Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth

*Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth* was one of the most absorbing and emotionally affecting adventure games I’ve played. I came to it with fairly low expectations. My previous experiences with Daedalic had been mixed: some of their games felt visually appealing but emotionally shallow, others too childish or irritating for my taste. *The Pillars of the Earth* felt completely different. Set in 12th-century England, it follows the people whose lives become intertwined with the construction of a cathedral in Kingsbridge. On paper, that may not sound like the most thrilling premise for a game. In practice, it becomes a sprawling human drama about ambition, faith, poverty, power, cruelty, survival and love. The real strength of the game is its characters. Over the course of its 21 chapters, divided into three “books,” you follow several protagonists through years of upheaval. Their lives intersect with nobles, clergy, craftsmen and ordinary people, and the game does a remarkable job of making the period feel harsh, unstable and deeply human. It is also much more mature than I expected from Daedalic. The story deals with violence, political manipulation, religious power and pers…

This is not so much a game about building a cathedral as it is a story about the people whose lives gradually become intertwined around it. At first, you simply follow individual characters and their problems, but over time their stories begin to cross paths, and everything starts to come together into one bigger picture. Don't expect difficult puzzles or a huge amount of freedom in your choices. The real focus here is on the characters, atmosphere and story. And I think the game works best when you simply accept your decisions and move on, without trying to figure out which option is the “right” one. You accept the consequences and see where the story takes you. The game is quite slow-paced, but if you let it tell its story at its own pace, it gradually draws you in. And at some point, you simply want to find out what happens to these people next.

Sadly, I can't recommend this game. Unfortunately, after accidentally closing the game during a cutscene, my game completely broke. Since then, I’ve had black screens, cutscenes triggering at random times, cutscenes from much later in the game playing too early and spoiling parts of the story and even cutscenes getting stuck and never continuing. I’ve already tried reinstalling the game, but nothing fixed the problem. It’s honestly really sad because I really wanted to keep playing and was having a great time. I hope there’s a fix for this, because otherwise this would easily be a 10/10 game for me.

great

While I would prefer more than most basic of decisionmaking, it is a nice game with great story ... based on a great TV series.

hooly moly