The pillars of the earth (computer game)
| The pillars of the earth | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Original title | The Pillars of the Earth | ||
| Studio | Daedalic | ||
| Publisher | Daedalic | ||
| Senior Developer | Matt Kempke Kevin Mentz |
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| composer | Tilo Alpermann | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
15th August 2017 | ||
| platform | Linux , macOS , PlayStation 4 , Windows , Xbox One , iOS | ||
| Game engine | Visionaire | ||
| genre | Adventure | ||
| medium | Download , DVD-ROM | ||
| language | German English | ||
| Age rating |
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The Pillars of the Earth (in the original English The Pillars of the Earth ) is a Adventure - Computer game of the Hamburg development studio and publisher Daedalic that on the published 1989 novel of the same name by Ken Follett is based and from August 2017 to March 2018 in three as "books" designated episodes was published.
action
As an implementation of Follett's novel, the game adheres closely to its content. The main theme is the construction of a cathedral in the fictional village of Kingsbridge in England in the 12th century. Daedalic divided the game into three so-called books, which in terms of content cover a period of 30 years and were published separately.
Characters
The game follows the fates of four protagonists, whose paths cross several times:
- Tom Builder is a builder whose lifelong dream is to build a cathedral.
- Jack is a boy who grew up in the forest but is intelligent and inquisitive. He is an apprentice at Tom Builder and turns out to be a talented builder.
- Phillip is a monk who rises to a leader in his monastic community and drives the construction of the cathedral.
- Aliena is a young aristocrat who has to flee her parents' castle after it was conquered by enemies of her father in a conflict and her father was murdered.
Since The Pillars of the Earth is an adaptation of a novel , the rough framework is given. However, there are some discrepancies, some of which are due to cuts and some due to the player's choices. The quarrel between Henry II and Thomas Becket , the archbishop of Canterbury at the time , and the assassination of Becker in 1170, for example, are not mentioned in the game. The trial against Phillip shown in the game also differs from the trial described in the book, because on the one hand it takes place in Shiring in 1154 or 1155 (not in Kingsbridge in 1170) and on the other hand it is about Phillip's writings critical of the church, while his alleged paternity for Jonathan ( in the book the reason for the process) is only mentioned in passing.
Book 1: From the Ashes
The unemployed master builder Tom Builder wanders with his family through the snowy woods around Kingsbridge when his heavily pregnant wife Agnes goes into labor and gives birth to a child. Agnes dies of bleeding after giving birth. Tom abandons the child, who is found by a priest who is on the way to meet his brother, the head of the monastery, Phillip. Phillip takes care of the baby. Tom teams up with the outlawed Ellen. As a result, tensions arise again and again between Tom's son Alfred and Ellen's son Jack. Phillip is elected to the Kingsbridge community council. When Jack burns down Kingsbridge church due to a fire he has started, Phillip commissions Tom to build a new church.
Book 2: Who Sows the Wind
Jack and Aliena are now adults and are trying to save Kingsbridge from William Hamleigh. This wants revenge for the rejection by Aliena. When Hamleigh is named Earl of Shiring, his goal is the obliteration of Kingsbridge.
Book 3: In the Eye of the Storm
Aliena travels to France in 1142 to look for Jack. She finally finds him in St. Denis near Paris and returns with him to Kingsbridge. With them they have a statue of the Madonna that seems to be crying. Jack passes this weeping off as a divine miracle and can thus raise money for the further construction of Kingsbridge Cathedral.
In 1154 the construction of the cathedral in Kingsbridge came to a standstill due to a severe drought. Jack also discovers that a crack has formed in the east wall that is threatening stability. Since the crack appears in about the same place in the wall built by Tom and in the old cathedral and the wall was also completely rebuilt, Jack suspects the problem in the crypt. When he investigates this assumption together with Prior Phillip and Jonathan, they come across a secret chamber that probably served as a hiding place for Phillip's predecessor Prior James after his alleged death. A little later, they discover that some outlaws have stolen food from the priory kitchen. From this Aliena and Richard develop the plan to conquer themselves with the help of Outlaws Earlscastle and so bring back the county Shiring, whose rightful owners they are according to the Treaty of Wallingford between Mathilde and Stephan von Blois . The plan succeeds, but William Hamleigh is stabbed to death by Alliena during the conquest.
During this conquest, however, Prior Phillip was arrested because of the writings he had written on behalf of Bishop Waleran. The next process takes place in Shiring Cathedral. Bishop Waleran, Bishop Henry of Winchester, and Shiring Alliena serve as judges. During the course of the trial, Jack manages to uncover Aliena and Jonathan that Bishop Waleran, along with Percy Hamleigh and Prior James, are responsible for the death of Jack's father, which is why he has to vacate his post as bishop. However, they cannot prevent Phillip from having to undergo the ordeal by fire, which he survives through an apparent miracle.
The following epilogue takes place in 1175. Jonathan has now taken over the office of prior from Phillip, while Phillip has retired to St.-John-in-the-Forest. Still, Phillip returns to Kingsbridge regularly. On one of these visits he is widely expected by a visitor who has just arrived. This visitor is former Bishop Waleran, who now lives as a simple monk and asks Phillip if he has ever seen God or the devil because he never did. At this point, the player has the option of answering the question or not. Phillip then meets Jonathan, Ellen, Jack, Aliena, Martha, Sally and Tommy in church. You learn that Sally is responsible for the windows in the cathedral, while Tommy has taken over the post of builder from his father Jack.
Game principle and technology
Visually, the game is presented in the manner of a cartoon. Figures and backgrounds are hand-drawn and animated, the action is largely automatic. The player can explore the scenery in which the currently active game character is located at various points and thus receive more detailed information about his surroundings, overhear conversations between people present or initiate conversations himself. The player gives one of a list of possible topics, the conversation then runs automatically. Occasionally, the player is asked to make decisions about the further course of action of the active game character, which, as in the discussions, are made according to the single-choice principle. Depending on the action or dialogue options selected, the action branches off like a playbook . Some quick-time events are integrated into the game , where motor skills are important.
Production notes
The basic requirements for Die Säulen der Erde were created in May 2014 when the Cologne publisher Bastei Lübbe acquired a majority stake in Daedalic in order to expand its portfolio. At the Frankfurt Book Fair 2014, Daedalic CEO Carsten Fichtelmann suggested to Ken Follett that his novel be softened. In the same year, the implementation of the novel, to which Bastei Lübbe has the publishing rights, was announced as a computer game. Autumn 2017 has been announced as the release date. The division of the game into three "books" was only announced in 2017.
| book | Title (english) | Title (german) | publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | From Ashes | From the ashes | 15th August 2017 |
| 2 | Sowing the wind | Who sows the wind | December 13, 2017 |
| 3 | Eye of the Storm | In the eye of the storm | 29th March 2018 |
A preliminary publication took place on August 2, 2017 in cooperation with the magazine Computer Bild Spiele , which published the first book of the game on its DVD accompanying the “Platinum Edition” of the magazine. Daedalic and Computer Bild Spiele entered into a similar cooperation in 2016 as part of the publication of the Daedalic title Deponia Doomsday . The real version of the game contained a DVD-ROM with the game data, but the game had to be activated via the Internet distribution platform Steam . Simultaneously with the publication of the first book, a “Kingsbridge Edition” called a collector's edition was published, which, in addition to the game, included a reading sample from Follett's novel “The Foundation of Eternity” , a map of the fictional Kingsbridge and an audio CD, which was still unpublished at the time included with the game's soundtrack. The publication of the second and third books was announced by Daedalic for the end of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, respectively.
The soundtrack of the game was recorded by the Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra. It also includes chants by the Berlin choir Vox Nostra, which specializes in vocal music from the Middle Ages.
speaker
| role | English speaker | German speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Aliena | Naomi Sheldon | Celine Fontanges |
| Jack (young) | Cody Molko | Lino Kelian |
| Jack (adult) | Alex Jordan | Christian Stark |
| Phillip | Glen McCready | Ingo Abel |
| Tom Builder | Dan Mersh | Achim book |
| Ellen | Alix Dunmore | Sonja Szylowicki |
| Bishop Waleran | David Shawn Parker | Rüdiger Schulzki |
A supporting role is spoken in the German version by the web video producer Erik “ Gronkh ” Range; the same role was set to music in the English version by Ken Follett himself.
reception
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The Pillars of the Earth received an overall positive rating in the press. From seven aggregated ratings, the game on Metacritic achieved a score of 78 for the PC version; GameRankings aggregated seven ratings to a score of 79%. The German-language trade magazine Adventure-Treff drew comparisons to the adventures from Telltale Games . It praised the dynamic narrative style, detailed background graphics and the demonstration of historical contexts through optional documents integrated into the game, but criticized the banal game principle and the resulting low level of difficulty, speaking pauses within dialogues and "wobbly" animations. In summary, the editor Hans Duschl rated Die Säulen der Erde as a “good adaptation of the novel, which now and then suffers a little from length”. 4Players noted a "depressing mood" corresponding to the novel and the lack of the humor typical of Daedalic games. The magazine positively emphasized the general setting of the game, its scope and the German localization , negatively “stilted” dialogues and, above all, a tough introduction to the game, as the player would be “overwhelmed” by the large number of action-relevant actors. The US magazine Kotaku described the game as "very beautiful" and stylistically reminiscent of an old fairy tale book, but it is not a game, but rather an "interactive novel" that only presents an illusion of freedom of choice and ultimately addresses what is happening in the Keep novel.
Web links
- Manufacturer's product page
- The Pillars of the Earth at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Adventure-Treff.de: Bastei Lübbe buys Daedalic Entertainment. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ a b PCGames.de: The pillars of the earth: Will the series be Germany's very own Telltale adventure? Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Adventure-Treff.de: Daedalic versoftet Follett book. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ ComputerBild.de: The pillars of the earth in the new platinum edition. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ 4Players.de: The pillars of the earth: Gronkh gets a speaking role. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ a b 4Players.de: Test: The pillars of the earth. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Adventure-Treff.de: The pillars of the earth. Retrieved April 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Gamespot.com: The Pillars Of The Earth Review. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Manuel Fritsch: The pillars of the earth in the test - an end with stretches. Rating. In: GameStar . April 12, 2018, accessed August 16, 2019 .
- ↑ a b GameRankings.com: Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Metacritic.com: Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth for PC Reviews. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Metacritic.com: Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth for Xbox One Reviews. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Metacritic.com: Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth for PlayStation 4 Reviews. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Metacritic.com: The Pillars of the Earth Game for iPhone / iPad Reviews. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Kotaku.com: The Pillars Of The Earth Game Adds Choices To The Book's Dramatic Moments. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .