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. Malvolio
    Oct 4, 2018
    6
    Half these reviews: Game needs fixing 10/10 That's not how scores work. As of 4 Oct not a single person has completed the game according to steam. Is it that long? Nope its so bugged out you cant even fkn complete it but my god 10/10.

    Numerous Kingdom bugged events that end the game entirely, your advisors bug out in your own throne room making numerous quest un-completable, Act 3-4 bug    Half these reviews: Game needs fixing 10/10 That's not how scores work. As of 4 Oct not a single person has completed the game according to steam. Is it that long? Nope its so bugged out you cant even fkn complete it but my god 10/10.

    Numerous Kingdom bugged events that end the game entirely, your advisors bug out in your own throne room making numerous quest un-completable, Act 3-4 bug either ends your game or prevents you from moving forward at all. But call a game difficult and the hipsters come out of the woodwork to call a game that isn't even fkn finished a masterpiece.

    Game has good writing, amazing character backstories, great voicework on the parts that are voiced, and a ton of character customization.

    What it doesn't do is actually work at all. People who say nothing is wrong have no idea that a bunch of their items aren't granting bonuses at all. One misclick and items disappear from a bugged stash. That one advisor that walks up to you at your throne and talks about random stuff is actually supposed to be different people but he bugs out. Artisans capable of crafting you items at the beginning of every month almost all stop functioning.    … Expand
  2. MoppleTheWhale
    Oct 6, 2018
    5
    Pathfinder: Kingmaker could become an outstanding game at what it wants to be: A Pen and Paper adaptation to it's core.
    For now it is unfinished. There are a lot of bugs. Story bugs, UI bugs. Abilities (or "feats") don't allways do what it says in their description. The kingdom management system gets out of control and sometimes you just can't do anything about it.
    In this kind of game    Pathfinder: Kingmaker could become an outstanding game at what it wants to be: A Pen and Paper adaptation to it's core.
    For now it is unfinished. There are a lot of bugs. Story bugs, UI bugs. Abilities (or "feats") don't allways do what it says in their description. The kingdom management system gets out of control and sometimes you just can't do anything about it.

    In this kind of game your journey shouldn't allways go smooth. Not every enemy encounter should be fair. I absolutely agree. But in this game there is just too much that is totally messed up. If this was beta stage my tendency would be 9/10. But it is not ok to release a game in this condition.

    There is not even a way to finish the game yet, that's how broken it is. Noone has done it yet.    … Expand
  3. Rilke21
    Oct 2, 2018
    5
    This is not a finished game.

    I'm a big fan of the genre. I have logged many hours into Pillars, Tyranny and the like. I bought this game sight-unseen based on the premise alone, and I nearly requested a refund. I will re-asses this review after I have logged more hours (I'm currently around 5.) Here are the problems that the game is seriously suffering from, at least in its current    This is not a finished game.

    I'm a big fan of the genre. I have logged many hours into Pillars, Tyranny and the like. I bought this game sight-unseen based on the premise alone, and I nearly requested a refund.

    I will re-asses this review after I have logged more hours (I'm currently around 5.) Here are the problems that the game is seriously suffering from, at least in its current version.

    1) Pathetic load times and poor optimization. I am playing on a top-end system. The initial loading screen now reads "first time loading may take several minutes, please wait." This is because every time you log in, you have to wait 2-5 minutes. We are past the days of Deus Ex running on a Compaq, and there is just no excuse for this.

    2) Questionable voice acting, from the first scene.

    3) Horrifically tuned encumbrance mechanics and no option to increase game speed. Your characters will be trudging through molasses, even when your party is not encumbered. If you find the default speed in Pillars to be slow, you will quickly either take up knitting or stop playing Pathfinder in frustration...and, unlike Pillars, there is no option to speed up the action.

    4) Poorly optimized difficulty settings. I started playing on "challenging" since I'm no stranger to the genre. I breezed through the initial encounters, and then came to the first main "outside of town" event. The encounter was impossible. I went to the next area in the hopes of leveling up, and the encounters were even worse. I lowered the difficulty to "normal" and got through with a tough fight...but the next main area was pathetically easy. You also have to play on normal (or custom) if you want to avoid the ridiculous encumbrance penalties. As noted above, even if you do avoid the penalties, you party will be moving like geriatric garden gnomes.

    All that said, I feel a spark of potential in this game. It is precisely the kind of game that I want to love. I just can't in its current version. I am very much hoping that the developers fix, primarily, the lack of speed issues...until then, I'll be plugging away while my patience lasts, which hasn't been for long.    … Expand
  4. tma2
    Oct 2, 2018
    6
    The game has alot of potential but it is not the masterpiece these 10/10 reviews claim. It is full of bugs, including many which are game breaking. Basic class feats don't function. The difficulty even on normal is very unbalanced to the point where you will reload just to hit an enemy, let alone win encounters.

    The content is definitely good but its not comparable to Baldur's Gate 2.    The game has alot of potential but it is not the masterpiece these 10/10 reviews claim. It is full of bugs, including many which are game breaking. Basic class feats don't function. The difficulty even on normal is very unbalanced to the point where you will reload just to hit an enemy, let alone win encounters.

    The content is definitely good but its not comparable to Baldur's Gate 2. Graphics are pretty good but the loading times are very very slow. Story and voice acting is good.

    At launch and currently, the rampant issues seriously detract from its rating. 6/10. In time a 9/10 may be reasonable.    … Expand
  5. Hecatoncheires
    Sep 29, 2018
    2
    Maybe in one Year the Game is really cool like Poe .But now the customers are the Beta Test for the Game.EA or work on the Game longer maybe the smarter choise.Now the Steam Review and support for the game is dropping
  6. Magalha
    Oct 5, 2018
    2
    Despite being sold as a full release, it clearly is an early access tittle, keep your distance for at least 6 months.
    Has great potential, but the developer's "vision" about difficulty is to lazily just break a d20 system by doing flat increases to the enemies stats almost reducing encounters to pure RNG, making players have to rely on save/load on every encounter, and even when    Despite being sold as a full release, it clearly is an early access tittle, keep your distance for at least 6 months.
    Has great potential, but the developer's "vision" about difficulty is to lazily just break a d20 system by doing flat increases to the enemies stats almost reducing encounters to pure RNG, making players have to rely on save/load on every encounter, and even when travelling on the map, since you can get forced into encounters way above your level/abilities and there isn't any way to flee. While it's still plagued with several game-breaking bugs and the devs are slowly fixing them, it'll take a while for it to shine as much as it could.    … Expand
  7. KIlravock
    Oct 4, 2018
    2
    I have played the tabletop RPG since it began and was looking forward to a computer version I could play solo. I was hopeful, but after a very short time...greatly disappointed. Icewind Dale (ID) CRPG series was a long time ago, yet Pathfinder kingmaker demonstrates minimal advancement. in fact in PK, you can only create one character but years ago in ID you could create your entire partyI have played the tabletop RPG since it began and was looking forward to a computer version I could play solo. I was hopeful, but after a very short time...greatly disappointed. Icewind Dale (ID) CRPG series was a long time ago, yet Pathfinder kingmaker demonstrates minimal advancement. in fact in PK, you can only create one character but years ago in ID you could create your entire party of six.

    In PK you're given a choice of some pre-generated characters to come along with you that you can level up, but the developers obviously missed that character creation is one of the most fun aspects of these games!

    However, the absolute worst aspect of the game is the time limit. You must do "X" by a certain date or the game is over. "X" was not obvious to me as I started exploring the world and getting total party killed by spider swarms, single trolls or a handful of were-rats depending on where I stumbled upon.

    I never saw anything to do with setting up or running a kingdom, as the "timer" ran out on the game. By the way...that timer continues to count down even when you're resting or spending time constantly swapping out armour of your party members in order to rest and avoid fatigue.

    In real-time I played about 10 hours and lost the game. In game time....it is a fantasy calendar...I obviously spent three months. Half of that was either travelling from A to B and resting/changing clothes.

    I play Skyrim, different kind of game, with no issues. I loved Icewind Dale, Temple of Elemental Evil...all great. How to fix PK? #1 is to remove time limit. #2 is to allow character creation for your entire party from level one.

    I bought this on pre-order. 10 hours later it's game over...failed? I'll shelve this until it is fixed.    … Expand
  8. dontadow
    Oct 1, 2018
    2
    The game could have been a solid rpg, but it's mawed by trying to stick too close to a tabletop rpg but yet use computer game tropes.

    Tabletop rpgs are turn based, and yet the game decides to be real time. The result is a cluster. Monsters are not properly balanced for all party makeups, and the game does not allow you to choose who joins you in the beginning nor does it tell you that    The game could have been a solid rpg, but it's mawed by trying to stick too close to a tabletop rpg but yet use computer game tropes.

    Tabletop rpgs are turn based, and yet the game decides to be real time. The result is a cluster. Monsters are not properly balanced for all party makeups, and the game does not allow you to choose who joins you in the beginning nor does it tell you that a specific party makeup is neccessary. This game is the MMO of CRPGs without the experience of game designers who know how to make fun, tactical battles.
    To make matters worse, the AI for your comrades is nonexitence. You will spend a lot of time pausing and giving orders to your player. If you have played games like Pillars, Divinity, Dragon Age, where you don't have to micromanage party members, you'll miss them sorely.

    FOr those who manage to make the right party, and choose the right choices in the game, (i say right b ecause the game uses tabletop random encounters that range from things you can handle to things grossly out of your level ), then you wil have fun. However, there's 33 percent of people who've bought this game who the game has screwed.

    The only way to play the game is to min/max and power game. Making choices from a roleplaying point of view will cause you. Case in point, when the intro is happening u are gathering your starting party membres. However, you have chances to save certain people and change your alignment. If you don't choose evil, you will find yourself without an arcane magic user which is required (becaue of aoes ) for several encounters.
    Of course, nothing in the game will tell you that. You will spend 30 minutes fighting a spider swarm before you google things and realize that someone who has the srd figured out that the creature needs magic to attack. Well, here's the problem, no where in the game does it hint to how to hurt spiders.    … Expand
  9. Artmaton
    Oct 10, 2018
    4
    To understand this game you should get deeper into it. I spend 70h of Gameplay on it right now, and normally I would quit but I work in QA and thats why I move forward. Why I mention this? It's because game at current stage in not finished product. You got a ton of bugs, Check issues section on Steam it got over 2500+ posts. Some are minor like display of something, but others are likeTo understand this game you should get deeper into it. I spend 70h of Gameplay on it right now, and normally I would quit but I work in QA and thats why I move forward. Why I mention this? It's because game at current stage in not finished product. You got a ton of bugs, Check issues section on Steam it got over 2500+ posts. Some are minor like display of something, but others are like quests not working, characters roaming around without your interaction, spells vanishing from character, skills not working, missing descriptions and a ton of other things. For example so anticipated feature of building a kingdom is only partial at the moment, After building up and investing in my city it got high level and still looks like village full of peasants, so the video showing graphical advancement of your city was fake. At moment this is not implemented, one of major features of game which was advertised on video is not in game, and you still pay for it. The list goes and goes on, developers are trying to hotfix a lot but often with one fix they provide new defects. Its obvious that this game is lacking of good Testing team. I paid for it regular price and I'm not satisfied with result, and I must say that game has a huge potential but at this stage it should be called Beta, not official. Maybe if there would be a Modification tool for community, people would fix and improve game by themselves. For now I would wait around 2 months till everything gets fixed before buying it. I spend days playing rpgs when I was younger, finished BG, Icewind, Gothic and other multiple times with different ways but currently Pathfinder is the most bugged game which I have seen.
    Have a nice day.    … Expand
  10. SDaemon
    Sep 25, 2018
    10
    It is just our beloved and awaited Bauldur's Gate v3.0!
    just throw your money right into the monitor and enjoy!
  11. Auticus
    Sep 26, 2018
    7
    Great game in the spirit of Baldurs Gate, Torment, Pillars of Eternity etc. The Kingmaker series is one of my favorite RPG modules of all time, so seeing this was pretty exciting.

    The game out the gate is pretty good for a group of developers' first attempt. The game for the most part plays solidly, has good voice acting, and an engaging story. The visuals are on par with existing    Great game in the spirit of Baldurs Gate, Torment, Pillars of Eternity etc. The Kingmaker series is one of my favorite RPG modules of all time, so seeing this was pretty exciting.

    The game out the gate is pretty good for a group of developers' first attempt. The game for the most part plays solidly, has good voice acting, and an engaging story.

    The visuals are on par with existing games in the same genre.

    I'm giving it a 7 right now instead of a higher score because there are some initial bugs that need worked out. Nothing has been game breaking for me, but I have had one crash to desktop, and there are little annoying minor things such as string place holders for descriptions showing, or the name of an item being called NULL. Little things like that.

    Bottom line for me is if you enjoy isometric RPGs, then this is worth checking out.    … Expand
  12. Quakespeare
    Sep 30, 2018
    2
    In a game that was hyped for potentially great writing, the very first things you read in this game, in the character creator, are things like:

    "Everyone around target must succeed on a Fortitude save or become Nauseated for 1 round per 2d6+4 damage that alchemist bombs usually inflict. " There's no explanation what "2d6+4" means (I googled it; it means "6-16". Seriously.), nor what    In a game that was hyped for potentially great writing, the very first things you read in this game, in the character creator, are things like:

    "Everyone around target must succeed on a Fortitude save or become Nauseated for 1 round per 2d6+4 damage that alchemist bombs usually inflict. "

    There's no explanation what "2d6+4" means (I googled it; it means "6-16". Seriously.), nor what a "fortitude save" is. You're bombarded with literally 300 word spell descriptions, full of cryptic spell descriptions that are indecipherable to anyone but an actual tabletop D&D player - and even then the length of the descriptions is preposterous.

    If that's the first thing they're showing a new player, I have no interest in the rest of the game.    … Expand
  13. roachtbp
    Sep 26, 2018
    10
    Feels just like the classic isometric crpgs of old (with modern conveniences)!!! Uses the Pathfinder ruleset, which is extremely similar to the D&D 3.5 ruleset.

    If you like old school crpgs such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Temple of Elemental Evil, and Planescape: Torment, or if you like more modern rpgs such as Pillars of Eternity, Torment: Tides of Numenera,    Feels just like the classic isometric crpgs of old (with modern conveniences)!!! Uses the Pathfinder ruleset, which is extremely similar to the D&D 3.5 ruleset.

    If you like old school crpgs such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Temple of Elemental Evil, and Planescape: Torment, or if you like more modern rpgs such as Pillars of Eternity, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and Tyranny, then you will definitely enjoy this game, I have no doubt.    … Expand
  14. Taziar
    Sep 28, 2018
    0
    Game is completely broken. I have never seen so many bugs in a game before, and this is after 2 patches. As to the game itself, graphics are good, performance is good, beyond that, things start to fall apart.

    Difficulty. I love challenging games. If I don't get my party wiped at least once every few hours in a game, then the game is far too easy. This game is not too easy. It is    Game is completely broken. I have never seen so many bugs in a game before, and this is after 2 patches. As to the game itself, graphics are good, performance is good, beyond that, things start to fall apart.

    Difficulty. I love challenging games. If I don't get my party wiped at least once every few hours in a game, then the game is far too easy. This game is not too easy. It is hard. Unfortunately it is more hard than challenging. Yes, this game will kick your butt, but the problem is, it is due to inflated attributes, not encounter design. So you can have an encounter that wipes the floor with you. I mean, you don't kill a single enemy. But then, when you redo it, and use the exact same tactics, can wipe the floor with them, not losing a single party member. Challenging suggests that you need to apply strong tactics to win. Hard means reloading until you don't get one-shotted before you take your first action.

    To make a proper challenging game, you need to change the encounter for harder difficulty levels. Add more enemies. Replace weaker enemies with more powerful enemies, like casters. Enemies that are harder because they have more skills and abilities to use on the party. This game doesn't do that. It simply applies a formula that blindly boosts attributes of enemies. So, what happens is, the party misses 90% of the time, and the enemy hits almost every time. (They boost enemy AC and their attack rolls)

    The game is not all bad. You can tell they really tried to make a Pathfinder game that feels like the Pen and Paper version. They just made tons of mistakes. Given enough time, assuming the developers don't give up in it, it might become a great game. But it isn't today.

    The bugs are just too many. Not just bugs, the mechanics seem fundamentally flawed. The 6-second round system is broken. Flanking was redesigned to include simply being engaged to two enemies. So two fighters standing toe-to-toe with two rogues, in a battle line, and everyone is considered flanked. The rogues get to sneak attack the fighters standing in front of them. Not to mention any archers, regardless of where they are positioned.

    If they manage to fix the many, many bugs in this game and actually make it playable, I will rewrite this review. I want to like this game, I really do. But it was released in a sad, sad state.    … Expand
  15. Sinue_shakkara
    Sep 28, 2018
    9
    Great game in all aspects, some minor bugs but they already adressing them , great work for an small indie studio. Great visuals, storytelling, characters etc... those who said "its imbalanced/too hard" havent played baldurs gate in their lives, where every door you opened u were gonna die because u didnt know what was coming, or u failed your save throws, or got crit on the face... and onGreat game in all aspects, some minor bugs but they already adressing them , great work for an small indie studio. Great visuals, storytelling, characters etc... those who said "its imbalanced/too hard" havent played baldurs gate in their lives, where every door you opened u were gonna die because u didnt know what was coming, or u failed your save throws, or got crit on the face... and on this one in normal difficulty ive been pwning all my normal combats, having to think or reload sometimes when come to the boss/difficult ones but not even close of how many times u needed to reload on BG/icewind/planescape etc... if u find this hard on normal diff settings, these games arent for you...and even tho u can put in on story mode so u cant die and enjoy the game...dont know what more u want guys...game cannot summon you some hands and brains so u can l2p, go back to fortnite or cod...… Expand
  16. Switters
    Sep 28, 2018
    0
    Half baked, unpolished, bug ridden, and imbalanced. Any 10 reviews are fanboys or shills. Check out Steam reviews for a more accurate picture (currently it's at mixed reviews which just "meh").
  17. Pech_SOG
    Sep 25, 2018
    10
    Incredible. The best of BG2, Pillars 1/2 and isometric rpg gaming. Epic, deep, and wonderful gameplay.
  18. mjprogue
    Sep 30, 2018
    0
    Any game that is bought and paid for and still can not be played after 5 days is a garbage game. If you are one of the very numerous people who are having problems, you can guarantee that Owlcat will put zero effort into addressing your issues. Buy at your own risk...its a gamble whether your money will be totally wasted or not.
  19. whyteian
    Sep 25, 2018
    10
    Pathfinder Kingmaker is a fantastic rpg. So far, I am loving it. Congratulations to Owlcat Games!
  20. EricNeo
    Sep 29, 2018
    0
    Areas that crash the game.

    Swarm of spiders early game that you cannot kill unless you see a dev post or a youtube video on how to get by them. The game gives all the early kingdom quests to a single advisor and one of those locks him for 60 days which means you fail all the other quests because he is the only one you can select for them. Main storyline quest "Ancient Curse" has a    Areas that crash the game.

    Swarm of spiders early game that you cannot kill unless you see a dev post or a youtube video on how to get by them.

    The game gives all the early kingdom quests to a single advisor and one of those locks him for 60 days which means you fail all the other quests because he is the only one you can select for them.

    Main storyline quest "Ancient Curse" has a timer and hidden requirement that requires you hunt IRL forums for an obscure dev post on what you have to do, miss it and you're completely screwed. Enjoy watching the Eight-Legged Plague destroy your kingdom 2 days at a time and there is nothing you can do about it.

    I really wanted to like this game but this game makes it so hard. It's not fun running into game breaking bugs, bad design choices, and quests with hidden conditions that require you to hunt dev posts on forums to figure out what needs to be done.    … Expand
  21. night4
    Sep 25, 2018
    4
    Pros:
    -Character creation. Everything here is amazing except the extremely limited number of portraits and the fact that elves can't have beards.
    Cons: -Crashes. Crashes on startup, crashes on exit, crashes sometimes otherwise. -Graphics. It's ugly and the characters look like they're from 20 years ago, even with all options on high on a great gaming pc. -Too similar to Neverwinter    Pros:
    -Character creation. Everything here is amazing except the extremely limited number of portraits and the fact that elves can't have beards.

    Cons:
    -Crashes. Crashes on startup, crashes on exit, crashes sometimes otherwise.
    -Graphics. It's ugly and the characters look like they're from 20 years ago, even with all options on high on a great gaming pc.
    -Too similar to Neverwinter NIghts, in a bad way.
    -Extremely unoriginal
    -It should be turn based
    -Resting is tedious and unnecessarily time consuming.
    -Inventory management is ridiculous and unnecessarily time consuming
    -Too difficult/expensive to create your own group

    Edit: The game is just loading screens and small, bland, empty wilderness areas with nothing there. It's not fun, and I've enjoyed every D&D based game ever made.

    TLDR: The game feels like playing with a pedantic, punitive GM who is deliberately trying to suck all the fun out of it.    … Expand
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. Macbaine
    Mar 3, 2019
    7
    I like this game.. the story is rich and interisting ... you need like reading for enjoye this game
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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.
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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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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