Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

Reviewing this game is rather difficult! The main story starts with you being contracted by a Brevan house of nobles; the Aldori, to sieze and secure a region of contested provinces called the "Stolen Lands". After the mansion you are staying in is attacked (a rather cliche opening but I love it anyway) you are dispatched with a small party of survivors to Oleg's Post and begin your conquest of the region. The story at large has several running themes in it, from character driven drama thanks to your party members, major setting characters getting their fingers involved and the story of the Stolen Lands itself, an exploration in to why things are so miserable and downtrodden. This is now my third full playthrough of the main campaign and I've waited a few years to do it after my last, to help me remain neutral with presenting this review. I rate the story a 7/10, it roughly follows the plot of the adventure module and tries to ask difficult questions particularly with how our characters behaves and the nature of curses. Seemingly benign things can turn in to disaster, in this game you will see plenty of examples. Combat is typical DND 3.X style, if you are looking for a challenging RPG where your character builds can and maybe will influence what challenges you can overcome, this is the correct ruleset. There are hundreds of build guides on youtube and forums if you want help coming up with something fun and strong to play. The game balancing can feel a little unfair especially if you haven't prepared yourself properly. Truth is though, with the benefit of experience I think the balancing is mostly fine. As long as you can think laterally you will probably find a scroll or skill to solve any problem. If you are playing on Normal difficulty, you should find it only reasonably challenging even if you blow your build. It rewards strong tactical thinking and preparation and punishes those who can't. The kingdom management isn't that great, sadly. Overall 7/10

The Kindom-Management is sometimes a bit tedious, but the RPG part of the game is great.

It's Owlcat's first game, I get that, but boy - it's hard not to feel a weighty sense of disappointment when playing. If the main utiltiy of saving/loading is to work around the many, many bugs you'll encounter then it could've used some time in the oven. Bugs aside, the game does a really poor job of explaining itself. Numerous spells and abilities don't do as their description describes, which with the bugginess lends itself to feeling like a pre-alpha. Basic mechanics of combat and the semi-mandatory kingdom-building are and remain unexplained throughout the game, so your best bet is to have the game open with a wiki on the side. It's sad, too, because outside of these glaring issues the game's great. The companions are great, the moment-to-moment combat is fun, the character-building is deep, but it's all drowned in the bugs & "just Google it" nature of the gameplay.

After 136 hours I finished the game! I had to install a mod to help with some fights because the game can be unbalanced and it would have taken much longer if I didnt cheat. lol But what I loved about it was the story, characters and world! Easily in my top 10 rpgs, together with Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls and others.

I think this might be third time I attempt to play this game since I bought it originally. I just can't...It somehow manages to find a way to be unbearably annoying in one way or another. If you truly aspire to finish this game it means you have the patience of a saint.