It's good to be back.

If you were still waiting for a sequel to Baldur's Gate II: this is it. Pillars of Eternity is the closest an "spiritual successor" has come to capturing the spirit of BG2, as well as some of the magic of Planescape: Torment. As close as it can possibly get without being set in the D&D's Forgotten Realms, that is. PoE has got all the ingredients: A huge world which you gradually discover; a motley crew of companions each with their own quirks, agendas and quests; a decent, if untested, system of combat and character stats, with plenty of classes and lots of spells and abilities; and above all the freedom to explore, interact and resolve events as you see fit. The combat can be very hard but it's also more satisfying that way; you have to pay a lot of attention to positioning and tactics, as well as a judicious use of the pause and slow-mo feature. There's none of that Only-you-can-save-everything BS, or at least it's not as forced as in most other RPGs. You are just one individual caught up in a world of intrigues much bigger than you. You learn a lot about that world and its backstory from the well-written PDFs which accompany the Royal Edition, and although they may not be worth the extra $45, I have no qualms about supporting the developers by purchasing this. Yes there are bugs, some pacing issues and minor inconsistencies here and there. It's not perfect but it's still very impressive for the first release of a new series, and by the end it'll have you hankering for a sequel just like Baldur's Gate did.