Two of PC gaming's most keyboard-and-mouse-looking RPGs have just made friends with the gamepad. Obsidian has opened a public test on Steam that adds full controller support to Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.
RPG Site notes that both games reached consoles, but that the PC versions never got controller support. According to the announcement Obsidian posted on Steam, you can now play either game with a controller from character creation to the end credits. That includes Deadfire's naval combat, and it works in both Real-Time with Pause and Turn-Based Mode. Deadfire's scheme builds on the console editions, and if you get homesick for a mouse and keyboard, you can pick them up at any time and the game follows along.
How to join the test
This is a beta branch, so you have to opt in. Obsidian's steps on Steam go like this:
- Open the game's Properties in your Steam Library.
- Go to the Betas tab and choose the branch called
public_betafrom the dropdown. - Close the window and let the download start. If the update doesn't appear, restart Steam.
Steam Deck owners have one extra job. As Obsidian's post explains, reproduced by RPG Site, you open the game's controller settings, open the layout selector, and under Templates choose "Gamepad with Joystick Trackpad", or "Gamepad" if that one isn't listed.
Expect some rough edges
Obsidian isn't hiding the state of it: "This is a public test, so please expect bugs." The studio says the test "will run for some time" as it keeps updating ahead of a full release, and it wants feedback through its support site and Discord. PC Gamer reports that the test runs until November 25, a date Obsidian's own post doesn't give, so treat that as PC Gamer's detail for now.
PC Gamer spent a limited time with the games on Steam Deck and came away impressed. It reports a couple of misaligned gamepad prompts and a very slight awkwardness with analogue movement.
Deadfire's turn-based mode gets a rework
The controller is the headline, but Deadfire players get something meatier. Obsidian says its Turn-Based Mode has been reworked with the improvements made for the first game's version: turns now follow each character's speed, combat is more lethal, and swapping weapons or drinking potions no longer costs your action. You can also switch Turn-Based Mode on or off during a playthrough, RPG Site's copy of the announcement says, and the update brings a long list of fixes across combat, quests, audio and the interface.
The patches are numbered 1.3.10.0 for Pillars of Eternity and 5.1.0.0 for Deadfire, according to PC Gamer, which describes the first game's update as mostly smoothing out minor bugs with the interface and its recently added turn-based mode.
Riley's take: There's something delightful about a pair of very wordy, very menu-heavy RPGs quietly becoming couch games years after launch. A Steam Deck is a natural home for a long, pausable party RPG, and being able to swap between pad and mouse at will means nobody has to give up the old way to try the new one.
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