Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Enhanced Plus Edition

So I think the important thing to know is that this i a game based off a table top campaign... so expect a "board game" feel when you are playing it... especially while traversing the map with your little horse token. And just like you might prepare your character/party in advance of starting out on a table top (or pen/paper) campaign, the same sort of preparation will go a long way to save you some "frustration"... 1) This is not stitched together zones that flow like Pillars of Eternity or Planscapre Torment... there are definitely some areas that do have that feel (i.re. 3 layer deep map with dungeon), but expect a good portion of encounters to take place as random events in some rather small/empty zones... like a table top game 2) Once you complete Act 1, prepare for Kingdom Management... another "random event" type activity that requires you to be at your Capitol or Oleg's Camp. The events have known times for completion, so look for a "sweet spot" of having your advisors busy for a week or two that you can "safely" go adventuring, exploring, completing quests, etc... It is a bit of a time (and resource) balance juggle that you may not be used to from other video games... but may be from table top games. 3) Another aspect of Kingdom Management is your advisors... think of them as you little minions that you sent out on the events (including projects) you choose to do (mentioned above)... advisors can be party memebers or not. Just review your events before you commit any advisors, check their time commitments, which advisor(s) can assist, and make a decision of who to send based on these factors. Also important to note that can attributes impact how successful your advisors are... so if you are using "companions" taht are not in your party as an advisor... make sure to level up your advisors too! 4) Another aspect of Kingdom Management is acquiring new lands and building towns / cities on them... kind of like a mini "Sim City". Pay attention to which building combinations synergize... and be careful not to over invest your resoutces too quickly. If you still find yourself struggling, you may need to look at some guides / walkthroughs. There are a few systems in play that may feel a bit overwhelming at first... but once you grasp the concepts, they all flow pretty naturally. I'm only in Act 2, so if I run into something important over my playthrough I'll make sure to update this review. I restarted after being fasced with some of my mistakes after about 30-35 hours... so I'm only about 40 hours into the game so far... and really just scratching the surface. I can understand some of the reviews frustration with the game because I was felling it too... so as I've stated already this is more a "video representation of a board game" so don't expect it to interact with it exactly like the other video games you've played. Hopefully what I've shared here properly frames your expectations and helps you decide if this is a game you would like to play.

Its difficult, nothing like Divinty or Bg3 but yet, exactly like playing those games whilst getting stabbed with a cattle prod

Плюсы: 1. Сюжет, сценарий и лор. Вселенная интересная, неожиданные повороты - присутствуют, вариативность - на уровне, персонажи прописаны неплохо, некоторые - даже хорошо, мир - цельный. 2. Локализация - конфетка. Очень приятно читать. 3. Нативная поддержка Линукса - установил на офисный пылесос. 4. Цена - взял за три копейки на новый год. Минусы: 1. Движок Unity и всё из этого вытекающее. 2. ДнД механики, как по мне - избыточно задротские. Хотя тут на вкус и цвет. В целом, разобраться было интересно, но лучше бы я это время потратил на игру, а не на "ща, вот ещё один баф накину, и тогда точно перестану промахиваться". А в итоге половина игрового времени - это попытка нае#ать богов рандома рутинным накидыванием всевозможных увеличителей пипирки, а если и они не помогают - то и сейв-скамом. 3. Самый жирный минус, имхо - здешняя система тайм-менеджмента. Хотелось покататься по миру, закрыть все второстепенные квесты, прокачать королевство на максимум, пощупать самый жирный лут, потестить его в драках. Но вместо этого в какой-то момент игра просто швыряет тебя в концовку, со словами "заканчивай уже, задрот!". Встаёшь такой, отряхиваешься, а на тебя сверху сыпется куча уведомлений "квест провален", и тут ты понимаешь - всё, это финишная прямая - обратной дороги нет. Глупо, как по мне. Прям фу. К чему эта спешка? Я понимаю, она объяснена сюжетно, но стоило ли оно того? Перфекциониста во мне это прям обидело, и сильно смазало впечатление как от концовки, так и от всей игры в целом.

Baldur’s Gate 3 made me want to try other CRPGs. So I booted up Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Within the first few hours, I realized something: this game doesn’t want you to play. It wants you to study. I definitely failed the exam. Then, just when you finally start to understand the system, the game decides you also need to manage a kingdom. Ok… that sounds cool. Let’s see: Reading reports. Waiting on timers. Accumulating massive debt. Reliving COVID, but this time it’s a flower plague. Watching my advisors fail rolls even when boosted with crisis points. At that moment I realized something: I’m not playing an RPG. I’m doing an unpaid internship in medieval administration. And yes… I ended up simping for a plant that doesn’t care about me. But even my botanical obsession can’t blind me to this dumpster fire.

There are 3 "MOST" things in this game for me: MOST content: 200+ hours to complete a single run. That's massive. MOST difficulty: EVERYTHING requires dice rolls, and somehow I'm often unlucky enough to roll a 1. Some spell descriptions aren't friendly to gamers. There are various new terms for buffs and debuffs (e.g., threat range = critical hit chance, flat-footed = ambush/surprise, etc.). MOST immersive companions: The choices you make during companion quests will be tested at the end of the game. I lost one companion because of this — sad indeed, but when I see the others "survive," there's also a sense of pride. Kingdom management is still okay, even though I didn't manage to max out all kingdom stats (not sure if it's even possible). Some buildings affect gameplay — for example, the Mage Tower allows you to teleport between cities. Last but not least, I HATE SWARM ENEMIES. EVERY SINGLE KIND OF SWARM.

Loved it. I played Wrath of the Righteous first and then this game. I have to say, I really enjoyed the story. The voice acting is awesome. Nyrissa is voice acted by the wonderful Amelia Tyler (BG3 narrator). Other than that, what can I say except: if you played WOTR and Rogue Trader and enjoy Owlcat's RPGs, then you will enjoy this one as well. In comparison with WOTR, the class system is a little more simplistic and the Kingdom Management doesn't have conquest mode (armies) but make no mistake, this is a massive game. My only complaint is that I did not enjoy kingdom management as much as I did in WOTR: the amounts of projects/cards you get is crazy and most of them you can't implement (because of time) so it's just a matter of focusing on problems and some relevant buffs or story-driven events that you should complete as soon as possible. WOTR's kingdom management + crusade mode was way more entertaining for me. All that being said, I really enjoyed the game and would recommend it to any cRPGs lovers out there.

Read the EULA, they will collect all kinds of information from your system. Very shady!!!!. I declined the EULA because I don't want to sign a blank check.

100% worth it. Pathfinder Kingmaker is a mostly faithful adaptation of the tabletop rules & adventure path. It’s a little rough around the edges, but it’s highly customizable and a story on a full-fledged saga scale. Earlier negative reviews focused on instability issues and bugs. It’s been nearly a decade, minor bugs exist, but I never experienced anything game breaking. Surprised how many negative reviews were critical of intrinsic aspects of the ttrpg or of game difficulty. You may lose some fights due to a string of bad rolls or from not bringing the right tools for the task. The “Normal” setting already provides the player an advantage, but there are Story, Easy, and Custom settings to accommodate how you want to play. At normal setting, I found the early game and late game to be tougher and often I would need to reload a failed fight to try a different tactic, adjust positioning, or swap out equipment or party members. You can definitely can get better at it once you recognize the secret is just to pay attention to the strengths and weaknesses of what you’re facing. Kingdom management/Time management are the go to targets for negative reviewers. It’s a bit of an undercooked mechanic, but it’s not as bad as they make it out to be. I like its inclusion, but it could be improved on. In any case, it can be adjusted in the settings. The ramping up of pressure and urgency at certain plot points does convey overarching themes of the narrative and make the setting a character. I think it’s fair to call Pathfinder Kingmaker’s experience uneven, but that is sort of the nature of the ttrpg too. It is front loaded with a steep learning curve, requiring some time studying the multiple classes, class features, feats, and spells. Unless playing on a lower setting, encounters will require some deliberate thinking to overcome. Most of all though, and despite the campaigns length, this was sort of designed with re-playability in mind. I played a lot of, and beat, the Beneath the Stolenlands DLC stand alone dungeon during my first playthrough and through that I discovered how fun restarting can be. Those too focused on only doing a single run or too adverse to failure will just get angry or bored. "To those possessing patience and will, all truths reveal themselves." This game is a treasure and I'll be re-rolling shortly. The End is nigh; Praise be to Groetus.

I'm really trying to like this game, but it just doesn't do it for me. It seems needlessly punishing in the beginning, with very few character options. I have somehow ended up with an early team that consists of four melee characters of different flovours and a single Bard. So every combat is just my four melee characters dog-piling one enemy after another until I've won or lost. It feels increadibly random with very little opportunity for strategy. Clicking a few abilities off and on and just waiting for a few characters beating the hell out of eachother is really boring to me. Maybe I'm playing the game wrong, but coming from BG3 I can truly feel the age of this game in a way I don't think is usually a problem with other older CRPGs.

I can get passed the most god awful writing/voice acting I've ever come across. Everyone sounds like an AI chatbot, especially Linzi, who you have to deal with a lot. But the fact that you can't rotate the camera without a mouse is diabolical. No playing on the go if you don't have a middle click, and they decided that should be the one setting you can't edit. It's an absolute dealbreaker for me. How did NWN get it right twenty years ago, but Owlcat struggles with basic controls?