This the golden raspberry of modern crpgs in all possible categories: writing, game design, interface. Somehow this game is worse than Pathfinder Kingmaker in every way, including UI. 75% of this game past act I is just padding. Not everyone enjoys the resting mechanics but at least in Kingmaker the UI for it was clean, elegant and simple to use. They managed to destroy even that and now the UI for resting feels like a pre-alpha mess. The amount of reading in the game is comparable to War and Peace but they succeeded in making the font less legible than in Kingmaker so if your eysight is not 100% perfect you will get a headache after trying to read nonsensical walls of text for more than 30 minutes. And the writing and the wokeness, oh man, where do I even start. This is the first cRPG ever for me where the majority of companions were so cringe inducing that I literally killed off 50% of them right off the bat when I first met them and regretted not doing it for the rest (not that they allow you to do that in every case mind you). Fortunately the game allows you to hire mercenaries. This and and a mod called Toy Box is what saves the game from being 1 star only. The companions are either psychopaths, psychopaths with a twist, whiners, homosexuals, bisexuals ot antifa activists. I restarted Kingmaker and even Amiri now seems like a breath of fresh air. And wokeness, oh man, they hit the stratosphere, it is like it was written by Twitter executives right before the purge. In the first 30 minutes of the game you are forcibly introduced to a lesbian couple in the middle of a fight ("meet my wife") - not that I asked anyone for their marital status mind you. Later on this very couple becomes your PERMANENT and most trusted advisors for the ENTIRE game and you have ZERO say in this. Remember how in Kingmaker you had cards representing your companions and other characters and you used them to fill the advisor roles? Nope no choice here. Save your money.
So I return to my capital after another successful quest. Things are going well and all. I am about to become a king. There are two regions that can be added to my barony. So I click on one and now I have to wait 14 days. After 3 or 4 I see a message box "Your barony has been destroyed. Game over." Ok, Let's see the last report. Some event successfully resolved, some other succesfully resolved. Nothing, just nothing that would explain what just happened. In fact the game ended without giving me a SINGLE word of explanation of what was the reason for the game over. I was thrown out of the game after playing more than 100 hours and the game did not even deign to give a summary, explanation, anything. OWLCAT - it is the Mount Everest of game development incopetence and arrogance. Avoid them like the plague. Just dont tell me the core of the game is ok, it is just D&D system that is ok, this particular representation of this system, the game called Pathfinder Kingmaker is a travesty.
The balance problems as mentioned in many other reviews are real. Unavoidable giants in random encounters on the road executing your level 2 squad in a single turn and forcing reload are a thing. You can read about it in other reviews at length. The thing that is not written much about however is how much SJW propaganda is present in this game. If you are looking for a fantasy game to escape reality - this is not it, you will be attacked by real world ideological agendas right from the start. It begins with the exclusive use of "her" pronoun in all character creation screens and goes downhill from here. I started with Amiri, Valerie and Jaethal in my initial team. Amiri is a stronk feminist bitch with anger problems, I mean anger problems like "you suggest women cannot be stronk??" If you just try to talk to her she lashes out at you unprovoked like a hardened well trained feminist activist. Because sure, it is quite normal for women to wield swords that weigh at least 50 kg (in fact it is mentioned that it was a sword used by a giant). The source of her anger problems is that men in her tribe dared to suggest she should stay at home and occupy herself with traditional female activities but hey, she is stronk and she can fight and she will take no shit from anyone. But why would men in her tribe suggest such a thing? Is it maybe because women in real world are indeed too weak to engage in any form of traditional male activities? So is this a real world or a fantasy world? Or is it just a fantasy setting used to bash any real world ideas about men an women differences? Next comes beautiful Valerie who is ready to slap you if you mention it. Another stronk woman in a full suit of plate armor with tower shield and male hair cut. Linzi is halfling who disliked the idea she could actually give birth to children and became adventurer and Jaethal is kind of cool but also another role model for women as a former judge. Enjoy you SJW pill.
