In the role-playing sensation Pillars of Eternity, you can finally fight like in Baldur’s Gate 3, 10 years after its release

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Kevin
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Pillars of Eternity proved 10 years ago that old-school role-playing games are not dead. A new combat system is coming to the game for its anniversary.

It’s an ongoing discussion.Are fights in old-school role-playing games better in real time with a pause or completely turn-based? Some swear by the pause function, after all, it brings back fond memories of classic role-playing masterpieces like Baldur’s Gate. Others, on the other hand, excitedly point to turn-based battles in modern role-playing masterpieces like Baldur’s Gate 3.

In any case, both can be great fun, which is why there are now also role-playing games that simply offer both These will soon include Pillars of Eternity, which was released in 2015 and kicked off the so-called renaissance of old-school role-playing games. On the tenth anniversary of the game, developer Obsidian has now announced that you will soon be able to play the entire game turn by turn.

A short video shows what it looks like in action:

A grand role-playing game with turn-based combat

If you come from Baldur’s Gate 3 and have gotten used to the turn-based combat, you should switch to an extensive excursion to Eora, the fantasy world of Pillars of Eternity – and, by the way, the recently released and highly acclaimed action role-playing game Avowed.

Because even if Pillars of Eternity can’t keep up with the graphic splendor and even the gameplay possibilities of a Baldur’s Gate 3, the same heart beats in both games.Pillars of Eternity is, after all, very directly inspired by Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2.

The game offers an incredibly profound story about the souls of all living things. You will meet multi-layered characters, be able to extensively develop your character and will regularly be confronted with really tricky decisions. In the test, the role-playing game scored a sensational 92 points.

At release, the complex fights still ran in real time with a pause, as they did in Baldur’s Gate. Later this year, an update will add the new turn-based combat system. However, an exact date has not yet been set.

And that works?

Can a game just switch from real time to rounds? In the special case of old-school role-playing games, yes. Most of them were derived from Dungeons & Dragons in some form, whose entire rule system is based on turn-based combat. Real time with a pause was a compromise in the past, because real time experienced its heyday in the early 2000s.

In reality, a kind of turn-based system is still at work in the background, but it just runs automatically for the most part and relies on timers instead of rounds. Nevertheless, the conversion is not trivial, but it has been done well a few times. For example, in the Pathfinder games by Owlcat and Pillars of Eternity 2 was also given a round system afterwards.

So presumably Pillars of Eternity 1 will be based on that of its successor. Unlike in Pathfinder, in PoE 2 you have to choose one of the two systems at the beginning and you can’t switch between rounds and real time at any time. So presumably it will be the same in PoE 1.