Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

First off: For me personally this game is a 5/5 and already one of my favourite CRPGs ever. The graphics are nice and so is the soundtrack (reminded me a lot of Dragon Age: Origin). The story isn't anything new but it's good enough and while some of the companions are pretty clichéd, I liked them, mostly because the writing is really good, which is important since you need to read A LOT in this game (most dialogues don't have voiceover). So why only 4 stars? Because if you haven't played D&D or Pathfinder before and somewhat understand the mechanics, you're going to have a really rough start. This game has the potential to be very frustrating and one big reason is that it's not really good at explaining it's mechanics. While there are tutorial-messages throughout the game, they don't go into details and it's those details that can turn an otherwise manageable fight into a nightmare. To sum it up: A great CRPG if you know and like Pathfinder and if you don't, prepare for a steep learning curve and a lot of frustration.

The good: Quests arent too repetative Kingdom building is fun Character creation is very deep (too deep for me personally but still a plus) The world building is deep Overall story is interesting The bad: so much save scumming... with some bad rolls you can be doomed pretty early. I have never save/reloaded so much in a game before. Doesn't do a great job of explaining what is going on and punishes you badly if you make a mistake Companions are kind of bad... This could be just personal opinion but I dont actually like any of my companions. This game wastes your time, a lot. There is a lot of time spent entering exiting travelling. Reloading because you forgot something... Yes you could just deal with the mistake but it could end up in a game over after many more hours of play. No middle ground in battles. On normal, the battles seem to either be quite easy or impossibly hard. I would give this game a higher rating but it has way too many annoying aspects for me to give it a 4/5

Graphics are great, story is superb. The first 80 hours of play I took my time and did my best to overcome some incredibly annoying and, frankly, unneccessary bugs which hindered the actual story. At least 3 times I lost about 3-4 hours of gameplay due to some bug error with the kingdom management system. Losing this kind of time due to a bug is just unacceptable. I ended up saying to hell with it and began letting the game automanage the kingdom. However, in the last chapter, the useful feature that prevents kingdom destruction due to mismanagement is turned off. The Kingdom building system itself needs a lot of work. The bugs and poor design make it nearly impossible to succeed on the kingdom front. Making it to the last area just in the hopes I can put an end to this game and be done with bugs brought utter dissappointment. Those long 80 hours of play, due to the bugs, ended up ruining it to the point where I literally could no progress any further. ***SPOILERS*** My main group throughout the game consisted of myself, Amiri, Harrim, Linzi, Octavia, and a guy I made. The last area is so bugged that without any action on my part (and scouring the boards this is true for everyone) Linzi and Amiri both die. Two characters who I've built up, equipped, and used the entire 80 hours are no longer available to me. Worse- their equipment is all gone. So the game makes you use your other companions- who have no equipment. One more thing- you don't have the ability to rest in the final area and cannot get out of it to rest outside. With the amount of monsters- seriously hardcore monsters even on story mode- in the final area it is literally impossible to proceed. Many of the fights themselves contain bugs. I cannot recommend this game.

Ever since BG1, RPGs generally had either less freedom of exploration (BG2, IWD1-2, P:T, NWN1-2, KOTOR1-2, Shadowrun, Bloodlines) or too much of generic hiking-style exploration (Nu-Fallout, TES4-5). For comparison, BG2 barely had any exploration outside Athkatla. However, character-building in BG1 was primitive and the dialogues were often basic. PF:KM takes the unique formula of BG1 and fixes its flaws by adding a NWN-like character and dialogue system. Unusually for a modern RPG, it has moderately challenging encounters. Not all opponents can be defeated the first time you meet them. Sometimes, you have to flee or get creative. The infamous swarm fight early on is a good litmus test for lazy players. Firstly, it is not obligatory. You can go do other quests and return when you are stronger. Like in Gothic, you can often encounter opponents above your league, which makes defeating them all the more satisfying. Secondly, you can easily defeat the swarm with spells - including cantrips. It is as if people want to just click on opponents and win, unlike in other genres. The character building system is as good as in NWN or ToEE. There is a wide array of classes and feats that make them all diverse. Unlike other games, it puts diversity above streamlining. It requires planning, too. The setting, plot, and characters are solid. Perhaps the most valuable part is that the selection of companions is reasonably broad. The more common situation in current RPGs is that you get the P:T formula (1 party + a couple of obviously optional characters). Again, PF:KM bucks the sad trend. The early reviewers passed judgement prematurely. It was clear that the game was buggy at first, so the reasonable thing was to wait for it to get fixed. Instead, they succumbed to impatience, rushed to play it, and then gave it undeservedly poor ratings. This capriciousness at a time when good RPGs are a rare sight puzzles me. Now that it has been fixed, it is magnificent.

I notice there's been lot of comments on the lack of polish and buggy nature of the game. Started playing February 2020 and there are no bugs, it's all very smooth and nice. Good job on patching I guess. --- Starting the game felt like coming back home! The beginning is very reminiscent of Neverwinter Nights 1, there's a Big Important job to be done and only a bunch of random 1st level nobodies can be trusted with it. A Tutorial Attack, choices to be made (surprisingly, with consequences) and off we go! But while the gameplay is much the same as NWN (realtime with pause) the design is all Temple of Elemental Evil! You get very little instruction on how game mechanics work, it's assumed you're familiar with D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder ruleset and can craft a successful character build and party. If you can't, you will fail and have a miserable time. From the go, you have several locations you can visit, and the difficulty is straight through the rood. Assuming you picked the "right" place to visit! If you picked wrong, it's going to be practically impossible for a party of your level. No handholding, no hints, just try, fail, get frustrated, try again. And then you either rage quit or get the hang of it. And if you get the hang of it, you'll be made a baron and then there's a WHOLE TON of new stuff and again it's damn near impossible to make the right choices. And that's where I am right now, not finished yet, not sure if my kingdom will fail or not. It'll probably fail somehow, playing on easy and getting hints off the net. And when it's over, I'll start again, with better choices and more informed character build. So IT IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY! Not for casual gamers. It's confusing, hard and unfair. But if you're up for the challenge, it can be just the one game you have been looking for these past 10 years.