It has it's flaws, some by way of Owlcat and some by way of Pathfinder, but overall it's a great crpg with issues that get bigger the harder you set your difficulty (like prebuffing not having an automated option, get bubble buffs mod if you don't mind lol modding)
It has some woke stuff but it's overall really well done, as in owlcat grabbed what was woke about the pathfinder scenario and make it insert as well as can be expected (as an example there is a character that is trans but it is handled well in the story...as in you can easily miss it as it isn't advertised to the heavens and the character is changed from trans to sex change, which with magic is far more reasonable imo)
The overall story is nicely done with various differences according to the mythic you pick and it's nice to have a game that let's you get to 20 and even have more power on top of that. (Looks at BG3 max level 12....)
Systems are complicated if you want to play on harder difficulty and fill up spreadsheets, or know that down and go wild with whatever you want to build (seriously this game's difficulty doesn't pull punches)
Actual interesting companions that don't try to sex you at every turn...except for 1 but he has an excuse (though seelah and sosiel are a bit worse than the other, at least for me they don't mesure up to glorious Regill)
Over all great game and even has a roguelite dlc if you are inclined to just make builds. Rogue Trader is also shaping up nicely so yay Owlcat, please don't fall to woke.
PS: most romancable females are cannibals.....thought I should mention that
Most if not all the woke stuff comes from the pathfinder campaign that WoTR is based on they just layered it with a whole lot of story and context to blend it into the environment.
From what I heard the tranny/sex change character in the official campaign is more along the lines of traditional woke "HEY LOOK TRANNY!!!" and the fact they made her an actual character and that part of her life is easily missed, late into the game and still requires a dice check just to pry that out of her is an amazing way to deal with woke stuff and makes it feel a lot more natural.
It's not advertised, it came at the characters personal expenses and was through the use of magic. Some woke people might object but it's not like they can get that far in a crpg
I was recently checking to see how it compares to the other one and noticed from the Steam reviews that people are currently pissed off that a recent update added analytics spyware. Thankfully, it seems like the company backtracked, which sure beats other companies, but it was still pretty scummy.
From the EULA before it was reverted:
Thereby, the User hereby agrees that Owlcat Games has the right to upload software program files to User's Device, that will record CPU, RAM, operating system, video card, sound card, software and application of the other developers, peripherals, geolocation and any other anonymous technical and statistical information from User's computer. The User also agrees that Owlcat shall have the right to transfer the said anonymous information to its subcontractors, performing Game development, and vendors providing services necessary for operation of the Game.
Again, they did back off on it, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
Can't speak much to the game itself, although I am curious, and will probably give it a go soon.
Speaking of nonsense devs have added, I know I've ranted about XCOM 2 a few times, but 2K/Firaxis, under Take-Two Interactive (who I suspect are the real pushers) keep trying to force their bullshit additional launcher on people. When it straight up breaks the game for many people, and you need to use the alternative launcher (which people should be doing anyway, since it was still better than even the old functional official launcher.) Yeah, a bit off topic, but it still pisses me off years later, since that company refused to backtrack, and banned people for criticism too. So, despite the scumminess for trying the spyware in the first place, major props to Owlcat or whoever made the call, for actually listening to the customer concerns, and fixing the issue.
For the love of God do not go Azata. I made that mistake after hearing you basically become a shounen anime protagonist, but that's only the case if you have only the barest knowledge of what that entails and assume it's all saccharine friendship with weirdoes and sodomites.
I liked it overall. In general the story is enjoyable, characters are a mixed bag. The romances start a bit too early as well. But I liked the different routes (even if they all end up doing the same thing for 80% of the game), and the mythic feats are an interesting second level of character building.
I'm going to spend the rest of the post bitching about design decisions, though.
Major complaints: Every single "non-DnD" system they put into their games drags horribly to the point of being better left on auto (Kingdom management in Kingmaker, Crusade management in Wrath, I'm sure there will be something similar in Rogue Trader).
Needing to rebuff yourself so constantly in the early game is an annoyance to the point that the BubbleBuff mod that handles buffing with a single click went from "nice QoL" to "absolute requirement" after my first playthrough.
I'm always annoyed when the best companions you can take for higher difficulties are always custom hirelings. Let me respec story characters from level 1 (mostly a problem on first playthrough, after you already know the story the party banter is less important).
And the demon city is just fucking annoying. I get the idea of a city of chaos adjusting its layout based on camera angle, but it's just a nuisance. I dread it each playthrough.
Mechanically, it was a huge improvement over Kingmaker, although that was a pretty low bar. Your companions were actually useful in WotR, and the character build mechanics and gear options provided a huge variety of possibilities.
But story matters more to me than a lot of other gamers, and while the plot of the WotR AP is decently written in and of itself, Owlcat's interpretation left a lot to be desired. Your options for plot decisions were limited, and as much as they did their best to explore the lore, your main character's interactions with the world around him felt a little forced, as there were quite a few dialogue options and potential decisions that could easily have been added but were left out.
On top of that, as mechanically useful as a lot of your companions are, they're also completely unlikeable. All of them. There were maybe two whom I could actually tolerate, and the rest were an absolute chore to have around. My second play-through I went with an all-merc party just to avoid having those dumbfucks around, I actually built an almost-exact clone of Nenio from the ground up so that I wouldn't have to deal with her dialogue. But not having them with you or exploring tedious dialogue with them really leaves out a lot of side-quests and story, so it makes the game feel even more limiting.
That was the one thing that put me off from playing it. I've read the description on the companions and I realized I don't want to play it.
Kingmaker had a similar problem and I ended up just getting mercs but I just did not want to do that again.
It begs the question why were companions likable in other games and why the shift?
I still may try it out at one point with mercs. I don't think the companions are poorly written, just not some I would take in my party. BG1&2 you had a tone of companions to choose from, some of them were nice and some of them were not but you had enough to make a nice party to suit me personally.
The ones in Wrath seem either meh or annoying. Ember does seem interesting, Camellia and maybe Lann - way to few to form a dcent party.
This more or less mirrors my experience with the game. Going Lich or Swarm is worthwhile just to kill the rest of the party. They're all obnoxious. Nenio is the worst. She's like if someone did the butterfly meme and said "is autism a personality?"
Owlcat also can't help themselves but try to be oh so clever, and accidentally include an endgame zone designed to make you quit because it's so incredibly not fun.
It's pretty good. And yeah a game can last a shitload of time.
I think if you like the sort of game it is, it's an easy recommendation. If you don't, it might still be a decent introduction, although I think PoE 2 is better.
Mechanically I love it. It's deep in a way that Baldur's Gate 3 wishes it was. That comes with difficulty for instance. One of the first things I learned the hard way with Kingmaker was the difference between the Blur effect (20% evasion) and invisibility (50% evasion). True sight worked on invis for me but you need echolocation, blindsight or a glitter spell for Blur.
Now with Wrath of the Rightous there is some poz, most notable from Irabeth and Anivia. Good point is that you can kill her if you follow the right path. But more in general, the writing has a wider variation than Kingmaker for instance. For me, I love Regill and Arueshalae, Aru herself is a reason to play. The other companions are okay but you can bench who you don't like. The bad parts of the story come from the beginning which is a bit rough, chapter 2 picks it up and chapter 3 is a blast. The end of chapter 3 is rough, chapter 4 can be confusing and later parts of chapter 5 kinda bombed for me, mainly because of AC 70 encounters and puzzles everywhere.
I do think you should play it though, Have a main commander, Regill, Aru, Ember and a cleric and second melee and you have a decent team.
Protip: There are different mythic paths you can go on, Angel, Dragon, Azata for good, Aeon, Trickster, Lich for Neutral, Devil, Swarm, Demon for Evil. There's also legend which allows you to get to LV40 but not worth it in my opinion.
Kinda spoiler but Angel and Azata have significant content, Azata especially. The game seems to have a bias for. A quest in chapter 1, a new companion and extra influence over Aru. Dragon is a chapter 5 class, not worth it. Aeon and Trickster can influence certain quests and people but don't have as much content. Likewise Lich can make a boner army but outside that doesn't have alot. Devil and Demon have even less content and Swarm is playing alone, wouldn't recommend.
It has it's flaws, some by way of Owlcat and some by way of Pathfinder, but overall it's a great crpg with issues that get bigger the harder you set your difficulty (like prebuffing not having an automated option, get bubble buffs mod if you don't mind lol modding)
It has some woke stuff but it's overall really well done, as in owlcat grabbed what was woke about the pathfinder scenario and make it insert as well as can be expected (as an example there is a character that is trans but it is handled well in the story...as in you can easily miss it as it isn't advertised to the heavens and the character is changed from trans to sex change, which with magic is far more reasonable imo)
The overall story is nicely done with various differences according to the mythic you pick and it's nice to have a game that let's you get to 20 and even have more power on top of that. (Looks at BG3 max level 12....)
Systems are complicated if you want to play on harder difficulty and fill up spreadsheets, or know that down and go wild with whatever you want to build (seriously this game's difficulty doesn't pull punches)
Actual interesting companions that don't try to sex you at every turn...except for 1 but he has an excuse (though seelah and sosiel are a bit worse than the other, at least for me they don't mesure up to glorious Regill)
Over all great game and even has a roguelite dlc if you are inclined to just make builds. Rogue Trader is also shaping up nicely so yay Owlcat, please don't fall to woke.
PS: most romancable females are cannibals.....thought I should mention that
Most if not all the woke stuff comes from the pathfinder campaign that WoTR is based on they just layered it with a whole lot of story and context to blend it into the environment.
From what I heard the tranny/sex change character in the official campaign is more along the lines of traditional woke "HEY LOOK TRANNY!!!" and the fact they made her an actual character and that part of her life is easily missed, late into the game and still requires a dice check just to pry that out of her is an amazing way to deal with woke stuff and makes it feel a lot more natural.
It's not advertised, it came at the characters personal expenses and was through the use of magic. Some woke people might object but it's not like they can get that far in a crpg
I was recently checking to see how it compares to the other one and noticed from the Steam reviews that people are currently pissed off that a recent update added analytics spyware. Thankfully, it seems like the company backtracked, which sure beats other companies, but it was still pretty scummy.
From the EULA before it was reverted:
Again, they did back off on it, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
Can't speak much to the game itself, although I am curious, and will probably give it a go soon.
Speaking of nonsense devs have added, I know I've ranted about XCOM 2 a few times, but 2K/Firaxis, under Take-Two Interactive (who I suspect are the real pushers) keep trying to force their bullshit additional launcher on people. When it straight up breaks the game for many people, and you need to use the alternative launcher (which people should be doing anyway, since it was still better than even the old functional official launcher.) Yeah, a bit off topic, but it still pisses me off years later, since that company refused to backtrack, and banned people for criticism too. So, despite the scumminess for trying the spyware in the first place, major props to Owlcat or whoever made the call, for actually listening to the customer concerns, and fixing the issue.
For the love of God do not go Azata. I made that mistake after hearing you basically become a shounen anime protagonist, but that's only the case if you have only the barest knowledge of what that entails and assume it's all saccharine friendship with weirdoes and sodomites.
Learn from my mistake. Please.
I liked it overall. In general the story is enjoyable, characters are a mixed bag. The romances start a bit too early as well. But I liked the different routes (even if they all end up doing the same thing for 80% of the game), and the mythic feats are an interesting second level of character building.
I'm going to spend the rest of the post bitching about design decisions, though.
Major complaints: Every single "non-DnD" system they put into their games drags horribly to the point of being better left on auto (Kingdom management in Kingmaker, Crusade management in Wrath, I'm sure there will be something similar in Rogue Trader).
Needing to rebuff yourself so constantly in the early game is an annoyance to the point that the BubbleBuff mod that handles buffing with a single click went from "nice QoL" to "absolute requirement" after my first playthrough.
I'm always annoyed when the best companions you can take for higher difficulties are always custom hirelings. Let me respec story characters from level 1 (mostly a problem on first playthrough, after you already know the story the party banter is less important).
And the demon city is just fucking annoying. I get the idea of a city of chaos adjusting its layout based on camera angle, but it's just a nuisance. I dread it each playthrough.
I loved Kingmaker though I never finished it. Got into an optimization spiral and burned out on my 3rd run though the troll fortress.
Was the last game I truly cracked out on. It captured all of the feels of the 90-00s interplay/bioware/black isle games.
And i never would have tried it if it wasnt free on epic store. Liked it so much that I bought it on steam with all dlc but the dlc was disappointing.
Mechanically, it was a huge improvement over Kingmaker, although that was a pretty low bar. Your companions were actually useful in WotR, and the character build mechanics and gear options provided a huge variety of possibilities.
But story matters more to me than a lot of other gamers, and while the plot of the WotR AP is decently written in and of itself, Owlcat's interpretation left a lot to be desired. Your options for plot decisions were limited, and as much as they did their best to explore the lore, your main character's interactions with the world around him felt a little forced, as there were quite a few dialogue options and potential decisions that could easily have been added but were left out.
On top of that, as mechanically useful as a lot of your companions are, they're also completely unlikeable. All of them. There were maybe two whom I could actually tolerate, and the rest were an absolute chore to have around. My second play-through I went with an all-merc party just to avoid having those dumbfucks around, I actually built an almost-exact clone of Nenio from the ground up so that I wouldn't have to deal with her dialogue. But not having them with you or exploring tedious dialogue with them really leaves out a lot of side-quests and story, so it makes the game feel even more limiting.
That was the one thing that put me off from playing it. I've read the description on the companions and I realized I don't want to play it. Kingmaker had a similar problem and I ended up just getting mercs but I just did not want to do that again.
It begs the question why were companions likable in other games and why the shift?
I still may try it out at one point with mercs. I don't think the companions are poorly written, just not some I would take in my party. BG1&2 you had a tone of companions to choose from, some of them were nice and some of them were not but you had enough to make a nice party to suit me personally. The ones in Wrath seem either meh or annoying. Ember does seem interesting, Camellia and maybe Lann - way to few to form a dcent party.
This more or less mirrors my experience with the game. Going Lich or Swarm is worthwhile just to kill the rest of the party. They're all obnoxious. Nenio is the worst. She's like if someone did the butterfly meme and said "is autism a personality?"
Owlcat also can't help themselves but try to be oh so clever, and accidentally include an endgame zone designed to make you quit because it's so incredibly not fun.
It's pretty good. And yeah a game can last a shitload of time.
I think if you like the sort of game it is, it's an easy recommendation. If you don't, it might still be a decent introduction, although I think PoE 2 is better.
Very faithful interpretation of the Pathfinder first edition system. If you're a fan of Pathfinder you'll love this game.
Mechanically I love it. It's deep in a way that Baldur's Gate 3 wishes it was. That comes with difficulty for instance. One of the first things I learned the hard way with Kingmaker was the difference between the Blur effect (20% evasion) and invisibility (50% evasion). True sight worked on invis for me but you need echolocation, blindsight or a glitter spell for Blur.
Now with Wrath of the Rightous there is some poz, most notable from Irabeth and Anivia. Good point is that you can kill her if you follow the right path. But more in general, the writing has a wider variation than Kingmaker for instance. For me, I love Regill and Arueshalae, Aru herself is a reason to play. The other companions are okay but you can bench who you don't like. The bad parts of the story come from the beginning which is a bit rough, chapter 2 picks it up and chapter 3 is a blast. The end of chapter 3 is rough, chapter 4 can be confusing and later parts of chapter 5 kinda bombed for me, mainly because of AC 70 encounters and puzzles everywhere.
I do think you should play it though, Have a main commander, Regill, Aru, Ember and a cleric and second melee and you have a decent team.
Protip: There are different mythic paths you can go on, Angel, Dragon, Azata for good, Aeon, Trickster, Lich for Neutral, Devil, Swarm, Demon for Evil. There's also legend which allows you to get to LV40 but not worth it in my opinion.
Kinda spoiler but Angel and Azata have significant content, Azata especially. The game seems to have a bias for. A quest in chapter 1, a new companion and extra influence over Aru. Dragon is a chapter 5 class, not worth it. Aeon and Trickster can influence certain quests and people but don't have as much content. Likewise Lich can make a boner army but outside that doesn't have alot. Devil and Demon have even less content and Swarm is playing alone, wouldn't recommend.
I get it, but one of them isn't even human. I would worry about that first.
It's okay.