Pathfinder: Kingmaker Critic Reviews

If we don't encounter bugs, Pathfinder: Kingmaker with its epic scope is nothing less than the heir to Baldur's Gate.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 is a good RPG if you love the old school RPG games, but there is room to improve.

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.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a huge game. The depths of its mechanics seem to have no limit while the time spent playing it is equally eternal. With complex rules and stripped back tutorials, though, it is not an easy game to jump into to say the least.

Pathfinder Kingmaker is a rough gem, which would deserve a sequel only to see developed the many ideas it contains but which are not as refined as they should have been. Vast but too much derivative, at times it seems a mod of Pillars of Eternity.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is definitely one of the most faithful recreations of the D&D experience in digital form and those with patience, a love of numbers and a willingness to tolerate a bit of opacity and imbalance have much to look forward to. There’s something a bit overwhelming and unfriendly about the game’s mechanics and while Pathfinder’s faithful translation of D&D and city building elements are unique, a lot of the setting, story and characters are a bit too “standard CRPG.” There is room for improvement and growth through patches and content, and it will be interesting to watch Pathfinder: Kingmaker evolve.

A lack of balanced difficulty and explanation of core concepts set alongside too many time consuming, anachronistic design choices distract from Pathfinder: Kingmaker's nuanced story telling, moral dilemmas and enjoyable decision making.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a solid, but flawed, pen-and-paper RPG in video game form. If you are a fan of isometric RPGs or Pathfinder, you will find a lot to like here.