigued by this turn of events, inspired possibly by its fellow RPG and brought back into focus thanks to Avowed.

According to Obsidian, fans won’t have to wait too long to get a taste of this turn-based goodness. The system is set for testing soon, rolling out to everyone “later this year.” It’s quite astonishing that a decade-old game is receiving such a transformative feature, especially considering how busy Obsidian seems with their current slate of projects.

Today also saw a substantial update hit Pillars of Eternity in tandem with this exciting announcement. The patch offers visual updates, tweaks to questlines, and a significant amount of bug fixes. For regular players or those considering journeying into the game, a comprehensive list of all the changes is available to check out.

While we await more details about Obsidian’s ambitious evolution of Pillars of Eternity into turn-based territory, why not explore some other outstanding single-player and fantasy games to tide you over?

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