Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Pathfinder Kingmaker on PC is incredibly fun and rightfully nominated in our Global Game Awards 2018 for Best RPG. Today Owlcat have already made Pathfinder Kingmaker into a beautiful looking, rich CRPG, that delivers a great place to adventure, an interesting land to rule and the tools to carve out a realm that you can call home.

Pathfinder has some flaws, but nonetheless delivers a tremendous amount of entertainment for fans of pen & paper fantasy.

PC gamers looking for the old time cRPG feeling can’t go wrong with Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The presentation is beautiful, the writing is excellent, and the world offers just enough life to engage the player’s imagination to fill in the gaps. Still, at the time of this writing, balancing issues and bugs keep the game from being a definite recommend – at least for the time being.

Story and exploration in Kingmaker are grade A. Adaptation of Pathfinder system is probably even A+, since it’s simplified, yet still incredibly complex and satisfying. But. Some elements, like titular kingdom-building, are astonishingly bad, and overall technical execution is subpar at best. [Issue#234, p.76]

A great adaptation of the original Pathfinder gamebooks. The story is sidelined by tough tactical combat - its steep difficulty may be daunting to genre newbies, but D&D veterans will be delighted. There are technical problems, yes, but those are overshadowed by refreshing kingdom management and interesting companions.

RPG for the hardened. Get used to loadings and getting lost in the rules, get ready for an ok storyline - and in the return you will enjoy a deep level of challenge and great management of your own kingdom. Obsidian has a new competitor. [Issue#290]

I cannot help but feel there is a 10 out of 10 game on the other side of my issues with Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It still has a way to go before it reaches its full potential but the vision the developers had for the game is starting to come through; A punishingly hard game, quite unlike anything we’ve seen, that satisfies craving for a deep, engaging and well written cRPG.

I’ve only really scratched the surface of things which are going on in this game and trust me I haven’t covered everything by far. This game has a ton to offer to both new CRPG players and players who have been around the genre for a while.

In the smaller moments, Kingmaker captures the tabletop experience better than any single player game I’ve ever played. I’ve never had to set up watch rotations before or go hunting for meal ingredients. I love how every character has a favorite food and how it affects their stats. There’s a lot of game to this game, and I can’t imagine I’m going to want to stop playing it any time soon.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a "classic" CRPG. Nostalgia is strong in this game. The game is solid and with plenty of content.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is an incredibly extensive and complex RPG with great story, characters and fresh ideas surrounding the kingdom building. Unfortunately it suffers from some design flaws, bugs and excessive loading screens.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is similar to the role playing games like Baldur’s Gate and Fallout 1-2. If you like old school RPG games you shouldn’t miss Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker offers an interesting world to explore along with satisfying combat, and the first half of the adventure is top-notch old school fun. Unfortunately later the game loses its momentum and becomes boring. Anyhow, it’s a solid RPG that should keep Baldur’s Gate’s fans happy for many hours. [12/2018, p.86]