Pillars of Eternity is a top down rpg. If you are the type of person who is not into story or extensive reading this is not the game for you. The combat is rather simple once you learn that you can set you and your allies to auto attack given certain parameters. The main story drags at certain points and really gets you into it at some other points. character creation is also pretty simple not that many options or ways to customize your characters. I played 2 games too completion one with the default characters and one with characters I made going to an inn after playing through the members you pick up like aloth, and eder are better stat wise than anything you can build.
*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***The main plot revolves around you main characters soul being awakened and chasing after the man you keep seeing in your visions. at the end of the game you find him only to learn its useless their are no answers and no cure to keep you from going insane. one anticlimactic boss fight later and you beat the game congratulations.
the game caps the max level at 16 not to hard to obtain by doing side missions. The achievements that you can earn in the game for the most part you will earn in one play though. things like story progression or bounties, enchanting items. then comes the ultimate achievement. it asks you to beat the game on the hardest difficulty alone with ironman mode on, and expert mode. this achievement is very very hard and honestly their is a way to cheat it by setting the pause combat menu to pause if any character dies. when you die the game will pause and you can quit and load the last time you saved in my experience this is the only way to get this achievement.
4.0