Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

Kingmaker has been getting mixed reviews for a reason: It certainly is no game for the masses. It is near perfect, however, for pen-and-paper role players who also love grand computer RPGs like Baldur's Gate 2. In fact, no game has ever come so close to giving me the feeling of an actual tabletop session. You can tell at every corner they took a popular official Pathfinder campaign and made an effort of love to turn it into a single player computer game. It's not just the great storytelling, the meaningful choices, the atmospheric presentation - you will also find a lot of situations that are pretty common in pnp: A campsite with corpses and untouched provisions right in the middle of a battleground? Maybe hestitate to rest there. Also, a successful perception check might further support your suspicion. But let's adress the most common complaints: .:. Difficulty & Balancing .:. Kingmaker is not a difficult game per se. It offers, however, a huge world with tons of stuff to do and areas to explore, most of which your party will be too weak for at the beginning. Yes, there is no level-scaling of enemies, which I'm very thankful for because you actually experience progress. If you stumble upon an overwhelming foe, you flee and come back later to triumph. Also, the game offers many difficulty settings that you can always adjust on the fly. Hate kingdom management? Set it on auto. Don't want to fiddle with character builds? Set levelling to auto and stick to normal difficulty for encounters. .:. Gimmicky Builds .:. The Pathfinder system is notorious in that you should plan your classes somewhat in advance. For me and many others, this adds another fun element. If you don't like it, there are many good builds online and the preset builds work well enough, too. .:. Choices and Hidden Consequences .:. Almost everything you do will open up or close parts of the story. Roll with it or use a guide. Just like in Fallout New Vegas which is commonly praised for exactly this.

I have been a fun of CRPGs many years now and I have played all major titles that are out there. Kingmaker is a truly great game, nothing else is like it. I don't remember enjoying so much a game since maybe BG II or the original Fallout series. The game is very stable at its current state. It is a shame the release was buggy leading to the game not getting all the attention it deserves. The game mechanics are really complex and I find it really impressive that a small development studio managed to create something that great. Having a lot of experience in software development myself, I understand that it is simply impossible to the create a game from scratch with so many features without creating bugs.

I may come to like this more, and I do like the music and graphics and general charm of it so far, but... There are a number of obvious, sloppy bugs that I've noticed already on day 2 of the game's release. I created a "Sage Sorcerer" and had an ability with a blank description and name. I rested and saw text something like "{color=1}Abilities restored" on the camp's confusing timeline interface. My quest list offers to "Show complite quest". Basic quest info like "Where is this trading post I'm supposed to go to; which direction?" is missing. So far these bugs are minor, but two of them are things that any player could notice, and I suspect there are many other problems if I'm seeing these in my first hour or so of play. The game should not have been released in this condition. I'd give this game a positive review so far if it had been better playtested and patched before selling it, instead of using the customers as the playtesters.

The game was a horrible experience for me, I tried to finish it, but after more than 50 hours of game time, I stopped playing and completely gave up. Here are some of the reasons why: - The game is a literal translation of the Pathfinder RPG, without a second of thought how those mechanics function in a digital game. One example - you level up a powerful sorcerer, who can cast a strong spell once a day, after which he becomes utterly useless. - You have a giant world to explore, but are stopped from doing so by invisible walls and quest railroading. - You are constantly on a timer. ALL THE TIME. It was understandable in the tutorial section so people concentrate on the main quest and do not exploit the game in some way. But through the entire game you have to keep to a timer which ends the game when it is done. - Kingdom management is a low point. It is more of a hindrance and most of your decisions carry absolutely no weight beyond whether the kingdom survives or perishes. - Once I had one of the mandatory quests run out on me, without any idea I even had it. I was lucky enough to have a save from two months ago, which allowed me to (barely) complete the quest on time, even though I had removed character deaths from the game, because I did not even have the time to rest. - There is no fast travel, even through explored regions, which is just another time sink in a time-demanding game. - Even if you turn on the "Invincible Kingdom" option, you still fail the game if you do not finish one of the mandatory quests on time. - You can spend 60 hours in the game and get locked from continuing, because of one of the aforementioned timed quests. - Horrible inventory management, the inventory does not have a dedicated slot for quest items. You can drop, sell, and even completely miss quest items which are VITAL for the conclusion of the timed mandatory quests. There is much more. The game design is quite poor and I am not ecstatic for the second game in the series.

This has got to be the hands down best crpg I have ever played, and I've played just about all of them. Filled with little handcrafted details and lovely effects that the screenshots don't do just. I'm playing on Challenge and are most of the way through the game, and things ramp up so satisfying to make not only your player character feel more powerful, but also your barony. Now I grew up with the original Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and the like, and I have to say that the difficulty feels tailored to me, keeping me engaged and guessing, and I'm not one of those instant gratification types that minds reading or having to reload. I can't stress just how amazing this game feels to me, and how rare it is to find a game tailored to my tastes in this day and age. HOWEVER.... This game is riddled with bugs. It's a travesty. How do you go through all the trouble of putting something this special together, and then turn around and release it way before its ready. For instance, equip a dwarven shield and get 2 damage reduction. Cool right? Then watch that damage reduction multiply out of control until your character walks around invinsible with 60 DR. Aldori Dualing mastery sound like a kickass feat to you? Well too bad it does absolutely jack...hope you noticed before you played too much further or you are going to have to replay hours just to get your feat back. Sure hope your preferred romance isnt bugged, or better yet, hope the main quest isn't bugged to the point where you lose dozen of hours or even find that your entire game cannot progress at all. Amazing game and the developers seem to be working on the bugs. Don't miss out on one of the best crpgs of all time, but wait until this shameful mess is sorted out before jumping in.