Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Definitive Edition Image
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74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews What's this?

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5.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

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  • Summary: Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the first single-player isometric CRPG set in the world of a top-selling D&D type role-playing game by Paizo. Being a tribute to such classics as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, it brings back memories of beloved gameplay mechanics and embarks the player on aPathfinder: Kingmaker is the first single-player isometric CRPG set in the world of a top-selling D&D type role-playing game by Paizo. Being a tribute to such classics as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, it brings back memories of beloved gameplay mechanics and embarks the player on a hand-crafted, story-driven adventure. Become introduced to the rich universe of Pathfinder as a newcomer or explore famous locations familiar to any fan of the original tabletop game. Walk your path through the legendary Stolen Lands and meet iconic characters, ready to accompany you on your arduous journey. Gather the perfect party, dive into a great variety of dungeons, and defeat some of the deadliest creatures this world has ever seen. Witness how your decisions affect the environment and the people inhabiting it.

    Establish your kingdom to bring peace, hope, and prosperity to the land or take everything for yourself and drive it into darkness. The choice is only yours!
    THE MAJOR FEATURES:

    COMPANION FOCUSED STORY
    Experience the adventure alongside living and breathing companions, each with deep stories and decisions of their own. Love them, adore them or hate them for who they are.

    CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
    Customize your character and companions with a multitude of options available in Pathfinder to make the perfect party capable of overcoming insurmountable challenges.

    KINGDOM
    Establish your kingdom in Stolen Lands, claim new territories, and build towns and cities. Be a wise ruler or a heavy-handed tyrant.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 6
  2. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Sep 8, 2020
    84
    Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a very detailed and immersive RPG and there is much to get involved within the game and enjoy. Fans of the old Baldurs Gate-style games will find a lot of comfort in this game as there is a lot of familiarities and it has been brought to a decent modern standard. Causal players might find the game like wading through treacle in its pacing, but with the great story line and bags of content, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had if you can commit the time to it.
  2. Aug 17, 2020
    80
    The controls are smoother on the PC, but the new version offers everything you could want from a Pathfinder video game.
  3. Oct 14, 2020
    75
    While not without its list of issues, the length of Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Definitive Edition is deceptively long, the voice acting is quite well done, the dialogue is written well and the world has more than enough lore to get lost in. While its console port could have used a little more care and work, it’s still a great gaming experience if you crave those classic cRPG’s from the late 90’s – early 2000’s and want a classic D&D-like experience.
  4. Sep 2, 2020
    73
    A game that will captivate strategy fans.
  5. Aug 29, 2020
    70
    The PC version, ironically, remains the true definitive edition, but console owners hankering after a new RPG to lose a few hundred hours in could do worse than Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
  6. Sep 3, 2020
    60
    Behind all of the technical trouble of Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Definitive Edition is a really great CRPG that honors its heritage and feels like a 90's CRPG release - the kind of thing that could stand right next to the classic greats. While it's certainly not as good as some of those seminal titles, it does come close and is a great time to anyone who wants to party up and venture into a wild and dynamic fantasy world. It’s just a shame that technical aspects stop that from happening.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 3 out of 9
  1. Sep 6, 2020
    10
    This is absolutely one of the best games I have ever played. This is truly like playing tabletop on a video game and as close as you will everThis is absolutely one of the best games I have ever played. This is truly like playing tabletop on a video game and as close as you will ever get to the experience. If you have never played Pathfinder or DnD before this is also a great way to basically learn most of the rules. I can confidently say this is now one of my favorite games of all time even rivaling epic titles such as Dragon Age and other Bioware titles. The story is deep and allows you to immerse yourself not only into the role of your character but also to control an entire Kingdom and decide it's fate. The dynamics of utilizing lawful/chaotic and good/evil along with neutral choices make all decisions feel far more complete and realistic. I do admit that there are some bugs with this game, this is an indie studio after all, however despite the bugs this game is well worth picking up! If you like RPG's you will be in for a wild and addictive ride that will likely take you 90-300 hours to complete and that is just one play-through. All in all I give this game a solid 10/10! It earns every bit of it! Expand
  2. Aug 31, 2020
    9
    On PS4. The game is a bit shaky right now, but they are working on it and have updates in their pipeline. I've played it on PC but the consoleOn PS4. The game is a bit shaky right now, but they are working on it and have updates in their pipeline. I've played it on PC but the console version have all DLCs so I bought it again. I don't rate the current issues, they will be solved eventually.
    The game is exceptional, even for a classic RPG, great characters, nice twists and lots of freedom. Deadly encounters can kick your ****s but at least some kind of challenge involved here.
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  3. Aug 31, 2020
    9
    Well there aren’t many reviews for this game so I figured I’d offer my two cents if anyone is on the fence. Disclaimer, I haven’t beaten theWell there aren’t many reviews for this game so I figured I’d offer my two cents if anyone is on the fence. Disclaimer, I haven’t beaten the game yet. I’m about to start act 3 and probably 20 hours in at least. I love it! If beaten both divinities, and pillars of eternity. I’ve been truly impressed at how well the crpg experience translates to consoles. While the game suffers from significant performance issues on the Xbox one x, and has quite a few very frustrating gameplay bugs, I truly am impressed by the ambition of the developers. Let’s start with what works. Hands down the best tabletop experience I’ve ever had with a crpg. I’m a Dungeons and Dragons guy; less familiar with pathfinder. Bottom line, different universe, so you won’t recognize countries or characters. But basically same monsters and classes (with some differences for sure). I was pretty comfortable with most of the basics but this is an unapologetic, systems heavy game. Sooo many options. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos to try and figure stuff out. But I’m enjoying it immensely. First, the game leans heavily into character choice and alignment. More so than not crpgs. It’s fantastic. Wonderful dialogue options. The story on the whole is fun. It’s interesting and I’m enjoying the npc characters. I mostly play turn based combat but click into real times when it’s an easy enemy that only requires auto attacks. The graphics are quite pretty with wonderful spell effects. The art is also pretty solid throughout. Kingdom management is interesting so far and def different. I’m enjoying it thus far but only after doing a lot of research into what to do and what not to do. Few people have mentioned this but I love love love their Resting system. Most crpgs reward rest scumming so you never feel pressure of limited spells. I love their camping system and use of rations. It’s quite clever and I enjoy the camping conversations that occur. The voice acting is pretty awesome as well. Another big win is their inventory system and trade. Weight and traveling is different from most games but I think very smart. Weight is shared amongst parties but discourages hoarding. You only pick up the weapons and items you will use or can sell for significant value. No hoarding 800 small swords. I appreciate the extra effort at realism while still giving plenty of options to make money. Ok, so here’s some bad. Lots of stuttering and lag particularly in bigger maps. Buttery smooth on the rare small maps. But big dungeons...it’s gonna drop. It’s still quite playable tho. But annoying. Load times take btw screens takes btw 20 seconds and 2-3 minutes. It’s not great. But honestly I’m not minding it. Gameplay glitches are pretty frustrating tho. The biggest I’ve seen, and a previous 1 score from another user highlighted it was well, is the action wasting glitch. It’s unfortunately VERY frequent. My warrior will start a charge and it will just stop. Turn wasted. A character will start a spell, and clearly have the movement and action capability to do so, and it will just not execute. This happens way to much. Another glitch is the system won’t let any party members move normally. It treats all movement as yellow exhausted/extra movement. A quick fix is to switch from turn based to real time. Then back to turn based. Fixes it. But very frustrating. I
    also do not trust auto saves. Keep multiple save files!!! On one occasion I saved manually in kingdom. But when I moved to leave throne room it wouldn’t load outworks. Instead it kept loading auto save that was a week (game time) old. Super weird. So the game has bugs. But the fantastic choices the game provides, the fun gameplay and role playing it offers are major stand outs. I loved divinity and pillars but this game is pretty fantastic. I’m very glad I got it and foresee many many more hours being given up to it.
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  4. Dec 24, 2022
    8
    A very good, but flawed, DnD-based RPG with party of 6 and real time combat, similar to the Infinity Engine games. This game is huge. ThereA very good, but flawed, DnD-based RPG with party of 6 and real time combat, similar to the Infinity Engine games. This game is huge. There is a lot to do. More dungeons than you can shake a stick at. You have to split your time between exploring the world and running a kingdom. You'll construct buildings for towns, resolve events from the throne, make kingly decisions, and most importantly, manage time.

    This game has a time limit. The gameplay of combat and exploration is interspersed with story-based sections similar to a choose your own adventure book that has the free-flowing feeling of a real DnD campaign.

    There are a number of issues. The game designers are sometimes real jerks. You'll fail quests if you don't perform actions in a very specific sequence of unintuitive actions, or you'll be faced with creatures that can only be killed by one member of your party chosen at random, or they'll take away critical party members for an entire chapter of the game. Some of the things that happen are unbalanced, obnoxious, and very frustrating.

    The DnD ruleset is used to good effect here, but also shows its weaknesses. It's not robust enough for what Owlcat is trying to do. It is poorly balanced and completely falls apart in the second half of the game, like it's being shoehorned into something more expansive than what it was designed for.

    This game is unusually well-written. I very much appreciated how the bad guys had their own motivations and personalities and were interesting in their own way. This game can get dark at times.
    As a whole, it's a huge sprawling epic mess. A lot of frustration, and a lot of fun.
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  5. Aug 23, 2020
    8
    Not much about Pathfinder on the Xbox so thought I would give my impressions of the first 20 or so hours of the game. I am an experienced D&DNot much about Pathfinder on the Xbox so thought I would give my impressions of the first 20 or so hours of the game. I am an experienced D&D player but am a bit rusty. Anyway here are my thoughts thus far.

    I was worried that the font size would be too small to read in what I assumed would be a text heavy game. Thus far roughly 1/3 of the game is voice acted and well done while the rest is text in which the font size can be changed and is relatively easy for my old eyes to read on my 32” screen.

    The gameplay is faithful to the old school CRPG’s such as Baldur’s Gate. You can have up to six characters (7 if you include Rangers pet) and have a wide selection of classes. The combat can be in real-time or turn-based and can be switched on the fly... I use turn-based. Animation and graphics are very well done and I love the way the spells look.

    Some issues are that the quick save function is not that quick, which sucks as it is wise save a lot! Targeting friendlies who are surrounded by enemy is a problem which once led me to heal a bandit. Combat controls are not explained very well. The game has a tutorial but it covers a few basics in an otherwise very complicated game. This is the type of game that it is best to do a bunch of reading up on it’s complex systems before you first load it up to play.

    The difficulty settings in the game for combat range from masochistic to you would have to try hard to die. The Kingdom ( oh ya, you get one early on) also has an adjustable difficulty setting and if you do not want to deal with Kingdom management, you can allow the AI to manage it for you. I set it to the easiest setting until I start to figure things out. There is a lot more to be said, but rather than type it all out I would simply say go to YouTube and search for Pathfinder tips and watch a few vids.

    Thus far I really enjoy the game. It scratches my Baldur’s Gate itch that has needed scratching for a long time. If you are new to D&D then be prepared for a brutal learning curve. If you can get through the curve and like tactical games then this may be the game for you. If you are a D&D player then you know what you are in for.

    I will post a full review in a month or two after I beat what is said to be a well over 100 hour game. I give it an 8 thus far but expect my scoring to go up as I conquer the learning curve and assuming the game continues upon its excellent trajectory.
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  6. Dec 25, 2020
    2
    Really good game love the storyline, but crashes every five mins, really busy and have to do each area at least twice due to constantlyReally good game love the storyline, but crashes every five mins, really busy and have to do each area at least twice due to constantly getting thrown out of game Expand
  7. Jan 23, 2023
    0
    Das Spiel ist schlichtweg unfertig. Es nervt an sehr vielen Stellen. Verstellt Einstellungen des Spielers, sodass immer wieder extremeDas Spiel ist schlichtweg unfertig. Es nervt an sehr vielen Stellen. Verstellt Einstellungen des Spielers, sodass immer wieder extreme nachteile im Kampf enstehen,lädt und speichert irsinnig lang, viele voreingestellte funktionen, wie zB. nicht verlangsamen funktionieren überhaupt nicht, man kann sich den wochentag nicht anzeigen lassen wenn man mit dem Curser auf das entsprechende Symbol geht.........und und und..........80% bis 90% sicht man Ladebildschirme. Jetzt kann sich jeder ausmalen, wieviel Zeit man verschwendet, in einem 200 Std. Spiel. wäre das alles nicht, wäre es ein Traumspiel. So aber ist es ein Albtaum! Expand

See all 9 User Reviews