English Reviews with score:

PC Gamer 92/100

A deep, rich, and wonderfully written RPG that lives up to the towering legacy of the games that inspired it.

Gamewatcher 9.0/10.0

All you really need to know though, is this; Pillars of Eternity is a triumph. If you’re a backer and a fan of those classic Infinity Engine games, you’re in for a real treat, a smart and complex adventure that will keep you entertained and absorbed for possibly the rest of your life, and certainly until the already announced expansion pack comes out. Even those who never got on with those classic games should give it a go, because there’s a tonne of smart design choices in here that smooth out the rough edges that might have kept you away before. A superb introduction to a fascinating new fantasy world. Can’t wait to see where in the world of Eora we get to go next.

The Escapist 5/5

Bottom Line: It's the best new, isometric RPG to come out in years.

PCGamesN 10/10

Obsidian had a daunting task before them: to make a spiritual successor to a series of games that are inextricably tangled up in nostalgia, over a decade after the height of those games’ popularity. This is not the Baldur’s Gate of 2015, it’s Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, the best parts of the lot of them wrapped up in something new and brilliant. And before you venture forth, don’t forget to gather your party.

Dealspwn 9/10

Pillars Of Eternity is a masterpiece and nothing less than essential for anyone who's ever heard of the Infinity Engine. Superbly written, expansive yet rich and detailed, tactical and thought-provoking, it's the sort of roleplaying experience that we've been dreaming about for years.

MMORPG.com 9/10

Is Pillars of Eternity the perfect game? No, but it is an incredibly good one. When fans backed the Kickstarter to the tune of nearly four million dollars, they did so on the promise of Obsidian returning to their roots; more than that, that they would return we RPG players to our roots. By taking cues from the past, Pillars of Eternity bears lessons for future developers. Accessibility is fine, but players learn to love depth. Cutscenes are important, but less so than a well-crafted story. And the world itself should be the reason to explore, not the experience from the 100th bandit. Pillars isn’t perfect, no, but it may just be a modern classic.

Pixel Dynamo 8.8/10

I have few complaints to make, none of which tainted my playthrough in a significant way. Pathfinding can sometimes be an issue (as has always been the case with Infinity Engine games), with party members failing to find an obvious route through other characters. Items could also be a messy business, the unlimited stores of your cache becoming full with page after page of cheap items to be sold wholesale at the nearest merchant. Unfortunately merchant pages would then display all of these items in case you wanted to re-buy them, making the process of collection and exchange unnecessarily annoying. Finally, there are a series of difficulty spikes in the early sections of the game which even a vet like myself found difficult to overcome. Though in honesty these are minor dents in PoE’s suit of alluringly polished armor that I forgive with ease. Everything promised has been delivered in a labour of love that proves how deserving Obsidian was of such an outpouring of faith.

thekillerbits 7/8 (Video Review)

It's a deep, often times serious fantasy world full of unforgiving enemies and traps. But every so often when exploring the world you'll find a glimmer of detail that shows just how much love, dedication and passion went into this game.

IGN 9/10

Obsidian (and its Kickstarter backers) have done it: Pillars of Eternity is one of the best RPGs since Baldur's Gate.

English Reviews without score:

Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s a triumph. A wonderful, enormous and spellbinding RPG, gloriously created in the image of BioWare’s Infinity classics, but distinctly its own. A classic in every sense.

Super Bunnyhop Video Review

The Pillars of Eternity stand as a stellar reminder of a forgotten genre and an inspiring beacon of what could come in the future.

PCWorld

What I'm saying in way-too-many words is this: Obsidian has a reputation for crafting fantastic RPGs, and deservedly so. Pillars of Eternity is, as far as I'm concerned, Obsidian at its best ever.

Videogamer

The game Obsidian always wanted to make, and the result is its finest work.

Eurogamer

Pillars of Eternity is the Baldur's Gate 3 we never got, returning to the Infinity Engine style of role-playing with flair.

Wired

Love it or leave it: That’s the disposition of this sort of fantasy world-building exercise. All I can tell you is that Pillars of Eternity is hitting all its marks with me so far—and as a guy who’s lost all interest in the entire D&D enterprise, that’s saying something.

Reviews in other languages:

Swedish FZ.se 5/5

A vibrant and rich world.

PC Games Germany 91/100

Russian IGN 10/10

Anyone can promise to create a new classic. Obsidian fulfills their promise.

Polish GryOnline 9.5/10

Pillars of Eternity is not only tribute to Black Isle's games, it is also full-fledged continuation and development of old ideas. Obsidian used known pattern to create something new, unique and in many ways superior to its legendary predecessors.

Norwegian Gamer.no 8/10

Spanish Meristation 9.3/10

German Gamestar 92/100

Metacritic Current Meta Score: 92