Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

Ever since BG1, RPGs generally had either less freedom of exploration (BG2, IWD1-2, P:T, NWN1-2, KOTOR1-2, Shadowrun, Bloodlines) or too much of generic hiking-style exploration (Nu-Fallout, TES4-5). For comparison, BG2 barely had any exploration outside Athkatla. However, character-building in BG1 was primitive and the dialogues were often basic. PF:KM takes the unique formula of BG1 and fixes its flaws by adding a NWN-like character and dialogue system. Unusually for a modern RPG, it has moderately challenging encounters. Not all opponents can be defeated the first time you meet them. Sometimes, you have to flee or get creative. The infamous swarm fight early on is a good litmus test for lazy players. Firstly, it is not obligatory. You can go do other quests and return when you are stronger. Like in Gothic, you can often encounter opponents above your league, which makes defeating them all the more satisfying. Secondly, you can easily defeat the swarm with spells - including cantrips. It is as if people want to just click on opponents and win, unlike in other genres. The character building system is as good as in NWN or ToEE. There is a wide array of classes and feats that make them all diverse. Unlike other games, it puts diversity above streamlining. It requires planning, too. The setting, plot, and characters are solid. Perhaps the most valuable part is that the selection of companions is reasonably broad. The more common situation in current RPGs is that you get the P:T formula (1 party + a couple of obviously optional characters). Again, PF:KM bucks the sad trend. The early reviewers passed judgement prematurely. It was clear that the game was buggy at first, so the reasonable thing was to wait for it to get fixed. Instead, they succumbed to impatience, rushed to play it, and then gave it undeservedly poor ratings. This capriciousness at a time when good RPGs are a rare sight puzzles me. Now that it has been fixed, it is magnificent.

I notice there's been lot of comments on the lack of polish and buggy nature of the game. Started playing February 2020 and there are no bugs, it's all very smooth and nice. Good job on patching I guess. --- Starting the game felt like coming back home! The beginning is very reminiscent of Neverwinter Nights 1, there's a Big Important job to be done and only a bunch of random 1st level nobodies can be trusted with it. A Tutorial Attack, choices to be made (surprisingly, with consequences) and off we go! But while the gameplay is much the same as NWN (realtime with pause) the design is all Temple of Elemental Evil! You get very little instruction on how game mechanics work, it's assumed you're familiar with D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder ruleset and can craft a successful character build and party. If you can't, you will fail and have a miserable time. From the go, you have several locations you can visit, and the difficulty is straight through the rood. Assuming you picked the "right" place to visit! If you picked wrong, it's going to be practically impossible for a party of your level. No handholding, no hints, just try, fail, get frustrated, try again. And then you either rage quit or get the hang of it. And if you get the hang of it, you'll be made a baron and then there's a WHOLE TON of new stuff and again it's damn near impossible to make the right choices. And that's where I am right now, not finished yet, not sure if my kingdom will fail or not. It'll probably fail somehow, playing on easy and getting hints off the net. And when it's over, I'll start again, with better choices and more informed character build. So IT IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY! Not for casual gamers. It's confusing, hard and unfair. But if you're up for the challenge, it can be just the one game you have been looking for these past 10 years.

...But there are very definitive issues: 1. The characters, story and writing are all over the place: it's not inherently bad but there's room for a lot of improvement. Baldur's Gate II, Divinity: Original Sin II or Fallout this is NOT. 2. The pacing feels off, with some very odd choices regarding character progression. 3. The biggest issue of them all: ever played a tabletop game with a GM that just seems to enjoy finding loopholes in the rules to make their players' lives difficult? This is it. Get ready to save before every encounter JUST IN CASE you're thrown another curveball that would've been impossible to foresee.

I won't talk about the various issues the other comments describe, but about the main thing that heavily disappointed me. You see, the game follows a story. Once this story ends, the game ends. It can be annoying for some, but I understand that choice, a strong story arc rather than a crappy endless playthrough, fine. Or at least, it would have been fine, if the game didn't force you to rush through the story. You want to do sidequests, or explore, or develop your kingdom? Nope. If you don't do the main quests quickly, a hundred negative events (to the point of getting two per day) fall on you, to force you to focus on the main quests. Alright, I'll disable the loss condition based on the kingdom's stats. Nice try, but the main quests are also timed. If you persist and don't do them, you simply get a game over. So I reached the end of the game, because I was forced to, and when I reach the final zone, I see all my side quests and such marked as "failed". No time to do them, and no possibility to do them after the final quest. I didn't even want to keep playing after that. Is it a way to artificially increase the playtime by forcing players to make multiple games, to explore the various parts of the game? Or did they simply not think about it? I don't know, but that's really enough to remove the pleasure of playing a Pathfinder game - you know, the TTRPG, which is supposed to focus on freedom and fun.

I would curse developers of Pathfinder: Kingmaker to develop 1000 old-school isometric RPGs until they start value quality over quantity. This game is nothing but wasted potential buried under multiple layers of poorly thought-out time-wasters. It tries to recreate good 20 years old games but recreates not only their merits but flaws too, adding new ones in the process. As you progress through the game it starts as a 4/5 star solid attempt to inject you with nostalgia and then slowly devolve to 2/5 stars tedious second job experience as you endure all its flaws over and over again to finally get to the end. It may be interesting for people who have no reference to how good old RPGs look, but if you are not familiar with the CRPG genre, it is not clear why you would pick up this game in the first place. I hope you are proud of yourself, OwlCat Games. Real-life toxic DMs can ruin spare time only for like 3-4 players at once, but you managed to transfer this experience to the video game, which is played by thousands. Try to make JRPG instead of CRPG.