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Pathfinder: Kingmaker Review — IGN

Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Owlcat Games’ tabletop port offers an authentic Pathfinder experience — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

By DM Schmeyer

Updated: Jun 10, 2020 9:56 pm

Posted: Oct 17, 2018 11:14 pm

A great tabletop campaign requires a special understanding between a dungeon master and their players. The players supply their creativity and enthusiasm, and in return, the DM provides a fun story, fairness, balance, and, perhaps most importantly, a well-designed adventure. Pathfinder: Kingmaker takes as mighty a swing at capturing that tabletop experience as any game I’ve played, mostly delivering on giving you the tools to fulfill the player’s side of that deal. But when it comes to upholding the DM’s end of the bargain, it falls short.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker takes the sometimes byzantine rules of its tabletop source material and translates them soundly. It adopts one of Pathfinder’s most treasured Adventure Paths as the central story. Clinging tightly to the source material was a good design decision as it ends up oozing authenticity, which is attractive and exciting in the early hours.

But an authentic recreation of the Pathfinder experience suffers tremendously without the guiding hand of a Dungeon Master. Simply put, Kingmaker doesn’t feel properly balanced.Its dungeons are mostly poorly designed trapfests stuffed with monsters to kill and little else of interest to do, and several of its core systems conspire less to keep things interesting and more to keep progress slow. The combat encounters, dungeons, and additional mechanics like kingdom management are flawed, uneven, and wildly divergent in quality.

In an early sidequest, you encounter an enemy type that may very well defeat a party that doesn’t have the appropriate method, or knowledge, on hand to beat it. In a tabletop campaign, a good DM could present an interesting alternative to prevent the frustration of a complete party wipe at the very start of the evening. In Pathfinder: Kingmaker, the party just dies, and often does so repeatedly.

Cleaving and Casting

I fought too many battles in Kingmaker on repeat. My characters weren’t poorly designed or built, because I still found myself powering through many encounters well enough. My worst defeats, the kind a tweak in strategy or methodology couldn’t save me from, came from being ground down by long dungeons and hordes of enemies that applied “permanent” debuffs that could only be removed by resting. Without rations, there is no resting in these labyrinths, and watching my very limited supply of rations dwindle became a doomsday clock. I stayed in some dungeons for hours, slogging through the same encounters and situations, dying again and again, only to conclude that I just didn’t kit out properly or bring enough supplies. Thus, I had to abandon all progress and load a save where I could re-provision before giving it another go, wiser and considerably more annoyed.

This is a shame, because Kingmaker does a great job of portraying the pen-and-paper abilities of a Pathfinder character. Having a powerful wizard let off a salvo of mighty arcane artillery blasts fills the screen with a well animated fireworks display, and figuring out how to use melee fighters and other support classes together effectively can create exciting moments. Combat in Kingmaker is good-looking and expansive, and, when the encounter is worthy and the party is fresh enough to fight to something approaching its peak strength, quite fun. It’s frustrating that other unnecessary mechanics and poor encounter design often jarred me out of its otherwise solid isometric RPG combat.

Uninteresting and frequent delays become moments of boredom far too often.

“

Getting from dungeon to dungeon, or area to area, has pitfalls as well. Traversing the world map means literally waiting for your party to move across it. It means waiting for it to load, watching your party move at a snail’s pace across the impressively sized map, and stopping very regularly to fight or rest. These uninteresting and frequent delays become moments of boredom far too often.

Thankfully, the Pathfinder experience has some rewards for the patient. Notably, the story is very, very good — one of the better I’ve played in an isometric RPG. It leans into the high fantasy trappings of the setting, with magic and monsters and mystical curses, while also bringing a healthy political dynamic to the proceedings. The story of a lowly adventurer ascending to nobility and dragging a backwater barony with them to glory could easily become stale if there was nothing more to the plot, but Kingmaker throws quite a few unique and interesting stories at you over the course of its roughly 75 hour campaign.

The pacing can be disjointed by numerous delays, but Kingmaker’s story maintains a sense of weight and variety. Your barony feels like a fledgling state in its birthing pains, under assault from within and without, and it doesn’t take much at all to become invested in its survival as greater, shadowy forces scheme for its destruction. Diving into the main quests as they arrive and the many, many side quests and errands available rapidly presents an avalanche of content.

Settling the Stolen Lands

I’d have preferred a little less to do, truthfully, or at least the opportunity to do it all with the in-game clock being less of an enemy. At one point I had to let nearly a year of my barony’s time tick by, stopping only to put out fires along the way lest my kingdom crumble to unrest, before a new chapter of the main storyline triggered. It was in these moments that some of my sidequesting felt burdensome, and the amount of random events slamming into my fledgling state felt overwhelming.

I’d hone in on the story, then have to watch my barony bleed from a thousand cuts as an avalanche of event cards and crises diced it up. Taking a myopic view of the most pressing matters threatening the barony can lead to certain side quests expiring because they weren’t addressed in time. The clock always felt like my enemy, and I felt pulled in many different directions. That certainly feels like being the ruler of a troubled infant state, but getting beaten over the head with a deluge of never-ending problems is less a cool feature and more a source of stress and aggravation.

11 Screenshots from Pathfinder: Kingmaker

You have complete control over building your barony, from choosing which buildings to put in its towns and cities to appointing advisors to deciding how to respond to threats and challenges as they spawn. Early on, I found myself spending too much time on construction and questing, only to see my barony literally crumble without much warning hours later because of choices I didn’t know were wrong at the time. It can be fun being the lord of the manor, receiving visitors and events in the throne room and deciding how things should be run, but sometimes having to tend to my holdings lest they literally burned down while I was away became a drag on the story. You can adjust the difficulty of kingdom management to alleviate some of the pressure, and there is an auto-management mode ostensibly present to provide an option to wash your hands of kingdom management, but the one time I tested it out, I ran into a bug that broke my ability to progress.

Kingmaker is not above throwing more crises at you then you can possibly handle, leaving the events screen of my Kingdom management inundated.

“

Taking the reins of the kingdom doesn’t guarantee a better outcome. Kingmaker is not above throwing more crises at you then you can possibly handle, leaving the events screen of my Kingdom management inundated. You solve one problem, only to see two more take its place, or see an advisor fail a critical task you set for them. Watching my hard-won progress in statebuilding erode while I literally had no options left to stop the stability hits brought about several game over screens for me; I even reloaded a save and willfully surrendered two hours of progress just to reverse my decision to spare the life of a certain creature. Killing it was completely against my moral alignment, but I needed to avoid the repeating migraine and kingdom cancer that creature became later.

The characters themselves are a highlight of the experience. Character creation is delightfully deep and complex, as faithful an import of a tabletop creation process as I’ve ever encountered. The sheer amount of information present and mechanics to worry about might overwhelm the incurious and inexperienced, but as a Pathfinder fan and a lover of tinkering with RPG character creators, shaping my protagonist and his allies was an absolute treat.

This is a life or death matter. A poorly optimized character who hasn’t been making good decisions during their level-ups will run into serious difficulty. While there is no perfect template, there are some wrong ones, which may graduate the experience on Normal or Hard from very difficult to nigh-impenetrable. I found Hard mode to be almost masochistically difficult, and Kingmaker doesn’t hold hands as far as its nuts and bolts are concerned. Surviving long enough to experience the famous Pathfinder power creep is a great reward for the time spent in the character screen. After grinding to level 15 or so, and after some of the difficulty present earlier in the experience, suddenly being able to kick wholesale tail as my character build finally came together was extremely satisfying.

I encountered some unfortunate technical issues that were warts on my experience with Kingmaker. Load times are fairly long for an isometric RPG of this sort, and the framerate dips during fights where the screen fills with enemies and activity. I suffered several ill-timed and unfortunate crashes during transitions between areas. As I played post-launch, bugs were patched and hotfixed often, technical performance did significantly improve, and some new features were added (like an “invincible kingdom” difficulty option that would have been nice to have from the start), but Kingmaker still felt a bit unstable and under-optimized. In a large story with a ton of delays already built into the experience, the time I spent dealing with these issues was most unwelcome.

Kingmaker soars when your party is comfortably exploring its gorgeous map before the ticking Kingdom clock arrives, conversing with other characters that shows off its well-written dialogue, and participating in storybook cutscenes a la Pillars of Eternity that read like a high fantasy novel. It just suffers from a few too many design flaws to stay airborne. Without the guiding hand of a human brain across the table, Pathfinder: Kingmaker has wildly inconsistent difficulty, balance problems, and a lot of technical frustration. The kingdom building is a promising idea, with well written scripted events and interesting town-building, but comes with excruciating low points, with damaging events coming at times faster than they can be beaten back, and some buggy execution of its quest-related events. I had some fun playing Kingmaker, and it delivered an authentic tabletop experience in terms of both the feel and the mechanics, but it suffers for that commitment as much as it shines.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker delivers a fantastic story and a deep character system to dive into. Without a Dungeon Master on the player’s side to smooth out the rough edges however, its balance is wildly inconsistent and its event design, flawed. So many promising ideas fall well short in execution.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker Review

okay

The sword of authenticity cuts both ways for Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

DM Schmeyer

Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Definitive Edition for PlayStation 4 Reviews

Pathfinder Kingmaker PS4 Pro: A realistic accounting of the game’s performance on PS4 Pro

TLDR: Buggy, but imminently playable and quitePathfinder 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

Pathfinder: Kingmaker Review | Stop Game

“Hello, we are making a Russian RPG with texts from the author of Planescape: Torment and music from the composer Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal” — 10 years ago it would have sounded like the first phrase at a psychiatrist’s appointment. However, the years, Kickstarter, the changed market situation, personal charm and general love for the tabletop role-playing game Pathfinder have done their job — over the past few years, employees of the Moscow studio Owlcat Games the above phrase was said absolutely seriously. Therefore, expectations from Pathfinder: Kingmaker were high. And, I must say, almost all of them were justified — both positive and not quite …

Playing by the rules

Let’s start with the news, not that bad, but, shall we say, ambiguous. First of all, the launch of Pathfinder: Kingmaker turned out to be ambiguous. 15-minute downloads, crashed scripts, sometimes crashes or some other bugs like the camera suddenly refusing to move — all this, of course, cannot be compared with the hell that, for example, start 9 has turned into0003 The Bard’s Tale IV from the much more eminent Brian Fargo (Brian Fargo), but still unpleasant. However, the developers immediately began actively releasing patches, and in general, now Pathfinder: Kingmaker is very playable.

Another thing is that some still call the gameplay itself not quite playable. And this is just to talk about expectations. Initially, it was known that the game was being created based on one of the modules of the Pathfinder desktop system, which, it just so happens, is equally loved by the employees of Owlcat Games , and Chris Avellone (Chris Avellone), the same author of Planescape: Torment and a host of other great RPGs.

This system itself is an expanded and modified version of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 rules, which it greatly simplifies: for example, the skill system is unified, as well as the rules for special attacks that do not deal damage, polymorph spells are easier to cast, penalties for multiclassing are removed , characters are harder to kill (harder constitution checks are made), and so on. nine0009

Here you can almost from the very beginning quite freely create multi-class characters.

Ignorance penalty

But you noticed, right? Penalties, checks, multiclasses… It’s still quite fancy and complicated board mechanics in itself, designed for a clear set of rules and dice rolls. It is desirable to know, love and understand it — and if you boldly set the highest difficulty levels in Pathfinder: Kingmaker , then it is not desirable, but simply mandatory. Therefore, the game begins to humiliate beginners almost from the start. And it was just expected — if not for naive neophytes, then for everyone who followed the game, for sure. nine0009

Why are there novices. Even some hardened veterans of virtual battles on the fields Baldur’s Gate , Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights , having lost the entire party in the first dungeon due to the fact that five heavily armed heroes were bitten by a flock of spiders, fall into deep frustration and run to the forums to shout about the wild imbalance.

And all because the game arrogantly did not bother to explain that these spiders should be hit not with a sword and arrows, but with AoE spells (that is, causing area damage) and fire or acid bombs. And not only them — there are many enemies that are only sensitive to a certain type of damage. For example, skeletons are raked to the fullest only from blunt weapons and from special spells against the undead. But they don’t always warn about it. And in the end — shock, hysteria and shifting from a sick head to a healthy one: they say, it’s not me who can’t play, but you don’t know how to make games . ..

Children, the elderly and the disabled attack out of turn!

Random dice

Of course, there are a lot of complaints about «randomness» when throwing a die. Checks and saving throws are constantly going on here, for every sneeze — in dialogues and text quests, where the level of certain skills is checked for a successful action, during random encounters on the map, when opening locks, detecting and removing traps, when trying to climb some then a hill or crawl through a gap in the wall (athletics and mobility). Yes, even when you try to collect some important quest herb, it will not work the first time — your knowledge of nature is tested by rolling a die. nine0009

But the main thing is that saving throws are constantly going during battles. And this is quite normal, we have seen this in a bunch of party RPGs built on desktop systems. Therefore, to be honest, at first I also, considering myself quite an experienced roleplayer, set a high level of difficulty. And soon he was already sitting and coming up with puns for an article in the spirit of “In this world, you can always look at three things: how fire burns, how water flows, and how in Pathfinder: Kingmaker the characters try to hit each other in battle.” nine0009

Misses do happen all the time. Well, in general, this is a very slow game in places to the gnashing of teeth. Characters move slowly, there is no acceleration as a class, and moreover, an advantage constantly happens, which is calculated here both for each hero and for the entire party — after that, from a leisurely trot, the characters move to a sad step, and even get a penalty to some characteristics, as they fall into a state of fatigue. Add to this constant and very unhurried downloads …

Battles, as usual, are in real time, but with a controlled pause.

Couldn’t it be faster?

The picture seems to be ugly. It seems that the player in Pathfinder: Kingmaker is only tormented: how to survive in battle even with three spiders, what to throw out of the inventory so that an advantage does not happen, how to remove fatigue and other unpleasant effects from characters that are imposed due to each sneeze and demand to take urgent measures — to buy expensive potions, return to the settlement, where there is a fresh bed, or set up a camp for the night right on the map. And there again — “random”, saving throws, a high probability that you will be attacked in the middle of the night and a low one, that your wards will be lucky while hunting or cooking. And how would all this happen, finally, faster? nine0009

I played a bunch of tabletop computer RPGs that were pretty serious about translating the original rules into the virtual space. And none of them made me want to write something along the lines of «This is not a role-playing game, but some kind of party weight management simulator.» Indeed, trying to transfer the “paper” dogmas so meticulously, the authors of Pathfinder: Kingmaker obviously overdid it in some things — well, by God, the game would not have lost anything in depth and fascination without these exercises with the weight and constant fatigue of the wards. And with the inclusion of the ability to increase speed when moving, it would only win. Example Pillars of Eternity proves this clearly.

Hardcore with a human face

But I do not agree with the claims to the mechanics itself, “random” and die saving throws. The authors initially promised a fairly hardcore game, and when you set the highest difficulty levels, they honestly warn: they, the levels, are intended only for experts in the Pathfinder system and in general, a lot depends on dice rolls, play at your own peril and risk.

Therefore, what claims can be made against them? In addition, a very flexible difficulty setting is implemented here. At any time, you can go to the menu and change the characteristics of the enemies (this is just responsible for the “random” when rolling the die), their level, the amount of damage your fighters will receive, determine whether your hero will die in battle immediately or receive a state «Threshold of death» and so on and so forth. You can even remove the dependence of running speed on weight — the party will still often move like turtles, especially in inclement weather, but nevertheless …

The camp mechanic is very similar to what we saw in Expeditions: Viking.

It turns out such a «hardcore with a human face», which I would recommend to adopt in general to all developers of such RPGs. The authors give freedom of choice: if you want hardcore — get it, if you don’t want it — reduce the difficulty at any time and generally flexibly adjust it so as to find the level that suits you.

Battle Royale

And when you find this level of difficulty that is comfortable for you and stop pretending that you were not warned, you will be able to adequately perceive all those good and simply excellent things that are actually in Pathfinder: Kingmaker . And this is about positive expectations.

Initially, it was clear that the authors were making a sort of Pillars of Eternity . That’s pretty much what we got. Yes, the plot here is not as confused, complex, with philosophical overtones as it is there. Dialogues and descriptions are also simpler. But they are by no means primitive. On the contrary, it is felt that Chris Avellone , after the complex stories that he wrote for Pillars of Eternity , rested his soul here. Therefore, the game feels lighter, more comfortable atmosphere, which is only emphasized by a pretty picture and pleasant music. nine0009

Starting his adventure as one of the contenders for the new ruler of the disputed Stolen Lands, our hero will fight spies, help nymphs break curses, deal with troll infestations and engage in undercover political intrigues.

And even manage your own kingdom — collect resources, decide what and where to build, hire a personal alchemist, issue decrees, give orders to your numerous advisers and annex neighboring lands, in order to then decide in which direction they should develop. Yes, this is a chore, but pleasant, significantly increasing the content and fascination of the game. nine0009

Text quests are not as long as in Pillars of Eternity, but always very useful.

Play, flirt and control

In addition to the story and royal quests, there are also a lot of side quests, as well as tasks related to our partners. There are many companions, they are all different and very colorful. In addition to a half-naked barbarian who craves fame, fights and blood, or, for example, a disciplined paladin who hates works of art, there is also a rather unexpected gnome acolyte who (even more unusually) is strong in magic and pumping depression, an impulsive half-orc mage, a former a slave who, along with his pointy-eared girlfriend, preaches free love. And even an undead elf who killed her loved ones for the sake of forbidden rituals. In such a panopticon, you will definitely not get bored. nine0009

Most importantly, there is a sacred role-playing for true fans of the genre, which they contemptuously poke into all «non-canonical» RPGs. In almost every dialogue, you can choose neutral evil, lawful good, chaotic neutral and other replicas. This is how we form our own worldview, and this is important, given that many actions and answers are available only to persons with certain moral vectors.

Naturally, quests can be solved in different ways. Often a direct fight can be avoided if you use the skill of diplomacy. And even after that, in a conversation with an ally, no one will forbid you to shout: «I’m tired of you, die!» and draw a weapon. How to resolve the conflict between the two underground clans — kill one of their leaders (but who?) or remain neutral and settle the matter peacefully? Attack the fortified camp of bandits in the forehead or look for workarounds? Which of the partners to have an affair with, what policy to pursue in the annexed lands? More or less complex dilemmas arise all the time. nine0009

And the consequences of our decisions sometimes make themselves felt right there, on the spot. We decided to quietly whistle a piece of gold from the chest belonging to the mistress of the castle — and you will be reminded of this in five minutes. In one of the many text quests, you chose to first rush to the aid of the guards trapped in a fiery trap, and not immediately run to an important person — and you will be accused of not being in a hurry on purpose.

You cut the air here more often than enemies.

Despite certain problems, Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the best Russian RPG since «Cursed Lands» and «King’s Bounty. The Legend of the Knight» . It is clear that Chris Avellone helped the authors, but the developers themselves from Owlcat Games deserve praise. Yes, not everything turned out perfectly, yes, somewhere, perhaps, they went too far with hardcore. But in general, this is a big, non-linear and very exciting adventure in the spirit of Pillars of Eternity , where you always want to return. It simply encourages a thoughtful, patient approach and knowledge of the rules. nine0009

Pros: epic story; the ability to manage your own kingdom in different ways; many interesting adventures and tasks with different solutions; colorful companions with their own stories and quests; flexible difficulty setting; rich role-playing system; eye-pleasing graphics; great soundtrack.

Cons: went too far with hardcore in places; there are technical flaws and long downloads.

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A fun but buggy RPG: Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Definitive Edition 9 Review0001

Overview

Fun but buggy RPG

Authors:

Azamat Tegaev (Azzy)

Editing:

Denis Korolev (SkyerIst)

Date:
24.10.2020 00:18

five

popular emotions article

Platforms:

PS4
ONE

Developer:

Owlcat Games

Publisher:

Deep Silver

Genres:
nine0010

action
RPG

For a long time, classic RPGs were in decline, but thanks to the indie scene, they again delight fans of the genre with various rethinkings of old ideas, as well as completely new solutions. Fans of such RPGs are no longer rushing at every crude craft like hungry animals, but carefully choosing where they will spend their next hundred hours. Often the choice falls on those games that have already acquired the necessary fixes and other patches. In such cases, you can pay attention to the console versions, which often come out later than the computer versions, and already have all the necessary improvements and additions. There problems, if present, are mostly small, and are quickly corrected. nine0003 Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Definitive Edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at first glance seems to be just such a project, because two years have passed since the release of this project on personal computers. Let’s see how successful the port turned out to be.

Like any classic RPG, Pathfinder: Kingmaker starts with character creation. In addition to a simple appearance editor, a wide selection of classes is available here, within which there are several specializations. Some are available only if there is a certain status in the reputation. For example, a paladin cannot be evil or even neutral, and an inquisitor’s alignment always depends on his deity. All this immediately sets the player in a serious mood and demonstrates the depth of the role-playing system. After the character is created, the story begins. nine0010

The beginning of the story takes place in a certain estate where the main character, along with other mercenaries, must compete for the title of Baron of the Stolen Lands. The characters are divided into two groups, and to win you need to get rid of the local gang of thugs led by a certain Rogach. Since this game is based on the board game of the same name, on which many books have been released, the world looks quite elaborate and interesting. Moreover, the developers have tried to make the immersion process as comfortable as possible. Incomprehensible words or names spoken by characters in dialogues are usually highlighted in a different color — when you hover over, a help window opens. This is very convenient and allows you to quickly understand why the same Stolen Lands have such a name or what kind of deity these or those heroes always mention. nine0010

After the player completes the prologue, they will be able to manage their kingdom, which at the beginning is just a small barony. Here the eyes run up from the number of possibilities. From time to time it is necessary to annex new territories and build your cities there. The settlements themselves also need the master’s hand and the construction of various buildings, such as a barn and barracks.

In addition, there are many other aspects in Pathfinder: Kingmaker that the Baron must personally control. For example, from time to time it is necessary to analyze requests and complaints from residents of a young state. Entire chains of quests and story stories are sometimes built around this system. It is also necessary to appoint assistants to positions. Everyone has their own approach to completing tasks, which affects the results. If you manage the state poorly and fail the instructions from the people all the time, then the game will end with your premature defeat. However, if you do not feel like doing such things, the settings provide an automatic mode and even an “invincible kingdom” option that prevents an undesirable outcome. nine0010

One of the writers of Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the notorious Chris Avellone . Therefore, the stories that are told in quests and tasks are often very interesting. The plot and secondary activities also please with non-linearity, allowing you to solve situations in different ways, including both absolutely peaceful options and violent ones. The reputation system and many options in the dialogues allow you to play exactly the role that you want. Such attention from developers is very pleasing and allows you to follow with interest every task — even the smallest one. Story quests related to your avatar’s companions perfectly reveal the characters, and in some cases can even completely change the attitude towards them. nine0010

Project history

05/27/2022
Pathfinder developers from the Russian studio Owlcat Games began teasing a new game
06/26/2021
End of ‘cancellation’: Chris Avellone sues over harassment allegations

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06/10/2021
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nine0258 One of the writers of Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the notorious Chris Avellone. Therefore, the stories that are told in quests and tasks are often very interesting.

In addition to the main storyline, the Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Definitive Edition bundle includes two more additions: the Varnhold’s Lot scenario and the Secrets of the Stolen Lands scenario. The first is a very intriguing quest with almost a detective plot, and the second is an exploration of ancient ruins with constant battles and small stories about the characters who tried to explore this place before you. nine0010

While the stories themselves are very well written and captivating from start to finish, the magazine and quest concept are poorly done. The idea is that the quest list looks like a book that tells about the adventures of your avatar, which is written by a bard. But unlike Divinity: Original Sin , which uses a similar approach, the descriptions here are as general as possible and often uninformative. Sometimes they are compiled in such a way that it is absolutely not clear what to do. For example, when I got stuck on the main quest with fog, the journal said to wait for news, but in fact it was necessary to explore one inconspicuous area where it was necessary to launch a small scene, and then return to another location, where without it the plot would not have moved further. At such moments, even a walkthrough guide does not always help. Another problem arose due to the fact that the quest of one of the companions had to be completed by a certain time, which is not indicated anywhere. I was strongly seen when suddenly the quest failed and the character’s story ended before it really started. Such shortcomings occur all the time, and it’s wildly annoying. nine0010

As for the combat system, here the developers have provided two options. The first is smart pause mode, and the second is step-by-step. It is worth noting that, unlike Pillars of Eternity II , you can switch between them at any time, which is very convenient. In the active pause mode, the partners under the control of artificial intelligence practically do not use their active skills, so the player always needs to give some commands manually, which in difficult situations forces him to constantly stop the fight. The turn-based mode, as it turned out, here feels much more appropriate and convenient, but in it even ordinary fights drag on for a long time, so the best option is to switch between combat mechanics all the time. nine0010

As in the tabletop version of Pathfinder, the success of an action here relies on the roll of a virtual twenty-hedron, which is why fights with powerful opponents are highly dependent on this randomness. Even on medium difficulty, duels with a strong enemy can often turn into hell, where your squad misses all the time and gets knocked out. At such moments, the player is required to be very careful and calculate each action, taking into account the high probability of a miss or minimal damage. nine0010

It happened to me more than once that the controlled character missed all the time, as a result of which the enemy defeated him. At some point, the hands themselves reach out to lower the difficulty level, because after the next defeat it seems that banal luck plays a greater role here than the player’s tactical calculation.

When it comes to porting classic PC games to consoles, many gamers are interested in the gamepad controls. It seems that this is no longer a problem, because developers such as, for example, Larian Studios or Obsidian Entertainment have long learned to adapt everything to controllers. However, Owlcat Games decided not to resort to already well-proven schemes and came up with something of its own. In general, the automatic selection of the nearest target and some other elements work fine, but the layout itself is not intuitive. The difficulty comes when you have to manage the squad. To switch from one character to another, you need to hold down the left “trigger” and select the desired avatar in the pop-up menu with the arrows on the cross or with the stick. During a fierce battle, when every second is precious, this process seems slow and forces you to stop the fight in order to have time to issue commands. Although even in step-by-step mode it seems inconvenient. It would be much easier if, from a single press of the same left trigger, the character quickly changed to the next in line. One gets the feeling that the commands were randomly assigned to the gamepad and were not at all adapted to the layouts familiar to the players. For example, the right and left on the D-pad are responsible for opening and closing the combat log. Why use two buttons for this at once, especially on the crosspiece, is a big question. It would be better if they were in charge of switching between fighters. And these are not the only examples of strange decisions. The developers obviously do not play on consoles, and apparently they are not used to holding a gamepad in their hands, which is why they could not find a more successful scheme for their project. nine0010

Visual overview

Addictive gameplay

Atmosphere — it envelops and absorbs

Dull AI

ass control

Lots of bugs

Cool hero

creation of char
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Girls

Bleeding

Fireballs and curses

Linearity

Twisted plot — impossible to tear yourself away

Violence and blood

Vampires, zombies, devils

Stupidity — you are stuck and don’t know what to do
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Asshole rupture detected

The visual overview is based on the main features of the game and
is an
addition to the main review.

Another unpleasantly surprising shortcoming is the inconvenient and strange inventory system. Characters cannot use potions and scrolls from the general supply, instead they must be assigned to one of the five slots in the equipment menu. Each such consumable can be used once, after which you need to go back to your inventory and assign the desired bottle or scroll to a free cell. In addition, weapons and armor can only be compared in one general “equipment” window, where all things are dumped. At the same time, in the equipment menu, that is, where the comparison function is essentially needed, it does not work. This makes you wander through the braking tabs. Moreover, as I understand it, all this is not some kind of bug, but such a “feature”. nine0010

The swords, axes, breastplates and other military utensils themselves cannot boast of a great variety. Opponents constantly drop a lot of clothes and weapons, but they all have fixed indicators that do not increase over time, as is usually the case in such games. As at the beginning of the game, daggers and clubs fell for conditional 3-7 damage, and they fall for the rest of the game, occasionally indulging in indicators of +1 or +2. In some rare cases, you can find more valuable equipment, but this happens so infrequently that after playing more than 50 hours, I changed weapons for my hero only a couple of times, and for some comrades even less. This state of affairs almost completely devalues the study of secret places, because even if you find a secret chest to which the heroes made their way through crowds of enemies and traps, most likely there will not be anything particularly valuable in it that cannot be found in more accessible places. nine0010

And now for the saddest part of Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Definitive Edition. The technical condition of the PS4 port is incredibly low. Despite the fact that the original was released two years ago, a huge number of bugs, glitches and crooked scripts are present in the console version. Most of the time the game runs at a reduced frame rate — it sometimes feels like it is below 20 FPS. Only when the character is in the throne room or other small spaces does the image seem more or less fluid. Often during the fight, the picture “breaks” and often freezes for a second or two, turning the image into a natural slideshow. However, all this could be tolerated if it were not for the constant crashes in the console menu. And the worst thing is that this can happen even during the save, which in some cases rolls back the game for several hours to the previous cell. nine0010

By the way, a wobbly save system is not the only reason for rolling back a few hours. There are cases when the script does not work and the desired object did not appear at the location or some scene does not start. Then you will have to check on previous saves when exactly the quest turned off, and if you are lucky, you will find the necessary “save file” in the list and you will be able to try to complete this task again. Otherwise, it will fail or hang dead weight in the magazine. nine0010

Added to all this technical horror is a problem typical of the Unity engine – location loading times. After the next flight, I still decided not to continue the passage and wait for the patches. In total, I spent over 50 hours on the game, but if you count all the time with crashes and constant reboots, it will be all 100. While Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Definitive Edition offers an engaging story, interesting characters, and a deep role-playing system, the terrible the technical state of the game on PS4 spoils everything. At the time of writing the review, a huge 17 GB patch has already been released, but these problems have not gone away. nine0010

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