Pillars of Eternity vs Divinity: Original Sin.

Let's discuss pros and cons of both cRPGs and judge overall quality. Here is what I think.

Writing and Characters: Much better in Pillars of Eternity. In fact it is one of the best writings in games. Character progression is also a lot better in Pillars. There is more realism in characters of Pillars of Eternity. Divinity: Original Sin doesn't take those things seriously even though there are still a lot of likeable characters in the game and memorable moments.

Gameplay: I found gameplay much better in Divinity: Original Sin. I was never a fan of Turn based combat but now I think that it's better, which really shows how good it actually is. Inventory looks beautiful in Divinity but it's more responsive and easy to use in Pillars. There are 6 party members in Pillars and 4 in Original Sin. Divinity also supports Co-op.

Events and Graphics: You experience events in Pillars by reading and imagining. While Original Sin shows these events through real time scripted events. On other hand, Pillars' art and graphics are inspired by IE games while Divinity's art is modern and graphics are technically more superior than any cRPG out there.

Atmosphere: Darker in Pillars. Goofy and Colorful in Divinity (mostly) with some dark moments.

Sound: Music is darker in POE (dark and gritty world, where terrible things can happen. Watch out). In Original Sin, soundtrack is mostly peaceful with some dark moments (Go out and explore this beautiful living breathing world). While OS' voice acting is great, Pillars' is better.

Quest System: Easy to read in Obsidian's RPG. Non traditional in Original Sin, where it acts like journal instead of Quest Log. However, sometimes it's rewarding to piece together different hints to find a clue by reading quest description. But it's not perfect and have some flaws (almost no hint at all in some situations).

World: Broken into smaller sections in Pillars of Eternity. On other hand, Larian's RPG features much bigger environments with no loading screen, until you go to the next big area. It's open level game.

Creativity: Divinity encourages you to complete the mission how you want through its non linear gameplay, even if it's not how devs must have expected you to complete. For Example: I used magic spells on a locked door to enter a house of the sorceress to find evidence of her crimes to complete the quest. Later I found that the key was right next to her where we had a conversation few minutes ago before she left but didn't see it. On other hand in Pillars, freedom comes in the form of non linear storyline and choice and consequence system which lacks in Original Sin.

Loot: Slowly but surely becomes better and better in Pillars while in Original Sin, you often come across something really unique with a lot of magical abilities like in ARPGs.

So what you think about both games?

For those who haven't played both games. Here are reviews of both games from IGN. Both scored 9 and both vids are equally long.

Pillars

Divinity

Discuss.

From what I understand

Pillars has a better story, but Divinity is more fun to play.

Having played and enjoyed both, I would absolutely agree with this.

I think my personal choice would be for Divinity over Pillars (gasp.... Sacrilege burn the heretic) but there's not a lot in it. Both are fantastic examples of the genre that can hold their own against any isometric RPG (apart from maybe Planetscape Torment ;) )

Didn't play divinity but I am enjoying pillars so far.

Divinity for me. I just liked its world better.

I enjoyed Divinity's gameplay more (the combo-heavy combat system and sandbox-y puzzles in particular), but I feel that Pillars is the better game in every other respect.

*edit - cough!* Overall, I'd recommend Pillars over Divinity - but hey, they're both great.

Sounds like a great game. Lol.

I think the problem with Pillars is that it doesn't push to be more innovative.

Divinity was really a funny game , it wasn't completely voiced but reading it's jokes made me laugh sometimes while pillars gives you the old school RPG game you ever wanted ... I played the first 15 minutes and after that I was hooked , Idk.. I think it's the nostalgia thing which makes it more appealing

IMOTGO Divinity has better combat and feels more progressive. Story and writing wise, Pillars murders it. Overall, I'd go with Pillars Of Eternity.

While the combat isn't as good, it's not as combat focused and thus less of a problem. The combat itself is still decent, compared to Wasteland 2, which is a repetitive consolized piece of Xcom shit.

I like pillars better thus far, I enjoy the world and setting more.

I enjoyed Wasteland 2 more than both.

Divinity: Original Sin was my choice for GOTY last year...and Pillars of Eternity wipes the fucking floor with it.

Pillars has better RPG and story. Divinity has better combat, graphics and world interactions.

Pretty much what's already been said.

I really enjoyed the turn-based combat and uniqueness of loot in Divinity: OS, but PoE is an all around better CRPG and is closer Baldur's Gate and Planescape.

If I had to choose one I'd probably pick PoE.

Having finished PoE a few days ago at last:

Pillars combat is fine and great, but it's the inner mechanics of Divinity that make it better.

However, art style, graphics, characters, storyline, inventory, etc, are better in PoE.

Overall, while Original Sin is a great game and my GOTY 2014 (or tied with Bayonetta 2), Pillars of Eternity is better in overall aspects.

Both are absolutely worth playing

I've only played 3 hours of PoE thus far, but while the story/lore/roleplaying seems to be a good bit better, the combat just doesn't feel very good. That damn sticky engagement system, along with some sub-par pathfinding and no party AI ruined it for me. What's more, I replayed Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate 2 right before PoE came out and found the combat in those games to be much more fun, in fact, went right back to BG2 after giving PoE a try. A shame there isn't a game with Divinity's combat combined with PoE's roleplaying/story.

Torment might be the for you.

Holy crap Raedric is kicking my arse. Maybe I will defeat him later. :(

@Cloud_imperium: Actually already backed the Torment kickstarter. Only problems are the makers have said there wouldn't be much combat, and the p&p ruleset they released a while back didn't look so hot. Plus wasteland 2 wasn't impressive either. We'll have to wait and see how it works in the virtual environment in later this year/2016.

Well, then you should wait for Larian's new RPGs that they plan to reveal this and next year. They said more budget and feedback will allow them to have better writing and character progression in their next game and they are aware of this issue right now.

They are even rewriting some parts of Original Sin's storyline and will release big updates this year. Will be nice the see improvement in that area along with other big enhancements. It will also help them in upcoming games.

I could never finish divinity. I wasn't too interested in the world or characters and the gameplay got too repetitive. I'm enjoying POE a lot more.

Been waiting since September for that "patch" to do a second playthrough. Sounds like they're doing encounter overhauls along with the rewriting, and even adding controller support. More like an Enhanced Edition if it's all true.

I really hope Larian isn't overextending themselves with their CODesque plan of 3 development teams, 3 years development time, an RPG per year. And I hope "Divinity fatigue" doesn't become a thing either.

Yeah, some are saying they'll release Standalone Director's Cut as well or something. I was waiting for those patches too but now I've given up and decided to replay the game as it is right now. I'll play it once more once those updates are out. And I hope they won't target "wider audience" if they get the game running on controller somehow.

I like both. But I feel divinity improves upon old turn based games, while PoE isn't as good as BG1/2 style action based. Lack of companion scripts were the main reason to this.

This, oh lord in heaven this.

Pillars by far.

However, I can see how the turn-based combat is more approachable to new players if they are not already familiar with IE-style real time pause-based large party combat.

I played Divinity for a while then stopped it seemed like there was just too much going on in Cyseal. I don't know, it seemed kind of cluttered like they were trying to squeeze the whole game into the first town.

I then played Pillars and loved the writing and the story but found the combat to be boring which is weird I never felt like that with BG or Planescape. Also I really, really hated the voice overs they were just terrible. Also I didn't like that combat was optional i.e. no exp they actively encouraged you to find other ways to get past stuff. I like killing things and being rewarded for it with exp and loot and want it to be MY choice to level up through combat instead of being forced to do tons of quests not all of which were particularly captivating.

Long story short I went back to Divinity and now it's one of my favourite CRPG's ever. It doesn't have the quality of writing of Pillars but it doesn't have those dreadful voice-overs which I suppose can just be turned off if you are willing to lose all voice in the entire game but it's just a lot more fun.

I agree with people who say we need the writing from Pillars and the combat and general gameplay and design and of course graphics from Divinity.

Divinity wins by a mile for me. In fact if they keep making games with this engine I will buy and love every single one even if the stories aren't great. Games have always been about gameplay for me. A great story and good writing is a huge plus but I get that from books when I am not playing games.

I know when I finish Divinity I will go back to Pillars again because both games are RIGHT up my street and maybe I will be saying actually when you get further into Pillars it turns out to be even better than Divinity despite the pointless combat and voice overs from hell and if that happens you can all call me fickle. But I won't care. So there.

I couldn't push on in Divinity. Something about it just couldn't keep me hooked in. I have the opposite problem with Pillars, the more I play the more I want to play.

I had the same problem with Divinity when I first played it. It really is worth it when you get into it. When you're done with Pillars give it another chance matey.

I've found Divinity to be better. The gameplay is just a joy.

That said Pillars is a good game but it had big shoes to fill. It is better than BG1, but not nearly as good as the second. There is far too much combat in it, you know, as filler and such. The bosses, dragons and all are boring. It could use more puzzles and dialogues in order to have a better pacing. The cities are kind barren and I hated the yellow npcs. But really what did it was that the gameplay didn't hook me in.

As a matter of fact, I've found Wasteland 2 to be better than PoE.

@blueinheaven: I felt the same way when I played Divinity. I spent too much time in first town and decided to stop playing. Later I returned to it and forced myself to learn mechanics, level up etc. Once I learned some basic stuff and was ready to go out of town then I couldn't stop playing.

Most people who stopped playing Divinity didn't spend enough time to learn the mechanics which require 8-10 hours. Larian Studio is aware of that issue and in upcoming updates they will make sure there is more action in the beginning and better tutorial.

Divinity: Original Sin is simply stunning with its turn based combat. If only it didn't sag towards the later end of the game. Pillars of Eternity is more consistently good, but it doesn't aspire to be more than a throwback. Furthermore, it honestly doesn't have that Obsidian quality of being narratively inventive. It's got an okay story, but bland writing. In trying to be Baldur's Gate 3, Obsidian got really Bioware-y with the story. I suppose we asked for that anyway.

Divinity: Original Sin is not for the casual or "new" player. Your party can get wiped really fricking fast if you don't know what you're doing. It's what makes the combat amazing.

Pillars, on the other hand, is too damn easy. Just get your tank to engage and get Aloth to wipe the floor with everyone from the back. One of the issues with Pillars is that the enemy encounters aren't really varied, so you just rinse and repeat the tactic.

One of the things I liked in Divinity was the variety in encounters. Every battle seemed handcrafted with some variety. Some times you are avoiding fire when killing enemies, few moments later you in between oil filled barrels and have to be careful with your fire magic or use rain spell for protection etc.. And I love you Kate Archer.

We need a No One Lives Forever 3 =(. Or at least a spiritual successor!

The world needs more Spy shooters but hey lets just get excited for the next Dude bro modern military crap.

Pillars of Eternity is the more well made game.

But as a combatguy who doesnt care much for stories in RPGs, I have to say Divinity was the more enjoyable game.

Maybe 20 or so hours into PoE so I can't give a complete assessment. But I would probably ever so slightly give the edge to D:OS. The combat is really fleshed out and complex in D:OS as well as the ways you interact with the environment.

Having said that, I think PoE is still awesome and probably has a lot more potential as a franchise. With a bigger budget that PoE's decent sales can give them, they can iron out the kinks, offer more detailed story options, and improve the production values throughout. More visual customization and cooler loot would be nice in both games, and I hope that's something they both look at moving forward.

I give them an even score. Divinity has better combat and class-building but PoE has better everything else.

Loved (and beat) both games (and Wasteland 2) but imo Pillars is slightly better.

If I had to score them it would go something like this:

Pillars 9.5

Divinity 9

Wasteland 2 9

Pillars of Eternity has the best writing in a videogame since Planscape Torment and Mask of The Betrayer imo.

Divinity does have fantastic addition of coop though which is a blast with friends, I liked both games combat about even (don't have an issue with someone who liked Divinity combat more though), but Pillars is much better for me in writing (dialogue, story and characters) and art design). Divinity had great humor, awesome coop and fun combat but it was wasn't written very well and the end boss fight wasn't nearly as enjoyable as Pillars imo.