Obsidian announces Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

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Obsidian Entertainment's recent bout of Twitter teasing has now been officially unveiled as Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, the sequel to the studio's hit 2015 fantasy RPG. The studio also launched a new crowdfunding campaign today on Fig, with an overall goal of $1.1 million.

Pillars 2 begins with the return of Eothas, the god of light and rebirth, who's not quite as dead as everyone thought. After inhabiting the stone titan buried beneath the keep at Caed Nua, he breaks free, trashes the places, and leaves you for dead. Naturally, there's only one thing to do: "To save your soul, you must track down the wayward god and demand answers—answers which could throw mortals and the gods themselves into chaos."

"Our goal for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is to improve on what fans loved about the original while adding features our fans want to see," Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart said. "Truly living cities, more freedom to explore the open world, and pushing what we do best at Obsidian—letting players define and play the role they want to play."

Lead designer Josh Sawyer echoed that sentiment, saying that the focus of the new game will be on "refinement, pacing, and overall quality."

"We're still making a huge game, but it's more important for our content to be high quality than it is for us to have a gargantuan 200+ hour game," he said. "Many players criticized us for having too many mob/filler fights in Pillars. It's something we tried to address in patches, but it's a larger focus for the sequel. Not every fight is a setpiece encounter, but it's okay for us to have more areas that are simply for exploration, environmental storytelling, and down time."

Deadfire will feature familiar faces from the first game, plus new companions with their own unique stories that will change based on the choices you make throughout your journey. That's also true for quests, which may "present different opportunities depending on when and where characters and environments are approached."

Sawyer said that it's too early to commit to anything specific, but "broadly speaking," Pillars of Eternity 2 will be comparable in size to the original. Players who come into Deadfire without prior Pillars experience will be given a recap of events, but "there's no substitute for playing through the first chapter," he added. And if you did, you'll have the option of carrying your progress over into the sequel.

"You will be able to import your endgame saves from Pillars of Eternity—at the very end of the game, Pillars creates a 'complete' savegame," Sawyer explained. "However, if you don't have a save to import or if you simply want to set your own start states, there will be a cool way for you to do so."

Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire crowdfunding campaign is live now and runs until February 24. Check out some screens below.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.