Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

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3.6/5

( 662 Reviews )

3.6

662 Reviews

English & 5 more

Posted on: May 19, 2020

GaryMeister

Verified owner

Games: 152 Reviews: 1

Overpromised and Underdelivered

I've been playing D&D since I was a teenager (pen and paper!), and loved CRPGs like Baldur's Gate and Pillars of Eternity. Both games had something epic happening, whether you're the child of a dead god or unearthing other-worldly secrets, and there was always a sense of accomplishment when you completed a quest. Pathfinder: Kingmaker manages to leave that out of the the experience. Version 2.08 Enhanced Edition fixed a lot of things, but balance is not one of them. Prepare to die. A lot. For no good reason. Pros: 1. Plenty of options for builds, both for the player character and mercenaries 2. The graphics are very good 3. There are plenty of mods that make the game more manageable/fun Cons: 1. Enemies continuously roll incredible "to hit" dice while the player misses way too often 2. Random encounters that can wipe out your party in 3-4 hits 3. Area travel is tedious and slow 4. Feminist slant in both NPCs and game descriptions (always her, she, etc. - no masculine pronouns) 5. Combat is very sluggish 6. NPCs are boring, possibly Linzi being the exception because her voice acting is wonderful 7. Conversation actions that will change your alignment with no other choices to prevent it If you enjoyed building relationships with your NPCs in other games, you likely will be disappointed here. Remember how funny Minsc was in Baldur's Gate? Imoen was cute, Xzar was maniacal, and they all had important roles and backstories related to the plot. I wish I didn't need to say this, but the relationships here are just boring. As the player character, I don't feel important or central to the story, and the result is that there is no epic feel to the story to immerse you into the game. I played for over 60 hours before the game became so frustrating and boring (at the same time) that I stopped playing. The word "game" inherently implies that something is going to be fun, and Pathfinder: Kingmaker is not.

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Posted on: May 26, 2020

KillerHammerFIN

Verified owner

Games: 242 Reviews: 2

Flawed game with interesting premise

The story captivated from the very start and even without prior Pathfinder setting knowledge I was able to get my bearings. Still, the game is very unforgiving with it's timer design and enemies which use spells or abilities that drain your companions attributes forcing you to either rest or painfully try to survive with a companion that is one attribute damage away from death. The good thing is that eventually you too get those spells, however in my case I had already cleared most of the map at that point and weren't able to much use those. Characters and their personal stories were interesting on top of that with enhanced edition the reported bugs seem to be gone. However, there are some problems with it too: Some quest tips are very vague, and certain quests are also heavily railroaded. Kingdom management seems half-baked and the construction of buildings, etc. (in kingdom management) does not affect the 3D environments of your villages which you will be seeing. On top of that you don’t actually see your kingdom. Technical problems with the mouse getting blocked by 3D assets (environment or even certain dead mobs) when trying to order a companion to use throwable flasks or spells in caves or similar tight corridors. This I was able to circumvent with a camera rotation mod. Very little voice acting after the third chapter or so, however it picks up near the endgame. AI for warrior characters doesn’t seem to use unlocked abilities. During the playthrough the game crashed 6 times with 5 of those in a certain part of the endgame, but luckily, I was able to fix the constant crashes in the endgame by switching to windowed mode. In summary, flawed game with interesting premise and good story, however I wouldn’t recommend this to people new to cRPG or without patience. To those I’d recommend the Pillars of Eternity.

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Posted on: June 6, 2020

Prankster55

Verified owner

Games: 28 Reviews: 1

Great RPG Game

Won't go into too many details. I luv Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. This games graphics beats them both by a long shot. Game is huge for quests and character building. Yes, some points of the game will kick ur butt. But who doesn't like a challenge? Being a Baron is tough unless ur very familiar with this part of the game. Time is super sensitive to not getting some Baron responsibilities done in time but it only affects ur stats of your land. The game doesn't give u enough time to get everything done and still explore like an adventurer. :But u can automate the Baron part. Overall, this game was worth buying when on sale. It's a deep game with lots to do. I'd give it a 4.5 but can't so I rounded up. LOL

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Posted on: April 25, 2021

Michael_Clarke

Verified owner

Games: 273 Reviews: 6

Valiant first attempt

As a fan of tabletop gaming the gameplay is exactly what I wanted after adding turn based support! My only complaint would be the optimisation mostly for load times but it's not end of the world.

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Posted on: June 3, 2025

Harhama

Verified owner

Games: 118 Reviews: 4

An interesting game ruined by coding.

The save files balloon up to ridiculous sizes, eating up disk space, and slowing the game to a crawl. I've never finished this game because halfway through due to the size of the save files, the game slows down to a crawl. Don't get this game, especially if you don't have loads and loads of free disk space.

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Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

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