Siege of Avalon is an amazing, criminally underrated game. I first played this game when I was 8 and I still have the original Anthology CD. The plot's very well written (especially chapter 4. Don't. Skip. It!) and the RPG mechanics, while a little clunky from a modern eye is a good attempt at combining Diablo with Baldur's Gate. And, in a novel turn away from your typical RPG, the sidequests make sense in the context of the world. You won't have NPCs ask to you catch butterflies when there's a dragon about to swallow the world. If you do pick up this game, keep in mind that it is fairly old and you're won't find some of the creature comforts that are present in a more modern game. The difficulty is fixed and fairly steep. It is very easy to become an immortal god by chapter 6 if you pick mage or one-shot snipe everything (including the final boss) if you pick rogue. Your NPC companions have horrible AI and will generally get in your way more than help you. Having said all of this, if you liked the original Baldur's Gate games, you will love Siege. You'll love the ambiance, the plotline, the lore. And when you finish the game, you'll be gutted that the overwhelming success of Baldur's Gate 2 was largely the reason why there isn't a second Siege game.
This is the best RPG I've played in a while. Simple as that, folks. The kingdom building aspect of the game is the best attempt I've seen so far of trying to mix CK2 style rulership within a RPG system. While Pillars of Eternity had a bit of stronghold management in Caed Nua, this game perfects it, allowing you to hire advisors, assign tasks to them and build a kingdom out of what was once a desolate, bandit-ridden land. There is easily a 100 hours of gameplay in just the main quest, probably more. I'm about 40 hours in now, and I've only just finished the second chapter (there are seven in total). Each quest is very well written and while your companions -- and NPCs in general -- are not as interesting as the ones in Pillars of Eternity, they still feel authentic and immersive. The game feels a lot like a tabletop game that you might play in real life. The plotline's not Oscar worthy, but my goodness is it fun to play. Having said this, the mechanics can take some getting used to. If you're familiar with the Pathfinder system (I occasionally run tabletop Pathfinder games IRL), you'll have no trouble getting to speed in Kingmaker. If you aren't however, things might be a little tricky. I would suggest playing one or two difficulties lower than you normally would till you get used to the quirks of the system. In fact, I wouldn't blame you if you set the difficulty on 'Story' just to enjoy the good writing. There are also a few balance issues with your party getting tossed into encounters that are far beyond your ability, but these are few and far between. I personally haven't encountered a lot of bugs, so it is possible that the low ratings are from launch when the game wasn't as playable. tl;dr: What are you waiting for? Just buy the game already.
