Note - I was unable to beat The Pillars of the Earth because of a gamebreaking bug that would not load the final book. Reading online, apparently similar variants of this error are prevalent, the only solution being to load-up an old file. Unfortunately, as my last manual save was well before the end, I have no intention of doing so and have opted to abandon the title. Ergo, this write-up should be taken more as a set of observations than a genuine review.

Spoilers (for both the book & the game) only discussed at the very bottom of the review


The Pillars of the Earth is a unique prospect for me as it marks the first time I’ve reviewed both a piece of literature and its video game adaptation. That’s right, for those unaware, I also write book reviews on Goodreads, and while generally easier to scribe, I encourage my fellow Backloggians to do the same as I’ve found the two complement each other well in terms of developing an understanding of structure, pacing, and most importantly writing.

To surmise my thoughts on the source material, though, I ultimately enjoyed Ken’s Follett’s historical epic -- sure it had its problems, which I’ll allude to below in future comparisons, however the pleasant prose combined with a refreshingly adult plot made for an engaging read, and the idea of transposing those contents onto an interactive format was far from a bad idea (we all know how much more lenient the ESRB is compared to the MPAA).

Unfortunately, Daedalic were the ones who took the reins, and while I’ve enjoyed a couple of their titles over the years, their predilection towards PnCs inherently pigeonholed the kind of game Pillars of the Earth could be. Still, I was willing to put that aside if it meant getting some classic puzzles whilst meandering around the setting of Kingsbridge.

Alas that didn’t happen. See, Pillars of the Earth is interesting in that it’s a significant departure from even Daedalic’s own library -- there are a few minor conundrums in the way of using X object with Y item, but they’re largely easy and rarely involve holding more than three pieces at a time. No, instead the game is best described as a graphic adventure, and not just any kind of graphic adventure, but a text-based one.

In other words, there’s not much gameplay, your time primarily spent listening to dialogue, walking around areas, and making decisions that theoretically yield impacts on the story at-large, and so you’ll want to set your expectations accordingly as the lack of tangible actions here won’t be attractive to everyone. That said, even under this banner of minimalism, I still think Pillars isn’t worth playing courtesy of other problems we’ll get into shortly.

But first, credit where credit’s due -- Pillars does a great job making your choices matter. Coming into it from the book, I thought I had a firm idea of how the plot would go as far as character arcs & fates, only to be thrown off guard by major changes brought about by my own hand: and while some of these decisions are relatively-explicit, the presence of numerous smaller ones guarantee you won’t anticipate the full extent of your actions. I couldn’t glean any information on how many endings exist as a result of this spiderwebbed format, though it’s worth noting that innumerable in-game events are prone to variation.

Unfortunately, getting to these choices means parsing through countless droves of dialogue, which would’ve been fine were it not for the CONSTANT elongated pauses between exchanges. Daedalic, being a German company, has always had horribly-integrated foreign dubs -- the voice acting itself is good; however, not only is lip syncing terrible, but the ADR directors never bother trying to match the convo length between versions. That is to say, conversations are programmed to last as long as they did in the original German language regardless of how long the English script functionally is.

Thankfully, this rarely became a problem in prior titles because you generally had the option to rapid-click through character chatter after someone was done speaking (or, you know, whenever you felt like it). The issue with Pillars, though, is that it has largely removed this feature: clicking once mutes the select character’s chatter over skipping it, while a secondary click’s chances at swapping to the next person’s lines are hit-or-miss -- sometimes it’ll work, other times your cursor will outright disappear and force you to sit there and sulk like a good little boy. And it may not seem like a big deal, but again, guys, this is one of those titles built upon hours upon hours of confabulations, and having this many incessant delays not only kills the immersion, but makes for a very hiccupy experience.

Some may retort that playing Pillars in its original tongue would resolve these qualms, to which I say no, it doesn’t: the lip syncing is still not great, and while convos naturally seep into one another, the intrinsic human ability to read subtitles faster than they’re spoken means you’ll either way end-up wanting to zip through the dialogue (and consequently being unable to).

Other common PnC issues are present here as well, including the inability to escape restarted discussions, sluggish NPC transitory poses when initially clicked on for convos, and the lack of a running feature during exploration. On the flipside, though, some improvements were tossed in for good measure, the largest ones being the dedication of the right mouse button for examining (it’s click rendering your thoughts through a Heavy Rain-esque filter of quivering lines!), as well as the presence of dedicated animations for the (few) object combinations.

Animation work, in general, has been completely overhauled in Pillars as this is, without a doubt, the most expensive Daedalic game I’ve ever played. While their artisans have always been talented at incorporating motion into past titles, it really felt like Pillars was the first time every frame had something extra going on in it: whether it was inclement weather ala water, fog, & wind, additional facial expressions via blinking & squinting, or NPC bustling/background convos, each populated area was a delight to just step back and observe.

The graphics supplement this with more improvements to the classic Daedalic art style, continuing the storybook trend set by Night of the Rabbit: gone are the deformed Ed, Edd n Eddy goons of Deponia in favor of regular-looking joes who perfectly resemble their caricatures within the novel; textiles are unique to each class & labor; hairstyles remain abundant in diversity, and even minor characters are granted specific visages for instant-recognition. While the cutscenes are a bit too reminiscent of old Flash productions, I can’t deny that Daedalic truly stepped-up their game here.

Of course, being a story-driven title, prospective buyers will want to know about the quality of the overarching tale, and unfortunately I can’t provide an authentic opinion given my unableness to finish the last chapter. Based on my experiences with the first two, though, I can safely say it does a fair job abridging the 1000-page novel into a digestible format. Yes, a lot is left on the cutting room floor, and I’ve certainly heard the criticisms that it plays like a greatest hits compilation of the book - heck, part of me is unsure as to how much better I perceived things given that I was subconsciously filling-in certain gaps with my pre-existing knowledge).

Nonetheless, I do feel Pillars honestly made some improvements to the work, from rearranging events(+), adding arcs(++), improving previously-reprehensible characters(+++), removing sillier elements(++++), and outright throwing-in brand new content(+++++). Purists will naturally hate any changes, but I found the game ultimately more good than bad, and enjoyed the number of easter eggs/references within certain dialogue options, character banter, and collectible flavor text.

Before moving onward, it should be made clear that, while Daedalic has (understandably) toned down the source material significantly, it’s still very much an adult game with non-cartoony death scenes, bloody content, warmongering, implied razing, and allusions to sexual assault, all of which go a long way towards granting it a unique place in the PnC world. It’s not that M-rated games are abnormal, but combined with the historicity and representation of medieval life here, Pillars’ story definitely stands apart from the crowd.

Aiding things further are the soundscape & score, both of which do a phenomenal job elevating the various locales of Kingsbridge and its surrounding shiring. On the former, Pillars marked the first time I played with a rearranged speaker set, and that proved to be the right move courtesy of Daedalic’s engineers going all out with the background hustles and nature-based dins; from the churning of a water mill and crack of lightning to the chinkling of money changing hands, there were so many aural swaths within that indicated Daedalic’s dedication to their craft.

On the latter, longtime Daedalic composer Tilo Alpermann returns, and just like with Night of the Rabbit, he’s weaved his magic into a wondrous OST, indulging in Renaissance themes frequently associated with 12th century England. I did find the action tunes a bit lacking for the most part, but every other melody more than made-up for it.

Voice acting for the English localization is quite good, with every performer sounding almost exactly like I imagined their respective character did in the original text. The only real issues I had were William’s actor, Carl Prekopp, sounding way too much like David Prowse’s Vader, the volume for certain persons being noticeably lower than their peers (Tom and Philip standing as the worst offenders), and the general inability of the VAs to project grief & righteous anger (as it can’t be a coincidence everyone faltered, I attribute this to poor ADR direction).

But even the best thespians and directors could only do so much within a limited gameplay loop, and that’s where Pillars really drops the ball. I fully concede I have an inherent bias against visual novel-type titles, but when a powerful dark age tale is reduced to trivial systems riddled with bugs, it can’t help feeling like a let-down no matter its positives. There are admittedly times where the game tries to spice things up ala timed minigames and a bird’s eye map wandering scheme; however, both ultimately come across as half-baked inclusions that don’t do much for the surrounding apparatus.

And yes, I mentioned bugs earlier for good measure as not only did I encounter numerous minor ones that forced me to relaunch the game (++++++), but an outright gamebreaking one that prevented me from, as stated earlier, starting the final chapter. Not that this should be unexpected as Daedalic titles of the past have had their fair share of defects too, and considering how Gollum turned out, I have to assume the company just doesn’t have a robust-enough QA department (+++++++).

As such, I recommend either reading the book or checking out the miniseries if you really want to experience Ken Follett’s work. I respect the effort here, just not the end product.


NOTES
++++++Freeze-ups during said top down wandering & auto-dialogue not playing when necessitated by the scene.

+++++++I’m genuinely curious about what went wrong with Gollum as the workplace allegations against Daedalic’s upper management were never reported for any of their prior releases (to the best of my knowledge).

-Jack has a sling you have access to during his sections that rarely gets used, making me wonder if it was an abandoned concept during development.

-Sometimes item descriptions won’t match your previous decisions (i.e. referencing a character in the present tense when they’ve been deceased).

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SPOILERS
+Jack & Aliena’s amour occurring before he builds the Fulling Machine, and Tom meeting Ellen after Agnes’s death are two off the top of my head.


++Philip questioning his faith and Aliena deciding whether she’s obligated to follow her father’s dying oath, amongst others.


+++The Warden guarding Aliena & Richard’s father is changed via his willingness to let them go in for free; Walter is granted some leniency when he checks some of William’s harsher actions (i.e., preventing him from deflowering Aliena); and perhaps most surprising is Alfred, who was rendered an underdeveloped, awful person in the book despite his potential (this is technically privy to player choice, but I was surprised by how much kinder they made him ... .even if it did turn him into a bit of a cuck during his marriage with Aliena).

Unfortunately, this latter point does unintentionally make Jack & Aliena significantly more unlikable, which is a problem given that they are the primary protagonists. In the book, Alfred's abuse/Tom's deliberate oversight of said abuse justified Jack's animosity towards the two - here, with Alfred being a good brother/Tom a good stepfather, Jack's resistance comes across as petty and, at times, downright sociopathic (he almost kills Alfred during a skirmish!).

Tl;dr - two steps forward, one step back.


++++Yeah, this is primarily referring to Ellen as I found her beyond ridiculous in the book. Gone are her penchants for witchcraft, her abrupt thirst for Tom, her disgusting Pagan actions whilst residing in the prior, and her anachronistic independence in general.

Some of William Hamleigh’s more cartoonishly-evil actions are removed too, though I wonder how much of that was because of censorship constraints versus the devs genuinely not wanting to put them in.


+++++There are additional scenes between Philip and William during their journey to see Waleran’s secret project that showcase William’s darker traits to Philip; Jack interacting more with Jonathan, as well as a part where Philip is given the option to trust a remedy of Ellen’s in calming down a wailing woman during William’s first raid on Kingsbridge.