For once my source material “expertise” comes second hand because in this particular case with Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth I actually have not read the original book, but instead watched the TV show based on it. Comparing that to this game adaptation I noticed quite a few beats they seem to share between each other. I wouldn't say latter was styled after former, though. My assumption would be strong source material influence can be be felt on both takes, so let's dig in proper.

It is the 12th century – the Anarchy. Not just any, mind you. Specifically the period in England's history where there was an ongoing succession crisis over who would inherit the throne and continued fighting between Stephen of Blois against Empress Maude escalated. You would assume this would make for mere backdrop to game's events, but as the years go on the cast becomes more and more involved with it alongside their own problems. What are those? Well, there are multiple POVs to the story and even with their eventual convergence there's quite a bit to process and it is important to do precisely that considering characters are this game's chief asset.

While there are quite a few notable characters in Pillars of the Earth there are three protagonists we take control of: Philip who will largely be dealing with the Priory situation and getting the cathedral [eventually] built, Aliena as she stands in for the nobility angle and tries to fulfill her oath and lastly Jack, an outcast kid before a run-in with fate eventually turns him down a builder and sets him on a path of his own. Like I said above all three of these essentially have their own arcs that will eventually end up together seeing as their interests and problems become one and the same. On the flip-side you also have the antagonists who are not as well defined, though. Hamleighs in particular are simply another family of greedy nobility who come into conflicts our protagonists because they get in their way and due to “who supports whom?” political background in the country. Bishop Waleran could make a viable central villain, but he's simply not present enough to garner such interest. Then again maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way because the way characters are portrayed makes them fall more on the believable side – they're all flawed and have actual agendas. This is not the kind of game where everything orbits around player's choices and such. These people have backgrounds, quirks and stories of their own you're a participating spectator and have a hand in when it comes to making choices that don't necessarily cascade as much as you'd expect them to.

This inevitably takes me to the game's story. Don't worry for I won't go into spoilers, but it is worth noting how the game's source material seems to rear its head here. There's no other way to put this than to say structure is somewhat atypical because it doesn't exactly adhere to typical formula you'd expect from video game storytelling. There's no seemingly mandatory three-act structure for each of the three “books” game is divided into, and further into individual chapters within those, as each seems intent to work on its own and is fully aware of what preceded and proceeds it. Probably the benefit of working with completed material to draw from. You should also be mindful of the fact this means certain things told or hinted at the very beginning will get callbacks or play vital roles towards the very finale, though. Key events from distant past loosely related to the main cast will be brought back which is thankfully not a problem in practicality because the game does not expect you to do much detective work on your own.

As far as gameplay is concerned I really wish I could tell you something don't already know, but this is a point & click adventure when you get to basics. Continuing modern trends there's barely any tangible puzzles present, but I've come to expect that with continual shifts more towards pure “story experiences” or whatever kids say these days. I did like how Daedalic varies it up, though. Not so much with annoyingly timed QTEs which are, thankfully, used sparingly for appropriately context sensitive actions. Good variety inclusions would be stuff like overland map travel actually being visually represented and you often get to choose the course of action when presented with such. Naturally, this is a fixed narrative and yet you can make “mistakes” by simply making bad calls. Especially in Book Two where I evidently did everything wrong leading to a major character death. He was substituted with a replacement game established earlier as a safety net, though. Dialog definitely plays a much larger role than you'd expect from a classical adventure game Pillars of the Earth is styled after versus genre's “new wave” spawned from Telltale formula. Also worth noting is while it's never made a big deal of choices definitely matter. Once you remove the “X will remember that” pretentiousness you embrace this feature as something naturally present so you don't stress out over what ramifications it may have. And it does have plenty, but game is not playing pretend to be a Choose Your Own Adventure kind of structure. There is a fixed story here that waits to be told you get to tinker with it to a certain degree.

Visuals are usually something I point out if they're notably bad, but this time I'll say game looks amazing. Those hand drawn backgrounds are breathtakingly gorgeous and looking back on some of Daedalic's other games you can see their artists make a damn fine job of it. What I was less impressed by was how characters move across these backgrounds. Because they're both 2D assets you get this resizing, rotating and shuffling they make as move because they're supposed on the backgrounds. I'm not sure whether going with 3D characters would've worked out of the better because there are moments it looks awkward. Makes for great still shots, though. Soundtrack is equally as impressive seeing how grounded it is in setting-appropriate choice of tracks. Chanting and strings never get old and can convey everything from ominous to folk songs meant to raise good cheer.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

I'm surprised by how authentic it tries to be for the most part; the way marriage, church heresy, absolution of sins, etc are treated is certain not phoned-in. Being sort of familiar with the material I also appreciated the somewhat atypical plot structure it employed compared to usual video game trappings. You don't have to end with a stinger every time to hook the audience. Major props for not really going with emotional manipulation the way Telltale did with their series' and characters who seem to be grounded as well as believable. Penultimate chapter was way too rushed in my opinion, though. Some elements, like Alfred and Waleran's fate, are kinda glossed over after you do a brainstorming session to figure out basically everything game built up to, perhaps too subtly at certain points.