Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

Developers were so focused on following Pathfinder ruleset to the letter that they forgot to make a playable videogame. Game's character creation, combat (when you manage to encounter enemies of adequate level) and companions are decent. Setting, story and graphics are charming... All of this is sadly buried beneath a mountain of frustrating gameplay elements: Traveling - there is a lot of traveling in this game. Even without encumberance you and your party travel at a snail's pace. After traversing a small distance your party becomes exhausted - fair enough - let's rest. Resting is needlesly complex, unskippable and takes way too long. Random encounters are also part of this package - difficulty ranging from the party wiping the floor with the enemy to party being wiped instantly. Repeat this at least 3 times and you might reach your destination! Zones always look samey with the exception of main quest zones - these look decent. Kingdom management - tedious, boring, grating, feels like a phone game. You get a bunch of projects and events and a small pool of advisors to solve these problems. Kingdom management works like this - Select event/project -> Assign advisor -> Pray to RNG gods he solves it -> Your kingdom stats increase or decrease. Sometimes you have to talk to someone in a throne room. That's it, that's the kingmaking part. Too much micromanagement and distraction from adventuring for little benefit. Set this to automatic kingdom management and play Crusader Kings to save your own sanity. These tedious flaws can be found in every gameplay element, whether it's shopping, combat or inventory management. It feels like there is a decent game buried beneath all of this but it's definitely hard to find, at least for me. Silver lining - I might play Baldur's Gate, Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity once again to fix my taste after touching the chore disguised as a game - Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

There is much to like about this game, but there are many frustrating issues for me. Companions take up way too much of your limited time for mostly "get over yourself" reasons (some will leave their post in your government in the middle of tasks for that--totally irresponsible, and even .lawful types will do that. Again, an evil libertine murder hobo in your group shows more respect for your governance than most other companions ) Moral choices seem designed to force any type of leader except a murder hobo to become a hypocrite. Kingdom management requires too much time for too little reward. The GOG version of this game does not include some fixes the developers made to address some of the above Don't know why the devs thought choosing an envoy without even an interview was a good idea, nor why such worthies should be allowed positions within your government at all, since their loyalties are vnot first to your Barony/Kingdom.

The attention to detail in this game is just stunning. From the beautiful UI, the lightning and details in the world, to the character art and voice-acting. It really reminds me of one of my favorite games - The Dark Eye: Drakensang, which presents a similarly beautiful world. The UI also does a great job presenting both additional story details (similar to Obsidian's crpgs, with highlighted words in conversations/descriptions, that offer additional background via tool-tips), as well as the complex underlying game mechanics. Another highlight is the turn-based combat mode, that is now included in the game. It really helps keeping track of everything that is happening and makes the rules more digestible for people who aren't sleeping with the Pathfinder rulebook under their pillow. Imho, this is one of the best crpgs out there and absolutely worth a look!

After 800 hours (some of it was my leaving the game on while I went to do laundry and thinking about it), I have completed one playthrough to true ending on modified Challenging difficulty. Even expert CRPG players have spent hundreds of hours on the game. There are plenty of insights online, so I will try to share less common feedback. The things I liked the most: 1. There is enough information in the tool tips, in the combat log, in the character screen to help you master the Pathfinder 1e mechanics as they are adopted in the game. Figuring out how to overcome a challenging enemy with fair application of established mechanics is very rewarding. I got this rush regularly all the way to the end. 2. You can auto level any character you want, including your own, up to max level. Owlcat's default companion builds are perfectly viable on Challenging difficulty until the end. 3. Even after 800 hours, the ending was very satisfying. Everything resolved in a way that gave me closure. And there was enough ambiguity to let me fantasize my hero became a king with a harem of lovely, unique, and mostly good lovers for many years. Here is my only serious complaint: The game is too long. Not that I got tired of it, though I came close a couple of times. A RNG-heavy, PnP based RPG with multiple endings on multiple story threads just isn't suitable for a video game. A group of friends could spend months or even years playing one Pathfinder or DnD campaign. They are not in a rush to move on to the next game. I played Kingmaker on my own, with two other solid CPRG just from Owlcat always on the back of my mind. I will likely do another playthrough for some achievements, but boy do I wish I can move on to WotR or Rogue Trader. A tip: At least get the DLC with the tiefling sisters. Kaessi is a very helpful companion.

I had it on steam as well but bought here too it was an outstanding game Gameplay 5/5 Story 5/5 Music / sounds 5/5