It took me a long time to pick up this game because of warnings about timed quests, something I hate (I'm one of those guys who spends hours exploring the map). After some research I discovered that all the problems in this game were solved by the community with the help of mods. Once that was done it became one of my favorite games!
So I leave here the mods I'm using, all of which can be downloaded for free from Nexus Mods:
- PTBR Pathfinder Kingmaker Traducao (translation of the game into Portuguese);
- Bag of Tricks - Cheats and Tools (various functions, use to pause timed quests);
- Arcemi Pathfinder Kingmaker Editor (use to edit Portraits easily);
- Amazing companion portrait replacer (several portraits to make allies prettier).
The good first: 160h of play, great turn-based combat experience (haven't tried real-time), epic journey from simple mercenary to legend, lovely characters, good writing. lots of BG vibe. Not a fan of kingdom management, but I must say it kinda makes sense in this game.
The bad now: it is absolutely impossible to have a smooth experience without constant googling: when the journal is telling you "Wait for stuff to happen", it is imperative that you google what needs to be done to avoid a game over due to (sometimes hidden) timers. Had to reload a couple of times (loosing a day of playing) because a timer shows up and it turns out there is no way I am gonna make it (that long kingdom project wasn't optional after all!). Even worse, you are supposed to explore a lot to figure out where to go, which would be normally great except that exploring itself requires time (in-game-days) and takes you closer to the impending gameover. Overall this turns an excellent game into a stressful experience. It also goes without saying, a lot of optional content cannot actually be accessed, because if you go after that, well, game over.
That said, the core game does deserve to be played, especially if it has been a while since you last cast high level spells like "Horrid wilting"... If you decide to give it a try, I suggest to turn the kingdom to invincible in the options, but do not turn kingdom management off.
With another 3-6 months or so in the making, this game could be worth 4 or even 5 stars, but not at this point in time, even with the first big patch having hit.
Pathfinder looks and sounds great (when it does, not all dialog is voiced), and it offers a massive game world and a huge amount of character stuff to muck about with.
But it sure seams like Owlcat have bitten off more than they can chew with this one, or maybe they needed to release one or too quarters early. The game could really have used that time, and on all fronts, too.
Your sidekicks all start out interesting until you notice that they don't really have much new to say after the exposition in act 1. Fireside banter, too, is repetitive in the extreme.
The game overall appears much better balanced, now, after 1.1, but the final two acts are still an unholy mess of soulcrushing b.s.
Far too many class abilities and iconic spells did not make it into the game.
Kingdom management is tedious instead of fun and rewarding.
The game does a pi s s poor job at communicating to the player which feats belong together, it straight up recommends bad options and tells you not to take good ones (e.g. greater spell focus).
There is no spell list in the game that would allow you to make an informed decision as to your specialist school of choice, does not inform you with regards to a class's BAB progression, etc. This list could go on.
And for all those players who made the wrong choices during level-up because they were quite literally left in the dark by the game, there isn't even a respec option *slow-clap
Add to that having to go through multiple loading screens at every turn, each of which taking 30-60 seconds, bugged quests that have far-reaching consequences that will only become plain much much later, spontaneous casters without the ability to swap spells - at all! - , not being able to change so much as your outfit colors after character creation.... I could go on if there was more space here.
Wait 4 GptY
You have to realize that many of the legitimate complaints here come from the difficulty settings.
The kingdom management is tedious, traveling through the overworld map with unbalanced encounters is awful, getting clapped by encounters much higher CR than you, encumbrance rules if antifun, etc. I guarantee there is a setting to fix your ailments.
Despite that my main issue is that this game still plays terribly as a turn-based fight. Expect it to double your playtime ingame. Playing the real-time variant definitely feels more smooth but its not for me. I find that people who enjoy this game are munchkins who can min-max and know where the best equipment and optimal skills/spells for each encounter. No comment on daze here. With their OP character and a higher difficulty they are able to make meaningful combat decisions instead of reloading after a failed crit.
Honestly stay away unless my review has actually interested you.
I think this is a good game overall, like the depth of characters and the devs faithfulness to Pathfinder as a PnP RPG.
But oh man, this game has some big problems. Crashes to desktop, save coruption, battles that are so difficult they border on impossible, random encounters that make no sense, its pretty rough.
