Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth - Book One Reviews
It could be named as an interactive book. If you have read the novel, then it might be of your interest. Otherwise it could bore you. It has a slow gameplay and little action, but it has a compelling story that makes you care about the characters and their future.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While the story can be slow-going due to the sluggish gameplay and technical limitations causes graphical headaches, this is a great way to introduce new people to the wonderful story.
All in all, The Pillars of the Earth: Book One - From the Ashes is an excellent story-driven point-and-click adventure that mostly knows what its audience wants. This is reflected in the good gameplay and storytelling, and we hope some of the minor flaws and gripes will be addressed in books two and three, which will be released at the end of the year and in the first quarter 2018, respectively.
Pillars of the Earth is a great game for anyone who likes the slow process of constructing a cathedral—for anyone else, you might get bored.
In total, there are three chairs: the first is a book, the second is a mini series, the third game. And what can I say, all three, quite comfortable to sit in, not read the book, but they say it's great. It all depends on you what you prefer more, the book, the series or the game, all of them single story, almost certainly, most likely, the book is better, but the first episode of the game completely follows the Canon, offering the player an interesting and exciting plot, an excellent graphic style. The game will be divided into three books, each of them will be in seven chapters. Perhaps this is one of the most interesting adventure over the past few years, which is interesting to observe the dialogue and plot development. It even has its own splash screen is not worse than the serial counterpart. Excellent adaptation of the novel by Ken Follet will not leave anyone indifferent!
Review in Russian | Read full review
One of the better examples of a book-to-game adaptation.
The Pillars of the Earth has its mechanical flaws, and it doesn't translate seamlessly from medium to medium due to technological constraints, but that aside it's a truly gorgeous experience. The art, music, and voice acting all come together as one to blend this story into one that transcends the pages upon which it was originally written, making it a very unique and interesting experience.
The Pillars of the Earth is a stupendous adaptation of Ken Follet's novel to videogames. A graphic adventure that captures our attention and immerse ourselves in an era of betrayals, desires to fulfill, misery and great ambitions. All of this in a Middle Ages recreated with fidelity.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Book 1 has introduced enough compelling characters and conflict that I am actually very eager to play Book 2 when it is available later this year.
The first episode of Pillars of the Earth is a decent prologue of a promising adventure game series. We'll see what the other two episodes will have to offer.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
I hope there will be an improvement with the interactive features of the game for the next instalment as I am really looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds. However, if not, then I may lose interest in completing the entire game and just read the original book instead.
The Pillars of the Earth is an adaptation of the best-selling homonymous novel by Ken Follet, set in a historical period of civil war in the 12th century England. With over a thousand pages of story to tell, the game is divided into three books, this being the first. It is practically an interactive novel, allowing the player to have a proactive involvement in the story by controlling three of their characters and making decisions about how they respond and act, thus shaping their personality. This will likely modify the story, but that is yet to be proven on the next books. Despite being packed with a lot of political and religious intrigues, the game has a very slow pace in the dialogues and actions of the characters, which hopefully may be improved in the future.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
If you are the type that engages in video games for the quick thrill, then Pillars will probably drive you crazy and you should stir away. However, if you are fine with the other extreme, do not mind lack of arcade style challenges and are willing to take your time, then Pillars offers the depth and the learning experience that mere mortal books cannot deliver. Speaking for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience Pillars had provided me with for that very reason.
As much as it kills me, I’m hooked on The Pillars of the Earth’s story. There are two more episodes and if they build a story as well and fill it full of great characters I’ll definitely play it, as much as it tests my patience.
The Pillars of the Earth is a masterpiece that was challenging to review because the reviewer unexpectedly fell in love. And if you love stories, feels, or time well spent- you will too.
The marriage of historical context, politics, intrigue, and tight adventure mechanics make The Pillars of the Earth an easy recommendation for fans of narrative-based games. It might even make you want to read the book!
While the slow movement speed drags things out, Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth is a must-play for anyone wanting a game to tell a narrative that doesn't talk down to the player.
Ken Follett and Daedalic managed to make a game revolving politics and religion incredibly compelling and fun. Fans of the book and fans of a good story should seriously consider entering the world of Knightsbridge on home consoles.
In terms of where this opening salvo of game leaves me, I'm interested to see how some of the characters progress and wary of others.
Daedalic's adaptation of Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth is off to a strong start with retina stroking hand drawn visuals, deep characters and a refreshingly grounded setting.