Pathfinder: Kingmaker is an odd beast. It does a lot of things right, but stumbles just much as it succeeds. I especially liked the first 20-30 hours. The quests and the writing is decent. There are lot's of sensbile dialogue options for the various alignments which is always nice. The companions are likeable, though not as well written as say Pillars of Eternity 1's best characters. The areas are rewarding to explore and there are always quests or loot waiting to be found. I was not familiar with the Pathfinder ruleset, but it shares a lot of similarities with D&D 3.5. Baldur's Gate veterans should feel right at home. Later in the game though, it feels as if there is too much of everything. The map becomes littered with points of interest and Kingdom management gets really tiresome. Travel times get longer, as well as loading times (lol). More and stronger enemies means you have to rest more which means you have to spend more time not actually playing. There are quite a few options to streamline the game somewhat (putting Kingdom management on auto, lots of individual difficulty settings,...), but the game can still drag a bit. There is also a time limit in basically every chapter. The deadlines aren't super tight and leave enough room for sidequests with time to spare, but can get in the way if you just want to explore without care. There are also still a lot of bugs. I encountered nothing game breaking, but they are still annoying when they pop up every now and then. The UI is also in dire need of streamlining. It's servicable, but cumbersome and often fails at communicating information to the player. Overall the game is at its best when it doesn't try to be anything unique. With streamlined Kingdom management and a better technical performance, Pathfinder would have been an instant classic for me. As it is now, it's still a very good cRPG and probably my favourite one in recent memory. Certainly worth a try for fans of Infinity engine games.
