I think this is the first time that I have experienced a role playing campaign and not simply a game. Kingmaker ebbs and flows with tension and down time. The systems award real understanding - you will find yourself analysing individual attack results. I am currently about a third of the way through and have 130 hour in this game. Expect to be with these characters for a very long time.
Shame; The game
I cannot count how may attempts at beating the game I have started. How many build i tried only to got burned out at act 2. How many times i have uninstalled it only to install it again and try again.
Until it somehow clicked with me. I didn't need a perfect build or perfect run. I just needed a character that was consistent with decisions, classes, build and then it just flowed.
The game is not a technical masterpiece, it has issues with loading, file size, saves, fail states and bugs. I would call it the Demon Souls of cRPGs. It's objectively worse than Wrath, but still rewarding doesn't hold your hand and will sooner slap you then help you.
Much to what Linzi with agree with, the game is like a book. A heavy book. You need to approach it one chapter at a time, with some diligence. There are hard parts, and good parts.
But keep on trying, it is worth it.
I kinda like the game, at least the idea of it, but it's just not finished by now. So many bugs, none CTD for me but it's really annoying.
What annoys me the most are the long loading times, to start it, from the travel map into a location, just camping takes its loading time, from the throne room into the kingdom management, from kingdom management to city building screen, all the way back again, from throne room to the city, back to the travel screen. Loading, loading, loading and never ending of loading screens. Almost half of the game time is spent there. And as you have to learn a lot by the hard way you will reload a ton!
Ant that's another problem, you have to make so many decisions without any or barely any information. It's basicly just guessing. The problem with the random encounters is not that they are imbalanced, it's that you have no clue what you will meet. You just can sometimes choose if to fight or avoid. It's not capable to tell you if you see 4 Kobolds or 3 Acient Elemtals before hand. Or what kind of impact your advisors have or which one to take with after chapter 1.
Or you are in a location made for about lvl 6 onwards, but there are absolutely ridicules enemy groups that just whipe your group in seconds. Seriously, why should you expect that a F***** Owlbear has godlike strength, +14 bonus, and a total of 2d6+24 of damage, with the +28 to attack is it just nuts!
Seriously, that's just awful level desing! Safe a lot! You regret it otherwise!
This game is made for Min/Maxing your Characters, otherwise you bite the dust on regular basis! But with the lack of information of how to progress your Character you just hope you didn't make the wrong choices. And of course it doesn't help that the choices they made for your companions are abysmal and that you just try to get them into shape over several levels so they become useful. The ridicules price you have to pay for a custom companion isn't helpful.
Please fix the loading times and infos!!!!!
Oh boy, I had a Baldur's Gate inch for a long time and this game scratches good. Great music, art, writing, solid graphics. All your party members are unique and have interesting backstory. Many people complain about the balance, but I don't think it's broken. Here's the deal: on a normal difficulty you have slight advantage on your enemies and sometimes that is not enough, so use potions, scrolls, magic, read your skills, passive abilities to have a bit of an edge over your enemies. I play on normal and don't have any difficulties, it's challenging and I love it. If you don't have an experience in D&D or never played game like Baldur's Gate you probably should choose easy mode, or even story mode.
Never had any bags so fourth, I'll update my comment if have any. That's enough of the banter, can't wait to play it more!
If you have ever played a tabletop RPG this is the closest Ive ever seen to it, I thought from the reviews etc... that real time would not feel right, but the pausing just worked, it auto paused for you as you stumble into combat. I have a lot of RPG games but this one is perfect, it just isn't like computer gaming an RPG, it is real tabletop. If you have never played a real tabletop version you will get a feel for them, if I was learning a real RPG this serves as a great way to see the mechanics in action.