As someone who's been wanting to play the tabletop game for ages, but who has no friends and a family whom dislikes pen@paper, this was a great chance to dip my toes into the universe. I recommmend installing the turn-based combat mod; assuming that it hasn't been officially added by the time you, lovely internet person of the future, read this review. Other than slowing down the pace of the game, it really does help showcase the underlying mechanics behind many of the abilities. For those going in blind; be prepared to either brush up on the tabletop ruleset or be willing to experiment, allow the game to auto-level your companions, or re-create character sheets from the Iconics / Pathfinder Society. I can imagine anyone with the min/max mentality could suffer from analysis paralysis as well-- part of the fun, imho, is just rolling with the flaws of your party. The DLCs are also top notch and fairly priced for what they have on offer. Now all there's left to do is wait for Paizo to release the 2E ruleset for Kingmaker and find a way to convince my family to play.
If you're like me, a 30-something parent with a penchant for masochism and obsessing over dice rolls, then you've likely been trying to play more table top games. This is essentially a campaign-lite legacy game driven by our good friend, RNG; no DM required. Risk management is the name of the game, slavic Family Ties is the flavor text of the day that keep the skill checks rolling. Throw out any notion of trying to game the odds into your favor. As history has shown, 9th century folks notoriously rolled poorly. Which likely led to the D20 nearly being lost to time until being rediscovered in 1974 at an archelogical site in Norway** (citation needed). Plan for bad rolls, then plan for more bad rolls, and then hope no one dies of dysentery, injury, fatigue, suicide, and so on.... All in all you'll have a good time if you're into resource / risk management. Don't stress out over failing skill check after skill check (seriously RNGesus what did I do wrong?), just solve the situation by throwing more dice at the problem. Buy it, and keep a log of the many many deaths that await you on the Viking Oregon Trail.
Buy it on sale. Gameplay is less Diablo and more watered down Dungeon Siege. Which isn't exactly a bad thing, but understand what it means. Repetitive "classic" gameplay set in a universe that has the hooks in place to become a nice indie series. However....and there is a very large however here: The Developer is apparently involved in a lawsuit with its Publisher: which unfortunately has placed this game in a legal hold. The promised Book II content has not been delivered. Both parties have not shed any light on this matter as it's most likely due to some sort of legal gag order. However it would do nothing but improve customer relations if something were said; for better or for worse. As of now both parties are mum on all details and neither have updated store websites in quite some time. I'm all for supporting a good game but with so few details on the status of the game.....I have absolutely no reason to believe that these fire sales are nothing but attempts to recoup lost investments. Games Farm/bitComposer, please prove me wrong and show us some good will.
