Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

I am an avid Pathfinder DM and I think there is a lot to love in this game: 1. The combat. It is pretty good, very close to the feeling of old games but with new tools. 2. Companions: I dont necessarily think all of them are fantastic, but they are fun overall, and quite interesting in their backgrounds. 3. The story overall is good. Don't expect a literal copy of Kingmaker, and I have enjoyed the changes it brought to the story. Some of the decisions to include or left out certain things totally make sense in the scope of translating the story from table top to computer game. In general, you have access to an insane array of spells, feats and even classes. I loved the fact that you can select certain archetypes of your classes. The kingdom part is extremely dissatisfying. You are always limited on resources and very rarely your companions succeed in their tasks. Then the actual kingodom building is kind of boring. You upgrade your town, and it doesnt reflect in the actual game, just in the kingdom builder. Several times during the story, you are on timed events and not giving priority will mean your kingdom is destroyed and you probably will require to go back to save at least an hour ealier to see what you did wrong or forgot. This can be super frustrating. I understand this game is emulating the type of games that were hard and required you undivided attention. But having the unnecesary ticking bombs on several chapters is just annoying and takes away from the fun part of exploring the Stolen Lands. I don't think it is a bad game, the combat and story are good. It's the kingdom management that could have been better.

Great game, probably the most fun of all the DnD style games out there. I didn't play this game when it was a buggy mess, I played when the experience was just fine. The only issue is how the devs structured interacting with your capital. It is loading screen hell for every action.

It's challenging. it's like you're playing Baldur's Gate having no idea about D&D rules but there's more. This game gives you time limits, lot of 'em. Lot of quests you have no idea where to start or go. So if you are not fan of hardcore RPG, it is not for you. By the way I made through nearly all main quests). I have no idea about rules of the same table game and can't tell you about how good implementation is. But if it is close to true than it's good expereince to explore those rules and it might be way to engage youself in table Pathfinder. Story is interesting but short and it's little frustrating because you will spend lot of time in game. Building Kingdom is weak point of this game, as in Neverwinter 2. You can't really progress while you get some point in game time or certain quest. And it looks like you would have some action between kingdoms and armies but it is not happening. About bugs. Sometimes loading stops on Pathfinder logo and stuck. That is bad. And loading time is slow for this kind of game. I am playing from ssd and it is the same amount of time as Tomb Rider or Witcher require to load level. So for me it ok but for those who use hdd it could be painful. There are some other bugs, but they are not so bad.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is an odd beast. It does a lot of things right, but stumbles just much as it succeeds. I especially liked the first 20-30 hours. The quests and the writing is decent. There are lot's of sensbile dialogue options for the various alignments which is always nice. The companions are likeable, though not as well written as say Pillars of Eternity 1's best characters. The areas are rewarding to explore and there are always quests or loot waiting to be found. I was not familiar with the Pathfinder ruleset, but it shares a lot of similarities with D&D 3.5. Baldur's Gate veterans should feel right at home. Later in the game though, it feels as if there is too much of everything. The map becomes littered with points of interest and Kingdom management gets really tiresome. Travel times get longer, as well as loading times (lol). More and stronger enemies means you have to rest more which means you have to spend more time not actually playing. There are quite a few options to streamline the game somewhat (putting Kingdom management on auto, lots of individual difficulty settings,...), but the game can still drag a bit. There is also a time limit in basically every chapter. The deadlines aren't super tight and leave enough room for sidequests with time to spare, but can get in the way if you just want to explore without care. There are also still a lot of bugs. I encountered nothing game breaking, but they are still annoying when they pop up every now and then. The UI is also in dire need of streamlining. It's servicable, but cumbersome and often fails at communicating information to the player. Overall the game is at its best when it doesn't try to be anything unique. With streamlined Kingdom management and a better technical performance, Pathfinder would have been an instant classic for me. As it is now, it's still a very good cRPG and probably my favourite one in recent memory. Certainly worth a try for fans of Infinity engine games.

The creators describe this game as "explore, conquer, rule". Let's analyze those elements here. The exploration part is great: nice terrain, nice variety, lots of going on. The conquest part is good: OK combat system, good scaling difficulty, though dependant not only upon a slider scale, but also upon your ability to create good characters and a good party. Here lies the first problem: I know Pathfinder world a bit and I had a lot of problems to properly create and manage my characters due to complicated, unatractive way of doing so, which also lacks proper explanation and description for your options. For players not knowing anything at the beginning it's going to be a nightmare. Don't get me wrong: I love the variety and amount of options you have, but the system feels extremely overwhelming at first. The story is OK: good in the beginning, weaker till the end, but never keeping you on your toes really. And the rule part is seriously lacking here: development is dull and uninteresting, managing advisors is tedious, stories aren't good either. The only redeeming part is shopkeepers providing you with awesome items under certain conditions, but that could be incorporated into the game through quests. I feel that this "ruling" part is underdeveloped at best, and should be left off completely at most. If you're starting, jst turn it all on auto manage and you'll be better off. Overall, this is a good game, deserving 4 stars IMO, but not 5, since it's never truly great.