In 2018 the massively loved (and horribly complex) tabletop RPG – Pathfinder, received a long overdue party-based RPG, cut from a similar cloth to its D&D brethren – Baldur’s Gate. Now, 2 years on and Pathfinder: Kingmaker is coming to Xbox and Playstation in its definitive state, allowing not only new audiences to find it, but also a much needed overhaul to help revive the game for the many who had issues with it.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Definitive Edition is not just a re-release with a new control scheme for consoles. Instead it’s a meticulously rupdated version of the game. Although it’s tempting to dive into the new control scheme or the new combat system implemented from player feedback, it’s probably more beneficial for me to review the core game experience as the new console versions will open this game up to lots of new players.
If you have played it before and are interested in what kind of changes have been done to improve the experience and make it worthy of a second chance, then don’t worry we discuss what is new and how it compares.
Choose You Own Adventure
Pathfinder: Kingmaker tells its story in a typical old school RPG fashion. It’s basically an interactive novel with the finer details being told through text and the actual visual gameplay there to help you manoeuvre through the experience.
The visuals often don’t really represent what is being said in the story, nor do your 3D character models really represent their 2D portraits – but this is normal in the genre and certainly didn’t hamper the experience for me.
After you spend hours with the incredibly detailed character creator, the game begins with you and your custom-made level 1 adventurer; answering a call to rid some unclaimed lands of a bandit warlord. In return you will receive the title of baron/baroness and rule over this new kingdom.
It’s a classic “rise to glory” arc which ends up focusing on some interesting political story arcs that evolve as your character grows and helps shape and define your adventure.
The political intrigue that the game champions throughout is helped by the shift in game direction that happens around 10 hours in.
Manage Your Own Adventure
Whilst the game continues to be a classic party-based role-playing game the entire time; it also requires you to manage your own Kingdom and its denizens in a well-designed and surprisingly deep kingdom management system.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker does a really nice job of making you feel in charge and making your decisions have weight. Unfortunately, this ends up meaning that the grander narrative to the game takes a bit of a back seat and the almost anthology like political fantasy compilation that it becomes, doesn’t make up for it.
That being said, starting as a level one adventurer, building up a party of incredibly well written and realised characters, to then become the Lord of your own realm; definitely offered a decent storytelling experience at very least – it just didn’t take many risks in that department, making it feel slightly unoriginal, despite some truly stellar writing.
Where I did feel the story suffered was in its environmental design. Crypts and tombs; or forests and wildlands just felt very plain and without much character. My mind harpers to games like Baldur’s Gate or Pillars of Eternity, where each and every place you visit is brimming with character and intrigue.
I just didn’t feel the same way about Pathfinder’s environments which lended to a feeling of repetition that set in very early on and actually separated the text storytelling from the visual storytelling too much.
Definitely Definitive
If like me you can’t get on with the “real time with pause” combat system, that most party-based RPGs use, then you are in luck. With the Definitive Edition, you can now seamlessly switch between the original combat system and a new turn-based combat system.
The turn-based system uses an initiative check to decide who goes in what order, which is then displayed nicely on the left side of the screen.
It certainly slows the game down but offers a far more immersive way of fighting. One which gives you much more time to get to know your characters and their abilities.
Along with this new combat system comes the new control scheme, which was created for specifically for Xbox and Playstation versions. Pathfinder: Kingmaker Definitive Edition also adds updated controller support for Steam and Windows.
Control Mastery
Playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker with a controller is surprisingly easy. Not only is it nice to be able to move around with analogue sticks, rather than constantly clicking like an RTS; but Owlcat Games have done a truly stellar job of completely overhauling the game’s HUD and UI to accommodate the new control scheme.
I had my doubts whether Pathfinder: Kingmaker would work on console without using a keyboard and mouse, but I was wrong – the experience was actually preferable with an Xbox controller.
Both of these are the biggest changed features for the Definitive Edition and come directly from the criticisms of the fans. These features have been delivered incredibly well and they have definitely made the game more accessible for others; but luckily they are dwarfed by the more subtle hotfixes, balancing changes and general quality changes that make the original features still excellent choices depending on your personal taste.
No GM, Mo Problems
Pathfinder: Kingmaker does an excellent job of portraying the unique and immersive feel of table top role playing, maybe better than any other game has done before, but whilst this is great in terms of design depth and general narrative intrigue – it also shows why the medium of table top RPG playing should be separate to the medium of RPG video games.
This focus allows for extremely in depth character creation and progression, each level up offering the exact same experience as levelling up in it’s table top counterpart; and also the mechanics from the source material are there too, with dice rolling being an obvious driving factor behind everything you do.
Unfortunately this focus on intricately portraying the source material and how its experienced ends up causing some real issues in the game too, and that is due to there being a lack of a GM (Game Master) to help balance the incredibly complex and unpredictable mechanics of the game to ensure that players are never left frustrated or unhappy with what is happening.
Mo Difficulty, Mo Problem
Dungeon crawls end up being hours long slogs through enemy infested and frankly dull environments, where you go through a repetitive process of following paths, killing enemies and reaching the end of the area.
Despite there being a whole list of balancing and progression fixes that come along with this edition, it is simply not possible to accommodate for a game that requires constant reviewing from a mechanical and situational perspective. Pathfinder: Kingmaker can be frustrating. Even on easier difficulties, there will be times where you feel that the game is almost broken because of the amount of times you have missed an attack on 1 creature.
It’s great for narrative depth and custom playthroughs. However, where it really matters, in the game’s progression system and just general enjoyment, the decision to stick as close to its tabletop roots as possible causes more harm than good.
The Verdict
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Definitive Edition is by far the best way to experience the game. Owlcat Games clearly listened to the fans when refining the entire package.
It certainly isn’t perfect. The game can still introduce some frustrating moments and stretches. Old-school RPG fans will easily find an intriguing and well written story with a mightily complex and deep mechanical system to learn and master along the way.
Review code provided by PR
