Has anyone played Pathfinder: Kingmaker?

[Bobchillingworth]

Considering purchasing it, as it's on currently on sale on Steam and I've been in mood for another quality CRPG following Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire, but the reviews I've seen have been mixed.


It sounds like the game may have improved from a rough launch state; I'm interested in the opinions of anyone here who has played it.

[Commodore]

I'm on some Pathfinder discords; they like it a lot. I think if you know the game rules it's pretty awesome, but I gather it is (was?) a bit confusing for those unfamiliar with the tabletop rules. It seems like a worthy successor to the Baldur's Gate style of games.

[RFS-81]

I haven't played it yet, but I'm also interested. Pathfinder is basically a continuation of D&D 3rd edition, so if I've played Neverwinter Nights, it shouldn't be too hard to get into, right?

[Bobchillingworth]

Bought it during a Steam sale, just got past the first chapter (unlocking the "Kingdom" mode)... the game is commendable in its ambition / scope, and the gameplay is more-or-less exactly what you'd expect from a game which is clearly trying to replicate the Baldur's Gate experience, but there are some really glaring issues:


* The difficulty is all over the place. I'm playing on the basic "Normal" difficulty (after reading many, many reviews which urged new players to do so, plus a warning from the game itself), and while 90% of encounters are won within seconds, the game loves to occasionally throw bizarre "gotcha" encounters are you which are nigh-impossible. Two examples:

1. The very first sidequest has you gather some berries. The area outside the cave where the berries are located has a couple very easy encounters. Inside the cave however are "spider swarm" enemies which are immune to weapons, attack very quickly, and can only be killed by bombs (the quest giver hands you a few, but they're woefully insufficient unless you get lucky on your damage rolls) or AoE spells (which you won't have unless your PC is a caster). Also the spiders do permanent strength ability damage in addition to regular damage, because why not. Oh, and then the berries themselves do like 20 points of damage when you try to collect them, unless you pass a difficult "nature lore" check. I found many, many posts on various gaming forums complaining about this quest, and the game is full of shit like this.

2. Another early-game (level 2-3) area features an abandoned camp site with a corpse nearby; passing a difficult Nature check will reveal that it's burnt and looks like it "died in terror". The area is tied to a quest where you're pursuing a sorcerer who likes to use fire and fear spells, so it's reasonable to assume he's responsible. You could also fairly predict that sleeping at the camp will provoke some sort of ambush encounter... which it does, with what appears to be a completely random demilich who can only be hit by rolling a 20, and who will wipe the floor with the party in short order. Also the lich does electric damage, not fire, so the Nature checks is almost completely worthless.


Kingmaker is blatantly a game made for save scumming, where you're expected to constantly reload your save files after that tricky bastard GM got you with yet another nigh-invulnerable monster you couldn't have possibly prepared for without a guide. I can't imagine what it'd be like playing it blind with Ironman mode turned on.



* I haven't gotten too deeply into the Kingdom management system yet, but it clearly was developed by a separate team, and is a nightmare of menus within menus, a city management sim, Crusader Kings, and 20 different events all happening at once, some of which will apparently cause an inevitable game over 5 hours down the line if you make a wrong choice, not that the game ever indicates this. Thankfully the devs seem to have realized how widely loathed the whole disaster is, and have patched in options to neuter or ignore kingdom management entirely.


* Despite that fact that the player eventually ostensibly runs a kingdom about the size of Ireland, the game resolutely refuses to simply any of their logistics. There's no basic "fast travel" option, you have to carry your own gear everywhere you go (and this is a game where it's very easy to overburden your characters), kingdom management can only be done while you're plonked down at your war room's desk, and you have to either carry around heavy rations at all times or otherwise spend hours hunting every time you want to rest (and your party gets exhausted after like 12 hours of travel, probably because nobody in your kingdom will loan you a goddamn horse). This in game filled with "do or die" timed quests. Thankfully there's a variety of cheat mods which negate most of the most obnoxious mechanics.


* There's about 40 distinct weapon types in the game, a dozen companions you'll pick up over the first 30 hours of playing, and zero options to respec your characters. Picking a weapon proficiency feat is a fraught experience, unless you're going into the game spoiled. I've been trying to do a blind run, and I've already burned a couple feats on weapons which are apparently rare and/or low-tier.



I'll keep playing it for a while, but this game really could have used some more playtesting, at least from people other than munchkins who have a guide on hand at all times. I wonder if several of Kingmaker's issues originate from late in development, added as an overreaction to the negative reviews PoE: Deadfire recieved for being too easy.