Recent reviews by Shiyah

Extremely solid remake of the original Geneforge 2.

I personally like 2's story a lot more than 1's, and the mechanics see large improvements. The addition of Weapon Shaping (weapon-focused special abilities) adds a lot more tactical and build considerations for Guardians and Agents, and the tier 4 creations lend some power fantasy to the late-game. The writing continues to be high quality, both in prose and narrative.

My only real gripe lies with inventory management. It's a pain juggling pods, spores, wands, artifacts, baton ammo, crafting materials, quest items, and loot in a 25-space inventory (+junk bag). Shops also have limited cash, so it's possible to reach a point where you have exhausted all the vendors of their money and still have items to sell (though to be fair, at that point there's not much left that you can possibly spend money on).

Some tips: Press `T` to make the log visible. `retrain` in the console command menu to respec your character. Use your consumables, you'll drown in them otherwise lol.

Honestly, I love this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game.

What I love:

• Build diversity- While there are some meta builds that are just really good (e.g. vivisectionist), you can build a character that you can love playing. There's a lot of feel-good stuff here. If you build your character well, you can feel really powerful. Even if you mess up a bit, you can still feel useful. Feats and classes and items all contribute to a variety of interesting builds. You might end up restarting a few times until you find a build that just clicks.
  
• The Story- You know what? It isn't perfect. It's a bit railroad-y. There's no GM to handle the story if things go off the rails. However, it does a great job of balancing the grand story and the less important bits. Consequences are real. Ignore a major problem long enough and it can be game over. Resolve a problem quickly enough and you get some extra time to breathe. You can tackle companion quests, do errands for your artisans, explore a bit, etc. It does a great job of balancing periods of high action and periods of low action.
  
• The story companions- Honestly, they're great. I love them all. I love Valerie's stern exterior and caring interior. I love Harrim's struggle to understand his relation to the divine. I love Linzi's earnestness. I love Jubilost's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I love Ekundayo's shying away from the happiness and companionship he deserves. I love Octavia's perpetual cheer. I really do love them all.
  
• Mechanic Depth- While you can play on full auto, just letting the party auto-attack enemies, it won't solve every encounter. Some unconventional tactics can really save you. Using Fear to render a difficult enemy helpless while you wail on them. Using Fascinate to keep your squishies reasonably safe from a mob of enemies. There are a lot of ways that you can manipulate a fight to your favor.

What's okay but could be better:

• Kingdom Management- Honestly, it's a bit clunky. While it's a reasonably interesting mechanic, it isn't super great. You can't reassign advisors from events/projects to far more pressing events/projects. Events expire at the end of each month and can arise in the middle of a month, leaving some events with a tiny window to handle them. Yes, I know it's okay to fail an event and it isn't always the end of the world. However, it just doesn't feel good to miss something big because you were busy near the end of the month. 14-day projects that lock you into completing them basically require you to save beforehand just in case something comes up.
  
• Running around the overmap- Just a minor issue, but a way to create fast travel points like teleportation circles between your towns would be very nice and/or mounts for faster travel (and fitting with the setting). Fitting in with how you can buy convenience in the form of bags of holding or buy BP using money, it'd be nice to be able to trade resources for faster travel (saving time in the process, the most precious resource in the game).
  
• Mechanic oddities- Pathfinder: Kingmaker tried very hard to adapt the Pathfinder PnP system into a cRPG. However, it isn't really perfect. The skill system was simplified from the PnP version (e.g. only 2 knowledge and 2 lore skills, skill point quantity reduced). Tooltips will reference "squares" (which don't exist really). The preview images in spell text that display a representation of who the spell can affect might not reflect the actual spell text. Initiative and the combat round system are a bit awkward at times. Your character sheet might not be totally accurate w.r.t. what really happens (check the combat log for the actual calculations). Some bugs might cause weirdness (e.g. Arcane Enforcer (a +3 dueling sword that also applies 1d6 extra damage) will apply the extra damage to spells, and this extra damage triggers Sneak Attack). There are a few problems in the classes, like how the Aldori Defender Fighter archetype gets class features at the wrong levels compared to the in-game tooltips/PnP version. On the whole however, it's a reasonably competant blending of the Pathfinder system and a real-time cRPG. Initiative matters even if it's real-time. The action economy (surprise rounds, 6 second rounds, move actions, full attacks, swift actions, etc.) is still present. The core of the system is solid despite the warts.
  
• Difficulty- Honestly, this is a hard game. There is no shame in choosing an easier difficulty. The game throws very difficult enemies at you. Skill checks can feel like BS a lot of the time. There's a decent amount of "gotcha" moments early on that you need to prepare for. Early game is very volatile, with you and your enemies doing a lot of damage compared to your hp. Traps are deadly (raise your Perception+Trickery skills, it'll pay off immensely). You will probably end up spamming quicksave like a madman. But when you do succeed, the catharsis is amazing. On the plus side, the game showers you in very good items, so that's nice.
  
• Item type rarity- Yeah, some weapon kinds are ridiculously rare. Starknives, slings, many polearms, punching daggers, and many other kinds of weapons are ridiculously rare. Do a bit of research before you commit yourself to a weapon category.
  
• Artisans- A bit more clarity would be nice. When do artisans create their masterpieces? We know it's based on kingdom stats but not much else. :/

What sucks:

• Bugs- So many bugs. A lot of stuff can go wrong the later you go in the game, with Act 3 The Varnhold Vanishing being the last safe act. Some quests can be bugged, preventing you from finishing them. Your clerics might not be able to cast Restoration despite having the requisite materials. Some Kingdom Management stuff can just stop working late-game. And so on. There's a lot.
  
• Relics- You might not be able to turn in your story relic fragments for some reason. Only 9 out of the 10 required fragments of the Forest Knight's Bracers have been found. A good portion of the reward items just have too little reward for the negatives it gives.
  
• Loading screens- There are a lot of these. Put the game on an SSD to save a small portion of your sanity, and it still might not be enough.
  
• Performance- Y'know what? I don't expect a lot from the new cRPGs that have come out lately, but they still chug on my reasonable machine on reasonable settings. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is about the same performance-wise as, say, Torment: Tides of Numenera. Sucks, but it's still playable.

Conclusion:
Pathfinder: Kingmaker is, at its core, a good game. Don't let the warts scare you away. It just needs some polishing and a bit of love to be undisputably the best in the modern cRPG genre. Recommended now, highly recommended when the problems have been mostly ironed out.