What a game to talk about. My first interactions with Pathfinder was at a gaming convention last year. Personally growing up I never had experiences with DND. In fact for a time I thought it stood for Dunces and Dragons when I was little, a mistake in comprehension that lasted until high school. In my adulthood however I began to be more interested in the DND type of world. Pathfinder is in the same vein, and is actually really cool. So when a friend told me about this game I thought I would give it a try.
the story
So what is it? well its a RPG in the same style of a game like Fallout. Not fallout 3 but the first two fallout games. It also allows a person to select characters in the party like a RTS game. It starts out with a fairly cool intro and even in the tutorial your choices can result in different parties. There are quite a few people whom can join the party each with their own background and skills. You start out in a large city. The government is hiring a bunch of people to take over the stolen lands (a lawless swath of land in dispute) and you are in this assortment of merch. Take the land and become baron. Very simple in terms of story. Like fallout and many other games its in how it tells the story, giving the player a high degree of choice. it also provides a lot of world building and lore, which to me is perfect.
the gameplay
It also follows most common of Western RPG designs. You have a initial goal and a time limit. It has a limited number of days to complete this. once you accomplish this it doesn't end. But that's all I will say on that.
But be warned, this game is very unforgiving, you build a character wrong and it will matter. If you want to not worry and just enjoy the story, you can do a story mode difficulty. Personally, I tried normal and quickly found I needed to turn it down for my first playthrough. The combat system is also all calculated like other similar games. It has skill checks even to fight, the combat reminds me of star wars knights of the old republic. This makes it really cool but also has the same frustrations. Like not understanding how your person can die so quick or why they are just standing there. It is not a huge issue but sometimes has aggravated me. I don't like watching as my person died due to a bad roll. but its apart of the game. It also surprised me with a baron management features later in the game. truly was not expecting the end game that is unfolding(as I did not finish the game.). Though It is difficult to match adventuring with running a barony. Most events that happen are all on a time table and if you miss it, that's it. It also has the moral alignment system, which can effect more than just dialog. it can effect even leveling up choices.
But it is a DND style game and world, so that isn't to surprising. Another criticism is the UI. To be honest it is kinda a mess, buttons everywhere. The Tutorial does a great job, but still it does go over all of them. So if you get intimidated by a lot of buttons on screen, maybe that might be a con.
Overall this game is really fun and was actually the cause for me staying up all night. That doesn't happen much anymore. It isn't even that expensive and if you like RPG and or DND it may be good to look into.
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