Reviews from

in the past


I've had only bad experiences with Pathfinder: Kingmaker but I actually am having a lot of fun with this game compared to its predecessor.

I think the main issue I have with the game is the combat, and it was an issue I also had with Kingmaker. I think there's more micromanagement in this game than in Kingmaker but I don't remember. I think what I dislike generally is the combat system.

Character customization and classes are 10x better than in 5e, which is what I've always loved about Pathfinder tabletop. There's so many more options and they did a fantastic job in WOTR. The fact you can upload your custom portrait is quite honestly amazing.

But yeah, I highly recommend this game more than Kingmaker. It's so much better and doesn't delete your saves like what happened to me.

Mostly improved on the previous game. Even more customization, one of the best power fantasies in RPGs.

The main problem of the whole Pathfinder series is primarily combat. Neither real-time nor turn-based mods work well and it pushes my tolerance limits as a player. They could have looked at Divinitiy Original Sin 2 as an example when developing these games. The turn-based combat system in the first Original Sin game was horrible, but the second was improved to near perfection. Games like this should either have a turn-based combat system like Divinity Original Sin 2 or a real-time combat system like Dragon Age Origins. Anything in the middle is mediocre and makes gameplay impossible. Also, the mediocrity of the combat mechanics makes it very difficult to see the good points of the games. At least Owlcat Games has managed to add turn-based combat that is close to DOS 2 in their newly released Rogue Trader. The combat still lacks smoothness, but at least there is an improvement now. But this is why I will never really like the Pathfinder series.

Finishing my second run now.

Wrath of the Righteous (Wrath from here on) is Owlcats second implementation of Pathfinder 1E (which in itself is a branch of D&D 3.5E) adapted to digital form. While I wasn't incredibly impressed with their first attempt at the genre, this second game really does bring what Owlcat learned from the first to a new title. Wrath in itself is one of the most complex, intricate, and rewarding CRPGs on the market period. While it's generation contemporaries (which I consider to be Pillars of Eternity II and Baldur's Gate 3) definitely have their own flags, neither have convinced me of their gameplay, world, and narrative in the same way Wrath pulls off.

To break the ice, Wrath is really, and I mean, really hard for new players. It being my second CRPG after Divinity II really set me up for failure. The Pathfinder system is a deeply complex web of mechanics, classes, backgrounds, and more that overly fleshes itself out for the better and the worst. While this deep complexity really does let it operate on and entirely more complex plane of gameplay over its contemporaries, it makes it very hard to get into if you have not played Pathfinder 1E or a similar system. This is coming from someone who had been a gamemaster for D&D 5E a whole four years before playing the title. To say it may be hard to get into is an understatement, if you do not have the patience to read everything (and even if you do) you will hit a wall at some point in your game or frustratingly quit and come back another time for a new run. For me, I struggled through my first run and am finishing my second now, and I have very little patience, the reason I stuck with the game was the superb writing from the team.

Story
The story of Wrath is nothing unique, or even new, the story itself being based on a Pathfinder 1E module of the same name, but this doesn't stop Owlcat from not only putting their own spin on it, but making it feel new, fresh, and fun. However as a likely 98% of the readers of this haven't played the module, I won't explain the differences. What I can say is that the story encompasses the Player Character (the Knight Commander) leading the 5th Crusade against the Worldwound, a stitching of two planes of reality, and who has, by some miracle, been given mythical powers to aid the cause. However, this game's story is impacted quite heavily by both the player's choices and the players choice of Ten unique mythic paths ranging from slight story flavorings to entire story rewrites for the Fifth Crusade.

Wrath's contemporaries (BG3 and PoE II) both have their own unique implementation of character choice, but neither of them have the vast impact of choice that Wrath does in it's story. While some elements, and some villains will remain the same across runs, each run of Wrath feels like a unique take on a familiar story. A strange comparison I would make it a Disney Animated Classic and Live-Action remake, generally the same vibe and concepts, but major aspects are changed, except there are few (if any) bad renditions of this story. In a more general story sense, the characters (not companions) and the main antagonists are all very well thought out and each have their charm, they each feel like they belong in this story in some way or another, and while some side-quest areas or stories can feel out-of-place, there tends to be a resolution to them that fixes that distortion of writing, and normally in a way that makes them pleasing.

However, I would not say the story of Wrath, or it's ending is entirely better than it's contemporaries. I do think it outshines them both in scale by a fair margin (just by the game being a double to triple the length), but Pillars of Eternity II is definitely a better story, and Baldur's Gate III feels more like a tabletop game (whether for the subjective better or worse). I would say in this sense that Wrath's story works as it is, but it's not something I would praise entirely, as it might be unpredictable, but the themes and such are mediocre at worst and novel at best, but not exclusively unique. I'd put it below Pillars, but above Baldur's Gate in this realm.

Gameplay
As I briefly covered before in the introduction to this review, this game can be unrelentingly complex for new players, however, the tools are available to make that learning curve much less steep than you may think. This game has nearly 30 main classes and 160 subclasses, not including prestige classes (or classes you can only get later in the game), which is a metric onslaught of things to pick from. What's very impressive is not only the scale of this many classes, but the fact that at least 90% of them are playable on the 3 main difficulties (i'll get into that in a moment). As a player who loves customizing, this is a godsend of a choice from Owlcat, and a benefit of Pathfinder 1E being based on D&D 3.5E. Of course this can easily overwhelm players since it can be unclear what each class does or what is good, and in truth, this is a complaint I also have about the game. It's the only time I'd recommend using reddit or forums to pitch an idea or google a build idea and find what class or subclass fits it for you. Use the internet to your advantage. While you will have upwards of 20 companions (in some cases) you also need to build, you can also automate this (again, will discuss in a moment).

However, I am a big fan of this kind of choice. Unlike Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity II, and more so like every other CRPG in existence, lots of Wrath's combat is purely top-down, not overly animated or detailed and so the fact that this many builds is possible is a testament to that fact. While this also means that some gameplay elements are lacking on the visual front, I would much rather have a mechanically deep or complex game over a much more streamlined game like BG3, however, many may disagree with that. The ace up Owlcat's sleeve however is the ability to please all parties, while some people can't play more classic CRPGs like the Planescape or early Fallouts due to their Real-Time with pause style of game, and an equal amount do not adapt well to the recent trend of turn-based only combat, Owlcat just does both, and integrates it very well. At any moment, and I mean literally at the drop of a hat, you can switch from Real-Time to Turn Based. Objectively speaking, this is the best way to have a CRPG and I'm really disappointed that newer titles (like Baldur's Gate 3) did not do this. Pillars II, albeit and earlier title, at least gave a choice at the start of the game for which mode the player wanted, but did not include and in-game switch to change the modes like Wrath. For me, this is a game-changer for a simple reason, trash-mobs. While a lot of people may be opposed to trash-mobs (or mobs that are essentially pointless) being in the game, I am a big fan for a few reasons. The first being that it adds a lot to the immersion for me, this is a Crusade after all, fighting hundreds, no, thousands of enemies makes you feel like you pushing against the enemy. Secondly, it really makes dungeon's feel intimidating and dangerous, it's no longer a "oh let's just freely rest here" as the game has a built-in mechanic to stop rest-abusing, and you really have to make an effort to prepare for long-hauls without break, adding to the care needed to build a team and items, making sure you've stocked up on potions, scrolls, what-have-you. Third, it's just fun to kill a bunch of things. For these mobs though, I don't want to do turn-based every time, the ability to just set it on Real-Time and blaze through is not only making it less of a slog, it actively makes me enjoy using it.

There is also the difficulty system, which literally lets you change the game on a macro and micro level. You can either pick from the 7(?) default difficulties or craft your own from complete scratch. I mean heck, you can even change the difficulty in the middle of the playthrough. I remember in my first run hitting an insurmountable wall, it would've sucked if I literally couldn't just drop the difficulty a stage and win the fight that way. It also helps newer players get into the game since they can change it on the fly. There is also entire modes (like the controversial Crusage Management) that can just be completely turned off. it really does value giving the tools to players to make the game their own. This is one of the games best aspects, easily.

When it comes to the shortcomings of the gameplay though, it comes back to the shortcomings of the system. Besides the utter complexity, Pathfinder 1E is really a numbers game. Baldur's Gate 3 lets you have maybe 30 AC or higher by end-game if you really work towards it, Pathfinder has 30 AC by level 4, halway through the game you'll have a team of an average 30, and tanks with upwards of 50, and enemies with upwards of 60 themselves. This makes the most important thing in the game item optimization and pre-buffing. You will spend 5-10 minutes before a dungeon just making sure you buffs are all on, and the same before a boss. This can be annoying, and it does make some aspects really a drag, and while I could rationalize it back to the "preparation" point I made before, it'd be a load of bull. This is not a fun aspect and most players agree. I also think this game lacks a clear sense of what content is difficult and what content isn't. You'll roll up to a quest and get abslutely hammered and have to come back later, or go to a quest and sleep through it. If Wrath had a system similar to Pillar II's skull-markings on quests this issue could be remedied, as it stands, it's annoying. There are other gameplay issues with specific paths, items, bugs, etc. However listing them all would take me another 20k characters alone, it's simple to say that many of these issues are at best ignorable and at worst a mild annoyance. If you don't like Pathfinder 1E, you won't like Wrath's gameplay, it's that simple.

Companions
This game has the best companions of any CRPG I have played, including Baldur's Gate 3 and Pillars of Eternity II, and I will not budge. Both of it's contemporaries have maybe 5-8 well-written and though out companions with genuine archs, but the downside of such a limited number is that hating one makes it feel a lot more annoying. Luckily, not only are a majority of Pathfinder's 13 mainstay companions each have development that is servicable, I would argue they are all on-par or better than companions from their contemporaries. Not to mentioned 2 hidden companions and 7 mythic path companions that are possible to add to your team. I've made a tierlist of the companions of Wrath and other CRPGs, and while I can't say every Wrath companion is better than every other companion in every other CRPG, at least when there's 13 of them, I can remove half of them, or never recruit them, and still enjoy my playthrough and my companions. Not to mention 7 of them are romancable, no, not the whole cast horny-as-hell BG3, but a significant portion, and each of the romances each have their own unique endings and moments in them, not to mention, some of the romance arches being some of the best archs I've seen in a game.

To not get too overwhelmed myself with how much I love the cast of this game, I'll simply cover the basics. While Badlur's Gate makes the companions feel like they are over-the-top stereotypes that players can latch on too and Pillars II has some of the most emotional depth of companions you can get, Wrath somehow manages to achieve similar levels of depth, and still make characters with standard archetypes deeply compelling. If you told me half of these characters on paper, I would not be interested, but playing the game with them, the only title I can compare it to is Mass Effect. Each character stands out and unique and feels like they fit in some weird way, you're not a gang of outcassts or vandals in any sense of the way, but what Mass Effect takes 3 games to do takes Wrath 5 Acts in one game (albeit with similar play time). On my second run, the one I am doing as I write this, I chose a new romance option and assembled a part of some-new some-old characters, and it really holds up. Yes I've seen the questlines for them before, yes I've heard this dialogue, but man, it really does still work on replays. Maybe it's the near hundred-hour runs that really make the payoffs pay off, or maybe its the fact I am drawn to these characters because I'm stuck with them, but to say it as it is, I would take one or two Wrath companions over an entire team of companions from any other CRPG I've played, and trust me, it's really hard not to gush over my romance choices or party characters as I write this, like damn, Owlcat really excells here.

The only minor problem with companions, geniuinely, is the fact that they have pre-determined classes at predetermined levels. Some start at level 1 so you still get a lot of wiggle room, but some start as late as 10 or 15, and it is really hard to justify using them or building them if they have a bad build or just don't arrive early enough to be in the party. However, only a handful (at most) suffer from this, and you get to use them for their quests anyways, so the complaint is really mute for me. It only limits you in the sense that you may not have the caster you want in your team if you are a caster, but being you have 6 character slots and not 4, you have a lot of free wiggle room for extra characters if you really want there to be.

HOW MUCH DID I WRITE?
I'll stop here, cause I've been drafting this review for the last few hours, but to make it simple, play the game. If you like Baldur's Gate 3 mechanically and not for the AAA-quality animations, Wrath of the Righteous will work great for you, even if it is a lot more difficult. I really am saddened that the game is in the Pathfinder 1E system, but honestly, with time I've changed my tune to enjoying the system in the game, it wouldn't feel as good in any other game system and I think that's part of the point (you know, being a module and all).

TLDR: The game is a deeply customizable and complex game that helps the player learn it's quirks and functions and has some of the best RPG writing, and writing period in any game I've ever seen with unforgettable characters, a pretty decent story, and the ability to fully make the experience your own, even if it ends up being 150 hours long. If you like all these things and can spare time for a few hiccups along the way, you enjoy the game by Act III, if not sooner.


very much felt like the characters did not care for the story they were in at all. dropped after ~7 hours because the ratio of funny comments/voices to actual interesting writing beats felt too heavily skewed heavily in the wrong direction. I'm fine with levity in games but you have to actually make me care about the plot before you start throwing it everywhere which this game failed to do

combat seemed good though I didn't have the time to properly grasp it, and character building was the most entertaining part of the game for me. you could waste hours here and always end up with something interesting, though I've heard it is possible to make "wrong" combinations that outright forbid you from progressing if you allocate your stats improperly. an unfortunate concession to make for a robust character building system

Arguably better than Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 in some ways.

historia perfeita e mt incrivel mas extremamente complicado em alguns pontos, pra quem gosta deve ser melhor

Playtime: 20 Hours

Not for me sadly. I was interested in this game since it was well reviewed and I have enjoyed some CRPGs in the past like Wasteland 3, PoE and Divinity Original Sin. There were some things I did like, such as the quality of life features in terms of looting and inventory management and that you can freely switch between turn based and real time with pause combat. However the game just has a dull presentation for me. The prologue section makes you think there will be a lot of voice acting but there really isn't unless its main missions or you meeting your companions for the first time. Most of the time you have to read a lot of text which I don't usually mind in games, but a lot of the writing can feel very long winded and dull to read imo. The combat also is very party based where you have to buff your party before going into battle but most of your spells have a limited use per day, which I know is part of the tabletop version, but its just not fun for me in a video game setting. By no means is this a bad game and I wouldn't tell you to not buy it, it just depends if your a fan of tabletop games or your willing to get into the systems and rule set. Unfortunately it wasn't for me.

All Games I've Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/

The epic story is a strong point, plus I like the various build options for your character.

foolishly, i put this in turn based mode and had an okay amount of fun until i got to a defense mission where 20ish "allied" npcs take their useless moves one by one while enemy reinforcements spawn every turn. the fight took something like 32 turns and i uninstalled the game immediately afterwards.

honestly, i would have powered through even a little bit more than that, because there's something satisfying to me about pathfinder's ridiculous character building system, but the writing was the nail in the coffin: verbose, unengaging, boilerplate fantasy about angels vs demons, delivered in a combination of font and text box that made my eyes tire really quickly for some reason.

i'm sure there's a fun game in here if you're willing to look for it. not for me though.

I'm putting this on Shelved and not Abandoned out of sheer cope.

Damn, I'm fairly torn on this. On one side of the scale, it has a very deep implementation of Pathfinder that warms my heart. I got all the nostalgia fuzzies seeing everything - I spent a huge amount of time playing Pathfinder and it's what I learned to DM on, so I really loved that. Golarion is a fantastic setting as well, and it's really cool to see storytelling take place here with everything I'd only read in handbooks brought to life. I loved that so much.

Unfortunately, while in theory I should be gushing about this game, there's something about it that just does not hook me. The writing is solid, but the characters still somehow feel stale in execution, even when the ideas of the characters are solid. The gameplay system is a treat as well - as I said, I really enjoy this implementation of the ruleset's intricacies, but I can't help but feel that somehow the encounter design is a bit hollow. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it just does not click.

Still, I was enjoying myself and found myself sinking deeper and deeper in the game during Act 1, and by the time that finished was ready for the game to dive in and go for it. Then...I was hit with the Crusade system instead, which put a little bit of weight on the opposite end of the scale. I tolerated it in Act 2, but in Act 3 it gets even more robust and combined with everything else outlined above, this bit of friction firmly tipped the negative side of the scale downward, killing most of my interest in coming back. It feels like Owlcat made two separate games and then mashed them together, and it just does not work. I realize there is a mod that pretty much removes the Crusade component, but I think I'm done for now. I'll use that mod as my cope for labeling this as shelved and not abandoned. Maybe someday.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME ON SWITCH!!!! Or for consoles other than PC for that matter. It's been basically one year and this game is still a buggy mess with terrible graphics. Theyre focusing on their warhammer game rn but that shouldnt excuse for the state it currently is in when it's almost been a year and they've been making money off their DLCs. If youve played Kingmaker on Xbox like i have, then you know exactly what I mean and what's to be expected by Owlcat studio.

It's really a shame because the story and builds are awesome, but it's like the dev team want to make it hard for you to enjoy it.

If youre going to buy a game from Owlcat, please atleast do not buy at full price and atleast wait a couple of months to read the reviews/bug reports on discord or reddit after release.

its aight, heard act 4 was ass but i liked it well enough, ending sorta underwhelming but i enjoyed my time with the characters and story of the war. too bad I am so ass with these games leveling because only I emerged as overpowered as I was but my companions werent.

Maybe I'll replay it in the future, but the waiting time till you get your mythic powers is a detractor.

oh yeah i disabled crusdaer mode late into my playthrough, couldnt be bothered anymore.

Owlcat has some sort of sadist obsession with creating the worst encounters you've come across in your life, because they know other parts of the game are so good that you'll simply grit your teeth and endure them. Seriously bro what the fuck were they thinking with some of these encounters. Also the puzzles suck because of the UI. I actually liked the crusade management stuff. The story is VERY peculiar in some places, but the mythic paths I chose made it wrap up pretty nicely at the end.

This review contains spoilers

Overstays its welcome but still had a great time with it. A step up from Kingmaker (I never finished) and seemingly has come a long way from being an unplayable buggy mess. The demon city act and the flatness of Ahrelu killed most of my motivation to finish and I definitely felt like I was forcing myself to continue after investing 40+ hours. Companions were very interesting I loved how their arcs weaved into the larger narrative and most importantly they weren't annoying as hell. Excited to check out Rogue Trader

One of my favorite games ever but its has a lot of issues. Mainly with bugs and optimization but nothing so major as to make it unplayable. I love how there are way too many options for builds, it makes each playthrough truly feel different. The writing is also really good, specifically for the mythic paths. I have mainly played Lich, Aeon, and Swarm That Walks and each one really got my brain moving. Evil routes so well written and multi faceted it has ruined other crpg's for me. I give it the biggest recommend if you like crpgs and want a good evil playthrough. Lich in particular is very nice.

Bom demais, e a liberdade de customização de pathfinder dá um que ainda mais interessante pro jogo
Mal posso esperar pelo próximo, que vai ser baseado em pathfinder 2e

I found this to be a very tiring game to play. I'm invested into the game but every time I play it I can only play for 90 mins before hitting my limit for it, which made finishing it a very taunting task. So I decided to shelve it for a while, I do want to come back to it.

Insanely cool CRPG, which I don't play a whole lot of because so many of them tend to drag. WOTR is long, and it's wordy, but the writing across the board is super compelling and the gameplay is great. Not nearly enough d20 adaptations attempt turn based combat faithful to the tabletops, and fewer still do it so well.

I think one of the most impressive aspects of the game is its reactivity in the mid and late game. It's a little railroady towards the beginning, and thematically much of the game pushes the player in a Lawful Good direction, but ultimately the choice is yours and I haven't played a game that made being this evil this much fun in a very long time. It might have the best tyrannical undead lord RP I've ever played, full stop. Choices have meaningful consequences in both the dramatic and mechanical sense, with many decisions influencing events far, far into the game in ways you don't always expect, which is just fantastic in a genre plagued with meaningless binary Paragon/Renegade dialogue trees. Even when going for a particular alignment, I found myself making a lot of value judgments based on my feelings because the characters and the plot had me emotionally invested in the goings-on. There aren't a lot of games that truly make me feel rotten and satisfied in equal measure for doing something evil, or so torn over figuring out the right thing to do.

The character writing is (mostly) top notch, with the worst examples just being sort of dull in comparison to the high notes. When the character writing hits the high notes, it REALLY hits the high notes. The companions, especially the neutral or evil-aligned ones, are filled with some real charmers. Daeran, your sassy gay evil aristocrat divine caster, is a treat. He carries a tragic backstory tinged with mystery, but ultimately his alignment is what it is simply because he is a hedonistic dickhead, and he's all too happy to explain this to you, no excuses. Then there's Woljif, tiefling thief and dumbass scoundrel, who's a hoot, but heralds a subplot about confidence and powerlessness that adds depth to the character you wouldn't expect. Camellia, half-elf shaman is... well, she's unforgettable. Wenduag, fucked up bloodthirster and half-spider mutant, is fascinating, seemingly puddle-deep when introduced but later revealing a remarkable complexity behind her backstabbing tendencies and might-makes-right philosophy. Regill, who is essentially Darth Vader in gnome form, might be the coolest companion in an RPG in decades. There are no hidden depths to Regill. He just rules. Even the side characters and antagonists are full of life. Areelu Vorlesh might be one of my favorite RPG villains since Irenicus, and in my opinion rivals the latter for complexity in character and motivation.

When these elements mix, when the themes meet the characters and the characters meet morality, this is where the game's writing really shines. There's a particular young priest, a farm boy of no more than 20, introduced close to the start of the game. For much of the early chapters he is a background character, you hear his story and get a feel for his personality by talking to him - he's meek and ineffectual, but some great courage in him inspired him to drop his plow, pick up a sword, and leave home to come fight the demons in Sarkoris. Later, he transitions to being an important merchant, developing his cleric powers and learning to heal your troops on the march. You get a sense that this boy is finding his wings, that one day he will lead a great and noble legacy as a hero of the crusade. Then chapter 3 happens. In a completely missable sidequest, after investigating the temple he has been put in charge of protecting, you discover that in his cowardice he has been harboring a group of cultists in the basement. Their leader placed a curse on him so that if anyone ventures into their base, a swarm of rats will eat him alive from the inside out. And so he lies to you. Deceives you. Tries to hide the truth from you. It's hard not to sympathize, but the boy's lack of responsibility is quite literally getting dozens, perhaps hundreds of people killed. In a flash, the game demonstrates to you with a moral dilemma just how evil your enemy truly is, how hellish this war and its consequences, how out of his depth this peasant boy has landed, how he should 100%, absolutely never have left his comfortable home and journeyed to this horrible place. After that, the choice is yours. Do you venture into the basement to find clues as to the cultists' whereabouts? Do you take mercy on the poor child and agree to overlook the den, perhaps at the cost of more lives? Maybe you're an evil necromancer and your character chastises the boy, enters the basement without a second thought and resurrects the corpse of a noble warrior from within to serve as your thrall, the only price you pay being a rotten feeling in the pit of your stomach when you come back up the stairs and find the boy devoured.

I have to stress here that at this point you have known this character for, at minimum, a dozen hours. You were given time to grow attached, to dream of his ideal future before the cruel reality of this war rears its head and you are given power over his fate. Wrath of the Righteous is littered with stories like this, great and small, starting early and carrying forward into the heart of the game dozens and dozens of hours in before reaching their conclusions, and every time the power to influence these events lies in your hands - but sometimes the influence you have may not be as great as you like. So you think about them. You think about them hard. You struggle over right and wrong, fair and unfair, and perhaps ultimately go against your own conscience simply to play a role - you roleplay. And then you understand what the term "RPG" truly means.

The game's most glaring flaw, undoubtedly, is the half-baked nature of the Crusade Mode metagame that crops up in chapter 2 and beyond. It's HoMM-inspired, but lacks critical elements that makes those games work and is absurdly poorly balanced. Your first battle with a spellcasting demon general WILL result in entire stacks of units being melted by lightning bolts that do infinite damage for some godforsaken reason. You can turn this off, but you miss out on some useful magical goodies and what I think are some genuinely interesting RP moments that ultimately contribute a whole lot to the fun of picking a mythic path. After all, why would you deliberately skip the part where your undead kingdom begins to annex its neighbors? The solution, universally agreed upon by the playerbase, is to cheat. Just install the toybox mod and cheat through the Crusade layer. You'll miss nothing, as the real meat and potatoes of the game lies in the Pathfinder stuff anyway.

As an aside, it really pisses me off that Backloggd won't let me make this my game of the year even though it's still being updated.

Anyway, great game, highly recommend. Areelu Vorlesh did nothing wrong.

I'd need to replay this to get a proper opinion but this game is fucking insane in scope and content. The devs really liked Baldur's Gate 2 but this game got 4 times the amount of content of that. Writing is also far more compelling than the previous entry. Biggest negative is probably the army management but it's still better than what was in Kingmaker.

One of the biggest and bestest RPGs out there! Character creation alone will be too much for some (which is fine) but the sheer amount of options you have - combined with the mythic path system which gives even more combinations - is insane!

Characters are great, the writing is amazing. The main story is captivating and leads through an immersive world filled with adventure!

The weakest part is the kingdom management, which is fine - but the HoMM inspired army fights are definitely not more than a fun gimmick.

Overall, must play for any CRPG fan!


Loved this entry, if you aren't very much into TTRPGs like Pathfinder, it might be hard to get into it, but it's still pretty fun to play, and there are many many paths you can take your character

Looks and sound

WOTR builds up on its last game with better lighting, much better environment textures, the ability to freely rotate the camera and better character textures. The character textures are still overall fairly weak but a step up. The game's visuals are carried by that lighting which is leverged for some amazing effects.

The sound effects are good though there wasn't much noticeable in that regard. The voice acting for the companions and notable characters is well done though I wish we had a bit more variety in what the companions would yell during combat.

The soundtrack is very good with a staggering variety that works well for such a long game. I do think that the first game has a better soundtrack but that was from the legend Inon Zur so its hard to measure up against that. I have found myself listening to some of the tracks outside of the game too


Combat

The gameplay is why I enjoyed this game a lot. It offering an insane level of variety and freedom in how you can build your character and your companions. There are 25 classes and each class has 3-5 subclasses. You are free to multiclass into as many classes as you'd like as long as you meet the requirements for it. On top of all that there is a mythic path which adds another layer of variety to builds. You can also multiclass your companions into as many classes as you'd like. If this sounds a bit too much don't worry. You are free to not multi-class at all. Contrary to what some players will tell you, single-class builds are perfectly viable on the standard difficulties which is what I recommend playing on anyways

Of course not everything is equal. There are some classes and subclasses you want to avoid like Assassin which is next to useless in this campaign.

The game throws a variety of enemies with different types of strengths and weakness and different situations at you to keep you on your toes.

I do think the game veers somewhat into the unfair territory with some of the encounters even on the lower difficulties but most of them end up being learning experiences in some way.

Story and Worldbuilding

I don't have much to say here. There's lore. It exists. I don't particularly care for it. It does its job sometimes but this is a game I'm playing mostly for the combat.

I did like some of the companion questlines and the party banter that occurs when resting. Its also fascinating to see how much freedom you're given not jsut in the gameplay but in the story as well with a very wide variety of choices which have can have effects much later down the line.

Somehow i liked Kingmaker better.
Too much busywork here tbh.
Writing was good, gameplay was eeehh, to complicated for a writing based game (for my liking anyway).
Music really good.
Also holy shit the puzzles here suck

No crpg has ever had fun combat mechanics yet all of them force upon you ungodly amounts of combats, we truly live in a society.