Pillars of Eternity - The White March Part I DLC

This review will be for both the White March - Parts I & II since I played them back to back. This Expansion is good, get both of them. If you liked Pillars of Eternity, this is everything good about it, and arguably better in parts. I had no expectations before playing. Literally the only thing I knew was that it was called the White March, and no idea what might be in it. So I was pleasantly surprised that the main stories for both parts are very well-done, and especially Part II's main narrative had a genuine 'Oh shit' moment that was just executed perfectly when you start to realize what the new threat is. The expansions come with some new mechanics and things that are fine, and an interesting alternative to regular enchanted weapons/gear, but nothing especially groundbreaking. As it has been for me in Pillars of Eternity, the actual gameplay/mechanics are fine, but what I care about is the narrative, which thankfully is very good here, both the main and the side. The companions that it comes with are also pretty good, though some are more interesting than others. I played through the entire narrative with all three as soon as I could, with the expectation that they would have the most to say about what happens. Having done this, I can say that you don't need to do this if you don't want to. With the exception of one companion in Part II, they really...aren't tied strongly to the main narrative. It's genuinely more significant to bring Sagani to the White Forge over any of the others. So, take who you actually want. The base game companions have plenty to say too. All said, this was an excellent experience that adds a solid 8-10 hours, along with some of the hardest fights in the game, even on Normal. It was an exploration of a different part of the setting, that did come back to some familiar - and the most interesting - elements of the setting. Very well done.

Yeah it's pretty good. Doesn’t reach the same highs as White March 2 and it sort of awkwardly stumbles around with its odd integration into the main story, but it’s still a decent-great questline with great exploration. Where I think it stumbles the most is in its meager attempt at flowing nicely with the main quest. You’re supposedly interested in going to Stalwart because of the Leaden Key being reported there, but that entire plot point is kind of dropped anti-climatically in that snoozer ogre section. You read one note an hour into the dlc, the Leaden Key going to the White March were all killed, hooray, the DLC is now completely disconnected from the main story and its apparent urgency. Which is fine, I guess, you have to suspend your disbelief for all side quests that don’t exactly take into account the narrative pressure. Gameplay narrative dissonance, or whatever, it’s fine, you get to breach into an ancient dwarven battery whose previous owners died in mysterious circumstances. That’s a pretty fun (but not entirely unique premise) to the point where I think you can overlook how awkward its inclusion is. In terms of the main quest and the gameplay of white march one, it’s definitely more centered around the exploration of the white march itself than the high stakes setpieces in white march 2. And you’re given some pretty enjoyable areas to explore; I’m a big fan of Stalwart, this dying mining town, which feels extremely unique compared to Gilded Vale or Dyrford. The Russelwood is one of the biggest maps in the game and has quite a lot of encounters packed into it, although those are of varying quality. Longwatch falls is kind of painful with its CC spamming lagufeth, but it was pretty dense on things to do as well; that dragon was definitely a highlight of WM1. The area surrounding Durgan’s Battery was stretched pretty thin, but being able to walk around for a while without getting ganked by lagufeth was cathartic. Like the base game, the maps and landscapes in the expansion felt beautiful and cozy in a sort of nostalgic way. WM1 had a higher quantity of side content than WM2, and for the most part, it felt to be a higher quality too. Most of it flowed very nicely once you got into Stalwart as you got involved in the problems of the townsfolk. The Readceran slave catcher quest was a highlight and the fake Ondra worshipper quest was kind of a low point. It felt kind of silly and poorly paced, and there was no reactivity from either Maneha or the general townsfolk, who I would imagine would be concerned at a newcomer killing everyone at their local place of worship. There are four bounties in WM1 too, which feel like pretty lazy content. The way the bounty giver guy was explaining the targets made me pretty excited. A group of Berath worshippers who believe the best way to worship them is to kill as many people as possible? Sounds like you could have a pretty interesting conversation with them. And I thought I did, too; there was a group of violent Berath worshippers out in the Russetwood who I held a pretty interesting conversation with. Turns out they were completely unrelated, the real Berath bounty query just attacks you on sight, along with all the other bounties. I was hoping that that would’ve been a product of Caed Nua’s kickstarter fatigue, that once they had more funding for the dlc they would’ve made more interesting bounties along with more voice acting and portraits. It’s a small tragedy but one I find myself getting irrationally angry about. The main quests, as I said before, don’t reach the heights they will in WM2, but they’re still pretty good. The ogre attack on Stalwart followed by the burning house scene is a pretty compelling hook into the DLC, although the rest of the ogre subplot goes out with a whimper. The “flame that whispers” tribe is hyped up to be this big faction and you’re gaslighted into thinking there’s some great choice to be made here, that if you kill the ogres, you might bring greater suffering onto Stalwart. It ends up not being that, “Flame that whispers” does not end up being a faction you can gain reputation with (despite being able to be called on in Yenwood Field, something that goes for all the white march pseudo-factions) and you just kind of kill them while also wrapping up the Leaden Key’s involvement in the White March pretty unsatisfyingly; there’s no big ogre retribution onto Stalwart as you were warned and Rennengild doesn’t seem that enthused by them being dead. The quality of the other main quests is much higher, I think. The dungeon under Galvino’s house is pretty entertaining, and I was glad that Galvino turned out to be an upstanding citizen you could have a conversation with. Going around Stalwart and reading people’s souls was pretty neat too, there was some interesting lore for some of them. The moral greyness for your choice of who to awaken would’ve been a little more compelling if these had been more prominent characters you were choosing between, not a random hermit and cleaning lady who hadn’t had anything to say to you before this point, but I liked it in concept. Exploring Durgan’s Battery, however, makes up for most of the misgivings I have with the rest of the questline. I thought Moria was pretty great in Lord of the Rings, and this is another dwarven civilization destroyed by their own hubris combined with an unknowable force, so it’s also pretty great. I loved piecing together what happened to the Pargrunean and I felt it struck up a pretty good balance between combat exploration and dialogue. It felt like what could’ve been with the endless paths of Od Nua, had they not been a product of hubris (kickstarter stretch goals) themselves. There were a lot of interesting puzzles and loot in the Battery, and the final conversation with the dwarves, although it was not nearly as powerful as the final discussion with the eyeless, was still pretty good. The companions added in WM1 are much better than poor Maneha in WM2. Zahua felt like he easily could’ve been a base game companion, he had a surprising amount of dialogue and reactivity outside the bounds of the DLC. Really quite glad he got the amount of content and attention that he did, he’s like a less assholeish variant of Durance. Loved his malcachoa related banter, loved him talking in the third person, loved his unique philosophy and culture, loved him etc etc. The true genius of Zahua and his story would not be realized until WM2, so I won’t comment on that here. As for companions who had their stories wrapped up in WM1, there’s Devil of Caroc. I liked her character and quest a good amount. Cold Morn had been mentioned by someone near the start of the game, good job on the writing Obsidian, please keep it up. Anyway, the Devil felt like a Planescape Torment companion in how out there they were compared to all the other companions, being a robot and all, but her story was still pretty grounded and well done, although it ended really quickly. She deserved to have her story expanded into WM2 like Zahau’s, have her figure out what to do with herself and Galvino, but oh well. If she was in Deadfire she would be classified as a sidekick, because she really doesn’t have any content outside of WM1. 7.5/10 good dungeon, good exploration, good zahua, held back by some mediocre quests

WM1 is a very vivid expansion, glittering with plenty of side content and world-building.. alleviating most shortcomings of the main questline that lead to WM2. the first arc is just a little short, but this comes with plenty of side content and small stories that i much more prefer. the two new companions are very fun and give plenty voice-acted insight on surrounding events. my mistake was waiting to play the WM expansions after doing ALL of the base game content (side quests, exploration, etc.), just before the endgame point of no return. this has nothing to do with difficulty scaling, i just would have much more enjoyed integrating the WM journey and these companions alongside the main quest. in replays, i will be playing WM much sooner in my playthroughs and i suggest trying it out when you feel ready or interested rather than waiting until endgame. i can see this style fitting naturally in any playthrough. alone WM1 is satisfying, but i'm looking forward to playing WM2!