Pathfinder: Kingmaker

 PC
User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 598 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 402 out of 598
  2. Mixed: 82 out of 598
  3. Negative: 114 out of 598

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  1. Tiradentes
    Sep 7, 2023
    10
    Not immune to bugs, Pathfinder: Kingmaker brings one of the best cRPG experiences I've ever participated in. With extremely interesting and charismatic companions, be ready to dive into this quite complex but captivating and surprising story.
  2. Keron_Heruman
    Aug 23, 2023
    8
    Very good adaptation of Pathfinder pen&paper rules to a computer game, the game is really long and good constructed, plenty of options and with solid mechanics, but the history behind it is not so good and tends to became boring late game. The kingdom management is a good idea but poorly implemented.
  3. PenetratorGod
    Aug 19, 2023
    5
    It's not a bad game but it's really tiring. It can get very boring. And yet somehow you keep playing.
  4. Vhallechia
    Aug 15, 2023
    10
    This game is amazing, it mixes Sim City, Age Of Empires 2 with Neverwinter Nights!! It's better than Baldur's Gate 3, and while I love Baldurs Gate 3 I have to admit that Pathfinder Kingmaker and Pathfinder Wrath of Righteous are infinitely better.
  5. TruthSeaker
    Aug 11, 2023
    2
    Supported them on Kickstarter. Hoped that they will deliver
    They didn't.
    Why 2? That's the amount of corrupted save files(ruined playthroughs) I got in 6 months.
    Absolutely terrible.
  6. grillonbleu
    Jul 22, 2023
    5
    Such a hard game to rate. It's a large, generous CRPG and the premise is refreshing. It's fun to both explore and govern. There's charm too in the characters even though so many of them are either Chaotic Neutral or Evil nut jobs.

    Unfortunately the execution slowly falls apart as the scenario progresses. Kingdom management is obtuse and flawed. Some quests are broken. Issues are well    Such a hard game to rate. It's a large, generous CRPG and the premise is refreshing. It's fun to both explore and govern. There's charm too in the characters even though so many of them are either Chaotic Neutral or Evil nut jobs.

    Unfortunately the execution slowly falls apart as the scenario progresses. Kingdom management is obtuse and flawed. Some quests are broken. Issues are well known and remain unfixed. Meaningful choices are often made with little to no info on the outcomes. Too much playtime is spent picking up loot junk. I could go on.

    It's all the more disappointing because of the potential it shows. I feel like rating it higher and lower at the same time.    … Expand
  7. HydrophobikFish
    Jun 9, 2023
    8
    Absolutely fantastic RPG that feels like a true old-school epic. Quests are involved and complicated, there are many role playing opportunities both influential and not, and it escalates so well. You really feel like youre exploring and uncovering the secrets of an ancient land. Gameplay is awesome with many classes and builds. The only serious downside is that kingdom management, whileAbsolutely fantastic RPG that feels like a true old-school epic. Quests are involved and complicated, there are many role playing opportunities both influential and not, and it escalates so well. You really feel like youre exploring and uncovering the secrets of an ancient land. Gameplay is awesome with many classes and builds. The only serious downside is that kingdom management, while fun at times, is incredibly punishing and requires a lot of micromanagement. There are ways around it, but they often mean missing out on content. Also the early game balance is totally out of whack.… Expand
  8. Hyperfailure
    Apr 29, 2023
    7
    A well-meaning tRPG hitting on nostalgia notes of Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. However, the balancing of the end-game is ridiculous. Wolves should not have higher stats than my level 16 barbarian ffs. Main story was good, side-stories could be hit or miss. Enjoyed overall tho.
  9. Barrage
    Apr 24, 2023
    6
    I have a strong love-hate relationship with this game. I enjoyed the characters, but the bugs made it barely playable. I was also not a fan of the difficulty spikes.
  10. TianLong1
    Mar 31, 2023
    9
    Great game for people seeking Baldur's Gate kind of experience, managing a group of characters through real time tactical battles in medieval fantasy world, except that you can also manage your kingdom as well: you appoint your advisors, you choose how to respond to each event, which lands to conquer, and so on. The story is pretty good too since you must expect some plot twist at someGreat game for people seeking Baldur's Gate kind of experience, managing a group of characters through real time tactical battles in medieval fantasy world, except that you can also manage your kingdom as well: you appoint your advisors, you choose how to respond to each event, which lands to conquer, and so on. The story is pretty good too since you must expect some plot twist at some point. And the expansions are definitely worth the buy.… Expand
  11. Avey123Avey
    Mar 19, 2023
    8
    An extremely long RPG with a main story that truly puts you in the role of a king with cursed land. This games greatest success is really tailoring the story around you and your choices. It feels personal to your PC and by the end of the game you will really feel as though you've experienced an entire saga. This game isn't for everyone. The combat system and ruleset is very complex and notAn extremely long RPG with a main story that truly puts you in the role of a king with cursed land. This games greatest success is really tailoring the story around you and your choices. It feels personal to your PC and by the end of the game you will really feel as though you've experienced an entire saga. This game isn't for everyone. The combat system and ruleset is very complex and not properly explained in many ways. You will need a walkthrough, you will need to read forum posts, and you will be a friend of the wiki. These are strict negatives however your time investment in learning will be well rewarded as this is one of the longest quality CRPGs out there. My biggest complaint would be some of the enemy designs towards the end of the game which push the games difficulty to being unbearable without very particular additions to your party.… Expand
  12. Soullex
    Nov 30, 2022
    6
    Fightlar çok yavaş abi. 50 kez vuruyor 49u ıska. 60. saatten sonra bile yolda kamp kurmak da sıkıcı oluyor artık.
  13. RedDragonSchool
    Jul 22, 2022
    0
    Great game. Character generation is a bit difficult for me but overall fun. The variety of choices is satisfying from a roleplaying perspective as well (I'm not a powergamer anyway).
  14. teshia
    Jul 9, 2022
    10
    This is one hell of a CRPG. I'm glad I played it after it was heavily patched though, as those opening months of release must have been brutal. This, along with Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous are some of the best CRPGs I've ever played. Like most CRPGs, there are a few bugs and issues but I'd say this is on par with CRPG classics like Baldur's Gate 2. Not to be missed if you're intoThis is one hell of a CRPG. I'm glad I played it after it was heavily patched though, as those opening months of release must have been brutal. This, along with Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous are some of the best CRPGs I've ever played. Like most CRPGs, there are a few bugs and issues but I'd say this is on par with CRPG classics like Baldur's Gate 2. Not to be missed if you're into this sort of thing but fair warning, as the learning curve can be a kick in the teeth for people that aren't used to D&D or Pathfinder. It's a hard game and you need to know what you're doing. You're going to be deep in the stats and you're going to get a LOT of hours out of this game, so set aside a LOT of time. Great stuff though. Can't recommend it enough.… Expand
  15. Oshiri_Maeda
    Jun 18, 2022
    6
    No reason to play this game if you haven't played Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - same game but better. Then you can come back to this one if you really want to.

    Pathfinder (D&D-like game) adaptation, all the Pen n Paper mechanics are implemented well, and overall it feels like a well made CRPG game. However Pathfinder rules are VERY tedious. Within first 20 hours I had to spend    No reason to play this game if you haven't played Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - same game but better. Then you can come back to this one if you really want to.

    Pathfinder (D&D-like game) adaptation, all the Pen n Paper mechanics are implemented well, and overall it feels like a well made CRPG game. However Pathfinder rules are VERY tedious. Within first 20 hours I had to spend more time in various wikies than in the game itself to understand how this and that works. Inventory and ability panels fill up with tens and tens of icons, and every one of them does something. You REALLY have to sink your time into it to understand it all, and I have no desire to sacrifice my time for that.
    Overall, it's a good game, but there is a number of games doing it better.    … Expand
  16. tontonac
    May 16, 2022
    10
    After dozens of patches, finally a very good game. I like it better than the second one, WotR.
  17. BoomerZoomer
    May 7, 2022
    8
    Don't know how this game is rated lower than divinity original sin 2
    1. Its more complex
    2. It has better story
    3. It has better setting
    4. It has more variety
  18. flwixs
    Apr 23, 2022
    8
    Пиздатая днд, с годным сюжетом и геймплеем, но есть огромные минусы, это баги, даже за столько лет осталась вязка неприятных багов и супер душное управление крепостью начиная с середины игры, как и все подобные в ней поручения от спутников и прочих ублюдков. И на мой вкус слишком затянут мейн сюжет и не понятно нахуя вообще было добавлять приквел мейн сюжета в виде отдельного длс сПиздатая днд, с годным сюжетом и геймплеем, но есть огромные минусы, это баги, даже за столько лет осталась вязка неприятных багов и супер душное управление крепостью начиная с середины игры, как и все подобные в ней поручения от спутников и прочих ублюдков. И на мой вкус слишком затянут мейн сюжет и не понятно нахуя вообще было добавлять приквел мейн сюжета в виде отдельного длс с возможностью выгрузкой от туда в мейн сценарий, кароче, как игра заебись, но претензий так же приличное количество.… Expand
  19. F1_is_WWE
    Mar 20, 2022
    2
    Kingmaker faithfully adapts the pen and paper game to the video screen. This was seen by many as a huge plus - there is an in-depth tried and tested game system, rules, and adventure. But unfortunately what works with pen and paper doesn't work on a pc game. Yes, the rules are deep and you have hunderds of options for building you character - the only fun part of the game. But combat is aKingmaker faithfully adapts the pen and paper game to the video screen. This was seen by many as a huge plus - there is an in-depth tried and tested game system, rules, and adventure. But unfortunately what works with pen and paper doesn't work on a pc game. Yes, the rules are deep and you have hunderds of options for building you character - the only fun part of the game. But combat is a boring chore where you do the exact same moves every single fight and just mindlessly click away. Especially if you turn it to turn based mode, you'll see just how mindless and slow the game actually is.

    The story is alright, again you are presented with many different options on how you want to build your kingdom. But then you find out that the developers are highly biased towards "Chaotic Good" choices and disapprove of you choosing any other decrees. At one point my lawful character supported freedom of speech and this was counted as a chaotic action - what? Plot is linear and you aren't given much choice.    … Expand
  20. Kunray
    Mar 12, 2022
    1
    It's your call but for now it's not recommended.
    1/10 this game at that stage.
  21. Artur_
    Feb 14, 2022
    6
    Pros: great idea to expand a typical RPG journey by building a kingdom :-) Companions have a short histories, but still well done. Easy and clear management of team, equipment, trade. A very stable game: I didn't experience even one crash.

    Mixed: nicely done companion progress, stats, fights but using overcomplicated DnD rules limites fun. Cons: difficulty of clashes constantly jumps    Pros: great idea to expand a typical RPG journey by building a kingdom :-) Companions have a short histories, but still well done. Easy and clear management of team, equipment, trade. A very stable game: I didn't experience even one crash.

    Mixed: nicely done companion progress, stats, fights but using overcomplicated DnD rules limites fun.

    Cons: difficulty of clashes constantly jumps between trivial and impossible, in the same part of map. On normal difficulty you are going through enemies with little to none trouble then WHAM! a very next hostile brings your whole team to ground in a few seconds, or it is untouchable and you can't do jack. It happens with random encounters too, not just statically located antagonists like turbo-cat, Rambo-zombie or that overclocked troll in dwarf keep.

    Lacks field of view: how far enemies can see.

    I spent about 100h hours playing this game, it has the potential to be very enjoyable, but due to hidden timers in many quests I abandoned this game - if they were as clear and consistent, as timers of curses, then everything would be fine. Making such a decision screwed up the game for people, who aren't fanatics.

    Update: with "Kingdom Resolution" mod the game feels more controllable, it restores some fun, so finally I completed playthrough :-)    … Expand
  22. Apokalipsis113
    Feb 13, 2022
    1
    FIrst half of the game not bad, Second half is bad. Ending is the worst piece of **** I've ever seen. **** story. Terrible level design, Horrible game balance. 10/10 regret for buy this miserable trash,
  23. S3XU4LH34L1NG
    Jan 15, 2022
    8
    I am a fan of the genre and overall I loved this game. The "chaotic good" playthrough took me 140 h for about 95 % completion on normal.
    There are sadly some caviats: If you want a playtrhough with high completion rate you need to look up a lot of **** especially if you are not super well versed in the pen and paper mechanics. The game has a countdown of doom looming over your head all    I am a fan of the genre and overall I loved this game. The "chaotic good" playthrough took me 140 h for about 95 % completion on normal.
    There are sadly some caviats: If you want a playtrhough with high completion rate you need to look up a lot of **** especially if you are not super well versed in the pen and paper mechanics. The game has a countdown of doom looming over your head all the time and you get the feeling you need to be super efficient with every decision and turn you take. The game is insanely hard and not always fair. There were quite a few situations i was hours deep in a dungeon and i had to reload because i simply coudlnt pass the skill checks / I didnt have the right counter or other stuff.
    On the other side: The romances, graphics, sound, VA, build variety, companions, world are really great!
    Sadly i feel like the game is too hard (in the trial and error unfun way) and I wont start a second playtrhough    … Expand
  24. gaynorvader
    Jan 7, 2022
    3
    Great underpinnings let down by horriffically poorly written code and text, bizarre design decisions and awful UI.

    This is the kind of game I should love, but I find myself barely tolerating. They all but force you to play a cast of insipid characters with painfully one dimensional personaities tied to the terrible D&D alignment system. You are all but forced to assign these poorly    Great underpinnings let down by horriffically poorly written code and text, bizarre design decisions and awful UI.

    This is the kind of game I should love, but I find myself barely tolerating. They all but force you to play a cast of insipid characters with painfully one dimensional personaities tied to the terrible D&D alignment system. You are all but forced to assign these poorly optimised slobs to help run your kingdom too.

    The difficulty is stupidly harsh for how bad the NPCs you are given are, meaning you more or less have to min max to play the game on anything harder than easy. Stupid given that it's run off a very complicated D&D 3.5e clone called Pathfinder which is never explained in the game and basically relies on you having system knowledge and spend time googling to find out what spells exist, etc to plan your build.

    The UI for the kingdom management is terrible, never showing relevant info, making you dig around to do anything and pointelessly locking you out from making changes on some tasks. The UI for combat is glitchy and painful to use, the turn based mode ocaaisionally just not letting you use a character's turn for no reason. The dice roll DCs often lie, with stuff like 17 AC needing a 16 to hit with a +10 or the floating text laughably floating up saying something like "20 vs 9" and that somehow failing a save, or the inverse. The randomiser has some backend fudging going on where you will commonly see your characters rolling 1s and critically missing and enemies commonly rolling 5/5 16+s to hit you.

    Text has poor grammar, misspellings, and wordy paragraphs of stodge to waste your time. You are frequently railroaded into decisions, or made to make decisions that make no sense because the developers don't even understand the alignment system they insisted on using. Skill DCs are set far too high, being commonly failable even with min maxed characters, leaving no room for rp. Much of the issues are met with the refrain "Just cheat to fix that" from the community, which is mind boggling.

    Overall, this is a terrible effort at a crpg, but is at least pretty, with some nice music and a reasonable adaptation of the Pathfinder system for a video game. It's just a shame it's so badly put together. I have no idea how it scores so highly, and can only surmise that the Paizo fanboys are out in force, making excuses for one of, if not the first video game adaptation of the popular tabletop system. Or maybe people that kickstarted it trying to delude themselves that it was worth the money?    … Expand
  25. Ivanstankevich
    Dec 27, 2021
    5
    I tried for approximately 20 hours, but this game is pain. It is badly optimized and and it contains a lot of bad mechanics. Traveling just damage dynamic of Baldurs Gate, PoE or DAO. Quests are so unintuitive, that it is almost impossible to play without spoilers. (eg. sometimes to trigger next quest in main storyline you are to wait ~20 days and game just does not say anything about it;I tried for approximately 20 hours, but this game is pain. It is badly optimized and and it contains a lot of bad mechanics. Traveling just damage dynamic of Baldurs Gate, PoE or DAO. Quests are so unintuitive, that it is almost impossible to play without spoilers. (eg. sometimes to trigger next quest in main storyline you are to wait ~20 days and game just does not say anything about it; or you cannot travel to location which you are suppose to go without speaking with specific character who does not relate to particular quest at all!). I like D&D, I like RPG and I hoped, but I failed. AI of Companions also is a fail. either you do ultra micromanagement or they deliver something ultra stupid. I understand that creators are not a big studio, but the game just badly done. I'd like to continue with story and Characters development, but I had to abandon :(.… Expand
  26. Honze7
    Dec 12, 2021
    6
    The game's flaunted apparent complexity tries to hide it's lack of useful content. So many choices provided to the player that in the end feel void, boring and useless. The whole world is shattered into small lands each with specific encounters and fetch quest deprived of any link with the main story and the overall territory the player is forced to explore.

    Characters are boring and    The game's flaunted apparent complexity tries to hide it's lack of useful content. So many choices provided to the player that in the end feel void, boring and useless. The whole world is shattered into small lands each with specific encounters and fetch quest deprived of any link with the main story and the overall territory the player is forced to explore.

    Characters are boring and fights are repetitive. The only real way to enjoy this stuff is to either go for a solo run in hard difficulty or lower everything to the easiest setting, also forcing automated choice in managing your government.

    Overall it's too stuffed with useless crap that lacks any interest and feels like placeholder just to give something to the players. Replayability is complete grabage, being too boring.

    Amazing detail in creating maps and the world, but nothing more. Played through the game and uninstalled it. It's just too much boring and its pretense at being complex falls flat by its own liomitations clearly apparent for anyone experiencing fights and the managment system.

    I hoped for a better game. Totally inferior to Solasta.    … Expand
  27. Odal
    Nov 30, 2021
    2
    One of the very few RPG:s I actually stopped playing. It had nothing going for it. The voice acting is bad, the characters are not special, the story is meh and the combat is bad well.
    There is just nothing going for this game at all. Confusing leveling system which is more annoying than anything.
    When you play good RPG:s like Divinity Original Sin 2 and then come to this, it's just    One of the very few RPG:s I actually stopped playing. It had nothing going for it. The voice acting is bad, the characters are not special, the story is meh and the combat is bad well.
    There is just nothing going for this game at all. Confusing leveling system which is more annoying than anything.

    When you play good RPG:s like Divinity Original Sin 2 and then come to this, it's just not worth your time.    … Expand
  28. evanov
    Nov 30, 2021
    10
    Familiar with the game for a long time, watched and reviews, and walkthrough, which increased the desire to play, so thanks to the developers, I as a fan very satisfied.
  29. Deaden
    Oct 14, 2021
    1
    Pathfinder MISSMAKER!

    Seriously, last 5 years there is not a single true PC based RPG exist. All they were trying to create some desktop RPG adaptation for PC platform. It's not working, stop lying yourself who gives high five for a broken PC game adaptation from desktop frp. I guess you are have no idea how a PC RPG should be. These paper and pen game designs aren't suitable for PC    Pathfinder MISSMAKER!

    Seriously, last 5 years there is not a single true PC based RPG exist. All they were trying to create some desktop RPG adaptation for PC platform. It's not working, stop lying yourself who gives high five for a broken PC game adaptation from desktop frp. I guess you are have no idea how a PC RPG should be. These paper and pen game designs aren't suitable for PC platforms at all. RTwP gameplay design is a garbage and it's corruption for TBS system as well. Too many times you are missing to hit. UI and controls are not friendly. Story also too cheap to create. Staaaggg Loorrrddd STAAAGG LOOORRRDDD Boooo.

    I don't want to compare POE II vs Pathfinder Kingmaker vs Divinity: Original Sin II but it seems Divinity: OS2 is the winner as a new genre PC RPG adaptation. Even OS2 have many handicaps. Oh boy, I'm missing old time TBS-RPGs. All new adaptation RPGs are not providing real RPG experience at all. You can deceive yourself for giving high points to those worthless games.

    Edit: Game is a total disaster. I'm at act5 and I can say WTF is this! Debuffs make you cancer in this game. I admit some dialogs are really funny and enjoyable but couldn't save the broken game.    … Expand
  30. Dvacha
    Sep 15, 2021
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. 1. Тут действительно влияют твои характеристики на ту или иную ситуацию. Как пример можно привести ситуацию в деревне ящеров где при злом характере персонажа можно без боя завершить квест. 2. Очень порадовали квесты связанные со спутниками, в особенности с Канерой, Джейтал и Харримом. 3. Приятная графическая составляющая Как бонус можно учесть что если вам нужна игра чтобы занять время, то Pathfinder точно подойдёт. Этот пункт слишком долго расписывать, но поверьте мне, тут квестов предостаточно К минусам можно отнести, плохо реализованную систему бросков во время боя (поиграйте хотя бы один или два часа и поймёте), а также чересчур обильное количество сражений (серьёзно, они приедаются очень сильно и очень быстро )… Expand
  31. Thothistox
    Sep 6, 2021
    7
    Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the hardest game I've played this century. Granted, I sort of asked for it by playing on "Challenging" mode, but the combat isn't the hardest part. The difficulty is, in many ways, both its biggest strength and biggest weakness. Years in the future I'll remember how I got past the hardest fights in this game. In fact, I won't remember anything about thePathfinder: Kingmaker is the hardest game I've played this century. Granted, I sort of asked for it by playing on "Challenging" mode, but the combat isn't the hardest part. The difficulty is, in many ways, both its biggest strength and biggest weakness. Years in the future I'll remember how I got past the hardest fights in this game. In fact, I won't remember anything about the unremarkable story or the unremarkable characters. I'll only remember the PnP and how I actually managed to whoop the giant fireball that is the final boss.

    I both love and hate PnP rules. I understand why they made it like this. It makes a good succinct pitch to a board of directors because they don't play games and have short attention spans and they they will reject complexity. But you can hide complexity when you pitch it as "PnP rules", even though much of that complexity is outright gratuitous.

    There are half a dozen different ways to die in combat besides a zero hp. If dexterity on your mage is zero you die. If strength is zero, you die. If you turn to stone, you die. The default result for anything is you die, and reviving a dead player is so expensive you'll usually reload.

    Most of my reloads weren't because I actually lost but because things went sour in ways that were too annoying. There are dozen ways your enemies can break your 'will' score and make your team useless. You'll start fights charmed, confused, dazed, asleep, laughing uncontrollably, etc., I always reloaded and hurriedly cast one of dozens of completely different buffs before the fight. The same goes for if the enemy AI targets my mages instead of my tanks. (Quite a few fights come down to which of your people the AI decided to target.)

    I'm generally against streamlining in games, but does it really make sense that stoneskin protects against slashes but not arrows?

    At least the buff spells are guaranteed to work. Most offensive spells never work unless the enemy is already easy to defeat. P:K's fighting odds are stacked against the player who fights anything more than one level higher, while anything more than one level lower is very easy. Attacks on higher level enemies will nearly always miss, while lower levelled ones get hit with crits.

    If it's going to be like that then why have combat at all? Why not just auto-win any fight with lower level enemies and auto lose higher level fights?

    Too much of P:K's game play feels like I'm rolling dice and repeatedly reloading a save and re-rolling. No where is this more prevalent than the kingdom management. A hint to new players: your kingdom managers have to succeed. The dice are rolled once before the day of a project's completion. Keep reloading until they succeed.

    Playing P:K's kingdom management feels like playing Civilization on diety mode. Winning means reloading hundreds of times. To make things more annoying, there are situations where your entire kingdom is paralyzed for two weeks while you upgrade something or annex something. You often have to re-run that two week cycle in hope of rolling a better outcome.

    What happens when the outcome is poor? Your kingdom can die and the game ends. There are at least two separate stability scores that can fall to zero. I remember one particular time when I was crowned king and there was a long sequence of dialogue about how great I was doing. Then I ran the skip day feature and my kingdom flopped over like a wet corn flake. Stability equals zero. Game over.

    Nothing stressed me so much as that stability score. All sorts of things can reduce it and very few things bring it back up. Your kingdom is periodically invaded by hill giants or other stability-reducing enemies that would be a minor nuisance if you had to actually fight them. But you can't. Instead they have to be purged using kingdom management, and the stability penalty (usually) doesn't get restored after you've rolled the dice a dozen times and gotten rid of them.

    Thankfully, you can throw your citizens a feast and bring stability back. I spent most of my in game money on feasts.

    Speaking of feasts, if this game were a pizza it would be lined with ghost peppers. The hot spiciness would disguise the fact that the sausage is rancid and the dough has whitefly larvae the same way as the difficulty disguises the fact that the story is uninspired, the characters are a cliche mix of cutesy and arrogant, and the C&C is not all that deep. For example, there is one character whose entire persona turns out to have been completely false, but if you forgive him his betrayal he reverts to that deception as if it never happened and everyone else does too.

    That said, the game hides its depth well. I wasn't expecting some of the twists in the main conflict. The game is also pleasantly long. There are lots of environments and enemies crammed into it.

    Would I recommend P:K? Maybe. I'll definitely consider buying the sequel. But I'm not replaying the original.    … Expand
  32. Delcien
    Sep 2, 2021
    10
    An absolutely amazing game! cant recommend enuff, especially if u enjoyed Balders gate/DOS games
  33. Ghostvein
    Aug 25, 2021
    10
    I absolutely love pathfinder king maker. Reminds me of old school DND. After 50 hours of game play it is a absolutely beautiful game.
  34. lordgothic
    Aug 11, 2021
    10
    One of the top games I've ever played

    Pros: - Finally feels like an adventures by traveling the map in semi-real time - Challenging fights - Memorable characters, there are only handful games you feel interested to learn the whole companion story - Long gameplay that doesn't make you bored Cons: - Quite high difficulty - Can be a bit overwhelming - "what I should do now"? -    One of the top games I've ever played

    Pros:
    - Finally feels like an adventures by traveling the map in semi-real time
    - Challenging fights
    - Memorable characters, there are only handful games you feel interested to learn the whole companion story
    - Long gameplay that doesn't make you bored

    Cons:
    - Quite high difficulty
    - Can be a bit overwhelming - "what I should do now"?
    - Soft timer over your head    … Expand
  35. bicyclecat
    Aug 10, 2021
    9
    The GOOD: The game has a good story, much better than PoE or DOS2, for examples. Rich character development. NPCs and side-quests were engaging. I enjoyed the turned-based combat and some of the encounters required some thought in order to survive. There was a decent amount of puzzles unlike most most modern RPGs.

    The BAD: Slow loading times, repetitive encounters, occasional bugs,    The GOOD: The game has a good story, much better than PoE or DOS2, for examples. Rich character development. NPCs and side-quests were engaging. I enjoyed the turned-based combat and some of the encounters required some thought in order to survive. There was a decent amount of puzzles unlike most most modern RPGs.

    The BAD: Slow loading times, repetitive encounters, occasional bugs, especially when turn-based option was added shortly after I started the game. By time I finished the game, most of the bugs were fixed. Balance and pacing was off. I didn't enjoy the kingdom management; at one point my kingdom collapsed and I had to load an old save, make different choices, and redo some quests.

    OVERALL the game brought me a lot of joy, almost as much as BG2 when it came out.    … Expand
  36. SpookyTanuki
    Aug 5, 2021
    7
    First half of the game is really nice. I enjoyed the character creation, turn based combat, open world (kind of) and really nice quests. After maybe 20-30 hours I felt like I'm wasting my time using turn based combat because there is a lot of fights with low-level enemies and it takes ages to go through quests. And what seemed to be a big world with a lot of locations turned out to be aFirst half of the game is really nice. I enjoyed the character creation, turn based combat, open world (kind of) and really nice quests. After maybe 20-30 hours I felt like I'm wasting my time using turn based combat because there is a lot of fights with low-level enemies and it takes ages to go through quests. And what seemed to be a big world with a lot of locations turned out to be a bunch of small places with single monsters and nothing really exciting.
    Anyway that's a really okay game if you like rpgs, maybe not the best but solid.    … Expand
  37. beewarrior
    Jul 29, 2021
    6
    Story: 6/10 (pretty meh)
    Gameplay: 8/10 (good after recent fixes, but Kingdom management is still a joke)
    Voice Acting: 3/10 (very few lines are voice acted)
    Music: 7/10 (good, but not that many musics)

    Overall 6/10
  38. setpol
    Jul 20, 2021
    0
    DO NOT BUY FOR PLAYSTATION CONSOLES

    This game is a buggy horrible mess. It crashes constantly and has not been fixed in the 3 years of it being out, it won't ever be.

    The game was fun interesting and has something to it but I absolutely cannot recommend when it crashes nearly as much as cyberpunk.

    This was even on a ps5 and it didn't help it at all.
  39. Topfpflanze
    Jun 29, 2021
    10
    Pathfinder: Kingmaker is an unexpected triple-A jewel. Very high class music, voiceover, graphics and storyline. Unorthodox, it picks up the thread of Baldur's Gate and takes it to new heights.
  40. Hurrikhan
    Jun 14, 2021
    9
    Pathfinder is a very enjoyable role-playing game and even more if you are a traditional pen-and-paper player.

    I thoroughly loved the first hours of the adventure and currently enjoy my time exploring the land. From the difficulty to the automatic pauses and the followers' behaviour, the game is very configurable. Contrary to earlier reviews: the game is not insanely difficult.    Pathfinder is a very enjoyable role-playing game and even more if you are a traditional pen-and-paper player.

    I thoroughly loved the first hours of the adventure and currently enjoy my time exploring the land.
    From the difficulty to the automatic pauses and the followers' behaviour, the game is very configurable. Contrary to earlier reviews: the game is not insanely difficult.

    Graphically it's nice and the musics are right for the genre.

    The only down-side so far is the lack of predefined portraits but they can by added easily and players have already packaged a lot of custom ones.

    The game is pretty difficult though.    … Expand
  41. ottohahn
    Jun 12, 2021
    0
    Played the most recent patch in June 2021.
    The Kingdom Management Minigame is boring and sucks.
    The balancing is horrible. Some Enemies are Paperweights and some are just unbeatable. Additionally the difficulty is increased by throwing mob after mob at the player. Last act is incomprehensible and has also horrible balancing. Story is the generic "ancient evil destroys the lands".    Played the most recent patch in June 2021.
    The Kingdom Management Minigame is boring and sucks.
    The balancing is horrible. Some Enemies are Paperweights and some are just unbeatable.
    Additionally the difficulty is increased by throwing mob after mob at the player.
    Last act is incomprehensible and has also horrible balancing.
    Story is the generic "ancient evil destroys the lands".
    There are also technical difficulties. What can take approx 1min to save the game on a 8-core cpu with 32GB RAM and fast SSD?
    I had to force myself to finish the game.    … Expand
  42. iamaneviltaco
    Jun 2, 2021
    6
    I swear some times I like this game despite the developers' best efforts. I'm gonna give it a 6, but it's really like a 9 game bogged down by some truly baffling design choices. Very mild spoilers for a few very early fights, but I did my best to not give any specifics.

    The good: - Combat. Both real time with pause and turn based feel satisfying, turn based in particular is like    I swear some times I like this game despite the developers' best efforts. I'm gonna give it a 6, but it's really like a 9 game bogged down by some truly baffling design choices. Very mild spoilers for a few very early fights, but I did my best to not give any specifics.

    The good:

    - Combat. Both real time with pause and turn based feel satisfying, turn based in particular is like playing the pen and paper game on a computer. They nailed the game play, at least on a mechanical level.

    - Sound. The music is great, and the voice acting is surprisingly good for an old school crpg. The sound effects, too, this is a genre that tends to suffer from bad voice acting and sound design. It's good to see owlcat thought of this when they made the game.

    - Kingdom management. If you like this sort of thing, the kingdom management is honestly pretty fun. Manage advisors, handle crisis situations and opportunities, build stuff to improve your barony's stats, it's got a lot to it.

    - The aesthetic. It looks like the game is written on a book, with the dialog choices and various cutscenes. The map is an actual map, with little toy pieces that slide around it. They spent a lot of time on the ui for this thing, I bet. It's beautiful.

    The bad:

    - Henchman balance. Harrim is a dwarven cleric with a dex of 8 and a cha of 10. He gets hit every other swing and his channeled healing is legitimate garbage. Valerie has mostly odd numbers for stats, literally wasting points. The only cleric that CAN heal properly, Tristian, can't wear freaking armor. Most tellingly? Amiri and Linzi are built using 20 points, like a mercenary. Valerie has 2 more points than the player, but they're wasted. Regongar and Octavia have 5, they're flat out better than the "main character". Ekundayo? 6! He's hilariously better than you, if you build an archer as well.

    - Combat balance. Some fights you steamroll over. Alternatively? In one area, there's a few bodies dead near a camp site. A skill check (knowledge nature) has a high difficulty, so you won't pass it by the time you get there. Gotta sleep, because some of the fights in this area are hard? Free camp site! Oh, but there's a demilich. That has an ac in the high 30s. Who is immune to healing spells. And magic missiles. And has concealment, so you miss 50% of the time. And casts fear every round. And has an automatic aoe electricity attack. You're level 3. Oh, and you know what skill you use to tell if something died from undead? It's not knowledge nature, it's knowledge religion. Another fight? invisible were rats that do like 20 damage per swing with sneak attacks, while you lose a lot of your defensive bonuses. The main tank in the game has about 60 hp at this point. She dies pretty much instantly. Another one? Bug swarms you can only kill with fire or aoe spells, that do damage and poison you. Again, level 2-3. With probably no mage, so you have very limited grenades (if you found any) or freaking torches.

    - Troll developers. That previous statement about the demilich that attacks out of nowhere? The game is full of that, random fights that are much higher level than you, and nearly impossible at times. With no warning. In an area you're set to at a level way below what you'd need to fight them. This has gotten better over time, but it's still a major problem.

    - The Deal With the Devil quest. This is a tie in to the Troll developers. Some dude on kickstarter paid 4 grand to put a quest into the game, and what he added was a mary-sue led adventure that the entire community absolutely hates. You have one path through it, it railroads you into helping this dude (Darven) and actually doesn't have any options to just end the quest or arrest the dude. Even though he kills people on sight, and is very very evil. Kill him? That's an evil action. Ignore him? Kingdom crisis events your advisors can't fix, slowly destroying your entire game. Oh, but help him? Your alignment is screwed, and you have 70k gold for some reason. It's actually the worst thing I've ever seen in a video game, and I played Ride to Hell Retribution.

    The final verdict:
    It's like dungeons and dragons, but you're playing with a malicious and vindictive DM. There are moments of absolute brilliance, but you will want to uninstall the game at times.    … Expand
  43. Bluehydra
    May 29, 2021
    2
    Pathfinder miss-marker
    The game needs a serious overhaul when it comes to combat. fix the quest breaking bugs where quest doesn't trigger completely. fix to abilities cancelling due to animation freezes

    I can't recommend game that release 2018 and still have game-breaking issues
  44. Manatziaras
    May 14, 2021
    9
    Best isometric I've ever play after Neverwinter Nights. After more than 30 hours hame, I have to give credits to the creators for the player-friendly mechanics, the balanced difficulty (I play on "normal" setting) and the great game play so far: I am sure that it's gonna be even better later!


    For the lovers of DnD experience (not only the "Pathfinder" setting, everyone!), do not hesitate
  45. letefte
    Feb 4, 2021
    10
    This game is probably the single greatest Baldur's Gate inspired crpg ever made. Yes it is even better than Pillars 1 and 2 combined. The bugs that plagued the game at the time of release have, for the most part, been fixed. It is an epic journey that will ask much of you, but will also give much back in return. It is also probably the longest game of it's kind, with a single playthroughThis game is probably the single greatest Baldur's Gate inspired crpg ever made. Yes it is even better than Pillars 1 and 2 combined. The bugs that plagued the game at the time of release have, for the most part, been fixed. It is an epic journey that will ask much of you, but will also give much back in return. It is also probably the longest game of it's kind, with a single playthrough taking well over 100 hours. The writing might not reach the heights of BG 2 but it is still engaging. If you like a more traditional take on crpgs then this is your game. And now it even has a turn-based mode!… Expand
  46. Steyraus
    Jan 30, 2021
    3
    It startsout really good butvall falls apart when you hit the open world. With glitches, awkward combat , ridiculas ballancing, you encounter almost invincible swarms and high level bosses just steps from the begining area. It throws yoi completely off the experiance.. Every side character has thr same damn story. Was not happy in their home town because life is hard fot wahmen and wahmenIt startsout really good butvall falls apart when you hit the open world. With glitches, awkward combat , ridiculas ballancing, you encounter almost invincible swarms and high level bosses just steps from the begining area. It throws yoi completely off the experiance.. Every side character has thr same damn story. Was not happy in their home town because life is hard fot wahmen and wahmen are amazing so they went off to lives on the streets and run around the wilderness.… Expand
  47. leyt1125
    Jan 25, 2021
    10
    My favorite RPG game of all times. And im fan of Baldurs gate, tyranny, pillars, m&m and others - this game beats all of it. Deep mechanics and cool ballanced fights with active pause
    Now its bug free, try it and u will like it.
  48. Cyberevil
    Dec 28, 2020
    3
    To summarize this game in one sentence: Critical socjus does unbalanced RPG that gets annihilated by a broken kingdom management sim doing piggyback.
  49. MinionX
    Dec 14, 2020
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. (1) First & foremost.. the AI system only has an on/off button, so the AI system of this game is literally ¡TRASH!
    (2) During the Amiri & Armag duel a BUG happens that ends the duel abruptly, which makes that part of its plot LAME, because it doesn't look good in the slightest.
    (3) At certain points.. all the options have the same result, such as.. if the player refuses to exterminate the Trolls.. the same 'll forcibly lose Ekundayo & it doesn't matter what one answers to him, like really.. what's even the point of having magical abilities like hypnosis.. if one can't just brainwash someone like Ekun.. ¯_ツ_/¯
    (4) Owlcat Games really messed-up my boy "Lander Lebeda" in this game.. like seriously.. ¿WTF?
    Lander Lebeda is a fairly decent noble.. in fact, his alignment even is Lawful Neutral, not Chaotic Evil, & not just that.. but Owlcats even turn him into a ¡BACKSTABBER! (╬ಠ益ಠ)    … Expand
  50. GodRatiy
    Dec 12, 2020
    9
    If you like CRPG's and pathfinders part of DnD then you might love this, to bad there is no way to play with friends like the new WasteLand 3.
  51. AlexSandroXz
    Dec 12, 2020
    10
    One of my favorite Rpg. Most of bugs just fixed now. Enjoy. So 10/10 and I hope to see part 2 soon.
  52. theirrelephants
    Dec 8, 2020
    10
    Played in in 2020 without any of the bugs it had on release.

    Absolutely brilliant game and rpg. Some of the best writing I've seen since before Bioware turned into a children's playhouse for mongoloids. The only downside of the game was its abysmal 'kingdom management' system, which can be solved by putting it on 'effortless' because the only alternative is either savescumming or    Played in in 2020 without any of the bugs it had on release.

    Absolutely brilliant game and rpg. Some of the best writing I've seen since before Bioware turned into a children's playhouse for mongoloids.

    The only downside of the game was its abysmal 'kingdom management' system, which can be solved by putting it on 'effortless' because the only alternative is either savescumming or putting it one difficulty lower and missing content.

    My only complaint was the lack of party banter.    … Expand
  53. Donutstalker93
    Nov 29, 2020
    5
    I really wanted to like this game. I have nothing negative to say about it from a narrative standpoint, in fact I was pretty invested in that aspect of the game, and it's the only reason I'm giving it a 5. But the gameplay here is god awful. I've been playing a lot of CRPGs lately, and I've played tabletop games before, and I've NEVER seen this many misses in any game before. I'm notI really wanted to like this game. I have nothing negative to say about it from a narrative standpoint, in fact I was pretty invested in that aspect of the game, and it's the only reason I'm giving it a 5. But the gameplay here is god awful. I've been playing a lot of CRPGs lately, and I've played tabletop games before, and I've NEVER seen this many misses in any game before. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I had Harrim in my party for around 45 minutes, through several battles, before he finally landed a single attack. I thought it may just be me but when I looked it up it seems like a lot of players were screwed over by the biased rng in this game. It's unlikely to happen, but it needs to be fixed. I'd actually give it another go if it was. But for now I don't feel like putting up with artificial difficulty that just boils down to being annoying and time consuming.… Expand
  54. Valkyrje
    Nov 26, 2020
    7
    It scratches BG itch better than BG3 but ends up being too repetetive and relying too much on its pen and paper Pathfinder mechanics which means that the end game is an endless slog through the same enemies and micromanaging your equipment and skills. Loved it until I didn’t. Story-wise it’s solid but nothing groundbreaking. Also kingdom management is boring at best.
  55. huepkes
    Nov 9, 2020
    9
    excellent roleplaying game with high replay value because you can have different endings. you can also lead the kingdom in different ways and there are many side quests. And there are more modes which are also interesting.

    For the price definitely a buy recommendation and except sometimes the complex mechanics and some bugs but overall a very very good and great story.
  56. Geralt123
    Oct 20, 2020
    6
    It is a little bit sad. This could have been a great game, but there is one serious design problem: The balancing. I have NEVER seen a game with such a bad balancing. While the normal enemies are ok, when it comes to bosses or minibosses, it is possible that you cannot defeat them without lowering the difficulty. Even on Normal Mode, the encounters can be extremely unfair. Normal Mode isIt is a little bit sad. This could have been a great game, but there is one serious design problem: The balancing. I have NEVER seen a game with such a bad balancing. While the normal enemies are ok, when it comes to bosses or minibosses, it is possible that you cannot defeat them without lowering the difficulty. Even on Normal Mode, the encounters can be extremely unfair. Normal Mode is actually Hard Mode!

    However, this game was made with love, it can be seen clearly seen. They just did not find the right balance and obviously ran out of money during the development. But the end result is worse than it could have been. Which is a pity because the Story, atmosphere, companions and music are very good.

    --> Overall, I can recommend this game to cRPG fans. I would give it a 6/10 because of the bad balancing and horrific Kingdom Management. Otherweise it would be 8/10. Buy it at max 12 Euros on Sale. You can tone down the difficulty when things get too hard.

    Story:
    It is good. I liked it. It is deep and complex, sometimes serious, sometimes funny. A good mixture.

    Music:
    Music is done well, but nothing exceptional like Witcher 3.

    Combat:
    Combat is fun. There are so many spells and skills, it is really amazing. Real time with pause is good. However, in many fights even on Normal mode, the balancing was totally off, making it nearly impossible to defeat certain bosses

    Graphics:
    Graphics are cute with a lot attention to detail. I like it!

    World Design:
    You move on an overview map and enter the actual game maps from there which are quite small. Open World would have added to the immersion. Load screen are very often and annoying. No fast travel.

    Pros
    ===================
    - Nice graphics
    - Interesting Companions, deep character stories, good dialogues, good banter
    - Complex combat
    - Good music
    - Very long game (if you do all quests, certainly 200-400 hours)
    - Good atmosphere
    - Good story

    Cons
    ===================
    - Balancing of the fights is sometimes totally off, especially in the endgame where everything counts. Frustrating!
    - A lot of F5 / F8 involved in this game (Quickload, Quicksave) because outcomes are determined by virtual dice throws
    - Some quests are so vague that you don't know what to do next. This is not Ubisoft style of quests. Quests will make you Google like an idiot every 2 hours because you don't have any clue what to do next
    - Kingdom Management is a nice idea but totally broken so that sooner or later you will turn on "Easy Mode" or "Invincible Kingdom" anyway. Very annoying.
    - Load screens every time you go to a new minimap or go back to the main map, or enter a building
    - Voice acting only about 20-30% of the dialogues
    - The last chapter is such an enormous difficulty spike that it is absolutely annoying. Diffculty has to be lowered
    - Some quests have a time limit and since you have to travel back and forth on the map due to conflicting quests, this can be very annoying and stressful    … Expand
  57. Deprecated
    Oct 4, 2020
    10
    The most expansive CRPG out there, massive amount of depth and challenging gameplay that forces you to plan out your encounters and build your team with balance in mind (and make use of the quick save). Playing through on difficult is a rewarding experience that rewards you for exploring and punishes you for your mistakes
  58. Zelmar
    Oct 2, 2020
    10
    It is amazing how this game is able to scratch my Baldurs Gate itch. It pushes in small but very subtle details a lot of traditional RPG elements by giving them a bit more depth a bit more push a bit more substance than you are used to and the cumulative effect is that you have a gorgeous full of content and progression arch for your hero and party. Amazing. I am playing version 2.1 soIt is amazing how this game is able to scratch my Baldurs Gate itch. It pushes in small but very subtle details a lot of traditional RPG elements by giving them a bit more depth a bit more push a bit more substance than you are used to and the cumulative effect is that you have a gorgeous full of content and progression arch for your hero and party. Amazing. I am playing version 2.1 so cannot comment on the earlier version. This version is very polished.… Expand
  59. Mnobody
    Sep 30, 2020
    4
    If not for performance issues, I could rate this an 8.
    On PS4
    This game is a buggy crashing mess at least. I can honestly say I haven't had a play experience yet where I didn't get at least 1 crash or fatal glitch that forced me to stop playing and restart everything. Characters sometimes get stuck, bounce through walls, or just annoyingly get in your way. Just moments before this    If not for performance issues, I could rate this an 8.
    On PS4
    This game is a buggy crashing mess at least. I can honestly say I haven't had a play experience yet where I didn't get at least 1 crash or fatal glitch that forced me to stop playing and restart everything. Characters sometimes get stuck, bounce through walls, or just annoyingly get in your way. Just moments before this review, I got the familiar save error (i.e. there becomes no way to save a game), so had to close the game and restart again. Load times are another pain in the ass and average 1+ minute.

    As for the story itself and the gaming elements, its excellent. Managing a kingdom, building towns, and seeing the progress is satisfying. The leveling systems are a bit interesting, though way too much for my tastes (really need 10+ schools of magic? 20+ classes?). Playing melee is the opposite experience as main builds learn almost nothing in skills. There are many questionable/terrible design choices along the way, like having limited control during battles, having commands ignored, etc. The crap battle management ( maybe a PS4 issue) makes issuing commands as fun as juggling broken glass bottles - all I can do is crank difficulty to 0 and let the crap AI auto everything. Even the equipment system is trashy as "more powerful" items seem to make no difference other than cosmetics.    … Expand
  60. Pigofiend
    Sep 27, 2020
    7
    Prepare for a 100+ hour ride. The game was riddled with bugs, but now, 2 years after release you can actually play it without a hitch. BUT you will have to manage

    - items, items, items, lots of them - your kingdom - the whims of your companions - your advisors. Early advice: do not go to Fangleberry cave early in the game since the SWARM will zero your party. You have been warned    Prepare for a 100+ hour ride. The game was riddled with bugs, but now, 2 years after release you can actually play it without a hitch. BUT you will have to manage

    - items, items, items, lots of them
    - your kingdom
    - the whims of your companions
    - your advisors.

    Early advice: do not go to Fangleberry cave early in the game since the SWARM will zero your party. You have been warned :). Maybe after level 5!

    All in all a beautiful RPG, but requires a lot of time because of unnecessary micromanagement and too many, way too many options. Play it on cold winter days when you have literally nothing to do.    … Expand
  61. falmavar
    Sep 23, 2020
    10
    Brilliant classic RPG game. Good story, impressive design, awesome atmosphere and BIG adventure (110 hours for 1 walkthrough)
  62. Lifwerne
    Sep 16, 2020
    3
    I love RPG:s and this is the first time i've actually quit after a few hours. It's just boring. No immersion. Story is bad, music is obnoxious most of the time (had to turn it down), the table top rules just doesn't work in a PC game, it's just annoying.
    The game is not voiced as good or as much as Pillars of eternity, Dragonage, Wasteland 3 or anything like that. The UI is very confusing    I love RPG:s and this is the first time i've actually quit after a few hours. It's just boring. No immersion. Story is bad, music is obnoxious most of the time (had to turn it down), the table top rules just doesn't work in a PC game, it's just annoying.
    The game is not voiced as good or as much as Pillars of eternity, Dragonage, Wasteland 3 or anything like that. The UI is very confusing when choosing skills etc.
    The movement is slow and clunky. Mind you Pillars of eternity also suffered from terrible combat trying to imitate Baldur's gate which was just good for it's time, but it was worth it for the immersion, voice acting, story, characters and humor. Etc.

    It's just a bad game. I doubt it would have gotten any better had I continued to play it. Maybe they had a really low budget or something. Sad, becuase I thought it would be something more like Divinity OS or such. It's just not on anywhere near that level.    … Expand
  63. Hexen-Slayer
    Sep 8, 2020
    1
    This game was released in 2018 - it's been 2 years, it's still an unplayable buggy mess. The devs have announced a sequel - and this garbage isn't even fixed yet!
    Expect crashes, quests not to trigger, area transitions not to trigger, also an error in the encumbrance system had all my items gain weight overnight - dropping the entire inventory and standing butt-naked didn't change    This game was released in 2018 - it's been 2 years, it's still an unplayable buggy mess. The devs have announced a sequel - and this garbage isn't even fixed yet!
    Expect crashes, quests not to trigger, area transitions not to trigger, also an error in the encumbrance system had all my items gain weight overnight - dropping the entire inventory and standing butt-naked didn't change anything (no affliction, 16 strength fighter).
    Even if all the bugs would be fixed, this is average at the very best. PATHFINDER: KINGMAKER is basically a BALDUR'S GATE / ICEWIND DALE / PILLARS OF ETERNITY clone with a tacked on kingdom management system - which I disabled since I had zero interest in that kind of things. If you played the mentioned above games, why should you play PATHFINDER: KINGMAKER?
    You shouldn't!
    First off, the COMMAND & CONQUER combat system with pausing is obsolete. Either go DIABLO-style clickfest or go DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN 2 turn based combat (which would be my preference), but this combat system is garbage.
    Secondly, events with time limits are an absolute no-go! The first task has a time limit, run out of time: game over!
    Three: include the ruleset! Former RPG games of the 90s like EYE OF THE BEHOLDER had in-depth description of the D&D ruleset (on which PATHFINDER is based), even though that game only used a very simplified variety to them. Here you better have some knowledge or you're poop outta luck.
    Graphics and art style are ugly. Add terrible voice acting (Linzi, shut up!) but at least it has the typical "only every first line of each paragraph voiced" novel-length dialogues, so you won't have to put up with too much of it (Linzi ended up not in my party anyway). Sound effects and score are serviceable, but nothing more than that.
    Character portraits are a joke! Only a handful to choose from and not one was visually pleasing.
    A repetitive gameplay loop (especially if you've played the afore-mentioned games) with a copy & paste job of the HUD had me wanting to uninstall this garbage after only a few minutes.
    If you must play one of these COMMAND & CONQUER-RPGs, pick BALDUR's GATE II if you must, or PILLARS OF ETERNITY I & II to get the best of this type, but avoid this bugged, boring and bland BG-rip-off like the plague (you'll be glad you did!).    … Expand
  64. Lobby
    Sep 4, 2020
    9
    First thing to mention. The game was patch and changed hugely so lot of older reviews speak about quite different and worse game from one or two years ago so don't let them discourage you.

    I would say this is very good isometric RPG with real roleplay. The story is good and lets you do enough decisions and side quest are nice. It may not be equal to master of the genre as Planscape or    First thing to mention. The game was patch and changed hugely so lot of older reviews speak about quite different and worse game from one or two years ago so don't let them discourage you.

    I would say this is very good isometric RPG with real roleplay. The story is good and lets you do enough decisions and side quest are nice. It may not be equal to master of the genre as Planscape or Kotor, but it still better then most.

    What I really liked is turn based mode that suite well to PnP based RPG games, but is often omitted in many games like this. You can at will switch from turn based to real time with pause, so everybody can pick their preferred mode or use one that is more suitable at the time.

    The game is not holding your hand and you need to think a bit and do some exploration as you don't have an all knowing compass.

    Dialogs are well written and gives you choices that are better then just bad/good and contains lot of check for your non fighting skills. If you are mage, you will be able to solve problem differently to rouge, fighter or druid.

    Fights are good mix of challenging, medium with occasional super easy that let you enjoy your superior power. I got only one really frustrating early in the game against some swarm, but it could been avoided.

    The quest are quite good and they have their meaning not like in many modern open world games where huge portion of them is just filler. Some of the guest are time dependent or exclusive, so the order of completion will lead into different results. This is quite nice for immersion and replay value

    TLDR:
    Very good game. Must have if you like this genre. Improved a lot from release so don't take old reviews too serious.    … Expand
  65. Joseph65
    Sep 3, 2020
    9
    Much controversy over this one: rated with many "zeroes" and "tens". I must say this is an excellent game, with has aspects that can please most players. For instance I thoroughly enjoyed the controversial Kingdom building part, which adds a strategic layer to the action. One thing that many naysayers forget is that after two full years from release, this game is being constantly updatedMuch controversy over this one: rated with many "zeroes" and "tens". I must say this is an excellent game, with has aspects that can please most players. For instance I thoroughly enjoyed the controversial Kingdom building part, which adds a strategic layer to the action. One thing that many naysayers forget is that after two full years from release, this game is being constantly updated with substantial improvements: the best of these is certainly the turn based combat. After so many Patches the game has lost the vast majority of the initial bugs. I rate it 9 because I still do not like some details of the combat system, a bit based on luck and imho, devoid of a proper interaction between weapons and armour. Overall, a great game.… Expand
  66. JP78
    Aug 23, 2020
    2
    Not a fun game. It's boring due to the board game rules being followed so strictly. So, as the board game relies on dice rolls, the game also does and instead of being a Tactical/strategic RPG, it becomes a game based on luck. Good presentation, bad game mechanics.
  67. disposable
    Aug 11, 2020
    0
    Legitimately the most miserable CRPG experience I have ever had. Boring, bland story around characters that you'd find in the RPG starter pack with some of the most atrocious combat I've ever seen. You'll randomly jump between insultingly easy encounters and ones with enemies that straight up one shot you. Less than halfway through I just wanted it to end.
  68. cremadiscampi
    Jun 23, 2020
    8
    I was quite surprised by Kingmaker, it is a great CRPG and a worthy spiritual successor to the old isometric rpgs such as Baldur's Gate. The story is simple but nice, the characters and companions are enjoyable but what I liked the most was definitely how immersive the game is and the huge amount of choices it offers. The kingdom management mechanics might not appeal to everyone, but II was quite surprised by Kingmaker, it is a great CRPG and a worthy spiritual successor to the old isometric rpgs such as Baldur's Gate. The story is simple but nice, the characters and companions are enjoyable but what I liked the most was definitely how immersive the game is and the huge amount of choices it offers. The kingdom management mechanics might not appeal to everyone, but I personally enjoyed that aspect. I didn't really enjoy the combat, but I fixed it thanks to the marvelous turn-based mod.
    I'll definitely be eager to play the next game.    … Expand
  69. EvgeniLinuxUser
    Jun 21, 2020
    10
    Good written text (at least on Russian), a beautiful picture, an interesting world to discover, a solid story, an understandable protagonist motivation, but why have the “top manager” simulator added here? Ubuntu 18.04. There are some performance issues that were recently mostly fixed but not everywhere. Otherwise GNU/Linux port works perfectly.
  70. toroks
    May 27, 2020
    10
    This is a true spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series, and small studio Owlcat deserves a whole lot of credit to have pulled off this very complex game as good as they have 12 years after we saw a similar D&D game, Neverwinter Nights 2. The gameplay, the exploration, the combat system, the overview and feel of the graphics, the quirky humor - the Baldur's Gate inspiration is veryThis is a true spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series, and small studio Owlcat deserves a whole lot of credit to have pulled off this very complex game as good as they have 12 years after we saw a similar D&D game, Neverwinter Nights 2. The gameplay, the exploration, the combat system, the overview and feel of the graphics, the quirky humor - the Baldur's Gate inspiration is very clear. The biggest deviation is really that this is in the world of Golarion and not Forgotten Realms, but in some way it feels refreshing to get to know this (for me) new setting.… Expand
  71. sundog005
    May 23, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Cannot recommend this without mods...if you buy it check out Nexus for some game fixing mods that rescue it... as usual it seems lately with many RPG's. The default companions are irritating aswell like PoE and PoE 2. My advice make your own party and don't worry about the *companion stories* they mostly aren't worth the effort of doing and the XP for them is skippable. My personal pet hate is the half orc sadist sorc....
    Sledgehammer difficulty spikes are apparently Owlcat's idea of making the game more challenging as well, severe absence of subtley in writing and design like i said get some mods to smooth the ride if you are determined to finish the game...i got as far as the *EVERYTHING in the Universe is trying to destroy your Kingdom!*, events and got tired of it personally. I mean whoever is behind all those over the top, even if you win you lose problems has to be some godlike mofo....at this point you can have the Stolen Lands it ain't worth the hassle, i'm off to play an actual good game :p...Sorry to say it but this is what happens when you give a big potential project to an amateur outfit like Owlcat.    … Expand
  72. EmperorProtects
    Apr 25, 2020
    8
    Mostly fun game with some minor issues. Long with good pacing throughout. Kingdom management can definitely be annoying. Added points for D&D, subtracted a bit for NPC dialog being too cutesy-wootsy for the setting.
  73. Sepherim
    Mar 24, 2020
    3
    Pathfinder: Kingmaker es la historia de una promesa rota. La promesa es que va a ser un buen juego, y es lo que parece en un principio: una historia no espectacular pero con cierto interés, y un mundo abierto donde ir desarrollándote como quieres. Y una vez tienes tu baronía, pues mejor todavía, construyendo, desarrollando, etc. Todo ello en un sistema de combate (Pathfinder, al fin y alPathfinder: Kingmaker es la historia de una promesa rota. La promesa es que va a ser un buen juego, y es lo que parece en un principio: una historia no espectacular pero con cierto interés, y un mundo abierto donde ir desarrollándote como quieres. Y una vez tienes tu baronía, pues mejor todavía, construyendo, desarrollando, etc. Todo ello en un sistema de combate (Pathfinder, al fin y al cabo) sólido. Pero esa promesa se va truncando a medida que vas jugando. Primero, el sistema de alineamientos es terrible, y te obliga a hacer cosas para gestionarlo (si, como yo, juegas un paladín o clases similares), como hacer cosas "Legales Malvadas" porque necesitas puntos en "Legal" y no hay opción "Legal Buena" (y literalmente, te pone de que alineamiento es cada acción posible en una escena, pero no suelen estar todos representados. Y a medida que sigues avanzando en el juego, la trama se va volviendo cada vez peor e incluso llegan quests que carecen de todo sentido, como A Devil's Bargain, que es una basura de historia. Pero peor todavía, a medida que avanzas se van acumulando los bugs y problemas, hasta que el juego es literalmente injugable: salidas a escritorio, problemas de mecánica (como no poder seleccionar cosas), eventos del castillo que se buguean y no permiten avanzar... y, al menos en mi caso, finalmente bugs que evitan que se inicien las quests principales (la de los bárbaros para mi) lo cual implica que pierdes la campaña. Todo eso añadiendo errores graves de diseño, como la selección de consejeros que, para ciertos puestos, es absurda y malísima y te deja sin consejero en un puesto clave durante una buena cantidad de horas porque si.

    Gráficamente el juego es normalito, el sonido cumple sin sorpresas. Pero todo el resto es un desastre. Un 3.    … Expand
  74. elguru
    Feb 5, 2020
    5
    cheapo, art looks retarded lol
    cheapo, art looks retarded lol
    cheapo, art looks retarded lol
  75. MISTERJABBERS
    Feb 3, 2020
    0
    This game is a glitched wreck. I was only able to play it for about an hour before the game crashed and from there, it would never load past the title screen. Paizo is a terrible company with non existent customer service. I will never purchase or play another Paizo product ever again.
  76. Prometheus1241
    Feb 1, 2020
    8
    Since a year after release, Pathfinder:Kingmaker have become a good, playable game. It takes a lot of good ideas from other CRPGs and releases them in unique setting, which has not been used in games. Plot of Pathfinder is really good, characters are well-written, but yet, companions of main hero are not good enough to be remembered. Gameplay is classical for this type of games. Graphic isSince a year after release, Pathfinder:Kingmaker have become a good, playable game. It takes a lot of good ideas from other CRPGs and releases them in unique setting, which has not been used in games. Plot of Pathfinder is really good, characters are well-written, but yet, companions of main hero are not good enough to be remembered. Gameplay is classical for this type of games. Graphic is good.

    I think, that the main reason to buy this game is plot. it is really good, i liked it a lot. It is based on one of Pathfinder's series table game. I want to say that it is, perhaps, one of the best plots in RPGs i have seen, i really liked it all.

    So, in the end i want to say, that it is 8/10 game and i can recommend it to those, who like CRPGs. But yet, if you have not yet played games of this genre i recommend you to start with other games, like Dragon Age: Origins or Divinity:Original sin 2 because it is really hard to cope with local fighting system.    … Expand
  77. Lasius-Niger
    Jan 20, 2020
    5
    Overly and unnecessarily complicated game with boring and repetitive (same sized) sand-boxed areas. It tries to copy the PoE, but at this point it looks more like unfinished kick-starter project. it has the feel of a poor indie game. What irks me the most is that they try to substitute bad design with weird game mechanics, shoving in numbers and calculations, making it just overlyOverly and unnecessarily complicated game with boring and repetitive (same sized) sand-boxed areas. It tries to copy the PoE, but at this point it looks more like unfinished kick-starter project. it has the feel of a poor indie game. What irks me the most is that they try to substitute bad design with weird game mechanics, shoving in numbers and calculations, making it just overly complexes but not in a good way. It's one of those games that feel like chore. Skip. get PoE.… Expand
  78. MikeVentris
    Jan 7, 2020
    10
    By now it's the best CRPG I've played for long time.
    I know, it had a lot of bugs at release, but now most of them fixed and this is really must-have game.
  79. FrostormNidhegg
    Oct 27, 2019
    6
    Странная игра. С одной стороны - есть интересные самобытные моменты, например, перемещение по карте, события по таймеру, которые просто происходят в определенный срок и ты или подготовился или нет, неплохая ролевая система. С другой стороны - абсолютно плоские характеры персонажей. Вот баба варвар, она тупая, она хочет рубить врагов, у нее меч, который в реале весил бы тонны полторы (почтиСтранная игра. С одной стороны - есть интересные самобытные моменты, например, перемещение по карте, события по таймеру, которые просто происходят в определенный срок и ты или подготовился или нет, неплохая ролевая система. С другой стороны - абсолютно плоские характеры персонажей. Вот баба варвар, она тупая, она хочет рубить врагов, у нее меч, который в реале весил бы тонны полторы (почти меч из Файнал Фентези, заточенное крыло от самолета на ручке). Вот баба паладин, она паладин, она за мир и справедливость. Вот мелкий хитрый злодей, который хитрый и злодей. Никаких граней, никакого именно характера - просто опереточные маски. При этом например все та же баба варвар рассказывает байки, как она стадо мамонтов за хобот таскала в свою деревню - то есть на юмор время нашли, а на описание нормального характера - нет, очень странно. Портреты многие просто сделаны анимешными, например все тот же мелкий хитрый злодей - он выглядит как аниме персонаж. Зачем? Почему? - не понятно. Итого - поставил ее и одновременно Пилларс оф Этернити 2 - после Пилларсов играть в Пасфайндера просто не приятно, слишком все какое-то несерьезное, и убогие персонажи. Удалил, играть дальше не стал. Ну и багов запредельное количество - кладешь в слот оружие, а оно не кладется, отменяешь - кладется, а иногда нормально все. В общем, рпг с большим потенциалом, но его не раскрыли. И не серьезный подход к сюжету и персонажам убивает весь настрой. Оперетка, играть в которую на фоне других рпг такого типа не хочется. Тем более жанр этот нишевый, и пытаться вот эти мотивы привносить несерьезные - очень странная идея. Надеюсь разрабы подумают над тем, что они делают и выпустят нормальную вторую часть. В общем, попытка была не плохая, но не получилось… Expand
  80. hiruvan
    Aug 22, 2019
    9
    Awesome game oldschool rpg. It's much better then tyrany or divinity. Cute design, interesting plot, quests and gameplay.

    -1 for sjw propaganda lol. All, its not a joke, companion quests are about noble fight for liberty and equality.
  81. Galwail
    Aug 18, 2019
    10
    This game was a huge surprise for me. It has very entertaining story, solid game mechanics and a lot of content. I would rate it higher than other RPGs I have played lately (Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Wasteland 2, Mass Effect 4…), it is certainly one of the best story driven RPGs I have ever played (like Planescape: Torment, Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Origins,This game was a huge surprise for me. It has very entertaining story, solid game mechanics and a lot of content. I would rate it higher than other RPGs I have played lately (Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Wasteland 2, Mass Effect 4…), it is certainly one of the best story driven RPGs I have ever played (like Planescape: Torment, Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer). Unlike the above-mentioned games, this one does one thing very differently, the real sense of urgency. The main crises pop up at predetermined time intervals and when they do, you better solve them quickly or face the consequences. You can easily lose the game by ignoring the main quests.

    What I liked most about this game was its story. The initial chapter of the game gripped me and didn’t let go. The origin story of the main villain made me genuinely sad and the last chapter, where you go against literal demigods, was very satisfying, it even has a secret ending, where you can give the main villain a taste of his own medicine. The pacing of the game was good, I had just enough money to buy everything I wanted and equip all companions, just enough time to fully develop my kingdom and explore the entire map and just enough XP to hit level 20 during the final chapter. I liked that the game did not push me into any alignment (hello Baldur’s Gate) and that you could recruit some of your former enemies as advisors.

    The difficulty level was uneven with a lot of power creep toward the end. I was playing on the hard difficulty with story companions and the opening chapter was very hard. Some fights were almost unfair (the wererats cave still haunts my dreams), but that was mostly due to my unwillingness to give up and return later. Compared to that, the endgame was very easy, I just had to make sure my buffs are up and mow down all the opposition. But I can see why some people find the endgame very hard, there is a lot of room to make mistakes in your character builds and miss important buffs and abilities.

    I have waited a year to play this game and I’m happy, that the developers used that time to fix and polish the game. I didn’t encounter any content bugs; the game froze only a couple of times. Some of the mechanics work differently than in PnP, but it is hard to tell, whether it is a bug or feature.

    The weakest part of the game was the kingdom management, its mechanics are shallow, events are mostly random, I did not notice any event chains, the buildings system is simple and leads to weird and unrealistic situations, like filling towns of your lawful good kingdom with goblin quarters to boost your espionage score. The most interesting part of the kingdom management was the decision making with your advisors, but it had little impact on the RPG side of the game. Develop your kingdom well and you may get extra time in the last chapter, but that’s about it. The game could also use some ease of use features. Like searching items for a particular bonus type, or some way to automate long term buffs.    … Expand
  82. Joewashere
    Aug 10, 2019
    8
    Plagued on release by ridiculously long loading screens and a plethora of game breaking bugs, Pathfinder: Kingmaker hasn't been warmly received by the mainstream. Once you get past the technical issues, though, you will find an extremely ambitious spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series.

    Kingmaker is more than just a clone, however; it adds a few twists of its own. Most notably,    Plagued on release by ridiculously long loading screens and a plethora of game breaking bugs, Pathfinder: Kingmaker hasn't been warmly received by the mainstream. Once you get past the technical issues, though, you will find an extremely ambitious spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series.

    Kingmaker is more than just a clone, however; it adds a few twists of its own. Most notably, there is the kingdom management system, where you build and upgrade your towns, and assign NPCs to solve various problems or participate in numerous projects. Also, the game finally solves the rest spamming problem the Infinity Engine games always had, by combining heavy and costly camping supplies with (fairly generous) time limits, thus giving you the incentive to make as much progress as possible before replenishing your health and spells. Finally, the Pathfinder ruleset allows for a wide variety of builds, making character development more involved than the game's major source of inspiration.

    While most technical problems have been fixed since release, the quality of the game still sharply drops in the last two chapters; the good parts, however, still offer more unique and interesting content than most other RPGs, and I can wholeheartedly recommend Kingmaker to any fan of Infinity Engine games.    … Expand
  83. Arilian
    Jul 23, 2019
    10
    An absolute gem, refreshing old style game. Everything is really great, it is challenging, requires planning, knowing your characters, spells or abilities, but nowhere near as difficultly as some negative comments mention. It does not hold your hand, and can be played very differently. I wish there was more games like this.
  84. Gette
    Jul 4, 2019
    3
    The game is simply too imbalanced.
    Despite during the kickstarter promise a game that present tabletop, the game designer decides to cut experience by 2/3. Yes you only get 1/3 exp or lower as you're supposed to get, which later turns to 1/10 then 1/100.
    Then, the designer decides to increase enemies stats irregularly. You get to fight BAB + 17 enemies at EASY mode around level 8 as    The game is simply too imbalanced.
    Despite during the kickstarter promise a game that present tabletop, the game designer decides to cut experience by 2/3. Yes you only get 1/3 exp or lower as you're supposed to get, which later turns to 1/10 then 1/100.

    Then, the designer decides to increase enemies stats irregularly. You get to fight BAB + 17 enemies at EASY mode around level 8 as MAIN QUEST, ALONE. There are also miscellaneous power ups for random mobs.

    I know my pathfinder and D&D but this game is just Diabolo/Divinity pretending to use pathfinder rules where gears triumphed over characters. Sucks I backed it :(    … Expand
  85. Efelatte
    Jun 28, 2019
    9
    Such an amazing game. I've played the latest version (2.0.3) and I haven't encountered any serious bugs, only few minor ones. Scope is amazing, big kudos to the developers.
  86. Wolfstorm321
    Jun 17, 2019
    2
    Horrible game, each minute on the map I have to listen chit chat from the characters, where they talk about themselves, its very, very annoying and the worse aspect of it all (the talk is so bad that it made the player looks like a retard). Combat is terrible (9 in 10 times you see "miss" on the screen, meaning the characters fight like children), the quests are pointless, there is noHorrible game, each minute on the map I have to listen chit chat from the characters, where they talk about themselves, its very, very annoying and the worse aspect of it all (the talk is so bad that it made the player looks like a retard). Combat is terrible (9 in 10 times you see "miss" on the screen, meaning the characters fight like children), the quests are pointless, there is no story, you keep exploring the map in circles. The only good thing were the classes, those were fine, with diversity of builds, but unfortunatelly the devs spoiled the game with bad writing, annoying and useless talk (which is not immersive, quite the contrary), bad combat and a stupid AI. Wasted potential.… Expand
  87. Carewolf
    Jun 14, 2019
    9
    Based on the Enhanced Edition (2.0), this is a fantastic game. It still has some minor issues here and there, but they have patched all the big things. Damn thing is consuming all my free time :D
  88. Soreel
    Jun 10, 2019
    10
    I purchased this game three weeks ago and have logged 60h into it so far. While I think a lot of the '2's that this game received in the past may have been true at the time, I see a vibrant DLC community and I dont see the bugs that are discussed here, aside from my game not closing elegantly. The graphics are good enough - they arent beautiful but as a former game designer and scripterI purchased this game three weeks ago and have logged 60h into it so far. While I think a lot of the '2's that this game received in the past may have been true at the time, I see a vibrant DLC community and I dont see the bugs that are discussed here, aside from my game not closing elegantly. The graphics are good enough - they arent beautiful but as a former game designer and scripter for the SSI Darksun series and tester on the gold box series I understand the tradeoff between breadth and depth in art production investment. Whats most important -- the things I would have my character do and by and large supported. The conversations and situations are nuanced and not at all childish / black&white, the characters display in conversation that actual amount of depth that is supported. What I admire is the care the developers have in not overwriting what is in fact not supported. I love the town building, character development, the difference int he value of loot to different people. I love the combat. Its all good.… Expand
  89. cavafis1979
    Jun 1, 2019
    9
    One of the best roleplaying games of the last years. Dificult and challenging for old players, like me, who enjoyed Baldur’s Gate, Eye of the Beholder I, II and III, or the old TSR series. The game demands strategy and intelligence in everh encounter, and to know the rules of Pathfinwr gane. I really love ir.
  90. ikaragi
    May 26, 2019
    10
    I have been a fun of CRPGs many years now and I have played all major titles that our out there.

    Kingmaker is a truly great game, nothing else is like it. I don't remember enjoying so much a game since maybe BG II or the original Fallout series. The game is very stable at its current state. It is a shame the release was buggy leading to the game not getting all the attention it    I have been a fun of CRPGs many years now and I have played all major titles that our out there.

    Kingmaker is a truly great game, nothing else is like it. I don't remember enjoying so much a game since maybe BG II or the original Fallout series.

    The game is very stable at its current state. It is a shame the release was buggy leading to the game not getting all the attention it deserves. On the other side the game mechanics are really complex and I find it really impressive that a small development studio managed to create something that great. Having a lot of experience in software development myself, I understand that it is simply impossible to the create a game from scratch with so many features without creating bugs.

    Plain 10/10 for me, I am eager to see future work from this studio.    … Expand
  91. Lucky_Nike
    May 4, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. When I look back after 140 hours of gameplay, i see no fun but rather pain. Version 1.2 - 1.29 or something like that.

    Game has cca 10 maps/dungeons that are worth to play and those take cca 20 hours of 9-10/10 rating gameplay. Those dungeons/maps are really original or at least ideas are combined very well. Some ot those dungeons takes some time to figure out what to do or how to beat it.

    Story is something I have seen in many games or movies, but can be original for many so np with that.

    All the rest is pure waste of time. Artificial prolonging game can be seen in almost every aspect of game.

    Some players say Kingmaker is like Baldurs Gate. Forget about it. Only because its similar in graphics and battle system doesnt mean its like Baldurs Gate. BG has great maps, basically every screen brings something new. Just imagine first map with Irenicus and all what happened there. Pathfinder has nothing like that, only max five maps are closer to this and those areas are spread all over so you waste your time by walking. You are revisiting same places with same graphics just only of sake to be something in game to visit.

    And now why this game is so pain and deserve 5/10?

    Simply because there are too many small things that adds to each other to the point you simply dont like it.

    Gameplay is very slow so Unity cheat program with speed hack is a must otherwise the game is boring and is waste of time.

    Kingdom - the way you take throne and how npc see you as their king is absurd. NPC bow to you like you are some kind of god and managing kingdom is simply clicking on cards and wait what happens. You can not affect results by yourself going to places cards are talking about. Basically its your kingdom, but everything is done by somebody else. If you stay at your kingdom for too long, you will loose and you have no idea, why is game over. It brings nothing to game and literally is not worth your time, there is no reward and no purpose, no sense. Better make computer take care of your kingdom and play game with your party. Nevertheless you still will have to go to city to click here and there. Garbage.

    Moving on map is another artificial pro-longing game. Why it is in game is question. Its waste of time. It brings really nothing, zero. And its slow even with speed hack.

    Loading and resting. OMG that is the worst thing about game. You load with every change: load map, load resting, load playing area.. Loading in this game is like 20% of game time (SSD), 20% is looking at big map and moving on it, 50% is in your kingdom and moving from place to place and only 10% of your time is real gameplay. This game utilize only 4 giga of ram - loading, loading, loading. I have no idea why you have to load traveling map or when your rest. And if you have party of pre-made NPC and you rest they start to talk crap and you waste minut(es) just by waiting till they finish their "bla bla bla" include waiting for info how long u hunt, if u coocked good meal etc. (and dont forget another loading screens). Garbage, garbage, garbage.

    Side quests of your party imo brings nothing special, but why not. Nevertheless only reason why you do them is xp.

    Replayability: zero. There is no challange and once you finish game you already know everything about game. I drop at lvl 9 with "perfect" party.

    If game had no loading screens all time, no moving on map, no kingdom management but pure isometric walking from map to map, game could be 8/10 maybe 9/10. But in the state it is now even 5/10 is really generous. Game was released 25 september but at the same date people give it 10/10 - its absurd as to finish the game you need minimum 50 hours even if you know everything about the game.

    SPOILER about gameplay:
    Gameplay is something like: "spoiler ahead": ............................................ you basically buff your characters, move tank or two to the front and rest is beating mobs to death. That is all, nothing more in this game. It can be fun in some parts of game but because of other game mechanics even that starts to be bothering. You can do some micromanagement, but you will find out soon its annoying so basically you buff and slaughter everything. Otherwise you are slaughtered.    … Expand
  92. Arcane_Ape
    Apr 18, 2019
    8
    Very buggy mess at release but the devs have worked overtime to keep the patches coming and have brought this game not to just a playable status but to an enjoyable one. Great story and true adaptation of the Pathfinder pen & paper system now in a computer game. Really enjoying the experience and so much replay value based on all the different story options you can choose which can vastlyVery buggy mess at release but the devs have worked overtime to keep the patches coming and have brought this game not to just a playable status but to an enjoyable one. Great story and true adaptation of the Pathfinder pen & paper system now in a computer game. Really enjoying the experience and so much replay value based on all the different story options you can choose which can vastly change the world and story.… Expand
  93. nckvssy
    Apr 10, 2019
    0
    What a piece of garbage. Unbalanced encounters and just terrible game play. Avoid at all cost, this is a waste of time and effort. Spider swarms taking out a group of level 3 adventurers even after you use 20 alchemist's fire LOL what a joke
  94. Valarian25
    Apr 10, 2019
    10
    Not gonna make a horrible long review.

    Look, this is the game Bioware should have made.

    The people who made this must have played allot of baldurs gate + neverwinter nights :D

    No really if you like RPG games this is a must, you wont regret it, 1010 (based on budget and scale)
    I have not had this much fun since the Witcher 3.
  95. TucoMerc
    Mar 18, 2019
    1
    Retarded imbalanced game that just forces you to kill everything on sight and if you can't you die without a chance to retreat. Disgusting and beyond words.
  96. Falcone
    Mar 13, 2019
    10
    Pathfinder: Kingmaker is one of the best cRPG games I've ever played.
    If you like this genre you must play in this masterpiece.
    Thank you guys from OwlCat games, I'm waiting for a sequel.
  97. blubberguts
    Mar 6, 2019
    7
    I was really attracted to this game and wanted to play it back when it came out. I liked the look, I liked the system, it was so pretty, and I was hooked storywise from the start by the treachery of Tartuccio.

    But bugs. So many bugs. So I put it away and waited..until last a couple of weeks ago. By then the games was up to patch 1.16d. Surely by now I could enjoy this great game? No.    I was really attracted to this game and wanted to play it back when it came out. I liked the look, I liked the system, it was so pretty, and I was hooked storywise from the start by the treachery of Tartuccio.

    But bugs. So many bugs. So I put it away and waited..until last a couple of weeks ago. By then the games was up to patch 1.16d. Surely by now I could enjoy this great game?

    No. At one stage, the "i" for inventory button stopped working and i was unable to see the inventory ..then all the other hotkeys stopped working too...loading an old save did not fix this. In the end I had to exit out of the game and restart before the keys would work again.

    Sometimes enemies become invincible - for example there will be a set of goblins on a map and you will kill most of them easily but the last one will be invincible...you will hit and hit but nothing kills him and finally your entire party is wiped out...so you reload from an old save, go back in and discover he's just an ordinary enemy this time and wiped out in seconds...

    There are items that give bonuses like "ac+1" - now i know these don't stack; for example if you have two items that give "ac+1" on one character then only one of the bonuses will be applied...(you can see this by inspecting the armour bonus; it will list in green all the bonuses that got applied and red all those that were not applied)

    But i got one item that was NEVER applied, no matter who I gave it to, and didn't even appear in the listing, red OR green....it may as well have been a piece of fluff. (I guess it was a cosmetic item!)

    I got my entire party up to level four and was able to wipe out several sets of bandits....one set included a warrior, a necromancer, an archer and a thief but I got them all..then entered the next map and was wiped out by a single "mature leopard" who was apparently invincible...I watched the combat log and noone in my entire party, even the magic users, got a single hit against him until he eventually wipe us all out... a single leopard!!

    If they ever get the bugs out, it could be a good game...but will they? It's been six months and from what I've seen for myself and others it's still a buggy mess, even to the point of game breaking bugs....

    I'm giving a seven, because it's so beautiful and when it works - when combat isn't bugged and hotkeys function and monsters aren't invincible and your party ai works - it's fun. I hope they do a better job next time - guys, whoever did your coding needs a kick in the ass. Fire them and keep whoever did the music, the graphics, the story writing and music and item design.

    Better luck next time deepsilver.    … Expand
  98. Macbaine
    Mar 3, 2019
    7
    I like this game.. the story is rich and interisting ... you need like reading for enjoye this game
  99. AcerolaOrion
    Feb 25, 2019
    10
    If you are an old school rpg fan this is the BEST game made in the past 15 years.

    I can see why some people dislike it, too difficult for casuals, too many mechanics. But as a hardcore crpg fan this game was MADE for me and is a clear 10/10. The game is HUGE you get a TON of HIGH QUALITY CONTENT. Absolutely brilliant story, deep customization this is one of the best games i have    If you are an old school rpg fan this is the BEST game made in the past 15 years.

    I can see why some people dislike it, too difficult for casuals, too many mechanics. But as a hardcore crpg fan this game was MADE for me and is a clear 10/10.

    The game is HUGE you get a TON of HIGH QUALITY CONTENT.

    Absolutely brilliant story, deep customization this is one of the best games i have played in the last 15 years.    … Expand
  100. ireviewbadgames
    Feb 12, 2019
    5
    Kingmaker falls under the category of games we know could be critically acclaimed masterpieces, but sadly for one reason or another, fails to do so. For this grime-encrusted gem, there was a serious lack of play-testing and not enough development time. Had Deep Silver allowed for an additional three months of bug-squashing and fixes, the reception might've been much friendlier.Kingmaker falls under the category of games we know could be critically acclaimed masterpieces, but sadly for one reason or another, fails to do so. For this grime-encrusted gem, there was a serious lack of play-testing and not enough development time. Had Deep Silver allowed for an additional three months of bug-squashing and fixes, the reception might've been much friendlier. Unfortunately, they hastily pushed out their product like an actor with half his costume on and the game suffered greatly.

    What I don't understand is how the developers thought everything would be fine, despite the fact that no one could actually complete the game. That in it of itself should have stopped them in their tracks, but I'm sure the allure of ill-gotten cash from naive Steam users smelled too delicious.

    In conclusion: huge potential and brainless, drool-spilling release date.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

19
#19 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018
100
#100 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 33
  3. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. CD-Action
    Feb 13, 2019
    75
    Pathfinder: Kingmaker offers an interesting world to explore along with satisfying combat, and the first half of the adventure is top-notch old school fun. Unfortunately later the game loses its momentum and becomes boring. Anyhow, it’s a solid RPG that should keep Baldur’s Gate’s fans happy for many hours. [12/2018, p.86]
  2. Games.cz
    Jan 15, 2019
    80
    A great adaptation of the original Pathfinder gamebooks. The story is sidelined by tough tactical combat - its steep difficulty may be daunting to genre newbies, but D&D veterans will be delighted. There are technical problems, yes, but those are overshadowed by refreshing kingdom management and interesting companions.
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  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Dec 31, 2018
    80
    RPG for the hardened. Get used to loadings and getting lost in the rules, get ready for an ok storyline - and in the return you will enjoy a deep level of challenge and great management of your own kingdom. Obsidian has a new competitor. [Issue#290]
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