Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Imperial Edition Bundle

Did you read the other reviews about how kingdom management is an atrocious endeavor? I did, too, and thought, "It can't be that bad." It wasn't. It also wasn't fun and didn't feel like there was a point to it. -Example: a medical emergency hits your barony; a character laments the lack of hospital in the city; but there is one - I built it long before the chapter began. Thanks, game. Did you read the other reviews about how the game allows switching between turned-based and real-time combat? I did and thought, "Sounds great!" It sort of is. -Very often, combat is better than Neverwinter or Baldur's. -But the classes and characters or so unbalanced, and the enemies go through such obnoxious power spikes, that any fun you might have in experimenting in oddball characters is subsumed by the need to keep overpowered units on hand. -Min-maxers will have a blast! Did you read about the slog that is map movement? I did, but saw the size of it and figured, "That's a place that'd be fun to explore!" It isn't. -The consensus was right. Did you read all about the role playing? I didn't. It sucks. -It feels irrational (e.g. game conflates Neutral alignment with not taking sides in conflict). -NPCs can be interesting but usually wind up as flaccid tropes. -Curiously high DC skill checks encourage save scrumming. -Some points will seem to provide copious options - most lead to the same conclusion. -Some points provide few options, shoehorning you into only performing uncharacteristic actions. -You will never, ever cast magic in an event or conversation. There's pleasure to be had here, but this household decided it got enough and could move on, confident that we wouldn't get any more out of the game.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a great throwback to good ol' times of Infinity Engine games. It is powered by Pathfinder tabletop RPG ruleset, faithfully adapted for this game. The system is full of crunchy complexity -- in my opinion, this is great, but beware of character sheets full of obscure statistics. If you never played Pathfinder or D&D 3.5 (or any game based on latter, like Neverwinter Nights 2), expect a steep learning curve. There are two modes of play -- real-time with pause and turn-based. So Kingmaker can be both Baldur's Gate and Temple of Elemental Evil. Now, don't get me wrong. The game plays great both ways, but I would still prefer BG and Pillars of Eternity for RTWP experience. But Turn Based mode makes this game an absolute blast to play. This is what Pathfinder was designed for, after all. And, well, good turn-based RPGs are few and far between. This is definitely one of them.

Kingmaker I held off on getting for the longest time. I heard reports of bugs, balance problems, and it looked for all the world like a copy of a game like Pillars of Eternity or Baulder's Gate which were fun but severely punishing and could become dull from repetition. I was pleasantly surprised! No bugs I've found. Load times are lengthy but not prohibitive. I don't mind the cheesy voice delivery. It brought me back to the extravagant characters I've played and witnessed played by role-players in real life and I actually got to appreciate how much personality they had compared to a lot of one note fantasy characters. Like Dragon Age I became attached to my team, looked forward to them bickering and talking while camping. The graphics are charming! Chunky, lots of personality, little animations to enhance the immersion. At first I felt a major stumbling block with the combat which devolved like Dragon Age into sending in my team to just whale on enemies until they fell over. But then I found TURN BASED MODE This implementation immediately made this game 100% better in my opinion. Planning movements, coping with enemy maneuvers and abilities, taking calculated risks...it's all great fun. You can move up to a certain amount and then use an ability and it's clear how far you can move and what kind of time frame abilities take to use. Smooth, fun, and it makes the constant combat feel like a chess game you're continually improving at with new skills and stats with each level. I'm not even at the Stag Lord yet and I've already sunk hours into side quests and exploration. If you put in the time to get good gear and fight a handful of trash mobs you should be on an even footing with most enemies you run into, and healing is ridiculously forgiving. You can camp nearly anywhere, don't need items to do it, and apart from random encounters healing is just one amusing conversation away. All told I enjoy this streamlined and full of personality CRPG.

I really enjoyed this game, but I agree with other reviewers that the timer on quests is very frustrating and annoying and caused more stress than fun. Replay-ability is high though - lots of different paths to explore, lots of different characters to interact with. A lot of quests will have different outcomes based on who you bring with you, which makes it interesting and fun to play.

The top review I read here spoke of the hidden timers on some quests. I agree this is the thing which has spoiled it for me. It's a great game and I've had a blast, but. Constantly losing time to fetch quests and save scumming feels bad. Some immersion breaking things: Artisans demanding you visit them for a trivial plot point, while standing in front of your throne. Needing rations or not being able to rest, while carrying 40 slabs of meat and 20kg of veg. Being unable to do anything other than improve a kingdom stat while, for 2 weeks, giants are running amok outside your door, just because you clicked an hour before an event triggered. It's otherwise a very good game and I hope the sequel is even better!