Pillars of Eternity [Gameplay #2] - A Thayn on Both Your Houses
0I just finished an early side quest and not only was it lengthy, varied and challenging; it also included genuine player choice as well as moral ambiguity in spades. Exploring the main quest location could be accomplished in a number of ways - including different points of entry and choices between lethal and non-lethal approaches - and before reaching the boss encounter there were several important NPCs which the player could interact with and by doing so change the trajectory of the side story substantially. While all of the characters were morally compromised in their own way, each of them provided a new perspective which made the conflict seem less straightforward than it had initially seemed. In the end, I honestly didn't know which side to trust.
However, designing open-ended gameplay without inadvertently breaking something clearly isn't an easy task. An annoying bug threatened to wipe out my progress, and despite getting past that bug I eventually did have to return to an earlier save anyway when I found myself unable to complete the quest without certain skills which my party lacked. This unfortunate failstate was the result of a particular set of choices which, taken together, seemed to make it impossible for me to either make further progress or exit the current dungeon and return later. Oh well, knowing the layout of the place at least helped to speed up the process considerably the second time around...