Pathfinder Kingmaker

Pathfinder Kingmaker

Pathfinder Kingmaker Review

Starting a new tabletop RPG campaign is a bit like joining an complicated polyamorous relationship. You have to make sure you like your companions, but most importantly, you and the Dungeon Master must share the same vision. ANYWAY, my point is that in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, some DMs like to follow the rules by the book, others just use rules as a frame to tell a story. Some focus on combat, and some enjoy drama. Some have a very strict plotline to follow, while others start with vague ideas and let the players wander around. There isn’t a right or wrong way of playing. It’s just a matter of finding a group of people who like the same things you like.

The main appeal of the Pathfinder campaign is the opportunity to rule your own little kingdom. Before ruling the lands, though, I have to reclaim them from ancient curses and vicious bandits. The tutorial leaves me with a ragtag team of classic fantasy tropes, a list of villains to kick, and a large time limit (this is an RPG where many quests are given a countdown, with negative consequences if you fail to finish them in time, rather than allowing you to ignore impending doom in favour of fishing).

Faithful adapation of the PnP. Closer to the hardcore cRPGs of the past with no hand holding, mechanics with depth, challenging tactical combat, interesting companions and engaging storyline. Although i’m really enjoying the game, theres a lot of negatives to this game.

Difficulty is brutal. Not fair brutal but unbalanced brutal. Devs have zero knowledge on game balancing. Your level 3 characters get pit against level 10 random encounters, though this was fixed a few patches after. Theres also the fact that they double dip on difficulty rules. Enemies get double buffs when it was intended to only recieve 1 buff as per the PnP. Challenge is fun, but unbalanced mess is not. Pillars of Eternity PotD mode is how balancing is supposed to be done. Unsure if this poor balancing is due to bug in the coding or the devs really have no idea how to do game balancing.

Lack of quality of life features. I love classic cRPGs but they gotta stay relevant to modern gaming. Simple things like an option to sell off all vendor loot or to auto arrange items in your chest are absent. These little things will add up and can really frustrate the player.

Game mechanics are not transparent to the player. Stuff like stats, effects and skills do not clearly tell the player what it does. 90% of the time the player is left wondering what the hell does this spell do and what this stat gives or what level and stats of the opponent you’re up against. The included in game encyclopaedia is near useless. Again, Pillars of Eternity(and also Divinity Original Sin) did an excellent job on this one, pop up descriptions and stats(of you and your enemies) as well as a beastiarya and lore are clear and concise detailing USEFUL information.

For anyone interested in purchasing this game, be aware that it is getting constant patches for game breaking bugs still. Also be aware, that there is no option to “Upgrade” your edition like in many other games, so if you buy the cheap version hoping to see if you like and later upgrade your going to be out of luck as there is no option for upgrading to the other editions as of this writing.

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