We analyze the version of Pathfinder: Kingmaker for console, after two years on PC it comes with some improvements, but what is its best version?
Pathfinder: Kingmaker started, like many indie games today, on Kickstarter where they nearly doubled their funding goal. In 2016, the development of the PC version began, with the idea of being a spiritual successor to Baldur’s gate and Neverwinter Nights, which would see the light of day in 2018. Two years and many improvements later, we get the console version that is reason for this Reviews.
We start the game by choosing a setting, Main Story, the main story; Varnholds lot, which is set at a point in the middle of the main campaign and parallels the main story; and Beneath the Stolen Lands, a quest that we can play directly from this menu or wait to receive it in the main story.
In Pathfinder: Kingmaker we have to explore the territory of Stolen Lands, a region that has been conquered and reconquered for hundreds of years, multitudes of kingdoms have been forged and fallen on these lands and now it is up to us to build our empire facing the external threats and even worse, to the traitors of the court. This title plays a lot with diplomacy, intrigues and political interests, we must be careful with our encounters and our responses when interacting with other characters, each one of them, both the npc’s that we meet throughout the Adventure, like our companions, have an alignment, that is, how they behave based on legality and morality. Namely, there are nine alignments: legal good, neutral good, chaotic good, legal neutral, neutral, chaotic neutral, legal evil, neutral evil, chaotic evil. Depending on how we adapt our moral compass to that of our colleagues, they will be faithful to us or they will choose to leave our group, or directly, not to follow us.
A world of options
We will choose our alignment when creating our character, or when choosing one of the predefined ones. The creation of the character is very similar to a role-playing game on paper, we will decide the race, the class, the gender, the alignment, although some classes, like Paladin, come with the mandatory alignment, in this case, legal good. In addition, we will choose some skills and assign points to some characteristics to adapt the character to our style of play.
The game gives us a multitude of customization options, even in the game’s difficulty, where we can play with various parameters such as the option to revive allies after a confrontation in which they have been defeated. Although some states, such as death’s door, will force us to go to a safe place to rest in order to continue the adventure.
Pathfinder: The Kingmaker is an rpg with isometric perspective in which we have two options to move forward, using the joysticks to move or using a pointer to point the direction in which our characters should move, as we would on a PC with a mouse. In this sense, it will depend on the moment and our strategy, but it has been easier for us, for example, to ambush enemies with the pointer than with joystick movement.
It also offers us two battle modes, in real time with pause and in turns. At any time during the combat we can easily change from one to the other, the combination of both can be very useful, especially if we do not have much experience in role-playing games, if we have it we will find the experience of turn-based combat closer to the role-playing game table, than action with pause. In both cases we will face a system of opposed rolls, that is, each opponent makes a roll, adds the modifiers, if any, and the result decides whether the attack hits or not.
For authentic role-players
The title is quite complex and perhaps, for those who are not familiar with this type of title, aspects such as the turn-based combat strategy and all its variables to take into account, the skill tree and the characteristics that we must enhance when climbing from level to obtain an optimal result of each character in relation to their race, their class and their role within the group, can become a bit overwhelming to the novice player.
Another aspect to take into account are the items that we find throughout our journey, some will be very useful to equip our characters, but the weight of the inventory will affect the mobility of our group, so it is advisable to sell what we about the first opportunity that comes our way.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker gives us the option to manage the kingdom automatically or do it ourselves, we have to build, make agreements with other cities, carry out missions, assign advisers … We must defend our kingdom with all our strength since, if it falls, we will lose the game.
In Pathfinder, apart from exploring, facing powerful enemies and managing the kingdom, there are many narrative moments in which we must choose the best option or the best dialogue to get out of the situation. This is complicated if we take into account that the game is not in Spanish, at least, not officially, since on PC there are mods that do allow playing in Spanish, a point that can tip the balance to acquire it on PC instead of on consoles. Otherwise there is no decisive difference that makes the gaming experience of one version more pleasant compared to the other.
Classic setting
Pathfinder: Kingmaker has an original story, based on the world that the players of the tabletop version already know, although we do not have the freedom that the role provides us on paper, the title manages to adapt the Pathfinder setting. Keep in mind that the story progresses regardless of what the player does, that is, certain events have a temporality in which we must perform them and, if we do not do them in time, we will face a series of consequences.
In the sound section we find music that accompanies us almost at all times and the ambient sound changes, depending on the time of day and the location, managing to create an appropriate atmosphere in each situation.
In the visual section, it is worth highlighting the beautiful illustrations of both the characters and those that appear in the book in the narrative moments, however, these do not correspond to the appearance of the characters that we customize.
conclusion
Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a good RPG for those who like the genre and have some experience with it, however, as we have noted above, it can be a bit complex for new players. We have found some bugs, small bugs, for example, when going around the map it has remained in a fixed point without giving us the option to move, this has forced us to exit the application and re-enter, or in some combats too They have been blocked, but they have been fixed just by opening the menu, leaving the battle as we left it.
THE BEST
- Adaptation quite faithful to the original
- Plenty of customization options
- The world progresses regardless of the player’s actions
WORST
- Small bugs still unsolved
- Has no multiplayer option
- It is not in Spanish
Good
It meets the expectations of what a good game is, has quality and does not have serious flaws, although it is missing elements that could have taken it to higher heights.
