Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

I won't review the game bugs, since reviews on GOG can't be edited. I believe that in this case the game should be reviewed not for things that can be remedied in patches, but for its structural qualities – the story, setting, characters and their arcs, gameplay. In my two hours in I didn't encounter more than a few minor bugs. The gameplay is familiar to anybody who ever played an isometric RPG. Setting and story are interesting enough, writing is much better than in, let's say, Pillars of Eternity: concise and to the point, delivered mostly in dialogues. Just as I like it in an RPG. And that gets me to what I view as the strongest point of the game so far: characters. They move everything forward. They talk to you, they react to each other; they are significant part of the story. And they are interesting. Dwarf cleric, right, what's new... well, he's such a downer he just wants to be left for dead. His depressive rants make me to want to stuff him full of Xanax. A neutral evil inquisitor elf... elfess (is that a word?) with a scythe that is undead and doesn't care if anybody else dies? A gnome sorcerer with delusions of grandeur that orders you around? A paladin washout turned lawful neutral? Okay... but the best thing is that after the tutorial there is a schism in the party, which splits in two and every character joins either you or your opponent... based on their opinion of your decisions during the tutorial mission (like rescuing guards from fire or leaving them, robbing the armory, apologizing – or not – for robbing the armory etc.). Both parties will travel separately. Honestly, I don't know what will follow next, but this move totally sold me. This game has a great potential and I'm sure after few patches it will stand right there with other great classics of the genre.

Most of my problems with this game are the same problems I have with the tabletop version: The illusion of lots of player choice, but with only a few viable options. Restarted several times to test out class builds. On normal difficulty, spider swarms kill me about 75% of the time, based on random chance. Low hitpoint characters get killed super easily. Stealth doesn't seem to work very well during scripted events. Random encounters aren't random. Some low level monsters have damage reduction. The video game is very faithful to the pathfinder rules, but the pathfinder rules are pretty awful, so that hurts it more than it helps. All of the balder's gate/icewind dale games, as well as NWN 1 and 2 were both pretty heavily modified to make the rules work with a video game, this one... wasn't. And it should have been. Oh my god this game is so slow, why is it so slow, it's like i'm walking in quicksand. Why does it take forever to load? I'm running it off an SSD and a modern i5.

I've put in 50+ hours into Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and having heard the main campaign was approx. 75, even though I was struggling to stay interested at about the 40 hour mark, thought I'd carry on and at least try to complete it. Unfortunately I doubt that will happen, the game has an uncanny knack for sucking the enjoyment out of itself after a short run of genuinely good moments. I believe most of the reviews here and in professional publications have touched on the major reason why I can't recommend this game but I just felt the need to make a point of it to anyone undecided on a purchase. This game is like an hour-glass where the sand never falls, or at least that's how it feels in-game. Then you realise four hours of your actual, real-life time has passed, and all you've managed to do in game is visit your throne room three times, napped in the bedroom behind it (requires a loading screen), and maybe sold fifty composite shortbows to the merchant in the town to accumulate enough gold to buy build points (if you relied on accumulating them over time from the kingdom management, uh, don't). Everything in this game is glacial, from the loading times, to the movement speed, to watching your party move across a map. I have read most of both a novel and a political science book just during the various loading screens, running across a map, waiting for a project to finish, in my 50 hours of playing. That should tell you something about what percentage of that time is spent playing, and what is spent waiting.

This game is excellent in its current condition. I have played 35+ hours so far and have not run in to any of the negative things that apparently were present before. For instance, I am playing on Normal and have not run into any fights that I couldn't overcome once I put a little thought into it. I am not a min/maxxer and have only basic knowledge of DND systems. If you are reading this review, you like these types of games. Do yourself a favor and play it. I would say, some basic understanding or willingness to learn DND-type rule sets is a must though.

Apparently I played for roughly 20 hours according to GOG. I don't think I even scratched the surface of this game but I will tell you my experience. The game is FULL of beginner's trap. You will feel like you are hitting a brick wall for first 5 or 6 hours. Your party will level up after the tutorial. DON'T LEVEL UP YOUR CHARACTERS. Instead, leave the town, return to the town, and purchase a mercinary at a far more reasonable price. If you level up before purchasing a mercinary, you will not be able to afford it ever. Having an extra party member early should be a wonderful experience. I completely missed out on that. Right after the tutorial, one of the NPCs will give you a quest about Spider Cave. DON'T GO THERE. In fact, don't go to ANY areas near the first inn. Enemies there will be massively over powered and will kill your party immediately. Instead, go further south because . . some how enemies located further away from your starting location are far more appropriately leveld for your grinding. The game is brutally difficult in many areas and you will be forced to experiment with different spells, t actics, etc. After 5 or 6 hours of frustration, you will start to get the game. You will be having pleasant experience around 10 hour mark. Then the game throws Baron management at you. Apparently I am a bad Baron and my estate is spiraling downward because I have no idea what I am doing and the game is terrible at tutorials. I probably have to restart the game or something. As far as I can tell the game's combat is excellent despite major flaws in the game. I do not recommend blind playing the game unlesss you are willing to play in the lowest difficulty.