Pillars of the Earth Game Review
Book adaptations are hard. They just are. Adapting an already great work into another medium entirely is a task in and of itself let alone having to create the game, design the characters, figure out the gameplay, and so on. As someone who has not read The Pillars of the Earth, I don’t know how accurate or detailed it is compared to the book, but I can tell you how the game was to play.
Starting out, I can tell you that The Pillars of The Earth is an experience. It’s not quite the moody emotion-fest of games like Life is Strange, but it is no doubt a drama. Deeply rooted in the realities of the 12th century, the situations faced by the main characters are often exceptionally tough ones. Especially as the game goes on, the stakes only feel higher and the mistakes only feel easier to make. It’s somewhat in the vein of games like Beholder and This War of Mine in that you feel for other characters and things will just happen. Just. Happen. Opp—this thing happened, and now they’re dead. Opp—your character was being a little too adventurous and now you’ve burned down a whole building. You have to make a lot of choices that often have a total grayscale to them. There’s no real right answer, only the most right-seeming one.
In book one of The Pillars of The Earth, you mainly play as one of two characters and briefly play as a third during the prologue. There are seven chapters of varying length. You’ll visit different locations, speak to different people, solve different puzzles and see the world through two different pairs of eyes. During the prologue, you play as a struggling builder who is stranded with his family in the woods during winter. It gets real. Fast. If you’re already in tears at the end of this segment, just hold tight. It’s not all like this.
The real first chapter takes you into the shoes of the main character of book one, Brother Phillip. He’s a faith-oriented, pragmatic, and wise man who comes to visit an old friend at a decaying cathedral. His exact character is in your hands, but in mine, he leaned towards being more kind and open-minded than judgmental of the priory’s situation. I’d really suggest just playing, speaking, and exploring as you see fit through the first round just to see what happens. There’s little truly “right” way to play things. Daedalic Entertainment fabulously made the gameplay feel incredibly natural, and the objectives you have to complete feel fitting. This isn’t Nancy Drew style where all of a sudden you have weird buttons and levers to press to open up some room to something and now it’s not as based in reality as before. No, no. You just talk to people and find out things pretty casually. If you explore everything and talk to everyone, you’re likely to get everything you need to make things progress as they should.
The way you get around large areas, like towns and keeps, ruins the immersion a bit, as you’ll suddenly go from walking around third person to seeing yourself as a little icon on a big map. But overall you always feel like the character you are playing. Chapter one is undoubtedly the longest one to play. By the end, it’ll be sad to leave who you’ve played for easily 5 or 6 hours. If you want a little extra spiritual touch (or were too curious, like I was) use Phillip’s Bible for EVERYTHING. Yep, everything. It’s incredibly well done and ties into who Phillip is a good deal.
Next, you’re introduced to your second main character. As a little redhead named Jack, you live in a cave with your mother and scrape by. From there, you’re thrown into a desperate attempt at survival alongside a family in need as well. It’s a rather sudden change in character and setting but you can adjust quickly. It’s really the only character switch that will feel unnatural in the entire game, which is saying something, because it happens a LOT later on. My favorite bit of this chapter is when Jack hears this creepy as heck noise in the woods (Ya know, in the dark ages when it could be ANYTHING) and is all like” Eh, I’ll just check it out.” My inner paranoid mother was very alive and well in those 5 minutes.
From here, the chapters will vary in length and setting. During which, you’ll pass from character to character rather easily. The story will only get richer and things more intertwined. Stakes get higher, people get more dramatic. You feel things, you want to punch things, and you deal with the consequences of choices in earlier chapters.
The whole experience is very story based, so it’s a little difficult to give a future player a play-by-play review without any sort of spoilers. I would highly recommend not looking at any sort of walkthrough or having any expectations as you go in because the details and the unexpected touches in this game are what really bring The Pillars of the Earth to life.
The Pillars of The Earth reflects a dark, depressing, and incredibly uncertain time in England’s history. When the monarch was up in the air, the church was wavering, and people everywhere are questioning if things are being done right at all. You as the player can see how the dwindling of hope and the people’s’ uncertainty about even the next day impacts everything around them. The story of this game is incredible and is a true historical fiction. There are characters that make see the best in the 12th century and some characters that will remind you that this game is still set in the Dark Ages. There are times you will feel your stomach turn and times that even the smallest bit of light makes everything worth it. It’s so well-written that, maybe just maybe, it was based on a book where the story was the biggest thing that mattered—I know, crazy thought. (Honestly, though, I had the epiphany that it had to be a book once I got done player chapter 3. Look at Sydney doing great research for her reviews. 10 outta 10.
Gameplay wise, The Pillars of the Earth is overall solid. After each chapter, you get an overview of what you did and what choices you made. It really does make you feel like what you did matters, which is becoming a rare feeling amongst “choose your own adventure” games. The story still remains pretty similar, but just enough will change that it’s worth going back and making different choices. You feel incredibly engrossed in the world you’re playing in. Granted, sometimes on bigger maps you have no idea where you are for a moment, but other than that it all feels real.
In terms of what this game not do so well, the graphics are good but not crazily wonderful. The art is truly beautiful at moments, but sometimes you feel like you’re playing a weird medieval episode of Liberty Kids.
There is a character who, in almost 5 minutes, completely angered me. I’ve had few characters get under my skin that much but he was just…oh gracious! If he hadn’t have been handled by the game as well as he was, I genuinely would’ve stopped playing. His constant mistreatment of everyone and his sexually abusive nature would’ve just been too much for me. But I guess he’ll just be a genuinely hateable enemy come book two.
In conclusion, I don’t know how many words can do this game justice, but I loved it. If you love well-told stories or solid adventure games, it is so worth the experience in every way. You will feel, you will almost cry, you’ll feel triumph, and you’ll feel like you’re making a difference in a time long forgotten. The Pillars of the Earth awaits.
