Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth Review – Medieval Storytelling by Daedalic
During the course of the game we can admire the various stages of construction of the cathedral, always meaningfully embedded in the story
© Daedalic Entertainment GmbH
Let's start with a short introduction to the story, which is the heart of this game. We are in the deepest winter of a snowy forest of medieval England in the 12th century. Tom Builder, his heavily pregnant wife and their two children are resting there. We get water, eat the last remaining food and talk about how to proceed. The family has hit rock bottom as Tom Builder can't find a job; partly through his own fault, it is his big dream to build a cathedral as a master builder. After he finally admitted that evening that he would now accept any assignment for the sake of his family, his wife suddenly went into labor. The child is born, but the mother dies. Dying, Tom Builder's wife reflects on their memorable past and insists he pursue his dream of building a cathedral after all. Through a combination of various circumstances, he was soon able to actually tackle this project in the small town of Kingsbridge. From then on, the cathedral and its construction process is the secret protagonist of this story.
Tom Builder is just one of several main characters whose skin we slip into as the game progresses . Another of these is the monk Phillip, who is made prior of the monastery at Kingsbridge early in the story. In addition, the talented Jack and his mother Ellen, who are considered "outlaws", i.e. lepers and criminals, and find a home in Kingsbridge. Or Aliena, the former count's daughter; this was overthrown, after which his family lost their social status. Aliena sees Kingsbridge as her chance to gradually regain her former rank. They all try to survive in times of political upheaval, poverty and famine and to create a symbol of cohesion and belief in goodness with the construction of Kingsbridge and the Cathedral.
The characters have been designed with great attention to detail, as have the numerous environments
© Daedalic Entertainment GmbH
As players, we live through the developments and changes of the place and the characters, we but also get to know other places, cultures and people. The character developments are particularly impressive: Prior Phillip turns away from a "classic" understanding of religion over the course of the story, instead developing a particularly progressive interpretation of it and is celebrated for it by society, but ostracized by the church. Aliena is a strong female character who is always torn between social conventions and her strong and independent character. The antagonists, on the other hand, are staged a little flatter, mostly striving for power and wealth, such as William Hamleigh, whose family overthrew Aliena's. In addition, we are also confronted with the deaths of characters we have grown fond of served, but without difficult combination puzzles, so that the gameplay remains quite undemanding throughout. It's more about immersing yourself in medieval England and the stories of the characters. Aside from a few quick-time events, the right action steps have to be processed and questions asked. Here we explore smaller open areas, talk to the characters, optionally solve smaller tasks and make supposedly important decisions; some of these actually have an impact on the dialogue in later chapters.
The game is divided into three main parts, called "books", each of which contains a few chapters are subdivided. Originally the three books were released separately, one after the other, but the version on the Nintendo Switch gives you the full and finished game. By the way, if you expect the humor typical of Daedalic, you will be rather disappointed here. It is serious, almost depressing, material reminiscent of a modern series with a complex story. This impression is reinforced by the fact that each of the three books begins with a recurring intro that captures the mood of the series musically and staging by contrasting motifs from nature and architecture. Although the story is fictional, it uses true historical events and presents current events and the social conditions of the time quite realistically. The game is accompanied by an orchestral soundtrack that fits in harmoniously. All dialogues and most of the texts in the game are also read out in the form of a German dubbed version.
When we travel to other places in a flash, the story is often in the form of set to music Told in texts and illustrations
© Daedalic Entertainment GmbH
In addition to the well-told story and the character development, the strengths of the title also include the visual staging. The game looks hand-drawn due to the two-dimensional style. While more of the story takes place in Kingsbridge, so we revisit this place in numerous chapters, the depiction of different seasons and changes of this place over the decades keeps you coming and exploring this setting. Also, the characters will grow up and age as the story progresses; all of this is graphically presented so successfully that I was able to immerse myself deeply in their biography and at the end look back wistfully on their career. Despite the serious subject matter, the game is not presented in a dreary manner; the story begins in the colorless winter, but the flora-friendly months in particular are colourful, beautiful and always drawn with great attention to detail. Even the less important characters have a distinctive appearance here, so that you can recognize them after one of the numerous time jumps , there were some very annoying bugs. For example, moving through the first chapter, I suddenly found myself in a misrepresentation of the prologue after changing map sections; a very odd game bug that however required me to start the game over from the beginning as I was stuck in the prologue again even after a reload. From then on, I regularly saved the game manually. A couple of times I've also encountered the error of starting a dialogue and getting stuck in it; the interlocutor simply refused to answer and I was caught in the situation. A simple restart was enough in this case, since the game often buffers. In addition, individual characters sometimes disappeared briefly in dialogues, but popped up again. Depiction errors like these didn't prevent progress, but they do interrupt the immersion for a short time. Until then, I was able to experience important social upheavals, military conflicts and their most important stages of life together with the characters, as well as the construction process of the cathedral. You have to find out for yourself whether the mighty structure could be completed. Even if the story came to a meaningful conclusion despite all the adversities, I still have the feeling that I would have liked to have experienced more with the characters I grew fond of.
