Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Imperial Edition Bundle

I've put roughly 160 hours into this game. I have to put it down for now because I am becoming immensely frustrated. As some of the other reviews mention, there are timed quests. Some seem to fire off before the actual deadline of the quest (there is an in-game calendar) and when they do fail there is a cascading effect that will end up absolutely punishing you. It takes time for your party to travel across the map and before you set out for a journey to complete a mission you have to calculate how long it is going to take you to go there, do the thing, and get back. The map is expansive and travel can be slow-going depending on things like encumbrance, terrain, and random encounters. I've lost hours of gameplay because I didn't do something I apparently needed to do and didn't find out about it until much later in the game. I've had to start over twice, and I've had to backtrack so many times I've lost count. There is so much to manage in this game. It's possible to turn off the management and let AI handle it - but if you need to do that in order to prevent so much frustration then what is the point of having it in the game at all? It's unfortunate - I'm taken completely out of the game and left debating whether I want to play the game and subject myself to inevitable irritation or just do something else entirely. Implementation-wise: If you use Linux you will be better served running the Windows version of the game which has been patched to fix some issues. Sometimes during a turn-based battle the game gets confused and you have to toggle the turn-based mode off to get it unstuck. Occasionally cleric abilities affect creatures they aren't supposed to. The fixed camera angle makes it so it's easy for enemies to be hidden behind scenery. Pathing can be weird. A lot of things are not documented - I've had to rely on the Internet for the information. I'd recommend it if it were on sale maybe (I bought it on sale) but I wouldn't pay full-price.

I love crpgs and I love baldur's gate style games. I tried to like this game so much but it is just not something I can recommend. The game will have game ending decisions occur with ZERO warning. My barony fell even though I was managing the situation fine. Then all of a sudden, game over. thanks for playing. Why they would think this is a good design decision is beyond me! Also, dialogue decisions and game choices can dramatically alter the game to the point where you miss out on SEVERAL npcs via rather seemingly innocuous choices. This is not good roleplaying - this is just frustrating for the user! This studio needs to look at Larian Studios and see how they made the user experience enjoyable while still incoporating the elements of an RPG. It's 2020! I don't have enough time in my life to sink 30 hours into a game and then all of a sudden try to repeat it because it's game over! If you are a massochist, you might like it. If you have a job and your gaming time is valuable, avoid!

I really want to like this game, and it feels like it's on the cusp of being a classic, but it's deeply hampered by bugs and awkward UI. Examples from my play time: - When resting, the game says hunting will take 0 to 0 hours. You go on with the rest, and hunting takes 19 hours. Things in this game have time limits. Losing a day is meaningful. - Every two handed weapon animation seems to be bugged. - We were ambushed during a rest. My character appeared to be standing with their usual animation idle, but was in fact still lying down. Standing up next to an enemy triggers attacks of opportunity. - The combat UI will occasionally "lie" - it will show you can move a certain amount and still take an attack, but when you move the full amount it can actually go slightly over, and now you've just taken a dash action. You can cycle through different movement modes with right-click, and one of them prevents, but you have to both know about this and consciously cycle to it every time. - The first major vendor I encountered in the game was borked and the 3 parts of the UI that list buying prices for items all showed different values. There are issues besides the bugs, too: - Bad character models - Bad-mediocre voice acting - Bizarre companion choices: For the first 10 hours or so 90% of your companions are women. Amiri and Valerie have near-identical backstories are both spec'd into Bastard Swords despite being, ostensibly, very different people. Heavy bias towards straight-up melee characters. None of these things are game-breaking, but together they add to a janky, awkward experience. Character creation/leveling and world-building and all that is solid, but it feels like I have to fight the game to get at it. Maybe try the steam version, my friends playing that seemed to have fewer bugs, and with a bit more polish I think this game'd be great. Also, very subjective opinion/gripe, but Inon Zur can't make a good combat soundtrack to save his life and it REALLY shows here.

Pathfinder Kingmaker rekindled my love of the CRP genre. I've struggled to appreciate many games because the story wasn't compelling, or the character creation was bland, or the role play elements weren't on point. Kingmaker is exceptional at all of these things. I've play hundreds of hours, and loved every one. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is an improvement on Kingmaker, but both are excellent examples of the genre, and you should play Kingmaker first as it will introduce you to the character building options without the level of overwhelming options present in Wrath.

PF:K by Owlcats was a brilliant, but it was ... a bit dirty I was disappointed and wanted to get a refund for PF:K preorder, due to enormous amount of bugs. But not EE now. It's polished, it sweet, sophisticated story plots are working as expected, Some companions are bad if you want power gaming and trash for min-maxers, useless classes, low-avg stats. Bah! But I will play with Amiri at my side, she's cool! As I played with Minsc, who is suboptimal. Base game mechanics are close to PnP game, which makes it's hard on battles sometimes. Cmon! You don't have that much fights on table as you do in PC game. But It's can be dealt with. You HAVE options to avoid some battles. Kingdom management still not so clear (Should I build port? Or a alchemist? A blacksmith? Do I need a wall? Hey, where the ... my points?), but you'll learn fast. Also game settings allow player to "read the story" while moving characters through the map. So yep. All hail Owlcats, you did it right. After a year+, but that's worth it.