Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

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.

Maaaaan was I hoping this game to be special... I guess no more pre-ordering pc games from me. What are my current issues with the game: 1. Party formation with mages and I'd say maybe rangers is mandatory. Mages need to kill some specific monsters (including STORY monsters) and I think rangers are needed for better hunting to don't spend millions on rations and all that. But I may be wrong on rations. 2. Background of party members (at least some of them) is extremely SJWed and modernized in general. I'm especially surprised to see what they gave to barbarian. 3. Difficulty spikes. Although this can be related to issue in item 1. But literally the first side quest you get is unbeatable. At the time of recieving it - you don't have any mages. Unless you're one of them. 4. Extremely idiotic and blind people in tutorial. I'm sorry, but if me just grabbing some people in fire and ragging them out of fire room in the same direction I'm already going to considered an evil action... and evil person shows mercy to somebody who kept him and his beloved or very close friend?! Come on... 5. Hard crash. Or whatever those are called on pc when entire pc is frozen and monitor shows some colorful trippy squares all over. So far happened only once, but who knows what will happen. This is a pc game after all. 6. Current feel of "meh" from rather everything in the game. What I like: 1. Good to be introduced to pathfinder universe

TL;DR: Great game, many character creation options. Some minor bugs and design flaws. "Make your own Kingdom" theme is awesome. Best difficulty adjustment freedom I've ever seen, use it! Have experience with CRPGs like Divinity: Original Sin 1-2, Pillars of Eternity, Shadowrun, Dragon Age: Origins and Baldur's Gate. Before this game I knew nothing about Pathfinder. Normal difficulty, finished Act 1, nearly level 6. Playing on normal, some fights are easy like random bandit encounters, while some encounters require good use of buffs, debuffs, positioning and target prioritization. You can have nearly as many quick/auto save slots as you want. Use them! I am completely dumbfounded, what all the fuss with the difficulty is about. I read reviews where people are angry that they cannot steamroll the game when playing on a difficulty setting literally called "unfair". Like, what did you expect, knobhead? Swarms: You start the game with 2 free torches, reading the hints on loading screens helps here. If you sold those in the beginning and also didn't immediatly bought a rope, you fail as adventurer and should just be a farmer instead. Will-o-Wisp: a camp in the middle of nowhere with dead bodies lying around - good difficulty telegraph. If you camped here not expecting to get hit, you're a fool. Wererats: Not a single telegraph to be found. Definitly an issue and the devs screwed this one up, but you have a million saves. PoE exhausted me with time wasting novel-length dialogue which didn't matter. While P:K goes straight to the interesting parts while still having enough flavor. Playing a neutral good I found plenty opportunities to express my alignment. If you are into minmaxing a blank adventurer is a powerful tool and that shouldn't be cheap. Have a great equiped party of "subpar" premade companions, or hold off on buying that +1 armor and sword, but get a minmaxed char as result. Your choice. PS: need more than 2000 characters please!