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Pillars 2 tries its best to be *different* from D&D while still relying heavily on the formula set by it. It literally flips the world upside down by taking place on the southern hemisphere of their planet, so the cold expanses are in the south. It gets rid of the tired tropes of orcs and goblins but keeps dwarfs and elves for some reason, but fails to develop these cultures because again, classic fantasy is full of tired tropes! Instead of typical good vs evil, everyone are varying shades of grey, so much so that you won't even like any characters. Instead of sorcerers they have chanters, instead of vampires they have fampyrs and rather than kobolds they have xuarips. Magic Missile? Nah, they've got Minoletta's Missle. This isn't D&D folks!
Deadfire is constantly presenting the player with choices in missions that allow you to roleplay by picking a side, faction or moral outcome. However, almost every time, one choice offers obvious benefits while the other usually offers little to none. It feels like most of the time you are choosing the obviously intelligent route, or the incredibly dumb one. In dialogue options, you are usually given the choice between being peaceful, clever, diplomatic or combative. Not surprisingly combative often leads to fighting, while clever is purely self indulgent, leaving the peaceful or diplomatic results to be the only beneficial outcomes.
A good example is the quest "Overgrowth". Here the player is given the choice between siding with the god Galawain or with the Royal Deadfire company. If you side with Galawain, you get a small stat boost, no items and gain negative reputation with a major faction. If you side with the RDC you get to fight the Kraken, several unique game items, gold and major positive reputation with their faction. This being a video game, of course you want to fight the Kraken! This is a stupid, lopsided choice. The devs could have easily fixed this by letting you fight the Kraken either way by saying something like "Galawain could not control the Kraken's fury!" It's like being given a choice to enjoy oneself at a theme park or stay home and save money.
A connected example, in the quest "Hunting Season" the RDC asks you to eliminate the druids which attack their fort. When you make your way to the druids, they tell you to leave or die. If you have the right stats, the druids will offer you a unique weapon to go kill the Fleetmaster of the RDC, with no alternative. If you do as they ask, you potentially lose a companion and gain an entire faction as an enemy. Conversely, the RDC gives you gold, items and experience while the druids offer you almost nothing. How is this even a choice?
This issue is present in the main story arc in general. The Gods are constantly treating the Watcher like dirt, threatening them and offering absolutely no support on their quest while making demands they resolve the situation with Eothas. We are told from POE1 that their divinity is artificial in origin and that Eothas intends to expose them for what they truly are, parasitic rulers. Yet the story still presents this as a moral dilemma. Do you side with the gods who have treated you like garbage and given you nothing? Or do you seek an alternative. Hmmm...
In D&D terms, we called stories like this that present as good vs evil as good vs "chaotic stupid". A great example from another game is BG3 where the character Laezel comes from a brainwashed, militaristic society. If you follow all her suggestions, which derive from her indoctrination, it quickly leads to your group's ultimate ruin. This is also true for several other characters, but the game offers a redemption arc for all of them. It also clearly enables the player to indulge in an evil, power hungry route if they so choose. But hey, this isn't D&D! POE2 doesn't really offer any such redemption or damnation with the respective goals of salvation or power. Instead if presents a morally grey, political and colonial setting where the player can either make smart choices, or make dumb choices in the interest of roleplay. It feels like Pillars of Eternity is constantly trying to remind you that there are no good guys or bad guys and that every character and decision has multiple tradeoffs. Even if those tradeoffs seem obviously and poorly designed. It reveals the narrative's limitations in that one choice is always smarter than the other. Instead of enjoying a fantasy story about gods and monsters we are left with a fickle world where no one are heroes and the wheel crushes everyone. Imagine if in Lord of the Rings the Elves were portrayed as being a selfish, colonial empire that took over Hobbiton by force in the interest of progress, and the Orcs of Mordor were actually indigenous tribes fighting to reclaim their ancestral land. Wow, isn't the story so much better now that there are no good guys?
For me the design of Pillars 2 really shown through when in a quest you are given the opten to release an imprisoned dragon, Scyorielaphas or leave them enslaved in the interest of the local magic users. If you rescue the dragon, they simply flew away. I was like "That's it?" You don't get to see any destruction in the city. You don't get to fight the magical Watershapers Guild or confront queen Onekaza directly about this evil deed. Instead it was just like... "welp... that's it!" for such a big deal as the story was, the conclusion sure was underwhelming.
The gods in Deadfire go out of their way to make an enemy of the Watcher. Rymrgand tries to kill you at least twice. Magran threatens you directly several times as does Berath. Hylea, Wael and Woedica are much more passive than would be expected given the situation. Galawain's favor is pretty pitiful. I can't think of a single situation where any of the gods endear themselves to the player, yet can think of many times where they threaten them. It leaves the entire premise feeling so thin. "Do you support these cruel, tyrannical gods who have never helped you beyond the very least they could offer to promote their own selfish interest?" Or do you try something else? For a game that really pushed the shades of grey on all sides, there is very, very little white. Honestly by the end of POE2 I'm like, F- everyone. I don't think there is even a single character I like other than Eder.
Finally, there are still a number of broken quests that the devs have never bothered to fix. You can't progress the quest lines because of bugs that are well documented on their forums. So, I can't recommend this game.
Pillars 2 feels like going to a party where you don't even like anyone and the snacks give you food poisoning. You're better off just skipping it.