Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Definitive Edition

 PlayStation 4
User Score
5.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 50 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 50
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 50
  3. Negative: 20 out of 50
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  1. Jaster83
    Oct 11, 2020
    3
    The gameplay, mechanics, and story are all great, and if not for all the bugs I'd give it a high 8 or a 9, but the game is buggier than Fallout 76 on release. In two days I've had 19 game crashes. These crashes come when saving, so all your progress between the last tine you saved and when the game save you crash while making is just lost. This is my second attempted play through becauseThe gameplay, mechanics, and story are all great, and if not for all the bugs I'd give it a high 8 or a 9, but the game is buggier than Fallout 76 on release. In two days I've had 19 game crashes. These crashes come when saving, so all your progress between the last tine you saved and when the game save you crash while making is just lost. This is my second attempted play through because corrupted saves and weird restrictions on save game file size errors caused me to have to start over. The latest patch didn't fix any issue I was having and added a weird big where I can't pause after combat amd my skill bars disappear until I loot something.

    My advice is at least wait until 2021 to purchase amd they might have some of these issues fixed, but the game has been on PC for years and still has issues, so I don't know. I'll post back in a few months if the situation improves.    … Expand
  2. Jalal76
    Sep 8, 2021
    7
    Pathfinder Kingmaker PS4 Pro: A realistic accounting of the game’s performance on PS4 Pro

    TLDR: Buggy, but imminently playable and quite enjoyable, if you’re patient with it. For a long time, I held off buying Owlcat’s Pathfinder Kingmaker for the PS4. The terrible player reviews, the game breaking bugs, the unplayable state of the game and a developer that seemed to have moved on to    Pathfinder Kingmaker PS4 Pro: A realistic accounting of the game’s performance on PS4 Pro

    TLDR: Buggy, but imminently playable and quite enjoyable, if you’re patient with it.

    For a long time, I held off buying Owlcat’s Pathfinder Kingmaker for the PS4. The terrible player reviews, the game breaking bugs, the unplayable state of the game and a developer that seemed to have moved on to a new release, all had prevented me from buying this game. Until desperation for a new console CRPG made me cave and buy it anyway. And then I was pleasantly surprised by the state of the game.

    So pleasantly surprised that I feel that some of the reviews online are old and maybe even unfair and not representative of the current state of the game on PS4. I decided to counter the uninformative or flat-out outdated reviews that are prevalent. I want to give you a truthful and realistic perspective of someone who knew the game was flawed but bought it anyway and found I could play it and enjoy it. This writeup is meant for the buyer that wants to buy this game but is on the fence, and just wants a realistic breakdown of what to expect if they shell out the cash for Kingmaker. If that’s you, then read on; this was my experience.

    Playtime: 141 hours on a pure lvl 20 Aasimar Monk I called, Wun Saitama! Don’t hate my bad names.

    Quest Breaking bugs: none found or experienced, though the second last quest area (in the First World) can burn in hell.

    Black Screen on game launch: 3
    Comments: Just shut the game down and restart it.

    General Crashes: 21
    Comments: Mostly because I tried to load a new area whilst the game was still saving. Waiting for the game to fully save then loading into a new area solves the problem. Most frequently found when shifting into Kingdom management mode from the throne room or the main map. Twice the game crashed while loading. Thrice, a crash was preceded by a frame rate drop.

    Frame Rates: Great in the beginning of the game, average in the later stages, but very, very playable. Lead to three crashes though so suggest a quick save

    Playtime lost due to crashes: Average 4-5 min only.
    Total playtime lost: about approx. 1-1.5 hours of progress over the full playthrough.
    Comments: Because I was saving frequently I only ever lost avg. 4-5 min of play. I had 1 auto save slot, 1 quick save slot, 3 manual save files. With frequent and clever saving, I was never more than 5 min or so of progress behind after a crash. Not game destroying at all and I was able to recover any lost progress easily and then move on. In a 12-hour sitting, I would average a crash or so, and sometimes none, sometimes 2. Nothing that made me descend into pure gamer rage, damage my own property and write badly composed tirades against this game and its devs online.

    Slow Loading
    Comments: Well yes. Especially towards the end of the main campaign. They do get slower. But egregiously so? Anthem levels of loading speed? Absolutely not. I will suggest you take that sip of water, double check to make sure your phone has the right guide opened (don’t lie! You know you will play this with one eye on the guide), have some snacks and there you go, loadings over. Let the murder hobo-ing commence.

    Story, Gameplay, DLCs etc: Quite good. Pathfinder Kingmaker is no instant classic, but I will rate this game’s story, character creation and gameplay, top notch. Not legendary “S” tier, but a solid “B plus” overall and an “A” for the effort and love for the Pathfinder franchise that’s on display. For more details, please refer to your game reviewer of choice.

    Final Thoughts: I’m not talking No Mans Sky levels of redemption here, Pahtfinder Kingmaker did have a rough, buggy launch. But Owlcat have done a decent job of patching together a fun and playable game here that you can safely and confidently enjoy on your PS4 without too many bugs getting in your way.

    There you have it. A realistic breakdown of what it was like to play Kingmaker. I hope I was able to inform your purchase and have a great day!    … Expand
  3. Steyraus
    Jan 30, 2021
    3
    I really enjoyed the first few hours until I came across swarms . I've tried everything on them fire bombs acid bombs area of attack effects . They don't die....
    Apart from that the whole interface is clumsy and cumbersome , just playing the games is an excersise in paitience. All your party member have the same superwahmen story. They were to amazing and underappreciated in their home    I really enjoyed the first few hours until I came across swarms . I've tried everything on them fire bombs acid bombs area of attack effects . They don't die....
    Apart from that the whole interface is clumsy and cumbersome , just playing the games is an excersise in paitience. All your party member have the same superwahmen story. They were to amazing and underappreciated in their home towns, so they left to find where people realised they were amazing. I really tried with this hgamecause the first hour was great. But their is glitched anf bugs on top off everything, some this game gets deleted.    … Expand
  4. setpol
    May 22, 2021
    5
    Absolute trash. The most crashes I've ever seen in a game since Cyberpunk, and it's not even close.

    Loading? Crash. Saving? Crash. Finish a hour long battle and about to clean up the last of the weak opponents? Crash. It would be okay if the difficulty didn't swing from insane to a cake walk. The only thing that carried me was a single grease spell since it's pretty broken. Have a    Absolute trash. The most crashes I've ever seen in a game since Cyberpunk, and it's not even close.

    Loading? Crash. Saving? Crash. Finish a hour long battle and about to clean up the last of the weak opponents? Crash.

    It would be okay if the difficulty didn't swing from insane to a cake walk. The only thing that carried me was a single grease spell since it's pretty broken. Have a character with 27 ac? Doesn't matter. They'll just get hit 1000 times and die anyways. Bethesda makes a less buggy game than this trash.    … Expand
  5. THUnder222
    Jun 15, 2021
    0
    Don't listen to the green bots and other so-called "professional reviewers" who gave this game a high score after playing it for an hour.

    Pathfinder on Ps4 is not a game that deserves the title, "definitive". It crashes all the time, frame rate dips below 10, loading times are enough to make you pull your hair out and contains myriad of bugs that make you regret ever paying for this    Don't listen to the green bots and other so-called "professional reviewers" who gave this game a high score after playing it for an hour.

    Pathfinder on Ps4 is not a game that deserves the title, "definitive". It crashes all the time, frame rate dips below 10, loading times are enough to make you pull your hair out and contains myriad of bugs that make you regret ever paying for this game.

    Worse, developers don't seem to care about this port. They refuse answer and ignore ps4 owners' questions.

    It is clear that they gave up on this version, pulling up resources from the console ports and focusing on the new game they are developing.

    Do not reward the cheating, irresponsible developers by buying this barely functional mess.    … Expand
  6. Thaksin
    Jun 21, 2021
    5
    Хорошая игра, но слишком сложна для казуального прохождения (для кого-то будет плюсом).
    Я люблю настольные ролевые/приключенческие игры, так же я находился в восторге после "divinity original sin 2", но желая продолжить подобное, но уже в другой вселенной и другим сюжетом, не получил этого.
    Была распродажа в PS Store, так вот мне повезло взять ее и Pillars Eternity 2. Сейчас играю в    Хорошая игра, но слишком сложна для казуального прохождения (для кого-то будет плюсом).
    Я люблю настольные ролевые/приключенческие игры, так же я находился в восторге после "divinity original sin 2", но желая продолжить подобное, но уже в другой вселенной и другим сюжетом, не получил этого.
    Была распродажа в PS Store, так вот мне повезло взять ее и Pillars Eternity 2. Сейчас играю в "pillars" и получаю искренне удовольствие, после того как забросил pathfinder.
    Мнение оставляю для оценки и помощи, всего наиграл в нее ~17 часов, но не смог оценить по достоинству, даже думал начать заново играть в divinity, но смог открыть для себя "столбы вечности".    … Expand
  7. OhNoItsSenpai
    Sep 3, 2020
    4
    Pathfinder: Kingmaker for the PS4 is a strategic RPG where you play using a hard-lined D&D system. I picked this game up because I have been DMing my own own creation of table top game based loosely off of D&D, so my experience may vary greatly from your own. With that said I'll give it the most fair assessment I am capable of. The game has an absolutely crushing difficulty that you arePathfinder: Kingmaker for the PS4 is a strategic RPG where you play using a hard-lined D&D system. I picked this game up because I have been DMing my own own creation of table top game based loosely off of D&D, so my experience may vary greatly from your own. With that said I'll give it the most fair assessment I am capable of. The game has an absolutely crushing difficulty that you are going to want to adjust immediately at the start. Speaking to former players they all told me their own experiences were all on the easiest difficulty setting. I tried to set up something with a bit more challenge but honestly even tweaking things ever so slightly can cost you quite a bit of time. The menus are confusing and a bit convoluted, and even the items themselves can be considerably confusing to anyone who isn't a long time player of the table top adventure. The game is riddle with bugs, crashing games and ruining save states despite the fact that it is an older game. It's significantly embarrassing for a port of a game to work this poorly and honestly if it worked as intended there's just too many other dungeons and dragons-esque games released in the past on the platform that play great and are a good time unlike this title. perhaps for the D&D hardcore out there it might provide a pleasant experience while you're away from your friends but for anyone else I would suggest saving the money and playing something better like "Divinity II: Original Sin".… Expand
  8. Sjvill
    Sep 9, 2020
    0
    This game is riddled with game breaking bugs and errors. To make it even more frustrating I had been enjoying the underlying game before being bogged down and slapped in the face repeatedly by bugs that make the experience impossible to enjoy. A sad and disappointing waste of time that I wish I hadn't started. Save your money. Save your time. Don't buy this game.
  9. Obakusan
    Dec 14, 2020
    2
    Such a huge potential in this game, all wasted because of the bugs and constant crashes. On biggest areas, frame-rates drop to unbearable rates. I've caught myself doing a quick save every 2 minutes, fearing that I will loose my progress when (not if) the game crashes again. Quick saving takes about a minute on PS4PRO... and crashes happen mostly when saving... 4 patches later, the game isSuch a huge potential in this game, all wasted because of the bugs and constant crashes. On biggest areas, frame-rates drop to unbearable rates. I've caught myself doing a quick save every 2 minutes, fearing that I will loose my progress when (not if) the game crashes again. Quick saving takes about a minute on PS4PRO... and crashes happen mostly when saving... 4 patches later, the game is still more painful than pleasant.… Expand
  10. Grayspirit
    Jun 27, 2021
    0
    Interesting story and characters, but the game is poorly cobbled together, and somehow manages to be even buggier than Cyberpunk was. Has to chug along at an abysmal framerate, despite not being particularly complex or graphically intensive, so I can only assume that's due to OwlCat's clearly shoddy workmanship. Better yet, the game is so buggy that it's nearly impossible for me to finishInteresting story and characters, but the game is poorly cobbled together, and somehow manages to be even buggier than Cyberpunk was. Has to chug along at an abysmal framerate, despite not being particularly complex or graphically intensive, so I can only assume that's due to OwlCat's clearly shoddy workmanship. Better yet, the game is so buggy that it's nearly impossible for me to finish it. It will not progress beyond Act 4, no matter what, after multiple reloads each further back than the last. The amount of venom and bile I now have for OwlCat and their failure of a game for wasting hours of my life have tainted my perception of the game for the foreseeable future, and I can no longer bring myself to attempt further progression in the story. Games that can't be finished because the creators are too inept or unwilling to fix their mistakes get the lowest score.

    Maybe buy this on PC so somebody competent can mod it to be playable, since apparently nobody like that works at OwlCat.    … Expand
  11. GCassels
    Aug 20, 2020
    8
    A bit dated visually but compelling story and universe. Learning the controls is a bit of a curve but there is some solid fun to be had here. A must own while we impatiently wait for Baldur's Gate 3.
  12. MrTeazo
    Sep 4, 2020
    1
    Game is currently unplayable for me. Gear disappears. Characters in group disappeared a number of times. Gathering and followed me into solo spots. Crashes constantly. Wasted money spent on PSN
  13. Lestatman
    Sep 11, 2020
    1
    This game should have not been released in this state. This feels more like an early access game with it's constant crashing and massive framerate drops not just in the town centre but on other map areas.

    I've never been so discouraged from exploring in a RPG game as traveling takes forever and with the bonus that it might crash at any time doesn't help and it's a fully priced game as well.
  14. AaronF
    Aug 24, 2020
    4
    The game is great when it works but it crashes all the time, save files don't always work properly and there are features that just don't work at all. For a full priced game this isn't acceptable. Also a 17gb patch on the second day is poor form given the whole game is 40gb
  15. TheWaffle
    Mar 14, 2021
    7
    It's an enjoyable RPG experience, but unfortunately the joy of the table-top doesn't translate very well into a computer game. The real-time and free movement systems are a jarring break from the tactical combat of the TTRPG. Melee fighters cram into combat and fights are over in a blink. The turn-based option is better for tough fights, while real-time can be used to steam-roll easierIt's an enjoyable RPG experience, but unfortunately the joy of the table-top doesn't translate very well into a computer game. The real-time and free movement systems are a jarring break from the tactical combat of the TTRPG. Melee fighters cram into combat and fights are over in a blink. The turn-based option is better for tough fights, while real-time can be used to steam-roll easier battles.

    The real problem with this game is that it has abandoned most of the role-play of Pathfinder and funneled everything into combat. There are very few opportunities to solve problems or win a fight using outside-the-box thinking. It's hard to lay an ambush or traps, and thus-far the diplomatic options are limited. At 12-hours in, I can count on one hand the number of meaningful dialogue choices that I've made. And the game relishes its random encounters, even loading you into a new map just to battle 2 goblins.

    This game also, isn't very friendly to newbies. Unless you've played the table-top version, a lot of the mechanics are going to be a mystery unless you read every little highlight that pops up. Except for my table-top experience, I wouldn't have known about the flanking bonus and the shooting into melee penalties. There's no tutorial or visual prompt for those things.

    The game also suffers from the lack of a game master. On the table top, the GM can hand-wave away some annoying problems "I'm not going to make you roll 20 times, you eventually make it out of the spider's web", but on the PC the computer freezes your character in place with their -8 DEX penalty and forces you to wait for that character to roll a 20 to get out.

    The visual bugs are the strangest problem, since they should have been so foreseeable. But instead, large portions of the isometric maps are hidden behind walls, while you're funneled along narrow cave passages. And enemies in encounters will spawn into the black fog on the edge of the map. They really should have put more thought into the map design to avoid these issues.

    Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a decent time-waster for fans of Pathfinder lore and gameplay, but it fails to replicate the tabletop experience or to improve upon the core system. Divinity OS I and II leave this game in the dust.    … Expand
  16. VaughnJ
    Sep 9, 2020
    0
    This game is broken. There are game breaking aspects that are waiting to be addressed by the first patch. It's unplayable and what's worse is some of the errors prevent gameplay. Many players have stopped playing and are waiting for the patch.
  17. HardAppleCider
    Aug 24, 2020
    0
    I reeeeeally wanna like this game... God damnit dude, there ar so many annoyances...

    Making a custom team with pets, want an Inquisitor... No portrait has a hat. Figured maybe can get around it by picking a race that can't wear hats. Nope! It's tied to the damn class. You cannot unequip the hat. There is no option to hide the hat. There are no portraits that have the hat. As such, I'm    I reeeeeally wanna like this game... God damnit dude, there ar so many annoyances...

    Making a custom team with pets, want an Inquisitor... No portrait has a hat. Figured maybe can get around it by picking a race that can't wear hats. Nope! It's tied to the damn class. You cannot unequip the hat. There is no option to hide the hat. There are no portraits that have the hat. As such, I'm simply not going to use the class, even though it's an important part of the team I was theory crafting...

    The amount of portraits are surprisingly low and it's impossible to make your 3D model look like some portraits. On PS4 there are no custom portraits.

    Even if you're familiar with Pathfinder and CRPGs you HAVE to metagame unless you want to drop the difficulty down or save scum. Played through PoE with Ironman settings on Normal first try with RP builds, not minmaxed... but the RNG in this game makes that practically impossible.

    NPCs have terrible stat distribution (like the opposite of min maxed) and you need to spend a fortune to make a team of customs. If you want a full team of customs (so you don't have to saves scum) you have to stay level 1 for annoyingly long.

    The RNG for world events don't even seed at the start of the game, and sometimes they screw you, so again you're encouraged to save scum. It's like the developers made the game with save scumming in mind, like it's just a normal part of gameplay.

    Most CRPGs give you everything there is to know regarding game mechanics, how the math works, and what have you. "Some" things might be obscured, but most things aren't, so you'll rarely need to Google anything. Not so here, even if you're familiar with the d20 Pathfinder system, as it only faithful to the system sometimes. It's really bad when reeeeally important information is missing during character creation...

    And the game crashes a lot...

    I love CRPGs. I love the Pathfinder system. I REALLY want to like this game, but I'm not sure if I can force myself to keep playing it.

    Edit: decided to make myself try to continue playing it after writing this review. Decided to just build a team without the Inquisitor. Now the portrait on my dwarf cleric has gone white completely, across all saves that have him.

    Changing the score to 0/10. This is unacceptable. Game should not have been released in this buggy state.    … Expand
  18. Simoncino
    Aug 24, 2020
    8
    This Definitive Edition dramatically improves upon the already impressive contents of Owlcat Games' work, making an overly underrated classic RPG even better. Too bad, however, that the performance is not stellar even on Playstation 4 Pro; practically nothing has been done in terms of accessibility, and the polishing work of this "definitive" edition still leaves something to be desired.This Definitive Edition dramatically improves upon the already impressive contents of Owlcat Games' work, making an overly underrated classic RPG even better. Too bad, however, that the performance is not stellar even on Playstation 4 Pro; practically nothing has been done in terms of accessibility, and the polishing work of this "definitive" edition still leaves something to be desired. If you can get over the bugs, and you are passionate about the genre, I recommend it without hesitation: it is a huge title, very rich and which particularly shines in this version.… Expand
  19. Torreyes
    Aug 27, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. OMG This game is fabulous!!! Been waiting almost 20 years for a game like this !!! Absolutely overwhelming in every aspect !! If you like RPGS and games like Divinity 2 , with an amazing story and awesome combat etc. You must get this game. Takes a few days to learn and understand, it's not easy but so rewarding and i can't give it 11 out of 10 otherwise i would. Love this game… Expand
  20. Cocaine
    Nov 6, 2020
    9
    Как огромный фанат компьютерных и настольных ролевых, скажу что игра прекрасна. Правда я поиграл пару дней, но пока все супер. На создание персонажа у меня ушло 4 часа (привет NWN). Пока никаких багов и критических ошибок. Завязка сюжета с пафосом, как я люблю. Из минусов - слишком наигранные и академические (напоминают примеры из плеербука) ответы в диалогах влияющие на мировоззрение.Как огромный фанат компьютерных и настольных ролевых, скажу что игра прекрасна. Правда я поиграл пару дней, но пока все супер. На создание персонажа у меня ушло 4 часа (привет NWN). Пока никаких багов и критических ошибок. Завязка сюжета с пафосом, как я люблю. Из минусов - слишком наигранные и академические (напоминают примеры из плеербука) ответы в диалогах влияющие на мировоззрение. Пока ставлю 9 авансом.… Expand
  21. Amalo
    Dec 17, 2020
    5
    It's a great game, and I have it both on PS4 and steam. But on PS4 it's got way too many bugs. I have to save much more often (which takes forever) because the game is constantly crashing. And not having access to the user mods the PC version offers is disappointing. Would be nice to have mod access like Skyrim or fallout 4
  22. Rsantoss97
    Jun 16, 2021
    9
    I feel like D&D for sure
    Amazing and wonderful
    Would be better if the magics was more well done but it's awesome
  23. aspentitan
    Feb 17, 2022
    8
    I want to first off say I'm barely into the game maybe 10 hrs but I think I've already got a pretty good image of what this game is by other people's reviews and my own personal comparisons to other similar genre games. By the 10 hr mark I have uncovered the difficulty spikes players have talked about and honestly I don't see this as a bad thing, but mostly because of my personality inI want to first off say I'm barely into the game maybe 10 hrs but I think I've already got a pretty good image of what this game is by other people's reviews and my own personal comparisons to other similar genre games. By the 10 hr mark I have uncovered the difficulty spikes players have talked about and honestly I don't see this as a bad thing, but mostly because of my personality in wanting to challenge my intelligence in a game. So many games just turn you into a zombie I actually like sitting there soaking up every nuance and preplanning. Failure on the first attempt well fine, fool me once kind of thing, but not twice! In a nut shell I feel this game separates from its rivals in this respect. What can be seen as a nuisance by some, such as kingdom management and time limits can also increase the veteran level challenge of a game. Given this game has such complexity in differing builds I personally am going to embrace these features as they will increase replay ability of this game especially as I go forward and learn the subtleties. It really is the appeal of the genre imo. That said this game really was initially quite hard to get into cuz it doesn't hold your hand past a very basic tutorial. Just to get to 10 hrs were a ton of breaks putting the game down because at heart I'm a gamer and not much of a reading buff. These games for me are quite exhausting in many respects. I think too many people confuse that with boredom though. By 10 hrs I've had no problems with bugs yet. Something I've read in reviews is the dice rolls being off and always missing or enemies rolling perfectly and I will say by 10 hrs I seem to be noticing this too but the reviews are exaggerations. I feel what is really happening is the game was initially in real time and if you change that to now turn based it makes sense. Just watch the video trailers of creatures whacking away and how could the game engine translate this via a turn based system and I think that's how the translation would look like. In that regards I don't see this as a bug but rather the necessary mechanics to keep the in game balancing where it needs to be, or where it would have been in real time. Overall I find this game has more nuance layers than other games in the genre. Do I feel Divinity is a better game? Certainly I found that game more user friendly and less taxing but I would also have to say it is less customizable. I'm the kind of gamer who wouldn't rather argue which is better but just enjoy each as unique and take that win. I believe strongly this game is a solid 8 which can be replayed over and over trying new strategies and build or higher difficulties. Is it perfect? No, but being compared to Balders gate is good enough for me.… Expand
  24. Tachikoma
    Aug 24, 2022
    2
    While graphically ok and we'll voice acted, the game is broken to be unplayable.
    A player cannot level up, it runs at less than 10fps, takes several minutes to load a location, crashes every few minutes randomly, corrupts saves and even simple things like enemy animation are messed up, with a single frame of some being a white box, causing does to randomly transform into a white    While graphically ok and we'll voice acted, the game is broken to be unplayable.
    A player cannot level up, it runs at less than 10fps, takes several minutes to load a location, crashes every few minutes randomly, corrupts saves and even simple things like enemy animation are messed up, with a single frame of some being a white box, causing does to randomly transform into a white 1-dimensional block mid battle. The game was sold in this condition to find the sequel and Owlcat games have confirmed publicly that they do not intend to fix it and so a £50 game is unplayable.    … Expand
  25. Crytzch
    Apr 6, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm a console gamer exclusively, so the wait for this to come from Steam to PS4 has been a long one. Was it worth the wait?

    Well, kinda.

    It's easy to tell that this was ported over from a desktop. A lot of the in-game features were clearly designed with MAK in mind - I'm thinking of a specific quest that requires you to meet someone somewhere on a Monday (Moonday), collapses your kingdom (and, consequently, your playthrough), and offers no in-game mechanic to track what day of the week it is. PC? Hover your mouse over a clock. Console? No joy whatsoever. The game crashes roughly every two hours worth of gameplay, and they still haven't fixed the early-game bug that freezes your entire system because you pressed square at the wrong time. The controls are ponderous, and the combat shortcut bar is ridiculous to set up because it resets after every quick save or manual save.

    Having said that, I'm a tabletop junkie and a lot of the combat from the Pathfinder pen-and-paper translates. It's cool to see the monsters from the Monster Manual, it's fun to build your character and to see what you can do with it (and the ability to completely rebuild your character -almost- at will is legendary), and the storyline is fun. You'll dump a lot of time into managing your kingdom, but that will play out into some pretty great quests. You'll have to really, really manage your resources (I found out late-game that there's a finite amount of healing potions and camping rations in the world after I squandered them all in early encounters), but that's part of the fun.

    tl;dr - I liked it, but it's broken. It's not unplayable, but it's damn close. I've rage-quit a couple of times but I find myself picking the controller back up a day later and getting back in.    … Expand
  26. ozjohnd
    Feb 14, 2022
    3
    Had high hopes for this being an older gamer and a fan of Baldur's Gate style RPGs and a casual D&D gamer.

    The visuals, story and mechanics are worthy but even in 2022 (bought this discounted from the PS store) is seriously bugged and the level of frustration. Doubt any development time has been made in the past 2 years on bugs and playability even on a PS5. Sorry, cannot recommend    Had high hopes for this being an older gamer and a fan of Baldur's Gate style RPGs and a casual D&D gamer.

    The visuals, story and mechanics are worthy but even in 2022 (bought this discounted from the PS store) is seriously bugged and the level of frustration.

    Doubt any development time has been made in the past 2 years on bugs and playability even on a PS5. Sorry, cannot recommend this. Watching OwlCat's new iteration Pathfinder Wrath on console but no way I will be pre-purchasing with the substandard technical quality of Kingmaker.    … Expand
  27. Ainnocentgamer
    Dec 13, 2021
    6
    Played it on ps5. The game sucks you in and before you know it you are playing for hours. It has a lot of content, maybe a bit too much. Easy 100-200 hours.

    Reasons for only a 6 are: long loadtimes. They get longer as the game progresses, even on ps5.
    Crashes: game crashes a lot. Atleast once every 2h, worse it crashes a lot on save loading and quick saving making you lose a lot of progress.
  28. ZXSth
    Nov 8, 2020
    5
    The few CRPGs that have been ported to consoles have a mixed reputation when it comes to technical performance and adapting the user interface accordingly - we've seen these issues handled quite well in the Divinity: Original Sin series, and rather poorly with the Pillars of Eternity series. Unfortunately, Pathfinder: Kingmaker falls into the latter category, and is arguably even moreThe few CRPGs that have been ported to consoles have a mixed reputation when it comes to technical performance and adapting the user interface accordingly - we've seen these issues handled quite well in the Divinity: Original Sin series, and rather poorly with the Pillars of Eternity series. Unfortunately, Pathfinder: Kingmaker falls into the latter category, and is arguably even more prone to annoying technical hiccups than Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire was on consoles, and that is saying something.

    The foremost concern worth addressing here is the fact that approximately every hour (or possibly even every half-hour), it is likely that you will attempt to save your game, and be promptly booted to the PS4 home screen. The load times are also nothing to scoff at, either - while such screens are not as plentiful or long-lasting as those of the console version of Deadfire, they do the game no credit. Furthermore, in areas of the game where more than approximately 10 NPCs are present, the game's framerate dips to abysmal levels - I have personally been in areas where the game was running at 3 FPS. On its own, this last detail would be rather egregious - combining that problem with the fact that such framerates are usually a precursor to a game crash makes Kingmaker an unbelievable slog when faced with high volumes of enemies.

    Kingmaker would be a solid CRPG were it not for these aforementioned technical hiccups, but the rather infuriating way the "kingdom management" system has been implemented doesn't help the game's case. Even without the bugs and possible crashes you may encounter while trying to constantly return to your town on the world map (a requirement for many of the kingdom management events), the whole process of having to complete arbitrary busywork within a given timeframe doesn't create the sense of urgency one might get from Majora's Mask, for example. Instead, it feels like someone is nagging you to complete some inconsequential chore, thereby tearing you away from your adventures in looting and slaying.

    What this game gets right is the level of customization available to each character. There are numerous classes, a vast array of weapon types and the ability to dip your feet into any of these 16 classes any time you level up, which offers a nigh-infinite number of permutations for each individual character. There is something a little less well-conceived about this system than Deadfire's multiclass system, but the sheer variety Kingmaker's class system offers is awesome. And while I was annoyed at some of the more archaic reliance on the Pathfinder tabletop's ruleset (i.e. Paladins being required to maintain a Lawful Good alignment), I would argue that the way both Kingmaker and Deadfire handled their class system made for a far more enjoyable experience (in this sense, at least) than that of Divinity: Original Sin 2's. A shame, then, that the latter was an infinitely more technically stable experience.

    I urge you to curb your desire to play Pathfinder: Kingmaker on PS4. This is a game so rife with technical issues that it will likely leave you infuriated at the fact that you are unable to enjoy the great product buried beneath an avalanche of poor performance and constant crashing. There may come a day when Kingmaker gets its kinks ironed out enough to be a much less painful experience, but the sheer depth of the issues I have seen here lead me to believe that such a herculean task will take Owlcat Games far too long to do. This game is further evidence of a serious issue the video game industry has with releasing buggy, unfinished products, and such practices can (at least partially) be quashed by you not buying such games.

    Like its fellow console-ported CRPG, Deadfire, Kingmaker will live on in my mind as a tragic example of a game that could've been so much better if given more time in the oven, so to speak. What we are left with, unfortunately, is outright brutal levels of unmet potential.    … Expand
  29. Drkyjo
    Aug 31, 2020
    5
    I'd really love to give this game a 8 or better. Unfortunately there are a ton of bugs and issues where the game crashes. When it's working as it's supposed to though, this game is amazing. Plays like a TTRPG and has great depth to the story and character creation.
  30. RatchetClank111
    Jan 1, 2022
    2
    This game just simply does not capture what makes DND/Pathfinder and RPG great.... it's like just keep rolling a one. This game is a fail. A game should not make you want to play another similar type of game like divinity original sin2, and that's what happened to me after just playing for a few hours

    Failures -Clunky controls and combat -Way too many menus and selections, shouldn't    This game just simply does not capture what makes DND/Pathfinder and RPG great.... it's like just keep rolling a one. This game is a fail. A game should not make you want to play another similar type of game like divinity original sin2, and that's what happened to me after just playing for a few hours

    Failures
    -Clunky controls and combat
    -Way too many menus and selections, shouldn't have to navigate so many screens
    -Sound effects during combat are almost nonexistent.
    -Travel is just watching a figure/piece move on a map
    - WAY over reliant on random encounters. I don't mind it once in awhile, but this game acts like that is needed to drive the story
    - Game has no clear progression of enemy difficultly, I should not finish one fight with ease, then all of a sudden like next to it is an UNDEFEATABLE enemy, that's just not even logical and terrible balance. This was the final straw for me quitting the game.
    -lengthy load times'bugs

    Like I get what the developers were trying to do with this game, but it just completely missed my expectations. Very disappointed as I was hoping this game would be the next lengthy game I would be playing, instead, i'm replaying other games. The game just isn't fun.    … Expand
  31. M1kelPl
    Sep 28, 2021
    9
    It's great game, have you ever played D&D Tactics on PSP? It is DDT 5.0. It has it flaws but still...
  32. Sakamabolz
    Nov 18, 2021
    0
    This game is hardly playable due to horrible level design. I tried to play on normal and I do have a lot of tactical rpg experience. Still I found myself in a dungeon with exit locked behind me, no way to rest, spent spells and potions. If the games goal is to entertain than this one fails miserably. I am not against challenge as I did Wastelands 3 on insane and Xcom 2 on IronmanThis game is hardly playable due to horrible level design. I tried to play on normal and I do have a lot of tactical rpg experience. Still I found myself in a dungeon with exit locked behind me, no way to rest, spent spells and potions. If the games goal is to entertain than this one fails miserably. I am not against challenge as I did Wastelands 3 on insane and Xcom 2 on Ironman difficulties, but this game bad design and unneeded complexity is too much.… Expand
  33. SMK1000
    Aug 9, 2023
    7
    I loved this game, felt like my DnD adventures brought to life with a great story, gameplay and characters but the CONSTANT game crashes nearing the end game are abysmal.
  34. repinpalpalich
    Apr 12, 2023
    7
    Game is great but a few technical problems make it worse
    - slow loading/saving
    - game crashes after playing 2-3 hours

Awards & Rankings

81
#81 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Worth Playing
    Jan 4, 2021
    65
    Seasoned tabletop players and those who are willing to invest the time and effort into learning the systems could sink their teeth into this one if they're willing to look past its buggy warts, but Kingmaker doesn't offer enough different or intriguing content to win over someone who isn't already invested in this system and world.
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  2. GameMAG
    Oct 24, 2020
    50
    If you were looking forward to dive deep into Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Definitive Edition on consoles, you probably should change your plans. At least for the time being, while the devs are trying to fix their game. Meanwhile, if you still crave that classic role-playing experience, just get yourself Pillars of Eternity or Divinity: Original Sin.
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  3. SpazioGames
    Oct 17, 2020
    79
    Thanks to the new turn based combat and the added DLCs, the console version of Pathfinder Kingmaker is on par with the PC one, and comes recommended for all RPG fans.
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