Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Enhanced Plus Edition

I've tried and tried and tried to just push through this game and ignore my issues with it, but after a while, I just couldn't take it anymore. The 90% of the main characters are insufferable, the morality of the devs is shown to be completely screwed up through what they think is acceptable moral behavior (their concepts of good and evil are wildly messed up. Seriously, it's not "good" to invite legions of evil creatures to live in a city of innocent and defenseless people), their ambition was greater than their ability, and I run into a lot of broken content when it comes to how the game is supposed to work verse how it does. I guess some of the music is fine. I'll probably come back to this and create a more thorough review, but I'm just too grouchy to do it now and I want a more clearheaded take.

“We Are Going on an Adventure!” TL;DR: A deep, story-rich CRPG with amazing companions and kingdom building. It’s slow-paced but absolutely worth it if you love epic adventures. First things first: a little warning before you dive in. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a slow-burn experience. You’ll need patience because this game is huge, packed with content (amazing content, to be fair) and a lot of reading. The Pathfinder system itself isn’t the most beginner-friendly either, so expect a learning curve. If you don’t enjoy reading or prefer fast-paced action, this might not be the game for you. But if you’re willing to take your time and learn, the payoff is absolutely worth it. I absolutely love this game because it reminds me of The Fellowship of the Ring. What first drew me to Lord of the Rings was the idea of a group of companions coming together for a common cause to save the world from evil and the sense of camaraderie and connection between them. That same feeling is why...

Pathfinder: Kingmaker, an isometric cRPG inspired by classic titles like Baldur's Gate and Fallout, delivers a mixed experience. It aims to meticulously recreate the Pathfinder tabletop RPG experience, resulting in a game with deep character customization, strategic combat, and an engaging story, but also inconsistent difficulty, balancing issues, and moments of technical frustration. Positives: Story and world-building: The game boasts a compelling story that unfolds over roughly 75 hours, involving your journey from a lowly adventurer to a monarch ruling your own kingdom in the Stolen Lands of Golarion. Character customization: It offers unparalleled depth with numerous classes, races, abilities, and feats, catering to players who enjoy min-maxing and tinkering with builds. Choices and consequences: Your decisions throughout the game, both as an adventurer and a ruler, have a tangible impact on the unfolding narrative and the fate of your kingdom. Strategic combat: Combat i...

I wanted to like this game, the devs took a chance on a huge gameplay mechanic and it is sadly horrible. I can't recomend this game but I've heard that the devs learned thier lesson and made thier later games better. Basicaly the problem is: - gameplay breaking bugs. - Way too much meta game knowledge needed to even complete the main story without a online guide. - A mechanic that ends your run on 200 hours for a badly telegraphed timed event 150 hours in, cool :)

Feels like playing against a GM that just wants to defeat you

It's a long game. You need to know a ton or have the wiki open to act correctly to even progress past the timed events, even near the endgame. The story has awesome parts and the overarching theme is great but there's so much slog and unnecessary interactions, like finding a piece of smoked sausage in your bowl of gruel from time to time. If you are willing to minmax, keep the wiki open and possibly bust out a spreadsheet of events and items, this is the CRPG for you.

This franchise is not beginner friendly. I can't seem to get into the groove of things, to get to where I can actually enjoy the game.

I've hesitated posting a review for over 250 hrs of play, and my verdict is No. I do like the mechanics of the game play sticking to the Pathfinder rule set, but the story mechanics is broken. Way too many required things to do in an exacting time frame. Miss the exact time to be in the right location, you miss out. Finish a mission to prevent the (always) impending doom of your rule. you STILL have to send off advisors with a 0% chance to complete the mission???. Could not figure out why it kept failing until i read through a "wiki" Many other annoying bugs and just and just slammed with events that are not achievable without reading a walkthrough.

I'm 200+ hours into this game and finally in the last act, The House at the End of Time. AKA, the worst fucking final dungeon in videogame history. All I want to do is finish this unbalanced, sloppy, tedious shitstain of a game so I can uninstall it and never think of it again. It started great but was just a constant downhill slide that accelerated past the point of any redemption during the Rushlight Tournament chapter. Kingdom management is absolute garbage and should burn in hell. Lame and repetitive story, unbalanced, railroady as fuck. And (again) the stupid Kingdom management. Playing this game is like playing a TTRPG with an untalented and narcissistic DM who hates the rest of the table more and more as the game goes on, until eventually every session turns into some kind of mouth-breathing grudgefuck where invisible, unhittable fart-cloud assassins sneak attack half your party to death in the first round.

So I don't often write reviews but just wanted to address what appear to be the two main gripes in the negative reviews here, namely the kingdom management and linked to that a game over you can get if you're not paying attention. So, first of all, the kingdom management I don't think is a problem at all and just adds a little level of management sim to the game. Of course not everyone is into that and may just want to play the actual RPG. You can quite literally set the kingdom management to be done on auto, so you never have to bother with it, so not enjoying it is not even a valid complaint as you simply don't have to do it. Second, the possible game over that some are alleging comes out of nowhere. Your kingdom advisors and the in game text in your quest log make it very clear there is going to be severe consequences if you do not complete the required piece of research in time. It may not outright state it will be game over but it is enough that it's very obvious you should be d...