Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition

TLDR: An awesome, story-rich game by a small studio. Loading times and bugs have improved since launch (and look to continue to do so). If you enjoyed PoE and Tyranny, you'll probably enjoy Kingmaker as well. This game has caught a lot of flack, and honestly, I get it. The amount of time spent staring at loading screens gets a little tiresome, and it launched with a LOT of bugged NPCs & questlines. BUT: This is a vast, sprawling game populated by interesting, engaging characters, full of beautiful maps & fun questlines, with a really awesome story to boot. I don't mind having to be a little patient with (in my experience, minor) loading issues/bugs when I am rewarded with such an intriguing world. I bought Kingmaker at full price because I am more than happy to support small developers; I do not regret a single penny of my purchase. More than PoE or other games built on this engine, Kingmaker preserves the feeling of playing a tabletop game beautifully, in all its unpredictable glory. The dice gods (and how you choose to build out your skills) have a heavy hand in your fate, but for me that just makes multiple playthroughs all the more appealing. I love the skill mechanics -- it really is impossible to do everything well with one character, so strategizing how you build out your skills in your party is important. The flexibility of the difficulty settings is AMAZING, seriously the most robust system I have seen in any game. Want punishing combat without having to fiddle with kingdom management? There's a setting for that. Want super easy combat with a more challenging kingdom/diplomacy experience? You can do that too -- and every shade of grey between those two extremes. I love this game. It is vast & awesome, truly a wonderous feat (haha) for such a small studio. The companion characters and, most of all, the storyline make this such a gem of a game. If you love CRPGs and/or tabletop gaming, give it a chance! I think you'll fall in love with it, too.

Background: I kickstarted this title. The game lives up to the promise. Tons and tons of options in character creation and progression. Lots of options when it comes to choices made in game, related to alignment, dialogue, etc. Combat is as good, and better in some ways, than Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate. I see other reviewers criticize the game difficulty, but I found it a perfect challenge on the "Challenging" setting. In any event...there is an Easy setting if it is too tough. Overall, I'm very pleased with this game and already know there is a ton of replay-ability, given the branching choices.

Is this the new thing yes? To bring out games, that are totally unfinished? I swear this was the last time I pre ordered any game and for shure the last game I baught from you people. The game itselfe could be great, one of the best RPG in years, but instead we got an unfinished, bugged, unplayable pile of Problems. And instead of fixing it, the devellopers are bringin out one patch after another that doesent change anything.

Buy this game only if you want to be brutalized by its punishing difficulty. After spending hours of being repeatedly one shotted by a group of three wolfs, I have had enough. Other games can be difficult but at least they give players a chance to look around and explore a bit before ramroding it in! Asking for a refund - its unplayable.

First and foremost, I am currently about 6 hours into the game and have yet to encounter the "kingdom management part." However from what is there I can already tell that the game has been made by peope who love pen & paper Roleplaying and who have put a lot of work to make this game feel just like a pen & paper adventure would. The pathfinder system seems to have been transfered quite faithfully though it may be a bit overwhelming if you have never come in contact with Pathfinder or D&D 3(.5) before. You can spend a lot of time with the character creator. There are lots of choices in the game where you can decide your characters actions from a roleplaying side. (espacially notable are the alignment decisions (pushing the player to a certain alignment or requiring a certain allignment to be made) The world is quite open and is not afraid to let you decide where you go and which objectives to prioritize at any given time once it has opened up. Anyways, for Pen & Paper Roleplaying fans this is a must buy.