I'm doing my third run (2x Act 1 and 1x Act 2). The game is excellent. It starts simple. You have turn combat with a initiative order, and receive a hand of 5 cards (skills) which cost different action points (you have 3 fixed AP, but can get more through the use of certain skills). The characters can equip items and as you level up you will get skil points and bonus talents. First of all try some builds and have fun. Don't mind if you choose something wrong. The game is usually forgiving. Then go crazy and try to min/max. Dont know if it will stay the same way, but for those trying to roll through Nightmare what I can say is: 1) Get a balanced party (STR/DEX/INT-wise for rolls) 2) +1 Card draw is nice (can get from amulet, head gear, etc) 3) "Draw a card on kill" is really useful on a ENDGAME DPS character, 4) Best control is to kill early and fast 5) Have a dedicated tank As of now, my fav character is Pure DEX Lucius (Deck: En Garde x2, Flash Cut x4, Double Slash, Lunge, Swift Strike x2, Blade Flurry, Phantom Edge x2; PLUS from items: Fate to Shadows and Surge x2). With a draw on kill glove, Bloodstained unique amulet (1 Might on melee attack) and Surge armor. It means 4 Free Openers, 5 Draw a card, +6 AP, Draw on Kill, Perma Might, and a Ultimate that do a attack for every point over DEX 10 (like 30 attacks with DEX 40). In Short: if it is a battle without wave, it ends at first round.
As I write this review I am at chapter 2 (lvl 8 party) challenging/custom mode (normal enemies) and I feel I got what I wanted. Yes, it is different than Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin or Dragon Age Origins and that is good. This game is superb, there is no buts. I get the bad reviews and I feel sorry for them. All RPGs have problems. Skyrim was 2011 GOTY and had a ton of bugs and broken quests when it was released. For me The Witcher 3 is the most pristine game of all time and although I ended the main campaign at v1.07 I played the expansions at v1.30+. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is at 1.09c by October-16/2018. The game is very much enjoyable since realease. I did act 1 at v1.00 (Paladin/Aasimar main char). The spider swarm got me. Reloaded, used the bombs I got earlier. Learned my lesson and started to play hardcore. As of today we have a advertising about how to get over that. Ratnook Hill was a breeze btw. I won't spoil. The Kingdom part is like a minigame. Pro: Great port of a desktop RPG. No need to min-max at challenging (i.e custom companions). I am using the standard companions with custom builds for my playstyle (Yes I saw a lot of complains with Octavia, and the lack of a full wizard, Valerie stats, and I regret the fact that Jaethal isn't Neutral) Con: No indication of challenge level of oponents (that would be metagame, but it worked at NWN and it works at tabletop). The overall perfomance was better at v1.00. Do you like RPG? Buy the game.
