I would really like this game if it was playable. I bought this about a year ago, and it was buggy as shit, to the point of being unplayable. I finally gave up and decided I'd come back later. Well, here I am, and the game is still buggy as shit.
Latest issue: screen goes black and requires full game restart every time you go to the kingdom screen.
I give up. It could be a good game. But I have zero confidence it ever will be.
My experience is really mixed. Purchased it because of discount I couldn't say no to. Even when the time limit was reason of which I will avoid playing as racing the time isn't any fun to me. Still I was able to find gameplay fun, just need to get used to it.
I've been defeated by fact that game keep freezes. Not even 10-30 mins pass and I have to blindly quit it or force close it and restart. I was seek for D&D game, was wonder about others but this one just won me and not let to enjoy it at all, nor even simply play it.
Problem from what I've seen exist since very beginning and even after a year is not fixed nor determined what causing it. I think one of graphic options tho at moment of writing this I am too mad and disappointed to experiment any more.
Devs I beg you... FIX it like finally, how can I care about 10 pages of bug/issue fixes if game keep have game breaking problem to this day? And I am of course one of the affected. So I am giving mid score as I can't really give solid review due to said problem. Which is sad, game still receiving care and I believe is great on so many levels. I will keep trying to play it with hopes.
Yes, you will have to ATL+TAB heaps and Google what the hell this or that does, or how such-and-such works, but if (like me) you love D&D based RPGs this is a must have.
The only caveat I'd add is that I installed the Turn-based mod almost immediately because I knew that I'd want it: it basically slows combat right down so you can make every single move tactically, which I massively prefer, as I find real time (even with pause) way too stressful. It therefore makes every combat quite a protracted affair, but if you're a fan of table-top, well that's just dandy - after all the battles are what it's all about right?
I finally managed to finish Kingmaker, after ~70h of gameplay (I ended up using cheats around the last chapter).
The first 30h or so were very promising: the game is well written, the pace is good and the difficulty manageable - especially is you tweak the very complete difficulty settings, and remove the most absurd rules, like not being able to remove permanent effect by resting.
I have two main issues with the experience, which ended up being a cumulation of frustration on the second part.
The first one is that is used to the letter the original tabletop rules, which only work because there is a gamemaster adapting its campagin to the player.
In Pathfinder you can start a fight, fail a check, get all your band controlled / root / wathever; even if you prepared first. Only solution, reload and hope for a better dice role. Basically, having the good preparation, skill setup, level and strategy do not garantee victory. And it's not a tactical game either: a fail dice roll does not mean you'll need to rethink your strategy or adapt, just that now you have to hope to stay alive long enough. A game like Darkess Dungeon creates choices with its randomness, Pathfinder creates frustration.
The second biggest issue I found is that preparation for a fight is almost impossible without dying and reloading. The first time you encounter a new enemy type, it might start as a group of 5 of them, coming from all direction. You notice a small band of bandits and attack them just to see 10 new enemies spawning from nowhere and attacking your ranged character no longer protected. The first time you encounter a Troll, if you have no acid spell or bombs, you cannot leave the fight.
Basically, the original tabletop rules are not good and this game suffers from it. Tabletop RPG are designed with a gamemaster, they fall without it.
I had some other issues with the game (balancing, loading time, etc...); but keep in mind that I really enjoyed the first 30h of gameplay.
I get that this was a very buggy game at launch, and I ran into a bunch when I first played it. But now that it has been patched this is exactly the kind of rpg I love. If you don’t like heavy dialogue games, then this game isn’t for you. This is not all combat so be ready for that. There is a lot of city dialogue and character building. The one thing I don’t like about the game is that the main quest is timed. There’s a lot of timers in this game and I wish that I just had more down time in the game to explore. But overall I love the mechanics and style of the game. If you love tabletop rpgs then you would love this game.
