Pillars of Eternity II gets turn-based mode as free update

Tomorrow we'll get the chance to play the game in a totally different way, following on from the launch in May last year.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire was released all the way back in May of last year, but now players have a big change coming tomorrow. This is none other than the choice between real-time or turn-based, which as you can imagine changes the way you experience the game dramatically.

Of course this means rejigging the UI and changing all of the encounters throughout the game, things director Josh Sawyer says "change how the game is played tremendously" when he spoke to PCGamesN.

"As time goes on, no matter how good the DLC or expansions are, the attachment rate goes down pretty sharply," he adds. "If you release content a year after the game comes out, it usually doesn't matter how good it is."

Sawyer also explains that it's a good way to give clarity in what the players are doing, as some were getting overwhelmed with what was going on.

"It's a big game, so if you've played it for 40 or 80 hours it can be hard to jump back in, even if you have a really cool new character concept you want to try out," he explains. "Hitman has its special modes that add new challenges, like Escalations - it's playing through the same mechanics but there are new constraints on you. Stuff like that rewards the people who have already established system mastery. It's not like they have to throttle the knowledge they have, but it shapes their mind a little bit so they have to engage with it in a new way."

By going turn-based this is reminiscent of old-school RPGs and changes the way you can approach fights, since you can stop and assess the action and use different strategies as opposed to the faster real-time option.

Let's not forget either that The Forgotten Sanctum DLC has only just been released for the game as well, so there's no shortage of reasons to jump in and experience Obsidian's RPG right now.

Will you choose turn-based?