Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Early Reviews Roundup

Owlcat Games gave an early build to the press a few days before yesterday's release of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, which allowed them to get enough time with the game.

Note that this early build was updated several times and included the whole game content, so it was very close to the experience players had on release day. Those press players had support from Owlcat Games on a private channel, to help with some of the issues before they were solved for the release.

Sep 1st

• Wccftech: 8/10
• Fextralife: 8.8/10
• Screen Rant: 4/5, excellent
• Game Space: 9.5/10, amazing
• Way Too Many Games: 9.5/10
• WorthPlaying: 9/10

Sep 2nd

• Shack News: 8/10
• Gaming Bolt: 8/10, great
• Checkpoint Gaming: 8/10, great

In video:

• Mortismal Gaming
• WolfheartFPS
• ACG
• Fextralife

More information.

Overall they mostly agree on a compelling story, good replay value, engaging companions, great soundtrack, depth of character creation. As downsides, they find it's intimidating and complex, the crusade army system may be a distraction and still has bugs (as does the turn-based mode).

I rather agree with this.

One or two reviews have weird conclusions like bad graphics and sound, bad tutorial and timed elements, of all things (there are no timed quests), which I found funny.

I know it's early to have reviews, but I hope it helps undecided fans get a feeling on the game and its stability right now. Fextralife's and Mortismal Gaming's were quite spot on, IMO.

We'll surely see other good reviews in a few weeks.

‘Intimidating and complex’ as a downside?! and you know Owlcat will be fine tuning the game for bugs and performance improvements.
Great stuff, hope this means we continue to get big budget isometric RPGs in the future.

Sounds really good!

Lol, I've spent roughly 2 hours in the game this far….still haven't gotten past character creation. There's just too many interesting alternatives & possibilities to choose from, I'm currently waffling between some version of Bard, Skald, Arcanist or Oracle.

With character creation, I always feel myself pulled in 3 different directions.

On the one hand, there's the "Lure of Power Playing", picking a class/type that I feel will be highly useful in the game. On the other hand, there's the "Lure of Challenge", picking a class I feel will be fairly weak and of little use but rising to the challenge of making the most of it. Finally, there's the "Lure of Discovery", simply choosing whatever sounds the most exotic and that I feel the least familiar with.

What to do, what to do…

Originally Posted by shamroxor
‘Intimidating and complex’ as a downside?! and you know Owlcat will be fine tuning the game for bugs and performance improvements.

Probably more of a warning for people who are new to Pathfinder or D&D in general, or are into casual gaming. People who know those systems will take that as a big plus

Originally Posted by Feist
Sounds really good!

Lol, I've spent roughly 2 hours in the game this far….still haven't gotten past character creation. There's just too many interesting alternatives & possibilities to choose from, I'm currently waffling between some version of Bard, Skald, Arcanist or Oracle.

I've seen reports that arcanist had some issues on the release version. Maybe worth checking Discord or the forums if you fancy that, just in case.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I've seen reports that arcanist had some issues on the release version. Maybe worth checking Discord or the forums if you fancy that, just in case.

Thanks, that's another thing to add to my check-list. So much to consider but that's all part of the fun.

Turn-based mode has bugs .. Oh dear..

Anyway, more time to spend in the character creation part while I wait for a patch

It's great to hear it's getting great reviews. So I have another huge rpg to add to the list. I surely won't get around to it untill al season pass content gets released and it's polished properly. Which is great for me.

I preordered it but waiting for another patch before playing.

This is hands down my game of the year and I haven't even gotten very far yet because of the many characters I've played. Some comments on what I have noticed, without spoilers:

* Turn based mode: This is amazing and increases my enjoyment of the game a thousand-fold. I can finally play a Pathfinder game as it was meant to be played, strategically and carefully and with clear markers for movement per turn, combat options, etc etc. No more twitching, just strategy. Pure gold.

* Mounted Combat: This has been a little janky. It's weird to see horses in caves, but it's even weirder with Pathfinder's pathfinding AI has a mounted character just shoot around the room in turn-based combat mode because the character is too big or… whatever. I think Kingmaker had similar problems with "big" pets, just fyi going in know that this could be an issue. Maybe a halfling mounted on a leopard wouldn't have the issue because that's small/medium; I don't know.

* Difficulty: On normal, this game doesn't seem nearly quite as punishing as "Kingmaker" did in the beginning. Difficulty is scaling nicely.

I could spend hours just in the character generator. I absolutely love all the options. That's one of the things I love about the Pathfinder tabletop game as well.

Originally Posted by Kos
Turn-based mode has bugs .. Oh dear..

Anyway, more time to spend in the character creation part while I wait for a patch

So far the only bug I've noticed in turn based mode has to do with mounted combat and large mounts… what specifically do you mean? Is there a list of bugs for TB mode somewhere? I've been loving it.

Originally Posted by FurtiveNyctophile
So far the only bug I've noticed in turn based mode has to do with mounted combat and large mounts… what specifically do you mean? Is there a list of bugs for TB mode somewhere? I've been loving it.

Charge attack is not always working, sometimes the attacker stops after a few steps.
Some abilities and spells are consumed, but not actually performed.

There might be others, this mode was already bugged in Kingmaker (still is), and became even more unstable in the beta. They fixed some issues already, but not everything. We'll have to be patient, hopefully they'll fix Kingmaker too, later.

I think the "turn stall" (nothing happening or no exit from finished fight) has been solved, however, I haven't experienced it recently.

EDIT: I haven't seen any bug list. There was a list of known issues for the pre-release, but it was partial and it's not been maintained (there was nothing regarding TB). I doubt they have the time for that right now

The game has some great rating on Steam (87% positive out of 671 evaluations) but it's interesting to read the negative comments. Many are complaining because of technical reasons (their machine can't run the game, somehow, or can't complete character creation). A few feel the game (despite its hundreds hours of gameplay!) is too expensive. Some expected something more real-time similar to a Diablo clone.

Well, you can't please everyone.

Originally Posted by vanedor
The game has some great rating on Steam (87% positive out of 671 evaluations) but it's interesting to read the negative comments. Many are complaining because of technical reasons (their machine can't run the game, somehow, or can't complete character creation). A few feel the game (despite its hundreds hours of gameplay!) is too expensive. Some expected something more real-time similar to a Diablo clone.

Well, you can't please everyone.

Sounds like every comment section on every game on Steam. You have a low bar for interesting.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Charge attack is not always working, sometimes the attacker stops after a few steps.

Pathfinding isn't great in general. If I send a few party members to attack, I often need to guide at least one of them around their buddies or they'll run in circles. I wouldn't personally call such a thing a "bug", per se, but it is something they should improve. I don't remember having that issue in Kingmaker. (obviously this issue wouldn't apply to turn based combat, but I've been using RTWP so far)

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
Sounds like every comment section on every game on Steam. You have a low bar for interesting.

Good point!

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
Pathfinding isn't great in general. If I send a few party members to attack, I often need to guide at least one of them around their buddies or they'll run in circles. I wouldn't personally call such a thing a "bug", per se, but it is something they should improve. I don't remember having that issue in Kingmaker. (obviously this issue wouldn't apply to turn based combat, but I've been using RTWP so far)

I've always had the crazy running-around syndrome, even in Kingmaker. Even out of combat.

In combat, IIRC the TB mode didn't let character pass through one another in Kingmaker (it wouldn't even let them go through open doors), and they said they would remove that in WotR, but it's possible they haven't yet. I've been avoiding TB because of the other issues, I need to check.

I like TB, it's a great tool to learn new features (new class, spell, feat, …) or just to enjoy the strategic part calmly. But it needs some love before I use it again - moderately, it's a real time eater!

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Charge attack is not always working, sometimes the attacker stops after a few steps.
Some abilities and spells are consumed, but not actually performed.

Have definitely run into both of these but I can deal. Loving it so far.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I like TB, it's a great tool to learn new features (new class, spell, feat, …) or just to enjoy the strategic part calmly. But it needs some love before I use it again - moderately, it's a real time eater!

I'm playing on core difficulty and am happy to use it in some quite tough battles in Kenabres. It helps a lot.