Pathfinder Kingmaker Review
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- čas přidán 29. 09. 2018
- A review of pathfinder kingmaker. Who would win in a fight, 100 normal size spiders or one bear-treant?
I hope to make a longer, more detailed video on this game in the future, but for now I hope some people may find this short review helpful.
#PathfinderKingmaker - Hry
Great review, though it's important to point out for any current day people watching this in 2021, it's now pretty much a bug free-experience and practically all of the features he would have liked have been added in. There is an in game glossary for looking up what terms mean, you can re-spec your characters, you can examine enemies to see a full list of their defences, attacks and the like if you roll high enough, and a bunch of the encounters have been outright replaced with better balanced ones.
There is even a turn based mode which works pretty damn well even if it is slightly buggy sometimes.
Counter point, the console version of this game is fun but still very, very bug full. Expect the game to crash every 1-3 hours, getting stuck behind invisible walls, characters not working right in turn based, etc. I've been playing it on ps4, and while I enjoy it expect to have to replay sections because of crashes or corrupted save files.
Well I just signed up with pathfinder WOTR and it’s been a very pleasant experience so far. Minor bugs but nothing absolutely game breaking. Why didn’t I hear of this series before? Hmm… not sure if I will ever go and try kingmaker but Im really into turn based crpgs…
@@perckmalice70 just played kingmaker was very fun if you like long rpgs!
That ending lmao, love it :D
+1 ... loved the ending.
I laughed so hard my wife woke up and gave me the bad eye...
+4 for that ending - and yes mate....FUCK.THOSE.MITE.PRIESTS!!!
I personally hated it.
@@Wazhai tough tits.
If anyone comes here looking for helpful advice on whether to get Pathfinder: Kingmaker then after 30 hours in this game (and 1000's hours in old school cRPGs) I can confidently say that in this video hammer well and truly hits nail bang slap on it's head. A very, very good review in which every comment is spot on. The video's outro hilariously sums up exactly what it feels like to play this game.
it's a good d&d 3.5 port, but that doesn't make it any good overall.
it's really only for people who know those rules well already.
Great review!
It suprises me that this is like the only real review ive found about the game on youtube.
But you did it really good, brought up the good, the bad, and your own opinion without much bias.
You got another subscriber.
One of the biggest differences between this game and old cRPG's like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights is that those games had way better documentation. They had manuals that explained all the rules. This game does not, and the tutorials and tooltips don't do nearly enough to explain things for new players.
The encyclopedia is unfinished. The section for Prestige Classes is completely empty and you can't select Prestige Classes to see what their abilities are until you've met the prerequisites. They don't even have a list of all the spells. You just have to level up to find out what spells are available. And some schools of magic are not well represented. For example, there are no level 9 divination or evocation spells. So if you made a wizard specializing in evocation, too bad, you won't even know that there are no level 9 evocation spells until you reach a high enough level to get level 9 spells.
Yeah very true. I'm not sure how i'd play this game without having an internet connection to regularly check various things and that's something people didn't have and didn't need with old rpgs.
Some of what you describe is why the game is special to others. A lot of us long for the days where your own experimentation, experience, and creativity were more important than reading a web page with all the answers
the game is still SUPER buggie as shit and unbalanced as shit with MIS MISS MISS MISS MISS MISS for your characters almost on a regular Basics, The game is HORRIBLY Flawed and if anyone gives it a 9/10 or 10/10 They are clearly biased as shit and im going to face palm
The fact that you encountered someone with high defense does not mean the game is unbalanced. Powerful enemies are hard to hit. But most powerful enemies are optional. Also, armor/shields contribute to missing too, so 1/3 or less hits landing is completely normal.
And yeah, it is bugged as shit.
People like me you mean. The reason I give it a high rating is that if enough people don't trash it early on based on bugs or fixes it'll sell enough for the developers to be able to fix the issues you're not liking. The game itself is a GEM and potential masterpiece. Missing alot was part of the old pen and paper RPG until you got to the highest levels.
Nice review sir, well constructed and very informative. I will check back on this channel in future, you deserve more views
I feel spoiled with this game, divinity original sin 2, and POE 2 Deadfire... so much isometric crpg goodness.
i just wish you could zoom out a little bit more in dos2 sometimes i feel dizzy rotating the map
You should definitely try out Tyranny too. It covers the same gameplay design and the story along with the setting is really interesting
Yes except divinity is overrated af.
@@kurlykrenins what do you believe is over rated about it?
Great video, and that outro was awesome!!!
Great review! sub'd. I love that I hated this game for levels 1-3, but kept playing it anyway because it is drop dead gorgeous and the story telling and depth is beyond excellent. I completely fell in love with it somewhere between levels 3-5. Still playing it, and I plan to finish it, if I can. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on Owlcat games to produce a follow up or five in this series, as well. ; ) All of these awesome isometric RPG games lately are really making me glad to be alive right now.
I also totally agree that a few improvements could make this game truly great. I'd really like to see monster/enemy stats also, where you see none at first, then as you become more familiar with the foe, the stats start to fill in, with the weaknesses being the last thing to appear. Those stats should be a card pop up that appears when you right-click or hover long enough over a foe and the card should also show the active effects on the foe and their timers. Stats should also be available in the bestiary. But the biggest thing for me is not having a rotating camera. I'll be looking for that feature in pathfinder 2. This same shortcoming also plagued Divinity: Original Sin 1 as well, until they fixed it in the enhanced edition, I believe, which made that game spectacular and led to D:OS2, which I think should be game of the year (or at least RPG of the year).
Very well thought out review with one of the best ending ever created. I have been loving the game. It is a challenge yet if trully feels like old crpg where I learned through gameplay. But I must agree is not for everyone. Cheers
Almost a year on, and your reviews is spot on! Now that's what a call a good game reviewer.
I love your videos and delivery (voice over).
Great for me to get my gaming fix in at work when I can't actually be gaming.
Thank you!
Love the game, and definitely think it's worth it for any old school BG people.
BTW my only complaint is that even on normal difficulty enemies have inflated stats. This is balanced out by enemies doing 0.8 dmg and no crits on normal. my personal preference is to set enemies to "weak" which is core rules values, but turn crits on and damage up to1.0. imho this feels way better... kudos to devs for the custom options to fix this, but I wish the options were better explained.
I might try this out, right now its a real struggle to fight most enemys atm.
How I play, and never looked back.
Sorry but this is not "old school" not even closer. Endless dialogues, yes, but the combat system is HORRENDOUS. I dont even know why people seem to like this game, its probably one of the worsts arpgs ive seen in my life.
@@reerjgiorge You're a real idiot, you know that?
@@reerjgiorge It's not an arpg you dunce. It's a crpg.
You mentioned it's unpolished but to be fair I think you should have also mentioned it's absolutely gorgeous. Looks very atmospheric and spell effects are just beautiful and polished.
Fair point, but most likely he's the kind of gamer that doesn't really put much stock into graphics - seems weird to some, but I promise we do exist :)
That being said I 100 % understand the importance of a holistic breakdown of a game, graphics are a big part of that, so objectively I can see why this is very important ^^
Pillars is not hand painted, it's pre-rendered 3D.
Man, that's how a game review should be done. Very thorough and gives me a lot to consider before making my decision - both before buying and after, if I decide to do so. Excellent work. I'm gonna have to take a look at some of your other reviews now.
Nice review! You earned a new sub, hopefully one of the many more to come! Keep up the good work
Now that I have played the game, your review is 100% spot on. Thank you.
Awesome review, with a great ending. All I can add is this is the only game I've played in a long time that made me consider turning down the difficulty slider to get past some of the really tough fights. Fighting the same battle 5-10 times to try and get good die rolls gets really tedious.
Some of the fights you can re-visit later, but some are required for the story to progress and must be fought. So far I'm liking it but the tedium of redoing fights simply due to bad die rolls is becoming more and more apparent.
Great review! Far more informative and entertaining than I was expecting after clicking the first video that popped up after googling "pathfinder kingmaker review"
The way you talk about all these games is beyond amazing, keep it up! Hope your channel will become huge!
Your voice is soothing, the review itself is well structured and excellent. You talk about major problems with the game. I ended up enjoying it a lot, my main issue with the game is, in fact, the loading times more than anything else it's the loading times.
Oh absolutely but it's small potatoes compared to how fun it is
So glad i found you man, you do amazing reveiews! Im in disbelief that you have so few subs, you are every bit as good as Joseph Anderson. (And you actually have a witcher review :)
thanks, glad you enjoy them
Seriously some fantastic content there, you definitely deserve more views
I really hope you continue making video game reviews. Very quality content! Keep up the great work.
So I need an actual Pathfinder rulebook to play this game? Ok, I'm in!
Best review ever. F those swarms.
Oh my god I hate them. Torches deal's 1 dmg to them... I lost 15 flashs of alchemist fire...
The funny part is... one class makes them really easy. The alchemist.
sounds exactly like the pen and paper pathfinder: swarms and aetheral enemys in low lvls are scary
Also a little know amulet, Swarmbane Clasp. Allows weapons, unarmed attacks and natural attacks to do full damage. Alas it’s not in the game, yet. Used it in the last run of Kingmaker some two years back. Was a fun campaign to do.
@@tillthomas7947 and will o wisps... Oh God they scare me
Great review and those last comments at the end. Subscribed and looking forward to your later posts!
Well done on your review. I like the more relaxed, soothing style of review. Keep this up.
I feel like going real-time as opposed to turn-based kind of made them put in unnecessary tweaks that is causing so much problems right now. But even with the difficulty problems and somewhat unfair encounters I really enjoy this game for letting me try out so many builds I only theorized and never got to playing, as well as experiencing the general mechanics of pathfinder.
yeah, they really needed to go replay ToEE and remind themselves that PnP COULD be fully transitioned into a CRPG and be just as awesome as always.
ToEE utterly ruined every other DnD-ish CRPG for me, because I've already experience how much better it could be, and end up left wanting that someone would redo classics like BG or the like with ToEE's level of mechanical fidelity to their rule-set.
BG would be amazing with the full toolkit that 2nd edition had, instead of Bioware gutting about half of the mechanics and utterly butchering a bunch more to force them to fit into a RT/P setting.
@@ZanathKariashi BG did a lot for what technology they had to work with in 1995-98, though. I mean, that game began development back when D&D was pretty much just represented in games like Eye of the Beholder on MS-DOS.
Also. Wow, I feel old...
Perfect review. Some of the best content I have seen in a long time. Gave it a like and a subscribe. Hope to see more.
Haven't felt the need to comment on any game review video so far. You though my friend deserve more recognition. Great review, keep it up
I've immediately subscribed to your channel after this review, even without really checking what are you about - this is some quality video making! Wonderful voicework, interesting and informative content, yet not droning on and on... you do deserve many more subscribers and viewers, I'll do my best and recommend you to whomever i can..
same here, concise and polished as heck. Great review; he's already up there with the greats like ACG imho.
Best closing comments ever...and is it strange they actually make me want to get the game more? Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Pillars of Eternity fan. Gog knew what they were doing sending me a discount code. XD
Wow! This is some quality content. Shame how you have such low views while others gets a million views for so little effort.
Well i'm happy I get at least some views and this video seems to be doing well so far so i'm pretty happy right now.
Anyway thanks for the supportive words. I love seeing comments like this and i'm glad you enjoyed the video.
We've recently seen bigger reviewers plagiarize from smaller content creators. This review is good enough that we should probably all keep our eyes open, and make sure that the big guys don't just take this review, rewrite a few lines, and then re-film the whole thing.
Confirmation bias.
Most of the people on the internet are grown ups and they don't enjoy children's content. Every time they hear something like 'games of the old' and other kids' bullshit of that sort they just close the tab and look for another channel.
@@No-hf5xb You're commenting on a year old reply. I wasn't butthurt, but two words triggered you.
The ending of this video earned you a subscriber! The content was spot-on, and was a really good call-out for those sitting on the fence about this.
Brilliant review, informative as hell whilst remaining interesting and easy to digest. Subscribed in a second, keep em coming.
Wow your voice is crazy good! Its like i'm in a fantasy flash back story setting.
Great review of the game! Ive been playing it since release, its great. At the end where you started saying way from the swarms and fuck those wolves, i got all the references and was dying of laughter.
Genuinely brilliant review! Thank you for the time, effort & info you put into this. You deserve to be a YT star
This is definitely in my top five best reviews. Very informative and balanced. I wish all game reviews I see are as good as this one. :)
If only pen and paper play sessions with GMs were more like the game, you know just throwing over tiered werewolves, swarms, treants at you right off the bat with the intention to wipe you out and call it a night after 10 minutes.
Piss off your gm by telling them you want to reload your save
sounds like you just need a better gm
To be fair, I trhow my players over tiered stuff... The idea is for them to, you know, avoid it. Just because you're level 1 doesn't mean the wilderness around X Town is populated exclusively by easy to kill rabbits. Git Gud.
This was a fantastically informative and accurate review. As someone who ran the Kingmaker Adventure Path, well the first 3rd twice, I am amazed at how well they translated the rules and experience.
I can only imagine how lost a non dnd 3.5 or pathfinder player would find this game, but you are right, if you can get past the idiosyncrasies there is a special gem here.
im interested in this game but i have only played 5e so whats the difference between 5e and 3.5
www.quora.com/What-are-the-major-differences-between-D-D-5e-and-3-5e
@@il6315 In other words they dumbed the system down for casuals.
@@TheFatMob personally I wouldn't call it dumbing down. I find that 5th edition flows a lot better than 3.5. It's easier to just have fun and role play in 5th edition. 3.5 and pathfinder definitely have more options for character creation though.
Excellent review! very detailed and honest, two aspects sadly lacking from many mainstream game reviewers nowadays, great work.
That was a really great review, you're the reason I pulled the trigger and have purchased this one. Thanks!
Tbh, with the original Pathfinder tabletop, this game is much more balance with TBS RPG combat system instead. Baldur's gate & Dragon Age Origins manage to find its footing as a real time pause strategy because it's simplistic enough to maintain the balance in combat. So things become a lot more manageable in "real time" especially to effectively command your party.
Also, I am totally agree that this game badly need turbo/speed mode. It's probably the most requested feature from the community.
Excellent review, and that fade-out, I'm dead (much like your party a lot of the time, sounds like ;-) ) Subbed!
Very good informative review. Not many of you out there. Subscribed.
Amazing review, I played the tabletop version and loved it. I am so tempted to get it now but it sounds like it needs another patch. Loved your commentary at the end, had me dying.
I'm biased on the game, being a Kickstarter backer. Having written that I do see where you're coming from; the good thing is that the developers seem to be listening to the issues people have with it. On the 27th, 28th & 29th there have been hotfix patches. I'm hoping this game does well & it wakes WoTC up, I miss the D&D sandbox type games of yesteryear (Temple of Elemental Evil, Neverwinter nights, Champions of Krynn, Ruins of Myth Drannor... etc) & they're sitting on a licensing gold mine, which they don't use except with MMOs.
Yeah I agree. I think there's a definite market for a new turn based, combat focused D&D game. We can only hope someone at WoTC thinks so also.
The problem is that they keep to some old formulaes, every game they make is on the Forgotten Realms Setting, but the modules aren't all that good. I mean, they have very good modules but most are old school (the plot is not the main attraction on those) and they are not what modern gamers are looking for in an RPG.
@Esteban Rodriguez: So far the main issue with this game are the bugs (which continue to be fixed) & Kingdom management. The most recent patch gave you an "invincible kingdom" option, that's a scotch tape fix though. As far as writing, Chris Avellone is involved with this. When I saw his name attached during the kickstarter I became a backer. I probably would've backed it anyway since I really want a return of this kind of game, but he sealed the deal (look him up if U don't know who he is & his writing pedigree).
For now I would say wait. OwlCat Games themselves have stated the for the foreseeable future they are putting in hotfix patch after hotfix patch. I hope it don't hurt the game too bad in the long-run, bad word of mouth can easily destroy any game.
@@estebanrodriguez5409 this is probably because non-Forgotten Realms settings tend to not be liked by non-tabletop enthusiasts. Planescape:Torment for example did not sell much copies in its first year after release because players were used to Sword and Sorcery RPGs and found Planescape's setting too bizarre.
I’m loving it, if you’re used to D&D or Pathfinder it’s not hard. But you do have to optimize some feats and scores for each character. Like not taking precise shot (which requires Point blank shot) can be REALLY BAD if you’re attacking ranged into melee. Basically you have to plan out your characters a bit, which is fun IMO. Also, a fight can be made much easier if you prepare beforehand, cast summons/buffs then start attacking.
Very well made video. You make interesting points and you have a pleasent voice. Subbed!
Great vid! You have a great voice for videos of this type! Love the ranting at the end! lol
"Where are you from? What was your childhood like?" hahaha fucking hell, some quality writing right there lol
I know this is 2 years late and you probably don't care anymore, but the character you're asking that to you have just freed from slavery, so you're asking them about their life before they were a slave.
@@LordWoffingshire I know, but it is a really strange question to ask someone you literally just met, both in a narrative as well as a meta sense, not to mention the fact that she actually answers it too. Very lazy writing. I love the game by the way, have finished it twice since I wrote that comment and am playing the beta to the sequel now. That was still a terrible line though lol.
Another example : the game should really make it extremely clear what are Attacks of opportunity. A new player who does not realize this game mechanic can die pretty fast!
Well done review. 5:45 - this is the areas I fall in love with :) Grass, trees, flowers, beautiful.
Lacking information... I love it to have to look elsewhere, think about plans, I love the pure application of rulesets and its numbers. This makes the game stand out.
Thank you for your accurate and timely review. I have been waiting for a review that was clear and honest regarding this game, and you have done an excellent job. I hope you continue to provide reviews and get more exposure. Finally, WHY isn't this game turn based!?
Here is the answer to that question from the creative director: wccftech.com/talking-pathfinder-kingmaker-crpg/
Should be the first question but i think the real reason is the devs are just fans of the old real time with pause rpgs. Glad you liked the review.
The UI in that initial character creation as well as hearing there's no spell list, beastiary monster manual entries etc already puts me off and I actively play a lot of pathfinder and D&D offline and on Roll20. Like seriously if anything needs proper well archived information its pathfinder, that shits complicated.
Big discounts on this game in 2019's Steam Autumn sale!
Yep.. picked it up today:)
@@Sevntimes Same! :D
@@TheGwarGaru Is it worth it so far matey?
@@KingFluffs So far, for me, SO VERY YES. If you're the kind of gamer who is into RNG-happy RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, etc., this game will deliver!
I might wait until chrissy, maybe the sale will be slightly more, maybe not. Gives me a little more time to play games in my oh so massive back log.
thanks for the review, really insightful and appreciate the detail you went to. :) subbed for this video alone.
Good review, this game certainly looks interesting. Might buy it after it gets a few more patches/improvements
Subscribed!
I am pleased to say that as of now (may 2019) most of these complains are patched - loading times are way faster, in my last play-through I haven't met any serious bug and no save-corrupting bug either, kingdom management are now much better - faster loading, no crashes either. With mods you can speed walking on world map and with characters and there is mod for respec - you even need to pay 1000g, so that it feels (at least in early game) a bit limiting.
Epic will give this game for free tomorrow.
Love the ending to your video, sums up the game, the challenge is both the games strength and weakness, and how you feel about challenge will probably inform how you feel about this game.
I cannot wait for the next one, the dev team look as if the listen and are keen to improve, and if they do nothing else other than give an improved version of this game it will be money well spent.
Great review - keep us updated on the game updates :) /subbed
The ending comments!
" translates the rules as accurately as possible"
except there is no coup de grace
sorcerers cant unlearn old spells as per the rule book
Tons of monsters are not RAW and have been buffed and boosted beyond their CR yet still show up at there old CR ie a monster may have class levels making it a CR 5 but it still shows up as a CR 2 areas.
some feats arent working for the sorcerer...
and much more... some of it i call bugs BUT some of it is just straight up a design choice that is bad... is it a good game YES but this feels like an early access game.
I had already liked and was going to sub after the video, but that ending, HAHA, nailed it, fantastic! Also, you have a calm, soothing, confident voice, very nice review.
thanks, glad you liked the review
Superbly written, complete review...great work!!!
Good review. My biggest issue with the game is that it is real time with pause instead of true turn-based, which is needed to accurately represent the Pathfinder system. This makes ranged characters more difficult to use as there are no 5-foot steps in the game, and good luck hitting exactly everything you intend to with AoE spells in real time. They arrange enemies perfectly in that stock footage you show for an impressive looking flamestrike and lightning bolt, but you experience that kind of satisfaction far less often in actual game play due to the nature of the real time system. I also feel a turn-based system does a much better job at teaching new players the rules because you can see and evaluate every action a character takes. Alas, I don't expect they will ever add a true turn-based system, which is a major disappointment for me. I would give the game a 9/10, even with all of its many other flaws, if they had simply chosen to do combat the correct way.
I agree that the companions are pretty bad overall. Not only are many of them annoying, most of their stats and character builds are quite awful. There should definitely be an option to build a character from level 1 to your current level whenever one joins you. Obviously, you're bound to certain things, such as Harrim needing to remain a dwarf and a cleric of Groetus, as it fits his whole narrative, but it sure would be a huge quality of life improvement if you could otherwise build him from the ground up however you wish.
A shame they didn't learn that from DOS2 which does let you customize a bit your companions before they join.
I totally agree and that I feel is why Divinity original sin 2 is the pinacle of crpgs, surprised more haven't followed suit honesty.
It would require to redo many encounters and to exclude too massive fights.
Just imagine how long it would take to make separate turns for each of the 1d4+2 dogs a summoner can create at level 5 already. Or how long it would take to wait for a separate turns of each zombie in a zombie horde near Staglord's fortress.
For D:OS it works because power of the any enemy scales to their level: a level 12 goblin is more fearsome than a level 2 demon. This allows for a fight with few goblins to be challenging even at level 12.
Would goblins be actually always weak, you would require more of them to be of any challenge. This is the Pathifnder: Kingmaker approach. It makes enemies more numerous, but it allows to avoid situations where supposedly weak goblin is somehow stronger than demon you encountered 15 hours ago.
DOS combat is ok but its not a pinnacle of cRPG combat like new people in this genre seem to think. Every action has over the top animation and the fights with a decent number of foes drag on forever which itself reduces number of interesting encounters and slows down the exploration. Pause is much more elegant solution because you aren't forced into separate turn based reality every time you have to kill a goblin.
Wanna know something funny? You can kite using ranged characters in this game! Whereas it's mostly impossible in the pen and paper game.
Game is difficult and im very experienced in pathfinder tabletop even the kingmaker campaign but its very rewarding. Some balancing issues but the game is very true to the tabletop with the content. The emersion is kinda ruined as well you have to reload a lot. All and all i love this game and have recomended it furiously to my d&d tabletop buddies
You sir deserve way more subs! Excellent video!
12:11 sold me on it. I know I'll only play it for 5 minutes but
that damn outro was legendary. Excellent video my dude
After playing the game for 64 hours, I can safely say that it greatly surpasses Baldur's Gate. The voiced dialogue and intrigue from the story are very well made, the gameplay is complex and rewarding. Baldur's Gate now feels childish by comparison, and why shouldn't it? We've finally seen an improvement to the Baldur's Gate style RPG after two decades. I am having a better time than I did with Pillars of Eternity: although its story has merit in some places, Kingmaker is far more accomplished overall. It is also IMMENSE in scope. I would venture a guess that I am merely 45% through the main storyline.
Idk, for me, Baldur’s Gate 2 is still undoubtedly superior in terms of story characters and setting. Arguably Kingmaker’s match in gameplay as well. Still, I absolute love Kingmaker (it used to until I encountered level drain) and can heartily recommend it.
@@heilmodrhinnheimski by now, three years later, I've played through Kingmaker three times for a total of about 600 hours. I've yet to play Wrath of the Righteus because it seems too banal to begin with, the whole crusading theme.
I love divinty and never winter 2 , I wasnt going to get the game, but I'll wait a few months until the game Is patched amd fixed
the game is patched every day (for bugs and lack of information) and you can change the difficulty at any moment so no real need to fix that. I've played 50 hours and i really enjoy the game.
Hey absolutely great review, man! I look forward to having this game kick my ass on camera.
Excellent review and I love the final 30 seconds of commentary. Hilarious!
Screw that over powered Bear,
why are bears the most op enemies in all of gaming? the bad guys should raise an army of bears.
I think its because, no matter what realm, fighting a bear is no easy task.
Every enemy being min-maxed to the point where you need to remove their ability to crit and reduce their damage output just so the game is playable on "normal" speaks volumes about how terribly balanced the game is within its own ruleset . Also the fact that it is severely lacking in spells, that you have to resort to third party info sources to even know that Divination and Evocation don't have level 9 spells and the fact that if you don't want to be wiped out you need to min-max are very clear demonstrations of how bad at DMing one of the most popular Pathfinder modules the gamemakers are.
Spoken like someone who hasn't been given a crit by a goblin... At level 1
I would love to see a updated review for this when the Enhanced Edition releases this month.
Really a good review with good editing . Well done!
I absolutely loved this review. Anyone reading this review needs to stick it out until the end as the ending is amazing. With that said my one comment is that this game goes back to old school methodology of not spoon feeding everything to the player. It requires thought, trial and error, emotion, wins and losses, and the ability to learn from your mistakes. I haven't been able to find a new game in ages since everything is EZ mode. I am very excited to get this game after this review.
If you are having issues with terminology you could go to the pathfinder wiki at roll20 and all the information is there. It looks like the game stayed true to the source material.
roll20.net/compendium/pathfinder/BookIndex
I play with the Pathfinder Core Rulebook next to me on my desk. Unsure about something? I look it up in the Rulebook.
Other people can use this site: www.d20pfsrd.com/ thank god for pazio and their open source concept :D
Is it that hard to have a rulebook in-game? Bioware did it right.
Excellent review! Keep up the good work!
that sounds EXACTLY like my game. thanks for the review!
As someone who is a veteran of DnD, and still in love with BG, BG2, Arcanum, etc. This game wasn't for me. The downsides explained in this review were deal breakers for me. Very unimpressed with the story and npcs. It plays well, but unless you know pathfinder well (I don't) it's very punishing and leaves a bitter taste.
The re-spec thing is a pretty large issue, particularly because you don't have that much information early on.
With how seriously tight the character progression is, even one bad feat selection or something to that effect can be a huge detriment from then on.
I understand *why* they don't let you re-spec, they don't want to give you the ability to change your character on the fly, but at least like, a Mulligan at level 5-10, once you have an idea of where things are going and what you need would be fair.
In pen and paper PF there are respec rules, as well as maxing out your HP among other downtime activities.
Players can't see into the future.
after a few years of owning it and installing it multiple times - hell, I think I even launched it once - you finally convinced me to play this game when I heard you start talking about the reasons most people might have trouble getting into it
Thanks for the review, its probably gonna be over my head to play.. BUT.. this review is on my favourites , that outro is just the best thing I have heard in a looooooong time. Amazing review, and outstanding outro my friend :)
thanks, glad you enjoyed it
As someone who used to enjoy playing the old tabletop games, I feel like you're forgetting that there's an insanely high level of hand holding in gaming now as compared to years past. If the game doesn't spell out every last detail for the player, they seem utterly incapable of figuring anything out on their own. When you played DnD for example, the DM never once told you, "the skeletons draw closer, you know that they have damage reduction so you'll have to account for that." Nope. You get to learn things the hard way and you get to succeed or fail and get on with your life. Gamers today are entirely too spoiled
I dont understand why they cant make dnd games well ! For starters ditch the mechanics and just use the mechanics from table top game lol
In parties that are complete trash. Lol.
Groups i've been in have gotten a quest, ambushed on the way to it, cleared 3 encounters in a dungeon, returned to the giver, then bought things in town within the 2 hour span of the session. All complete with roleplay and in character interactions with one another. Stop playing with bad players.
The only reason tabeltop games slow down is because of players getting distracted and talking meta too much instead of playing, or because they don't understand the mechanics and take too long to find the right dice. Or just take way too long making decisions.
@atombrain111 lol that time you are talking about is your players looking up spells moves and rules and doing math and talking shit i have played a 1000 turn based rpg's that played smooth and easy pretty easy when the computer is doing all the math you just click a spell and click a target crpg's are fine but dumb for recreating a turn based table top game
The only reason why pen and paper is good is because it is pen and paper, there is a ton of flexibility thanks to the dm. PF has really poor combat rules, but because combat is only a small part of the game and the dm is expected to spice it up, that doesn't matter.
So when you rip out the 95% of pen and paper rpgs that are good, and leave only the 5% that is combat, then remove the dm too, you end up with a fairly bad game. That's why the vast vast majority of good computer rpgs don't use dnd rules, they suck for computer games :P
@nori KOTOR used adapted D20 rules and was perfect, Infinity Engine games and both NWNs found the right balance too, ToEE just made rules faithful to PnP and it was a broken mess.
TT DnD requires a really good GM which crpg can't offer.
I think there was an attempt recently on making a true TT experience on PC. But it didn't catch on.
Great video - the outro sums up my d&d experience perfectly! :)
The bitchin' is a huge part of the fun =D
One of the best review I've ever seen. Great job!
thanks man, appreciate it
10/10 game. Never in my life before i had as much wish to be able to strangle through the monitor screen those who give it bad reviews just because they expected the usual dumbed down console experience.
Could you explain a bit more? I used to play PF and it seems like the game removes every ingame solution to these problems without a solution being offered.
For example PF campaigns aren't usually combat tunnels, especially since combat is the weakest part of the system people tend to avoid it. Plus you have the GM to tell a new player "your sword completely misses the tiny spiders, you won't be able to get them" or "when you strike the ent you feel your blow being absorbed by the thick bark, you barely leave a scratch" etc. There is even retraining in PF. Dying certainly isn't a reason to 'reload last save' in PF!
Seems like they removed everything but combat without improving the combat?
It is funny how when the game doesn't spell everything out for you it is seen as a negative( like the swarms or damage reduction). Go ahead and hit those bees with your sword! lol I prefer a game that challenges me and treats me like I have brain. To many games today try to hold my hand. I have been playing games for the last 30 years. I will be purchasing this game. Good review.
So long as it is logical that's fine. I mean, if a handful of moderately sized spiders you then you could just squish them with your sword, if they are even a risk at all haha
Don't get me started on cutting down a tree(ent) with a sword...
That's the difference between convoluted and obfuscated rules, and fair problems. I love games with unknown information, but when it's completely arbitrary then it feels cheap.
Your videos are very insightful and concise, and very good. Thank you!
Thanks man, this game definitely deserves videos like this one. Amazing music, great characters and story, and the best combat experience I've ever had in an RPG game.
Sooo ...the game has one "flaw". It doesn't hold your hand. PERFECT!!
I still remember the Adra Dragon in Pillars of Eternity. I was so low level that I had to swarm the dragon with summons. They died pretty much from one hit, but they where legion :)).
Felt so fucking good to kill it using tricks like that. Plus I couldn't even damage him with weapons. I had to stock every character I had, that had some arcana, with level 9 spell scrolls ( was it the meteor spell? can't remember - but it ignore resistance, so it damaged the damn dragon). Good times !!
Lack of documentation that tells you basic info like prestige class requirements or available spell levels is perfect? O.o
It's not that it doesn't hold your hand, it's that it sends a three year old bicycling om the highway. Bit I fucking Love it for doing that.
well games like this dont hold your hand. that is the point. you have to use your head in games like this. you just cant run up to everything and win... i havent played yet but, i assume you dont have to fight everything you see in the distance. if you see the bear trent or from the vid the hydra. you dont go fight it if you dont think you can beat it. linear games have made people weak when it comes to games like this. BG and D&D dont hold your hand anyway.
badass review btw.
Baldur's Gate did hold your hand compared to this - it came with a thorough and accurate manual that told you everything you needed to know to succeed. Owlcat haven't bothered.
The game is actually pretty easy once you get the mechanics. Though that could require a lot of starting over and experimentation, but thats part of the fun. Majority of people simply ignore things that would make just about every encounter easy - all the buff/debuff spells, scrolls, potions. Sometimes you need to use your head how to handle specific encounter - i.e. how to hit Flying Skull with 30DR? easy - dispell his magic Armor and then debuff him so his Dex falls. How to kill spiders? Fire/Acid. How to kill stealthers? Blinding dust etc. Even if your build/party composition does not have specific abilities - game provides you lot of potions, scrolls, staves that do so there litterally is no excuses.
you should have way more subs, keep going, great work
Quite a lot of fun moments between the characters. If one goes on the attack (say Jaethal) criticising another, the attacked npc always gets the last word. Also, there are some pretty good side quests for these characters, with some interesting developments.