Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part 2

This is a decent expansion but, sadly, not as good as its predecessor. It adds a new companion, new quests, and some nice conveniences but trips itself up by spinning a muddled yarn whose threads go off in all directions. The good is what you notice first. Spell Mastery allows classes expanded access to their core abilities, and new rest bonuses give you things such as better healing and damage reduction. New side quests let you revisit familiar locations and explore new ones and introduce you to a new barbarian companion along the way. But her appearance signals the start of the not-so-good parts of the game. The barbarian just isn't all that interesting gameplay-wise, especially if you already have a barbarian in your party, and her backstory is unremarkable. Her quest represents an unnecessary side step off the main narrative path, and, as such, it's like a lot of what you do in this expansion.

The overall story is oddly disjointed, made of interesting pieces that just don't add up to a cohesive whole. Perhaps emblematic of this disconnection is the way the expansion fits into the main game -- or doesn't. If you've finished the main game's quests, you have to load a special pre-ending save file provided by Obsidian Entertainment or start over completely. It's totally possible to delete this save file, and once you do, you have no choice but to restart. Fortunately, the new super-easy Storytime Mode can help you execute a replay at warp speed; that's really good news, since despite being a bit all over the place, this current chapter is worth experiencing -- but mainly if you're a fan of the original game or first White March installment.