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Andrew_Carr
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2005
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Just thought I'd shill a game I've been playing a lot of lately. It's still in beta with a release slated for summertime so it's not out quite yet, but here are my impressions:
Background: Pathfinder WOTR is a cRPG like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, etc. based on the pathfinder world. The mechanics, races, classes, etc. are very similar to D&D 3.5e, but the lore / locations are all different. In this game you fight in a crusade against demons. A rift has been opened between the demon world and yours and they've been pouring in and trying to conquer the world for the last 100 years or so, steadily gaining ground.
Gameplay & Mechanics: The gameplay is very similar to their last game but with the addition of mythic levels. These are really cool and add to the depth IMO and also fit the story as well. Otherwise it's a standard 6 party RPG game. The amount of class and race combinations is staggering though, so if you always wanted to play some oddball ("unique") class/race combination, this is probably the best game I've seen to cover most anything you could think of. The camera rotation feature they added is really nice after you get used to it. Overall from a game mechanics and depth perspective I really think it hits the mark here. There's paths for almost everyone and everything is pretty solid. I wouldn't say it plays drastically differently than BG2 or PoE and it's pretty much the same as the previous Pathfinder game, which is a good thing to me, since it seems like they've kept what works and added to it. Turn-based mode is an option.
Kingdom management, something I thought had potential but was implemented poorly in Pathfinder Kingmaker, is totally revamped and now it's mostly about army management so far. This is a neat idea, fits with the story, and provides a nice break from some of the battles you do as a player character. It's much better than the kingdom management in the first game, but it still needs to be fleshed out.
Story and lore: To me, the first game (Kingmaker) had a more unique storyline, but despite this game being based around a more common scenario I think it's done better. Even when you're slogging through dungeons and dying to the same fight for an hour in a row, it somehow fits the theme that you're up against an implacable enemy horde of demons. The main questline seems to be pretty good, but there aren't a lot of sidequests aside from companion quests. But it looks like there might be a lot of variations on the main quest which would be nice.
Bugs & Polishing: Sadly(?) I think this beta in its current state is less buggy than their Kingmaker release. As the game progresses the final acts are incomplete, but until that point it's surprisingly polished. I expected a lot worse but it's entirely playable, with some caveats. I expect that on release it will still have some bugs but it will probably be a lot smoother than their last release.
Characters / Companions: I think some are well done, others are awful and you should let them die at the first opportunity so you never have to deal with them again (Seelah). When the full game comes out I plan on removing her voice lines from the game files somehow. If you go evil or good paths though you should have just enough to choose from though.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised. I've been burned by so many games recently that I haven't been gaming as much. This game looks to be mostly an improvement on their previous game, which although I enjoyed it, was a buggy mess for a lot of people when it was released. If you didn't like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, or the first Pathfinder game, then you probably won't like this because the gameplay mechanics haven't really changed much. But if you enjoyed those, I think you're in for a pretty solid RPG soon.
Background: Pathfinder WOTR is a cRPG like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, etc. based on the pathfinder world. The mechanics, races, classes, etc. are very similar to D&D 3.5e, but the lore / locations are all different. In this game you fight in a crusade against demons. A rift has been opened between the demon world and yours and they've been pouring in and trying to conquer the world for the last 100 years or so, steadily gaining ground.
Gameplay & Mechanics: The gameplay is very similar to their last game but with the addition of mythic levels. These are really cool and add to the depth IMO and also fit the story as well. Otherwise it's a standard 6 party RPG game. The amount of class and race combinations is staggering though, so if you always wanted to play some oddball ("unique") class/race combination, this is probably the best game I've seen to cover most anything you could think of. The camera rotation feature they added is really nice after you get used to it. Overall from a game mechanics and depth perspective I really think it hits the mark here. There's paths for almost everyone and everything is pretty solid. I wouldn't say it plays drastically differently than BG2 or PoE and it's pretty much the same as the previous Pathfinder game, which is a good thing to me, since it seems like they've kept what works and added to it. Turn-based mode is an option.
Kingdom management, something I thought had potential but was implemented poorly in Pathfinder Kingmaker, is totally revamped and now it's mostly about army management so far. This is a neat idea, fits with the story, and provides a nice break from some of the battles you do as a player character. It's much better than the kingdom management in the first game, but it still needs to be fleshed out.
Story and lore: To me, the first game (Kingmaker) had a more unique storyline, but despite this game being based around a more common scenario I think it's done better. Even when you're slogging through dungeons and dying to the same fight for an hour in a row, it somehow fits the theme that you're up against an implacable enemy horde of demons. The main questline seems to be pretty good, but there aren't a lot of sidequests aside from companion quests. But it looks like there might be a lot of variations on the main quest which would be nice.
Bugs & Polishing: Sadly(?) I think this beta in its current state is less buggy than their Kingmaker release. As the game progresses the final acts are incomplete, but until that point it's surprisingly polished. I expected a lot worse but it's entirely playable, with some caveats. I expect that on release it will still have some bugs but it will probably be a lot smoother than their last release.
Characters / Companions: I think some are well done, others are awful and you should let them die at the first opportunity so you never have to deal with them again (Seelah). When the full game comes out I plan on removing her voice lines from the game files somehow. If you go evil or good paths though you should have just enough to choose from though.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised. I've been burned by so many games recently that I haven't been gaming as much. This game looks to be mostly an improvement on their previous game, which although I enjoyed it, was a buggy mess for a lot of people when it was released. If you didn't like Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, or the first Pathfinder game, then you probably won't like this because the gameplay mechanics haven't really changed much. But if you enjoyed those, I think you're in for a pretty solid RPG soon.
