Sharpe
2773
To clarify, Kingmaker has both displayed timers on some things, and also some hidden timers that are not displayed. I pretty much hate all hidden timers always everywhere and forever so that’s a big problem. But most players here managed to enjoy the game so…
Yeah I’ve enjoyed my time with it but have to admit I find the idea of hidden timers baffling because there’s no agency to it as I have no visibility. Huh, I’ve got real life if I’m in the mood for a bit of random failure thank you very much.
As for telling me better hurry up that’s just stating the obvious because I already know other hunting parties are out trying to hunt down the same beasts I am. That doesn’t suggest to me I’m on a clock.
It makes no difference though I went back to the castle to see what had developed and sufficient time past for the quest to fail. So it must not be a deal breaker to the main story.
I’m chalking it up as a glitch and moving on. I went straight from the lodge to the hunting grounds which took me all of 4 hours travel time, no one got there any faster than I did.
And here’s the kicker on the time thing: it took almost two weeks once I returned to the castle to trigger the fail state for the quest.
So to end where I started with this comment, I agree timers (even if that was or wasn’t he issue) which are hidden from the player makes for bad game design. I mean like really really bad.
I put over 250 hours into this game and never beat it once. In contrast, my 300 hours in PoE2 yielded quite a few completions.
Was that because it’s so long, or did you start over and over and just never push thru a run to the end?
I’ll admit I’m finding it to be a long one, I’m at what I guess is the beginning of Ch 3 and I’ve spent 50+ hours.
Start overs, bugs, crashes, etc. And I really disliked its dungeon designs, and heard that actually gets worse deeper into the game, so basically said f(ck it.
Sharpe
2778
Yeah, despite never finishing it (I think the furthest I got was around halfway-ish) I just checked and I have 135 hours on it.
It’s interesting in that I think there were enough good ideas in there despite the rough edges that I’m interested in Owlcat’s new project, the Rogue Trader RPG they are working on. I didn’t get into their second game, Wrath of the Righteous b/c the Pathfinder complexity trigged my OCD and I couldn’t deal. But they definitely bring some interesting RPG and turn based gameplay ideas to the table, so I’m interested. I just hope that with successive games, the rough edges get sanded off.
The game is hella long. No question. And the end game is easily the worst content in the entire game. It’s super drawn out too with terrible encounter/dungeon design. Total slog. I’d rather play through the Dragon Age: Origins deep roads a dozen times.
Up until then I was having a blast. So the end game is like…20+ hours (seriously) and the rest of the game (200+ hours). I consider everything after chapter V the end game. YMMV of course.
The “hidden” timers only really screwed me in chapter 2 with the ogres as I didn’t visit the mage before they had already attacked. Also IIRC there is a non-hidden timer by way of the “blasted heath” spawning monsters again. That is your general guideline for every chapter time limit. The truth though is if you wait until it expires you are already way too late as it always goes to shit prematurely. The margin of error is a week or two.
I’ve enjoyed my time with this one but I feel like the devs went with a bit of an all you can eat buffet approach and confused quantity w/ quality.
I’m only at Ch 4 and I’m going to have to put this one down as it’s just wearing me out. I can’t imagine playing this to the end.
That’s too bad, because Chapter 5 is the best one. Irovetti is a fantastic villain.
Well, I might just put it aside for a holiday break and pick it back up and play through ch 5.
Oops, I fucked up. Irovetti is chapter 6. Armag is chapter 5.
Fardaza
2784
I don’t remember where I stopped, but I put 118 hours into it. Really enjoyed it too. Was just done.
I could still see returning to it after a break so thanks for the heads up there’s something not too far off before the ending portion worth checking out.
Everyone says the final dungeon is garbage. And while they’re not completely wrong, there are a few things you can do to make it bearable. I did it 7 times, after all.
First, at level 15 give everyone the Blind Fight feat. There are enemies in the dungeon with stunning gaze attacks and this feat counters that. An alternative is to use lots of Freedom of Movement spells.
Second, the entire dungeon is in two phases like the small First World area at the end of Season of Bloom. It’s annoying as fuck. But there is a small side-quest inside the dungeon that involves mirrors. Once you reveal a mirror in the fog of war, you can always see it. All the mirrors occur in the same phase. This way you can tell if you’re in phase “A” or “B”.
Apparently that final dungeon can be the end, but there are two “chapters” after it. And it’s all (mostly) the same combat encounters against the same bullshit gaze stun enemies. No quests or anything other than killing through mobs to get to the final final boss.
There’s one chapter after the final dungeon. It’s really, really neat. It brings together everything you’ve done and the decisions you’ve made throughout the whole game. It’s great stuff, and Wrath was a huge let down in comparison.
You can skip chapter 8 if you chose to give Shyka the crown, which is an unlikely choice. This will also break the tiefling romance, as her romance concludes in chapter 8. You should only do this for the achievement and the ending slides, because you’re robbing yourself of some of the best content in the game.
