Recent reviews by Shang

Yeeeaah finally

It's amazing!! absolute great atmosphere and the graphics are actually way better than they look on screenshots to be honest. I refunded because of time constraints. I will probably buy it again later :)

Yeah was fun the first few hours. Quickly gets boring tbh.

The thing that bothers me most is the graphics. Everything looks blurry. only if I set it to 200% it looks sharp then but it kills my poor gfx card :)

Going back to Assetto Corsa, Automobilista, RFactor. At least I get sharp grafics there and a better framerate.

Lovin it. So much more gear choices. And good new graphics on top! insta buy

Two years of trying out various sims. This one currently is my favourite.

Pros:
- The best FFB. Even with the recent AMS2 updates, rFactor's cars still feel the most alive of them all.
- The most complete Endurance grid (DLC content). It's the only game where you have 6 current or last gen GTE cars, up-to-date LMP2, LMP3's, and a large grid of GT3's (not as many as ACC or RRR though)
- BTCC cars (DLC again). Amazing to drive. These FWD cars are a breath of fresh air.
- The only supported sim with licensed Sebring & Le Mans on pc
- a 2021 version of Zandvoort (!!!)
- able to tweak practically anything that you like or don't like
- remove cars & tracks from the game that you don't like
- mod support
- new dlc content every 3 months
- good graphics

Cons:
- so difficult to understand at the start. Like when I started I only had one car available....
- older tracks of poorer quality
- expensive dlc content (but not as expensive as iracing! :))
- dlc acquisition & packaging not up-to steam standards
- slower loading times than other sims
- not for beginners (because of the more complicated UI), start with ACC or AMS2

This is the best thing I've played in years to be honest. Easy to get in to, and you get attached to your characters in no time and see them grow up. It's amazing and I can't believe nobody ever thought to make this game earlier.

If you're looking for a great CRPG with real-time-w-pause (rtwp) combat, you won't be disappointed by this one.

Score: 9/10


If you're being held back by being undecided on wheter to play turn-based or real-time-w-pause. Don't, turns out there's a console command to switch mid game if you don't like your option. I started turn-based but I was 60 hours into the game and I hadn't scratched the surface of the game yet so I switched. Battles in rtwp are much faster than the turn-based ones. However the turn-based battles teach you more about the skills you have and you learn to appreciate them better. The game originally wasn't designed for turn based and it shows, too many time consuming battles which otherwise only take a few minutes.

Anyway the game itself. I never understood why Pillars II never reached the sales numbers of any of its competitors. But I have a few theories now.
1. the first pillars had a lot of npcs with text that didn't matter to the story (backer stories) and it confused a lot of ppl, and maybe they got turned off of the franchise in total.
2. The setting and history is not easy to understand. There are a lot of similar factions with different agendas, a lot of placenames and history names with difficult to remember names, and it took me a while to get into this world. But it pays off in the end.
3. The fantasy aspect is sometimes hard to find. It's a game about colonization imo. It wasn't until endgame until I thought: NOW I'm in a fantasy world.

All in all. It's a world you learn to appreciate once you understand what all the factions are about. And it do helps if you've played the first game.

Tried it last year and really wanted this to work out but gave up soon after.
One year later after reading some newbie guides I tried again. Found a good beginners build and decided to read all lore related things. Just completed act 1 and I'm having a blast. Way more fun than D3 ever was.

There hasn't been a game on Steam since Crusader Kings II & Skyrim that grabbed my attention as much as this one did. I keep returning to it, it's very immersive, engaging. Easy to learn, hard to master!

Great relaxing game! just explore & discover!

(it only takes a little more than 2 hours, but that's exactly how long it should be!)

my 2 year old kid preferred to watch me playing this over watching his favourite Minions movie!

if you like to play a relaxing game before going to sleep at night, buy!