Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition Review

Diablo and other overhead dungeon crawlers have their fans, especially on PC. I enjoyed Diablo on the Nintendo Switch a lot, though generally I’m more of a turn-based rpg fan. That said, when I heard that Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition coming to the Switch, I was definitely interested in checking the game out. It looked very Diablo like. So is it like Diablo? Is it a fun game? Should you check it out for Nintendo Switch? Here is my review of Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition for the Nintendo Switch!

Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition looks like a Diablo style game, but it is not a hack’n’slash dungeon crawler. Instead Pillars is an overhead semi-turn-based game. It has some dungeon crawling but you also visit towns and interact with a lot of NPCs. Pillars feels very much like an old school PC game and not so much a Nintendo Switch game.

Let’s talk about the good aspects of Pillars of Eternity first. The voice acting in Pillars was unexpected and also pretty good. I like the game’s graphics for the most part. They are a bit dark, but the game looks similar to one of the classic Diablo games. Even its static drawn cutscenes are not bad. And control wise, Pillars of Eternity works well.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the game is all the customization at the beginning of the game. You fully create your character: the look, background, clothes, etc and there are multiple options that really make your character unique. Its a lot of fun to see what type of character you can create! Though the beginning of the game is the same no matter what look or background you choose for your character.

I wish I could say that I like everything about this game. I don’t but much of it comes down to personal preference. Some players will enjoy these things.

The combat in Pillars of Eternity just doesn’t work for me. Unlike Diablo, you do not have direct control over the combat. Though the combat isn’t exactly turn-based. You do get a chance at the begining of battles to select what you want to do. The battles start off paused. Then you go into the battle and its mostly automatic with the option to redirect attacks, stop, pause again, or choose special attacks. Its pretty boring combat in my opinion.

I also found the game’s story to be boring. The voice acting helps some but not all of the dialogue is voiced and this game has a ton of text to scroll through if you want to get to the whole story. Not all NPCs are created equal either.

Overall, Pillars of Eternity is the type of game that former or current PC gamers will enjoy more than console owners. If you are more of a Diablo or worse a Final Fantasy fan (hey, I’m an FF fan), then this game may not be for you. Even so, its nice to see games that have never appeared on a Nintendo system before appear on the Switch!

Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition gets an 7.5 out of 10.

Thank you to Plan of Attack for providing a digital code for this review. Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition is now available on the Nintendo Switch!