Alright chaps, I tried, I *really* tried.
the story's ok, the visuals are pretty, the NPCs are entertaining and actually not that annoying, but the game mechanics are utterly broken. Or is it the writing ?
The whole kingdom management thing could have been interesting, and even a great thing, really.
But it isn't. And the game is a pain in the backside.
Timed quests with *no* indication of timing whatsoever, crucial NPCs (absolutely needed for your kingdom to survive) that can be recruited but in *one* location at *only one given time* in but one chapter in the WHOLE game, kingdom events with a ridiculous difficulty (like 38 on a d20 roll), and quests that are totally unrelated but doing one is necessary to make the other quest progress had the best of me.
And I won't even mention the actual good ending that I only learned of while searching online for help (hint : DON'T start any romance with any of your party members whatsoever !!!).
Even with mods and cheats and whatever help I could find online, that's hours of my sad life wasted, and, in frustration...
I quit.
I might get back to this game some day, if these issues are fixed. Maybe. Because at times it was almost as nice as parts of BG I/II. Not always, but the effort was there.
But not anytime soon.
While I think the dialogues and most of the story are mediocre in comparison to other CRPGs (so still pretty good), I had a lot of fun with this game; it really gave me the feeling of shaping a nation out of a hostile area, with all the back and forts, troubles, defeats but also victories.
I wanted to spent my time on the weekends, and haven't created character for 1.5 weeks. XD
The role system is complicated but intresting.
But when tou dive into the game you can see that there is a lot of content.
I like the quests, there are always some small mystories there for you to discover and some options to finish them.
The story is decent.
Gameplay is good, it has some depth.
Sometimes game is a bit clunky, but in genetral it feels that every element of gameplay and story feels at least ok.
For me it seems that game was made exactly for me (i am RPG sucker).
It is not EA/Blizzard s kind of "AAAproduct", it is game with soul made by ppl who loves RPGs.
PS and this game is huge, spent 40 hours in it, and havent finished 2nd act =D
Unlike most of the people I didn't experience many bugs but my overall experience was really bad.
I finished the game after putting over 100 hours in challenging difficulty settings with a slight change to the enemies settings which was set to normal. In other words the core rules. The game is a wasted potential. It could be so good but it didn't deliver for the following reasons:
-Now the first part of the game was somewhat okish??? Still the difficulty spikes due to the devs' brainfarting designs and most likely lack of playtesting made it hell from time to time.
The second part was awful. Actually it was so bad that I didn't even read the ending. I beat the boss and skipped the dialogues.
-The story overall starts nicely. You want to win a prize after doing an adventure quest. Good that far. After winning the barony though and counter the first threats of your kingdom, the retarded epicness which is the bane inherited by bioware and baldur's gate 2 strikes. Since I don't want to spoil things, you get items and you fight enemies you shouldn't.
-The writting fluctuates between band and diarrhea.
-The kingdom management is even worse and pointless. Actually if combined with the fact that quest are time dependan makes things even worse.
-Too many encounters on the road.
-Awful UI by todays standards
-DLCs content was abysmal for their asking price
-Not even one companion has a interesting and in depth story
Overall the game is a wasted potential. How can pathfinder 2 be an improvement??? Here's a couple of ideas.
1)Hire someone who can actually write, like Avelone or the guy from Disco Elysium. They will deliver and will keep the epicness at minimal levels.
2)Play test the game ffs. Seriously the game has difficulty spikes on core rules settings.
3)Remove the kingdom management but keep the timelimit for the quests. It was really nice.
4)The road encounters should be fewer.
After fixing (most of) the bugs, we receive a game that is hard to call any different than a true masterpiece. I didn't expect to find a title that would engage me as much as Baldur's Gate II once did and make me spend as many hours in front of the computer as I used to spend when I was a teenager.
We have everything here - great (long) story and characters, exceptional and well-thought-out gameplay mechanics (I actually think it's the biggest advantage of this game) and extremely satisfying strategic mode of managing your kingdom.
It's such a pity that it wasn't ready upon its release, because the game did not receive the praise it certainly deserves now.