Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth review

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, the adventure game that was first published in 2017 and released in episodes, finally came to Nintendo Switch consoles. Let’s take a look at the Switch version of The Pillars of the Earth, which is based on Ken Follett’s historical novel book published in our country as the Story of a Cathedral.

Chasing Dreams: The Pillars of the Earth Switch review

Our story takes place in the 12th century, during what is known as England’s Age of Anarchy. In a time of turmoil due to the fight for the throne, the people, worn out by political fights and wars, are having a hard time. In the opening sequence, we see Tom and his family, who emigrated with his family with the dream of building a cathedral, and dive into the story by making a short but impressive introduction.

We control more than one character in the game, and we have the chance to see the state of the country through the environment and location of each character. Set in England’s fictional town of Kingsbridge, the game witnesses the adventure of a group trying to rebuild the town’s damaged cathedral, while we are caught in the middle of the ongoing war and the political tensions that circulate in the background, of which we are involuntarily part.

The characters we control have different personalities. You wouldn’t expect a monk and someone from a noble family to have similar characters, the presentation of the stories is very good, the dialogues of the characters with each other, the events that took place and the effects of historical events on our characters are very good.

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth is adapted from a book or even has a published mini-series, you might think, what else can the game give me? The best part of the game is that you can interfere with the events, change the results and reach different endings. Let me tell you from the beginning, the story of the book was pretty good and completing the main story in the game as it should be offers the best experience. However, you can actually implement most of the things you say “could have been different here”. Most, not all.

I Miss Adventure Games

Pillars of the Earth has similar gameplay to old-school point & click adventure games. We have different options for interacting with surrounding points. There are options like finding out the character’s thoughts on the interaction points, using an item on the point, or speaking directly – using it. Puzzles mostly consist of mini-games such as using the items you find on the right people and pressing the keys at the right moments.

One of the most important things that distinguishes the game from traditional point & click adventure games is that we can determine the direction of the story with dialogue options and interactions. Our characters can use the right to choose one of the various answers or to remain silent in the face of the questions asked. At the end of each episode, you see a summary of your actions and quickly review how your character reacts to situations.

The game offers a variety of choices in the story, but in some places you feel like the game is directing you to what it considers to be the “right choice”. Since it is a story adapted from a book, this is inevitable, of course, being able to influence and see alternative events is a nice addition, but the main story is fine, I’m not complaining too much.

Pillars of the Earth is actually a game designed to be played with a keyboard and mouse, it is a very comfortable system to control the places where you can interact with the mouse. Since I only played the game on the PC platform before, I had the chance to experience for the first time with the Nintendo Switch how they adjusted the gameplay in the console versions. I’m so used to playing adventure games with keyboard and mouse that I couldn’t warm up to the controls for a while. Actually, they’re not that bad and you can play easily once you get used to it, but I would be happier if it was using the Switch’s touchscreen. There were some moments where I couldn’t interact because I wasn’t standing in the right spot. Fortunately, there is a button that shows the interaction points, you can check it from the front so you don’t miss it.

My biggest complaint about the game is that the characters are slow. In adventure games, I’m used to the main character moving slowly and running fast with a double click, but we usually move in smaller areas suitable for this movement speed. Here, on the other hand, sometimes we have characters that move slowly in huge areas, even with the running button. We are already in a political adventure that takes place in a historical time, we are waiting for the environment to gradually form before the events begin. The character is also slow, which can cause many players to walk away from the game before the interesting parts come.

Novel Enjoyment on Portable Console

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth consists of 3 main parts divided into different parts. We can think of each of the main parts as a book. When the first part was published, I played the story and liked it very much, frankly, I found the book and bought it to see the rest of the story. Being able to play the adventure wherever I wanted with the Nintendo Switch console was a great opportunity.

The Nintendo Switch performance of the game is quite good. Visually it already looks great, the art style is beautiful, the episodes are hand-drawn scenes. The animations of the characters can grin a little in the parts, there is some problem with the synchronization of the mouth movements during the speech, but this is not very disturbing, especially if you are using it by hand, it does not even attract your attention.

The game has done an amazing job with the sound and music. The voices of the characters have been worked on, the dialogues are beautiful and the music completes the atmosphere of the environment and manages to put you in the mood. There are also a couple of songs that I hadn’t thought of for years, glad to hear it again. It is near perfect in sound and music.

The only minus that caught my attention on the Nintendo Switch side was that the Turkish language support, which was added to the game later, was not in the version I played. Maybe it’s a problem with me or the game will come with an update after it comes out, if there is an improvement in the language, I will update this section. Turkish language support, which is currently in the PC version, is not available on Nintendo Switch.

Conclusion

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth is the successful adaptation of a great novel based on historical events. Its gameplay, which is based on solving simple puzzles and talking to other people, may not appeal to everyone. But the Nintendo Switch version of the game, in which a magnificent story is presented with successful voiceovers and very good-looking visuals, gives the player the opportunity to play wherever they want. The pace of the story may be a little slow, but once things start to move, you will find yourself in a 20-hour adventure that you will not want to let go.

Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth Nintendo Store It retails for a price tag of $19.99. The Nintendo Switch port of the game was also made without any problems. If you want to continue a great adventure that offers you the opportunity to make choices where you can change the course at some points, with a portable console, I can recommend it with peace of mind.