Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire – Seeker, Slayer, Survivor DLC Review

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire gets its second DLC and it is something new! While first DLC focused on story telling and RPG aspects of the game, Seeker, Slayer, Survivor actually takes the combat mechanics to the next level. But this is not the only thing that this DLC will offer fellas, believe me. There is more and you will probably be pretty satisfied with the result.

Before we start the review, I would like to point out that my decision will be affected not only by the new features but also by the price of the DLC. This is purely because I personally don’t think that the DLC is big enough. However, just like the previous one, the price of this one is pretty low. In that regard, I will mainly focus on its cost efficiency rather than the fact that it is actually a DLC. If it was more expensive, my review wouldn’t be positive to be honest. But for a low price like $9.99, it actually offers tons of content. Well then, without further ado, let’s begin our review, shall we?

Gameplay

The game starts after you reach level 16. It immediately starts if you already finished the original game and reached above level 16. You will find a mysterious box on your ship and when you open it, you will discover something pretty disturbing, yet surprising. A severed head… and its spirit will start talking to you. He point the location of an island where you will start the new quest line. In this quest line, you will encounter another god (just like you did in Beast of Winter), Galawain.

The main features of the game actually doesn’t add anything spectacular to the main game. However, it was supposed to be like this. Because it was always meant to be an action focused DLC from the very beginning.

You start fighting in an arena where you should first pass the trial of proving. After that point, you will get pieces of stories and from time to time, you will be expected to find specific items to unlock the next challenge.To be honest, I was expecting something much simpler than this at first. After seeing that there were stories (and interesting ones), I immediately changed my idea about this DLC. It doesn’t simply add an arena, but it also introduces new stories with interesting conversations.

There are three different challenge types in the arena. Seeker will require a tactical approach and careful positioning. Slayer will put you against a single powerful enemy. And in Survivor, you will try to survive against waves of weaker enemies. You will face new enemies and sometimes humanoid opponents who are also there to do the same thing.

As the difficulty rises, you will realize that the game becomes more and more challenging. I am not talking about fighting more powerful enemies. But the main thing is the fact that you will have to change your strategy. And this is the best part about the DLC. You are expected to pay attention to your party, your strengths and your weaknesses.

Story, Visuals and Sound

When it comes to the story, we know that Obsidian developers know what they’re doing. This time however, you shouldn’t expect something intense as we did before. The story is simple, yet, the lore is interesting. You will not get a rich story with many twists, choices or surprises. Instead, you will focus on the arena and will be presented pieces of stories here and there. Does it make the DLC a bad one? No, absolutely not. The combat aspect of the DLC is so good that you actually don’t want to lose time with many stories.

Visuals are still the same, and that’s what we expected. But I have encountered a couple of frame drops in specific locations. After a quick research, I discovered that many other people had the same issues. Are they game breaking? Absolutely not. But they are kind of annoying to be honest. In addition to the new features and game mechanics however, there are a couple of new enemies and characters which were designed beautifully.

Sound effects and the combat music are all the same, again. At this point, I am a little bit disappointed as I was expecting something more exciting as it is a combat based DLC. Nonetheless, the perfect voice acting and beautiful original sound effects just made everything acceptable.

Conclusion

All in all, there is not much to tell about this new DLC without spoiling the fun and the story. It is a combat based DLC with new enemies, characters and locations. Mainly, it offers new combat styles with new challenges which are focused on the combat aspect of the original game. Each fight requires a different approach and from time to time, different party members. With the beautiful visuals and sound effects of the original game, these new combat based features will make sure that you have a good time playing the DLC. Although I think it would be a better DLC with new sound effects and a new music, I can’t complain too much as the originals are already pretty good anyways.

If you liked the original game and want to see what would it be like to play the game as an ARPG (Action RPG), you should go ahead and try it. It will most probably take around 8-12 hours to finish the DLC, depending on your party composition and your combat skills. In any case, I strongly recommend trying it out, especially with its cheap price.

You can get Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire – Seeker, Slayer, Survivor DLC on Steam for $9.99.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire – Seeker, Slayer, Survivor was reviewed using the Steam key provided by the publisher.