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. Straph
    Feb 9, 2019
    0
    This game really needs a beat down. They used a tabletop game, but then tried to convert it to a real time system while trying to keep the tabletop rules intact. The game is still after months plagued with bugs. Less than 3% of game owners have actually beaten the game. They put out DLC that no one was interested in, and have really bad communication to their player base. The game'sThis game really needs a beat down. They used a tabletop game, but then tried to convert it to a real time system while trying to keep the tabletop rules intact. The game is still after months plagued with bugs. Less than 3% of game owners have actually beaten the game. They put out DLC that no one was interested in, and have really bad communication to their player base. The game's normal difficult is set to superman, and you'll find yourself constantly losing battles that statistically you should have won, because the devs don't understand how random dice rolls are supposed to work. The enemies have a 60~100% chance of hitting you, but you have about a 30~50% chance of hitting the enemies regardless of how high of a level you are. The NPC that fight along side you are typically better than you are at their given roll. You'll find that main of the NPC end game quests are broken. The game itself doesn't offer a good tutorial so even if you're familiar with pathfinder tabletop you'll still have a hard time adjusting. The lack of quality items for your specific character will be hard to find as there isn't a ton of variety in the late game items to fill the needs of any specific build. This game really needs an overhaul, and should have never been released in it's current state. I would consider this game to be in alpha transitioning to beta. If the devs actually fix many of the bugs, and core design issues this game might be a 7. In it's current state it's not worth even picking up as you can't actually play through the entire game without encountering bugs. Great idea, poor execution from a new dev.… Expand
  2. rpggamer2015
    Jan 26, 2019
    9
    As for writing and story this is certainly a great game. Character development is fun.
    Bug's count has been reduced greatly with the latest updates.
    Yeah, combat can be pretty punishing in a number of ways, but for those who feel that it's too hard, why not go with lower diffuculty settings? That's exactly what I did and gameplay didn't suffer for me (dialogue checks can still be a    As for writing and story this is certainly a great game. Character development is fun.
    Bug's count has been reduced greatly with the latest updates.
    Yeah, combat can be pretty punishing in a number of ways, but for those who feel that it's too hard, why not go with lower diffuculty settings? That's exactly what I did and gameplay didn't suffer for me (dialogue checks can still be a little too high, though).
    I would probably complain about top levels and 9th lvl spells as I played wizard, but it's getting better with each patch.
    This game is certainly in one league with BG2 and NWN for me - and I do really hope for more content coming later.    … Expand
  3. aidan0
    Jan 24, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I was going to give it a 7, but instead I'll put down a 5 for all those brandspanking new accounts giving it a 10. I guess they hired a marking company to help with the bad reviews, bad form guys.

    Time to ramble a lot.

    So, I played this game for 160 hours, as a backer I did get my money's worth I'll admitted that. But many of those hours were painful and not really fun, I play on normal. I waited until November to play it. So, patch 1.1 roles in and I started playing. The 160 hours is due to a restart when I was at 55 hours in, because somehow kingdom management decides to spiral out of control. You don't know what is going on and you better hope and pray that stuff works out somehow. What I've learned is that taxes are bad.

    So, what to say about the rest. It's pretty, but Baldur's Gate/ never winter nights are far better. Less is more. It felt so special to get a +3 sword in those games. This game just gives you +5/+8 items like it's nothing. The stuff you work for, the artifacts you work hard to put back together, are worthless. There is always some superior free gear around. Oh wait, the point is to sell those "useless" +5's so you can bankroll the kingdom? That's just stupid.

    Remember when companions were memorable? Remember when they were useful. Well these aren't, your companions are an extra challenge, you'll need to overcome their weaknesses to make them usefull. There is no Mazzy Fentan or Minsc to save your bacon. Maybe that's why the game tries to kill them at the end. It's trying to help you, because a custom party is far better than your companions.

    Gimmicks oh the gimmicks. A gimmick is not a challenge. Ability drain and paralysis is easily countered with 50 scrolls of the appropriate counter spells. I mean you solve a problem but it's not fun. My characters should be solving those problems not a backpack full of scrolls. Don't forget the 50 scrolls of resurrection, you have money to burn anyway. Why even heal with low lv spell when you can res. or turn your non cleric into a full heal healer with 50 scrolls of heal.

    Be ready for 40+ AC on enemies. Not really a problem, right? Just haste up and keep on swinging until you get a crit. 15 damage resistance you say? ohhh my 28 str barb doesn't need to care. She needs to crit to hit and when she hits the enemies just explode. RNG not working? Best to pop that true strike wand. Come on, that's not fun. To give you a example, there is this epic black dragon you can fight. I went in thinking this will be a very hard, but epic fight. Nope... the RNG gods wanted me to win. Buff up, fight starts, fights over. Checked the logs. (ugh ohhh the immersion) Barb did two crits in a row and the dragon was pretty much dead.

    I guess that's about it. I killed a lot of time with this game, but in the end I didn't really have fun. POE 1 was cool, played it twice, played the expansions. POE 2 was meh, won't play the expansions although I'll get them for free. Kingmaker? I won't even bother with the next one.    … Expand
  4. Pellegrim
    Jan 20, 2019
    10
    How do I say this ... I have been an avid fan of Baldur's Gate I and II, and found the games thereafter less and less interesting, mainly due to the lack of story lines. And the years after the genre kind of disappeared. Game makers told themselves that the classic isometric was an outdated concept and viewpoints changed to "flexible from first person to iso-on-all-angles. Like the kidsHow do I say this ... I have been an avid fan of Baldur's Gate I and II, and found the games thereafter less and less interesting, mainly due to the lack of story lines. And the years after the genre kind of disappeared. Game makers told themselves that the classic isometric was an outdated concept and viewpoints changed to "flexible from first person to iso-on-all-angles. Like the kids that wanted all candies from the shop. Worked terrible and was disastrous for immersive game-play. I think I bought and tried 10 to 15 of the big titles in recent years, and they all disappointed greatly. The games generally had no story line consequence, were full on plot-holes and/or were very inconsistent. It's like people did not care about a well-structured story anymore, an any story at all. So in my eyes the amazing and potent, classic turn-based, ISO-view, D&D based genre was gone and wouldn't return. I and blamed the current game design philosophy (or lack thereof), that tries to jam as many effect and novelties in a game and think that that is what makes a good game. I closed the chapter and let my newly acquired PC gather dust (or play Spotify, rather). Of course I kept an eye out on forums, and followed rumors, cause you never know right. Then Beamdog touched-up Baldur’s Gate and reintroduced them. And made a few modules, that were so hollow and bad that I wish they wouldn’t. And then rumors of a worthy follow-up appeared, Pillars of Eternity. Tried it. In short, it’s a good game, but it lacks an immersive story that it tied to the game, and thus it does not offer the same rewarding character-development-tied-to-a-good-story. And then I got stuck in a cavern that felt too much like a dungeon crawlers, and I was unable to beat a room, time-after-time, and It was unclear if I wasn’t supposed to be in that place at that level, also mainly cause the story-line wasn’t there to confirm or deny this. So I stopped play, Pillars did not tick the box. It didn’t contain a creafully designed story in combination with game development. The came Divine Divinity: Original Sin. It was actually good on the starting story, nice surprise. But. Then I get to a dungeon (where you are supposed to be), and I can in now way beat an enemy (or set off enemies) there. So I googled around, I basically found that you need to set your characters up in a terribly specific way so they synergies, and do exponentially increased damage. That a game flaw right there, lost interest, quit playing. To bad. Then I sat in the car with two buddies going to an event, and I told the story above bout me looking for that new fun game to play, and one said “seems like you are talking about Pathfinder: Kingmaker”. And my other buddy confirmed. I could not believed them, cause I still checked the interwebs regularly. But I figured, why not, let’s download it. Started out, and immediately thought “hey, this feels good”. Then I found that the mechanics are basically old skool D&D (I thought Pathfinder had a very different system), which was like coming home. With a lot of new builds and rules, which keeps it fresh. Played the introduction chapter, and literally all my synapses were fire up red hot. Om my, was this the actual game I was looking for for roughly 20 years? It very well could be .. dang…. The camera view felt great, the combat system felt great, the story line was very-very solid, the effort-reward ratio was solid (can’t express how important this is for a game). I just started the 2nd chapter of 8 in total and I have to ration myself to the PC for two reasons: if I don’t I lose my family/job and the amazing experience will be over way to soon! This game has the depth, the loving care of a great story writer, a team that understands risk-reward that makes a game a great game. It obviously had a very solid playtesting phase, and provide on screen hints before difficult combat, to prevent game-breaking situations. What can I say, one of the things that makes it right is that it is so well balanced. Then I found our Chris Avellone wrote for it! One of the creators of Baldurs Gate; and it all adds up. And it’s not from a huge huge studio, so it didn’t have editors ramming it into a boring mainstream format. It’s a Russian-German made game, from what I understand. All I can say finally is: thanks people who made this game, you revived PC gaming for me and I am looking forward to many many more hours of Kingmaker! This game rocks, it offers so many great options and experience, the story is amazing, the map system is great, and it is made with so much care. It is the new Baldurs Gate, and even overtakes it!… Expand
  5. Fidi
    Jan 15, 2019
    0
    Too many poorly designed encounters that are guaranteed to be a TPK unless they player was lucky enough to accidentally bring the right combination of classes. Dying over and over again until you go back to an earlier save game and switch to a different party is "Replay value" according to Kingmaker.
  6. Mystic_Quest
    Jan 3, 2019
    10
    It blows PoE and D:OS out of the water when it comes to RP, choices and consequences. Skills matter, choices have impact, the game isn't afraid of letting you fail. The only reason it has such a low score is because it was released in a terribly buggy state. At the moment, the vast majority of bugs have been fixed and the game is nothing less than a perfect crpg.
  7. sprocket64
    Dec 31, 2018
    10
    Okay...10 is probably a little too much. In reality a 8.5 but...given the number of negative reviews for such a big, complex and faithful interpretation by a new, small studio - I wanted to even the scales a bit. It's the easiest job in the world to be a critic! You can tell this was a labor of love.
    Admittedly I picked up this game and started playing it over the Holidays but...don't    Okay...10 is probably a little too much. In reality a 8.5 but...given the number of negative reviews for such a big, complex and faithful interpretation by a new, small studio - I wanted to even the scales a bit. It's the easiest job in the world to be a critic! You can tell this was a labor of love.
    Admittedly I picked up this game and started playing it over the Holidays but...don't understand the "it's too difficult and complex" complaints. I finished Chapter One without any bugs/crashes and the mechanics felt hand-in-glove to me. The storytelling is excellent. I agree that the companions are a little flat and the voice acting stiff but...come on people...this is an extraordinary accomplishment for a new studio! ...and a great value to boot!    … Expand
  8. Hafner3
    Dec 29, 2018
    10
    I haven't had this much fun with a RTWP RPG since Baldur's Gate 2, I really love it. I know it's supposed to be a buggy mess, but as of patch 1.2 I haven't noticed hardly any bugs. There is plenty of challenge to be had here, especially if you're new to Pathfinder. I would suggest looking into tips from veterans of the game and TTRPG. As a bonus, import the Terry Crews portrait for yourI haven't had this much fun with a RTWP RPG since Baldur's Gate 2, I really love it. I know it's supposed to be a buggy mess, but as of patch 1.2 I haven't noticed hardly any bugs. There is plenty of challenge to be had here, especially if you're new to Pathfinder. I would suggest looking into tips from veterans of the game and TTRPG. As a bonus, import the Terry Crews portrait for your main character.… Expand
  9. sunnycorax
    Dec 26, 2018
    4
    This game has so much promise and started out addictively fun. The battle system is trash. The encounters are exercises in patience and frustration. Complete unbalanced mess. I wish I could have made it to the actual management part of the game that is in the title but I couldn't help setting at some of these quest missions setting dumbfounded at what it was that this game wanted me to do.This game has so much promise and started out addictively fun. The battle system is trash. The encounters are exercises in patience and frustration. Complete unbalanced mess. I wish I could have made it to the actual management part of the game that is in the title but I couldn't help setting at some of these quest missions setting dumbfounded at what it was that this game wanted me to do. Enemies with high spell saves, DR given out to enemies like it is **** candy. Healing castings that works but your party member immediately dies after being healed because **** you that's why. Never before in a game has auto-save and quick save been such a companion...on normal difficulty. There is challenging and then there is brutally unforgiving. This game revels in handicapping the player and tossing them into fights in which luck has more to do with you beating an encounter than any level of skill, planning, or equipment. I found myself on main quest modules hammering save before each fight and load several times as my party gets wrecked with not a clue as to why. This game reminded me why I hate the idea of random encounters in game and in D&D when I play it. It is like a D&D game ran by the most chaotic evil DM on the face of the earth. There is plenty good here but the gameplay kills every bit of fun that the opening hours of play seemed to glimmer with. I want to like this game but as it stands right now it is garbage. Redeemable? Yes. Playable? No.… Expand
  10. Chashm0dai
    Dec 14, 2018
    0
    Full of bugs. Constantly updating with several GB of files each time, yet no big improvements. They're already selling DLCs even though the game is obviously far, far from finished. They also ban people from their Steam forum for nothing. Critique is silenced quickly. I think that has to do more with whatever idiot they hired as moderator, rather than the developers themselves.
  11. Pemny
    Dec 11, 2018
    10
    The game was released in typical fashion with a rash of patches early on... but this is definitely a gem. Great RPG worthy of days of old, add in the kingdom building and we have a great title in a barely explored genre.
    Character building, NPCs personalities, choices that matter... all presented in a cartoon like graphic environment.
    Looking forward to the DLCs and hopeful for sequels.
  12. Yasilia
    Dec 11, 2018
    8
    Game needs fixing but holy **** it's fun and immersive. I'm happy. Can't wait for it to be more stable.
  13. jorditorrents
    Dec 7, 2018
    10
    I´ve been waiting so many years to experience a game like this one. For me this game is the real successor of the Baldur´s gate saga.
    In all those years games like Dragon age o Pillars came close but ultimately fail in deliver the same level of addiction and challenge.
  14. jseph1234
    Dec 2, 2018
    10
    This game is quite an enjoyable CRPG with complex decisions and situations along with great game-play and wonderful animations. I like that your choices have significant repercussions to your companions, NPC's and the world in general. Great writing as well.
  15. suitejesus
    Dec 1, 2018
    3
    Starts off great, a true RPG..... until you run into a game crushing bug. You can easily but 50-60 hours in to all of a sudden find out you can't even finish the game. My first play through I made the mistake of trusting the developer comments about setting kingdom management to the auto mode. I found the idea of constantly assigning advisors to meaningless tasks to be a burden after aStarts off great, a true RPG..... until you run into a game crushing bug. You can easily but 50-60 hours in to all of a sudden find out you can't even finish the game. My first play through I made the mistake of trusting the developer comments about setting kingdom management to the auto mode. I found the idea of constantly assigning advisors to meaningless tasks to be a burden after a dozen hours in, so I set the option to auto which specifically states in the menu option that your kingdom CANNOT FAIL in the auto-mode, which is great considering once you click this option you cannot undo it. After all, maybe I just want to adventure around my lands instead of manage it. Well, guess what? 50 hours go by and all of a sudden I get a game over screen because my kingdom has crumbled, and there is absolutely nothing I could have ever done about it. On top of this, you will have countless missions you cannot complete if you happen to select dialogue choices out of order, happen to have the wrong companion at any given time, or sell items you didn't know you were supposed to keep. You want a customized party to compliment your play style? Hahahaha..... too bad, here are a bunch of pregenerated companions with horrible stat allocation that you will have to babysit in order to stay alive. Or you can buy mercenaries for an absurd amount of coin, but then forego some of the MAIN GAME content. Sadly this game had great potential, but the execution of the game is horrid.… Expand
  16. Shinno
    Dec 1, 2018
    10
    The next best thing since the original Baldur's Gate. A true gem, I've waited far too long for something like this.
  17. gilthan3
    Nov 16, 2018
    9
    A true gem in the sea of bag games coming out recently. I'm a huge fan of CRPGs all the way back to the days of Pools of Radiance, Silver Swords and such.
    Great story, great characters, great system, and actually challenging unlike 99% of the trash that comes out today.
  18. LazerRaptor
    Nov 15, 2018
    10
    I believe this game is a living classic, so I can't score it below 10/10. I'm not going to say much about why this game is so great, you can see it even in some negative reviews. I can't but admit that there are some technical issues. The most annoying thing for me was continuously appearing loading screens in some particular locations. I didn't run into any game-stopping bugs though (II believe this game is a living classic, so I can't score it below 10/10. I'm not going to say much about why this game is so great, you can see it even in some negative reviews. I can't but admit that there are some technical issues. The most annoying thing for me was continuously appearing loading screens in some particular locations. I didn't run into any game-stopping bugs though (I completed the game playing 1.02 build) , maybe I was lucky. Another big complaint about the game is that it's unbalanced. It's simply not true. In fact it's one of the best balanced D&D based RPG ever made. But if you want to play it on challenging or hard mode you really need to figure out how things work in this game. It's very complex and deep. Even though I considered myself as an experienced D&D player, I did it on normal and even had to lower game difficulty at the end. But that was the fair punishment, since I was really careless leveling up after like lvl 10. And you know what? That's why this game is so great. I didn't care about my further level progression because I expected that the game won't let me screw up since I went so far. This logic works in most of the games actually. But not here. Don't take this game lightly. If it warns you that hard mode is for reruns, you better believe it. I love the fact that you can fail even on normal, since potential of failure make things more interesting. You are always able to lower difficulty level and make your kingdom unbreakable to finish the story line. There is acutally nothing wrong with it.
    The most of the modern games are made to be rewarding rather than punishing. Why? Look at those reviews where people say something like "The game has a great potential blah-blah-blah I ran into some encounter and got rekt! The game is so unbalanced!". So they score it 1/10 even though they partially admitted that the game is great. Clearly, they didn't like their punishment. I believe the developers could expect this outcome but they still chose to make this game as it is. I respect them so much for that.    … Expand
  19. lhomax
    Nov 13, 2018
    10
    Since BG2 I have not played any other game as immense as this, and i played almost every rpg in the market, when i say immense i mean in every aspect, the history, the playtime, the challenge, everything...

    It's true that it has serious bugs that can make you upset, but if you forgot about them, it is the real sucessor of BG2. If you love isometric challenging RPG, make yourself a    Since BG2 I have not played any other game as immense as this, and i played almost every rpg in the market, when i say immense i mean in every aspect, the history, the playtime, the challenge, everything...

    It's true that it has serious bugs that can make you upset, but if you forgot about them, it is the real sucessor of BG2.

    If you love isometric challenging RPG, make yourself a favour and play this masterpiece.    … Expand
  20. St0rmCr0w
    Nov 10, 2018
    8
    This is a must play for any fan of the golden age of computer role playing games. I'ts a hard nut to crack, admittedly, but that's part of the appeal.
  21. Vrodaire
    Nov 8, 2018
    9
    Whenever I review a game, or a movie... I try to determine the goal or target first. PK wasn't meant for my parents, nor my wife, and people interested in reviews should be wondering if it's right for them. I play roleplaying and strategy games, as well as 'Pathfinder'; This game is great for me. As far as I know, this is the first Pathfinder implementation for a PC game. It is veryWhenever I review a game, or a movie... I try to determine the goal or target first. PK wasn't meant for my parents, nor my wife, and people interested in reviews should be wondering if it's right for them. I play roleplaying and strategy games, as well as 'Pathfinder'; This game is great for me. As far as I know, this is the first Pathfinder implementation for a PC game. It is very similar to Baldur's gate (weaknesses and strengths) except for it following Pathfinder rules.

    I have had some issues, while playing. And I have seen an immense effort to fix those. What many are ignoring here is the larger number of basic choices and concepts in Pathfinder compared to D&D 2.0, that BG didn't have to deal with, as well as the concepts like kingdom management and such that make it larger or at least more complex.

    Could it be improved -- Yes
    Is it the worst game ever -- No
    Is it being improved -- Yes
    Do I have fun playing it for multiple hours -- Yes
    Do I expect to have more fun in the future (playing it) -- Yes
    Will I buy a different campaign, if Owlcat makes another Pathfinder game? -- Yes
    It hit my target -- But I do NOT recommend it for everyone. I think the less you know about Pathfinder, the more the learning curve looks intimidating.    … Expand
  22. Odsh
    Nov 4, 2018
    10
    I must admit I didn't have so much fun with a video game for a long time, it is truly a masterpiece. This game is to Pahtfinder what Baldur's Gate was to AD&D. The game is huge and non-linear, with a lot of freedom of exploration and interesting quests. I played 170 hours so far (hard difficulty, completionist) and probably just starting the mid-game content. Contrary to other reviewers,I must admit I didn't have so much fun with a video game for a long time, it is truly a masterpiece. This game is to Pahtfinder what Baldur's Gate was to AD&D. The game is huge and non-linear, with a lot of freedom of exploration and interesting quests. I played 170 hours so far (hard difficulty, completionist) and probably just starting the mid-game content. Contrary to other reviewers, for a game this large and complex, I'm amazed that there are so few bugs. And congratulations on the adaptation of the Pathfinder ruleset to a videogame, very well done.

    In comparison to Baldur's Gate:
    - Pathfinder's feat selection and complete liberty of multiclassing makes leveling up and developing your characters a much richer experience.
    - The management of you barony is really well thought and much better than the "keep" system we had in Baldur's Gate.
    - Time constraints. I understand that not everybody will like them, but to me, they make the game so much more interesting. You now actually have to manage your spells somewhat and can't afford to rest after each combat to systematically recover them all.
    - Inventory management is nice. A global inventory for the whole party with filtering and sorting options, shared encumbrance, no need to move items between containers (bag of holdings simply have negative weight).
    - The influence of weather on the game. In a storm, you move more slowly unless you have druid/ranger feats and the rain adds concealment on ranged attacks.    … Expand
  23. GreyFox_7
    Nov 3, 2018
    0
    The game is too broken to enjoy. They keep releasing 'fixes' that they don't test not 1 bit. Each 'fix' breaks other items, quests, NPCs, really anything that can be broken will be broken.

    If this wasn't a Pathfinder game it may well have a 0 score from everyone. People like the base module and many users are liking the game just because it's "dnd"
  24. Solantus
    Nov 2, 2018
    10
    For Me Game Of The Year. I wait so long a game like Baldurs Gate with this game my long wait is end.
    There will be bugs and some problem but ı am sure there is pass with time. I am sure it getting better and better with dlc and expansion pack. Many People Will be questioning game graphics, Mechanics, etc. Of course They have right with game like Witcher, red dead redemption, etc make    For Me Game Of The Year. I wait so long a game like Baldurs Gate with this game my long wait is end.
    There will be bugs and some problem but ı am sure there is pass with time. I am sure it getting better and better with dlc and expansion pack. Many People Will be questioning game graphics, Mechanics, etc. Of course They have right with game like Witcher, red dead redemption, etc make stake high. But This is totaly different soul and serve totaly different experience the others. in the and you can cast fire ball or crush the enemy heads with a greataxe with a good critic you can kill a boss in a one minute.    … Expand
  25. Gradstudent
    Oct 28, 2018
    10
    I've played every RPG you've ever heard of, and this is better than all of them. An incredible achievement in video games. Not just game of the generation, but game of the century.
  26. Avva
    Oct 26, 2018
    6
    It’s a good game, though I would not compare it to the old classics like BG or modern one like PoE. As many here mentioned, it’s a faithful transfer of well known (in Pathfinder universe) P-n-P campaign with the same name. Let me say it again – TRANSFER. Not adaptation, not a “computer variation” – but literal transfer from one media (table top pen-and-paper) to another (computer). TheIt’s a good game, though I would not compare it to the old classics like BG or modern one like PoE. As many here mentioned, it’s a faithful transfer of well known (in Pathfinder universe) P-n-P campaign with the same name. Let me say it again – TRANSFER. Not adaptation, not a “computer variation” – but literal transfer from one media (table top pen-and-paper) to another (computer). The result – it did not work all that well.

    P-n-P is designed to work with a human DM (and creative group of human companions). DM is there to correct, interpret or simply remove the rules that spoil fun. He is there to help the group to solve the quests, to create the adventure. When you remove that DM and leave rules only, observed by a computer, you get what many call “unbalanced difficulty”, that in reality is simply a bare ruleset. All things DM would do – giving hints for the nature of the future encounters, description of atmosphere, directions for the party, so it would not wonder somewhere they should not have, ability to assess the danger by different means, creative use of skills and abilities, even simple things like to be able to “take 20” on a skill check – nothing is there. It’s just an animated basic rulebook with all variations and interpretations cut off. And the difficulty level is adjusted by universally hated bloating HP of the mobs and shifting probability of dice scores.

    Developers said it was done to accommodate the ability to save/load. The problem is, save/load was left as THE ONLY mean to get anything done in the game. You want to open the chest? Better save before, because you have only one chance to roll the dice (and the roll is not in your favor, and as I said, you can not “take 20”). You see a monster or expecting one? Save! There is no way to check his stats and it’s not what “monster manual” (not existing in the game, btw, use the book) will tell you. The fact that this little goblin in front of you has Strength and Dexterity of a young dragon, you will learn only during the fight.

    It would not be even that bad, if not for the engine problems. Owlcats used Unity – same as Obsidian for PoE (many features from PoE too, but not enough, unfortunately). However, they did not have enough skills/time/money to optimize it. Meaning first and foremost lag and long-long-looooong loading screens. So, you can (and you have to!) constantly save/load, but you will be swearing every time you do it, because of a long waiting time. Btw, those loading screens are everywhere and you will be swearing endlessly anyway.

    Kingdom management could be fun should there be any synergy with adventuring. So far one is always on the way of another. Add to this many artificial restrictions within already very restrictive system of kingdom management, many bugs and bad communication (a lot of things happen without so much as warning) – and the fun can be gone pretty fast. Again, faithful to PnP campaign but without DM. To their defense, there is an option of “automatic management”, that you might consider to use at your first run to see the plot.

    Speaking of plot – you would not really see it. It sure exists (!) but you will be too busy fighting the game (and the monsters to some degree) to notice it. And as in a campaign itself, it’s very discrete – to let you wonder around like you do in Skyrim, for example, forgetting about the main goal, yet, because of computer limitations, very strict – you have to do everything in a specific order, or you will ruin not only the current quest, but some quests after that you do not even know about yet. Somewhere in that plot supposed to be bits from Chris Avellone, but aside one companion (not typical for Avellone either) it's hard to find any. Well, at least Zhur’s music is there for sure and it's beautiful. Though, I can not help but wonder what if they spent money on a rules adaptation and the engine optimization instead of expensive luxury like famous writer and composer.

    Anyway, despite everything above, the game is good enough (or will be after bug fixing) to entertain CRPG lovers. Give it half a year and buy!

    P.S. IGN reviewer described problems very accurately.    … Expand
  27. manukosta
    Oct 25, 2018
    10
    This game is great, if you like RPG, Baldurs Gate or NWN, its a must buy. Most negative opinions are due to bugs or crashes, which are getting fixed (a hotpatch comes out every 2 days), so this game should really be rated a lot higher. Its just that people have very shortsighted reviews. This kind of complex game requires a lot of coding, especially considering all the character buildingThis game is great, if you like RPG, Baldurs Gate or NWN, its a must buy. Most negative opinions are due to bugs or crashes, which are getting fixed (a hotpatch comes out every 2 days), so this game should really be rated a lot higher. Its just that people have very shortsighted reviews. This kind of complex game requires a lot of coding, especially considering all the character building options, kingdom events, etc....so its natural that it wouldnt be perfect at release. Give it some time and it will be one of the best CRPGs ever out there.… Expand
  28. Valko
    Oct 25, 2018
    1
    I was hoping this time new promising game from Ru/Cis team will be a masterpiece, something better than we had before from ru/cis devs, but...We wanted the best, but it turned out as always (c)
    The game was and is swarming with bugs and glitches, it has several new patches in a week even after 1.5 month. It's hard to play at least several hours withour regular crashes or critical bugs.    I was hoping this time new promising game from Ru/Cis team will be a masterpiece, something better than we had before from ru/cis devs, but...We wanted the best, but it turned out as always (c)
    The game was and is swarming with bugs and glitches, it has several new patches in a week even after 1.5 month. It's hard to play at least several hours withour regular crashes or critical bugs. Moreover despite all that someone from dev team recruited incompetent brainless community moderators who ban everyone on Steam discussions whose point of view they don't share. For example I was permabanned for statistical data about game revenues per country. If you like Saudi Arabia or North Korea you can risk to communicate there. Or if you feel nostalgic for old forums where forum owners could ban everyone they didn't liked.
    In the end I can't recommend to buy PF: Kingmaker in it's current state, best choice to grab it with 75% discount during some sale much later.    … Expand
  29. Trypsinogen
    Oct 24, 2018
    0
    Do you like paying developers to beta test their games for them? If so, then go for it.
  30. marc5477
    Oct 24, 2018
    6
    Should be called Roguefinder: Sneakmaker. Why? Because of its insane bias towards sneak attack.

    But 1st let state the obvious. There are a lot of new accounts on metacritic reviewing this game with 9s and 10s... think of that what you will but to me this says the real score is about 2 points lower than stated and that the group is either paying for reviews or making accounts to review    Should be called Roguefinder: Sneakmaker. Why? Because of its insane bias towards sneak attack.

    But 1st let state the obvious. There are a lot of new accounts on metacritic reviewing this game with 9s and 10s... think of that what you will but to me this says the real score is about 2 points lower than stated and that the group is either paying for reviews or making accounts to review it themselves.

    Apparently, Pathfinder rules removes backstab immunity from everything and gave dexterity full damage bonuses via "agility" weapons. This renders the strength stat practically worthless by comparison since you also get armor class with dex as well as range weapon flexibility. They also added backstab feats to any class (precise strike). This is terrible design, for the obvious reason that is forces you to balance the entire game around backstab damage and that is exactly what they did. In this case, they overtuned enemy stats and sadly, this pigeonholes you even farther into sneak attack classes.

    Full caster can eventually do some damage at high levels but that comes very late in the game when you no longer need them to do damage. Before then, casters are very weak due to mediocre spell damage and high resists. Case and point, playing on normal, my level 5 sorcerer with greater necromancy feats tried to cast blind on a bandit lord, a not so strong enemy. Again, this is around a level 5 encounter and I beat him easily... but his fortitude save at level 5 is 40!!! To give a comparison, my dedicated tank units barely have a fortitude of 9 at the same level. A paladin may has about 14 or so tops at that level. I was able to land a hideous laughter on him after 4 tries (his will save was 23).

    On top of gimping every other non-thief class, this video game makes backstabbing ridiculously easy. You only need 2 units engaging an enemy in melee. Once the 3rd melee attacker engages, all 3 units can backstab with impunity from any angle... So basically, if you want to do any meaningful damage in melee through most of the game, you have to take thief or hybrid thief classes (trickster or that alchemist subclass) or backstab feats. Even a caster cant do anything without backstabs from touch spells for 80% of the game so you really need to take a rogue splash and the trickster class for damage.

    I did try a optimized high strength 2H build at one point just to see how it works out and as expected it has many weaknesses, the biggest is that it cant do any major damage until about mid way through the game. The only reason that short trial succeeded is because I got everyone a companion pet which doubled my party to 12 units. It was very sad to see that the extra 6 pet units barely made up for 2 rogue units on a previous run in terms of damage output. Its really ridiculous how powerful rogues are.

    Other issues to note. At hard and unfair difficulty, game devolves into a slot machine. Completely dependent on random roles for success for at least 6-7 levels before you have enough hit points and gear to survive a few bad roles. Dont be surprised if your custom made tank dies in 1 hit the 1st 4 levels because enemies have such high stats that even a dagger wielding kobold can kill anyone with 1 critical hit. It it manageable if you cheese via pets and all archers but it gets boring fast. How bad is it? At level 2, a bandit at one of the starting areas (just a regular bandit) has a attack of +17!!! At level 2 lol. My 2 hand weapon specialist with max strength and rage and charge barely hits +11. If I throw on a bard and bless we get up to +13. When my guy hits, he does so for about 6 to 18 damage on average with a greatsword. The bandit, who was asleep on the floor when the fight began, stands up, takes one whack and averages about 20 per hit and crits about 25% of the time for over 40. I should know, i had to save scum that fight about 15 times. His sidekick rogue backstabs on every hit for about 18 and has an AC of 28 lol. Yes, this is level 2 in a game where resting (which does not even completely heal you) is punished by invisible timers. It can be done, but the design is atrocious, depending too much on luck and specific builds.

    One of its biggest features was kingdom management which is completely broken and poorly implemented. Its not playable right now (prevents finishing the game) so just set it to easy so that you cant fail (failing = game over).

    Aside from the above issues, the game is actually ok. It is definitely not as good as the old infinity engine games and it has other annoyances like MEGA TONS of bugs and A LOT of slow load screens (actually stopped playing a few times because of this), but its still a fun game overall. You can still build traditional stuff but you need to be mindful of design biases and plan around them. I would say that in time, once everything is fixed, the game will be worth a play and is definitely more fun that most of the drivel being peddled by the big companies.    … 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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