Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part II Released, Update 3.0 Out, First Reviews
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The second part of The White March expansion for Pillars of Eternity is live today, for the same price as the first part, on Steam and on GOG. The add-on brings the Watcher's White March adventures to a conclusion needs The White March Part I to be played. It will be the last piece of content to be released for Pillars of Eternity. To celebrate the occasion, Obsidian and Paradox have released a launch trailer:
Together with the the expansion, patch 3.0 for the title has also gone live. The changelog for the patch is available at this link, but in short, the patch revises the Athletics and Survival skill to be much more useful; introduces a series of improvements to the Stronghold such as judgments, a questline, and a number of unique companion adventures with unique rewards; revises the UI, so that Per Rest and Per Encounter abilities are clearly separated; and also revises the encounters in the late game and introduces optional level scaling for overleveled characters.
The first reviews for the final Pillars of Eternity add-on are also live. While not exceptionally enthusiastic, the reviews seem more positive to the second part of the expansion than they were to the first part, which didn't seem to impress critics too much (although, I should note, reviews were still arguably positive).
PC Invasion, 8/10.
The White March does what most expansions should, and works within the existing game parameters to provide refined extensions of what's on offer in the main title. It puts more thought into making each combat encounter more of a tactical challenge, and, in its quest design, exhibits some of the main strengths of Pillars of Eternity in offering different options of approach. Choices made during the opening chapter (and the rest of the game) have a reasonable impact on the climax too. It feels a touch strange to wrap-up the final, substantive part of Pillars of Eternity without it being the game's actual ending, but that's the nature of the mid-game expansion model. Though it won't radically alter anybody's existing opinion on the game, those who voted it as Best PC Exclusive of 2015 in our Reader Awards will be well sated.
PC World, 4/5.
For those of you who skipped the spoilers: I (with some caveats) like it. The White March has its issues pacing problems in the first half, an over-reliance on huge groups of enemies in the second, and three companions who aren't given enough time to breathe before their quests are over but it's a solid expansion with some incredible moments sprinkled throughout. I still think it's a better piece of content if you encounter it organically during your first Pillars of Eternity run, but both halves combined are a pretty good argument for end-gamers to dive back in. For a short while, at least.
MMORPG.com, 8.4/10.
The Pillars of Eternity story seems to come to a close with the completion of The White March part 2. If the gaming gods are just, Sawyer and his team at Obsidian are already planning on where to take us with Pillars of Eternity 2. There's a whole wide world they've crafted, and we've only touched in a very little bit of it all. This expansion really made me keen to find out more about the old gods, their struggles, and why exactly so many seem to have forgotten them save the fringe cults. In whatever form we get the next installment, I hope it touches more upon the past and layers in more of the Eora's carefully constructed lore. Hats off to Obsidian Entertainment for creating and curating a fantasy world I can care about again, and here's hoping for many more adventures in the future.
