I have an anti-recommendation for Pathfinder Kingmaker.

They almost have a good RPG here but the combat is so frequent and the encounter design is just wack. The second to last dungeon is the worst I have ever experienced.

Normally I stop once I’m not feeling it. I’m not really sure why I pushed through here.

He sold the company in 2010! Big searching for the guy who did this energy here.

I quit playing partway in.

Imo writing was a major weakness. They were going for the sardonic Fallout-y tone, but didn’t get there. The humor wasn’t funny, and the writers didn’t appear to really have anything to say about humanity or capitalism - the themes the story was supposedly about.

This was definitely not helped by having every conversation be an extreme super close up with the npcs starting deadeyed straight in to the camera.

Combat was pretty meh. It has the worst weapon upgrade system I have ever seen. The player just pays money to make the number go up. Then in the next planet over, everyone has “pistol II” or “rifle II” which does way more damage anyway. I guess if one was being extremely generous, this could be interpreted as a gaming meta commentary but the game doesn’t earn this.

Overall, it just kinda felt like they were operating off of a “fallout in space” checklist, which made everything feel generic and boring.

I’m like a third or a little more of the way through so far. I like the new South / Mesoamerican themed areas which look great with the graphics update. The music is excellent as always

The pacing is exactly the same as the previous expansions, so no surprises there.

Part of me still hopes that they will go full voice acting at some point but they haven’t actually said that.

Overall I’m finding it pretty good so far and meeting my expectations especially considering the guidance from the devs.

Yes, but poker themed. ‘Combat’ is a round of poker themed solitaire with a point target. This is followed by an opportunity to spend money to upgrade your deck with fancy cards or modifiers. The point targets are constantly increasing, so you need to keep upgrading to complete a run.

If you like Slay the Spire, I would definitely give Balatro a shot.