Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
Marvellous story based on a great novel, as a great adventure game.
Ken Follett’s book is a well known one, even got a TV mini-series in 2010. Now, brought up to life again by Daedalic Entertainment, a well known adventure game developers and publishers. Does it have the same charm? Definitely.
The whole story is shown from different perspectives, mainly following 3 characters: an outlaw boy named Jack, a daughter of an earl Aliena and a monk Philip. This opens up the story telling immensely - we see different situations and places, decide on what to do as a certain character. The game is rather slow paced and excels in showing current character’s thoughts indirectly (everything you can interact with, can be also “right-clicked” to show your thoughts about the subject; even more - some of them can only be interacted with that way!) - which is giving a lot of background information, emotions about subjects, really expanding your feel of the game and description of environment. This builds a lot bigger picture than just dialogues and is far better (and more interactive) than just introducing a “narrator” that describes those.
That is only one of the things that define a great narrative and story presenting. Slow pace of the adventure is also often mixed with just doing “real life things”. This immerses you and make even a tighter bond with the characters. You have a really big picture on the game world and situations that are happening, while understanding the perspective of each character. But when talking about big picture, there is also one important thing - our character’s stories will intertwine, at one point or another, shaping one of the best stories.
The characters in the game are really well created - they are unique, representing their own values and none of them are just bland and forgettable - quite the opposite! Many of them could be even divided into 2 categories - loveable and hateable, which naturally adds some emotional baggage to the events happening in the game. Oh and things will be happening. The story is filled with a lot of events, many of the quite grim, but showing the harder parts of life. It is full with intrigues, politics, religious topics (which are very interesting and shown from very different perspectives), a lot of emotions (both good and bad ones) and fighting for your values, whatever they are. There will be a lot of moments that will actually surprise us, unveiling some new developments of the story, which can be really shocking! Again, it’s all creating one of the best stories told ever.
In terms of gameplay, it’s a point and click adventure, with a lot of dialogues. As already mentioned, there is a lot of additional information and thoughts, that are really expanding the gameplay and your understanding of your character’s position, which is something that doesn’t always happen. Is it a liner adventure though? Not at all - during the game, you make quite some decisions which will affect the story in the future - either short or long term. And talking about long term - what is also quite unique, is that the game story spans over 30 years of time! It’s quite amazing to see a story that is so long, seeing characters develop and even becoming adults from babies.
What about the game look? I have to say, that the art style really suited for me. Moving characters on rather static (but not entirely!) backgrounds, are really good. Pleasant to eye, detailed and with pretty good animations. And backgrounds - landscapes, cities and the whole environment, painted like pictures - giving a really warm feel. But going back to characters - their emotions are really well done, working really well with great dialogues. What really got to me after a bit though, are relatives - family members are really looking much alike! It’s a small detail, but done so well, giving an even greater bond between characters and the immersion of the world. And of course, I cannot forget about voice acting. Yes, it is there - what would be a story rich adventure game, with so many dialogues, without voice acting. And for me, it’s really well done. Actors really know what they are doing, speaking with emotions and feeling their characters. Almost everything in game is voice acted, apart from some “historical” notes found throughout the game, and the thoughts of our characters about things we interact it (although those are not voice acted on purpose).
When I think about the game as a whole, apart from the amazing story, I think this is a great example how to create something really coherent and broad - I think it created a really good idea of how things looked in medieval times, from a lot of perspectives, showing both details of single person’s life, as well as country-wide situations and implications of political decisions.
For adventure game lovers - a definitive recommendation from me. One of the best stories I could take part in!
My rating: 9/10
Playtime: 15h
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Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth on Steam