In a move that absolutely nobody had on their 2025 bingo card, Obsidian Entertainment has patched turn-based combat into Pillars of Eternity on PC - a game that launched back in 2014. According to Eurogamer, the classic old-school RPG has just received a brand new combat mode more than 11 years after its original release.
This is the kind of update that makes you check the calendar twice. Pillars of Eternity originally shipped with real-time-with-pause combat, a staple of the classic Infinity Engine RPG formula - think Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Icewind Dale, you know the drill. Adding turn-based on top of that is basically Obsidian handing the game a legendary item drop more than a decade into its playthrough.
The BG3 effect is real and it's spectacular
Look, we're all thinking it. Baldur's Gate 3 ate the RPG world alive and suddenly every classic CRPG is scrambling to offer the turn-based experience that Larian basically made mainstream again. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire actually added a turn-based mode back in 2019, so Obsidian clearly knows how to do this - they just took their sweet time bringing it to the original game.
For veteran players who've already sunk hundreds of hours into PoE, this is essentially a New Game Plus mode you never knew you needed. A whole new way to experience all those carefully crafted encounters, now with the satisfying tactical crunch of proper turn order. Your party of six carefully optimized adventurers just got a completely different combat identity.
Should you boot it back up?
If you bounced off Pillars of Eternity back in the day because the real-time combat felt like trying to conduct an orchestra while someone set the concert hall on fire, this patch might genuinely be your reason to give it another shot. The writing is some of the best in the genre, the world-building is dense enough to drown in, and now you can actually think about what you're doing in combat without pausing every three seconds like a nervous intern.
The update is available now on PC, per Eurogamer. Obsidian quietly dropping a major gameplay overhaul for a game from 2014 is either the most wholesome thing in gaming this year or a sign that the simulation is glitching - either way, we're here for it.
