Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – an adventure that I do not want to leave

The new project from Russian developers from OWLCAT Games is generally followed along the beaten path of their last game – Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It was far from perfect, in some aspects even frankly problematic, but caused sincere sympathy thanks to the most powerful narrative, interesting characters and a large -scale path that the player had to go through.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous retained all the best that was in its predecessor, corrected many of its controversial aspects, and also expanded significantly, or if you want, contently. It turned out not without questions, the developers still have where to strive.

The technical condition of the game

Start a story with bugs is a strange and incompetent decision for me. But taking into account the context of the fact that Kingmaker has gained a reputation as an ineffective build on the release, I think it is the issue of the technical condition of the new game that interests fans primarily. And answering this question – you can play.

Let me not find the release of Kingmaker, unfortunately or fortunately played the already crushed version and do not know the full scale of the tragedy, in isolation from the predecessor Wrath of the Righteous looks properly polished. There are bugs, some of them are constant in nature, but they failed to overshadow my passage.

According to developers, in order to thoroughly test the game, they took advantage of a special software that was supposed to unload the work of the testers and minimize errors. As I understand it, for large -scale projects this practice is normal – the same Larian Studios also use bots in testing their games.

Working on such a large -scale project, we received an incredible amount of experience and, of course, gathered our rake crop. Naturally, working on a new game, we tried to take into account all this experience. We have developed a number of technical solutions that help us automate some processes in development-not only in the QA field, but also, for example, in the work of levela designers and art department;We significantly expanded the composition of the studio;We began to carefully calculate the terms of work and volume of content (although, given the increased variability and various mythical ways, the latter still turns out a lot).

The result was, in my opinion, excellent. For my passage, a side quest has only broken down. By dialogue, my partner had to attack me, since I could not fulfill the condition on time, but something broke down, the battle did not begin, everyone suddenly forgot about the conflict, and the character remained in my group. And even his personal quests could be continued as if nothing had happened.

Sometimes the buttons of access to the map disappear, the modeling partners on one of the locations are happy to fall through the textures of the walls, once my portrait of the character after the restart of the game disappeared! But all these are more trifles than serious bugs. In general, Wrath of the Righteous seemed stable for all 100 hours of testing, and my bug-regions most often related to small visual bugs.

I think the opportunity to ride on the beast should work wrong. Unfortunately, the character model is riding in the mount

It is also worth noting the extremely active output of patches that correct errors – over the past 10 days there have been four such. It can be confidently assumed that in the future the game will become even more stable.

Now about the game itself.

The threshold of entry

The rules by which the battles in Wrath of the Righteuos are close to the rules of Dungeons & Dragons of early editions and, respectively, the Pathfinder board game of the same name. With all the ensuing: there are so many nuances and subtleties of the combat system that at the beginning it is generally not clear how it is all played and where to click in order to win everyone.

My personal tragedy in Kingmaker is also connected with this. I was not able to join the gameplay, it was not possible to sufficiently understand the combat system, so that from the gameplay directly to have fun. Even at the lowest level of complexity were difficulties.

The most obvious example from Kingmaker, after which I realized that I did not understand anything at all, is associated with pumping the robber. At the next level, I took the skillful possession of Sai. When I found the appropriate weapon, it turned out that despite all the skillfulness of possession, this same robber could not even pick up. Here, of course, the question arises of why this skill was generally in the proposed, but this is all a symptom. Private.

The global problem of such Pathfinder of complex games is that before sending the player to the abyss of battles, it is necessary to introduce him as close as possible to the stated rules. It is not enough just to give out a description of the skills and hope that the player will grab everything and begin to enjoy the process. This also works in board games, but in their case the player can ask the master something incomprehensible to him. This cannot be done in video games, because there is simply no living master at hand.

One of our goals at the start of Wrath of the Righteous development was to make a game more affordable for new players unfamiliar with the desktop system, but to make it so that the experience of hardcore players did not suffer. To do this, we decided to significantly rethink the interface, and also developed an adaptive training system. It is not just about the student at the start of the game, but about the complex system of tips that will help you at different stages of adventure and adapt, depending on your level and style of the game (which means it will be useful to more experienced players).

So it turned out-Wrath of the Righteous is still a hardcore game, but it has much better worked out the user interface, as well as contextual tips for the game, designed to explain the rules on visual examples.

In addition to the fact that the character traits are divided into various categories in different colors, the player from now on physically will not be able to take the skillful possession of Sai without pre -pumping the basic possession

There will be plenty of such tips during the game. They explain the most diverse aspects of the gameplay. For example, if the enemy caused permanent damage to your character to the characteristics, then a pop -up window will appear, where it will be written, in what ways you can remove the applied debuff.

The result is logical – Wrath of the Righteous I have already passed at a normal level of difficulty and, finally, enjoyed the gameplay. This does not mean that it was easy. The project is still demanding on the player, and in order to get comfortable in it, you will have to carefully read hundreds of active and passive skills, as well as experiment in battle.

Step -by -step mode

Another Kingmaker problem was that the battle regime in real time with an active pause is morally outdated. In order to effectively conduct combat operations in such conditions, it is necessary to pause the game every second, all your Pati manually give the right commands, and do not forget about opponents – you never know who they will begin to beat and what to cast. Leaving the battle at the mercy of artificial intelligence is also not an option: the characters do not use skills, and the battle risks turning into a real chaos.

Step -by -step mode makes order to the gameplay. Now it is difficult for me to present Pathfinder without him and glad that, though late, but the opportunity to fight in step -by -step format was added to Kingmaker. In Wrath of the Righteous, it is built up by default, and if the battle does not promise to be difficult, you can, by pressing one button, switch to real time and leave enemies to eat LCM or artificial intelligence.

It can be assumed that step -by -step battles delay the battle. The assumption is logical, but in practice it turns out that the player will take much more time to reboot the game, which he could compensate for more efficiency in a calm step -by -step mode. In addition, the developers made the function of rewinding the moves – fights are not felt prolonged even if dozens of units participate in the battle.

Of the small shortcomings of the regime, I want to note only the centering of the camera. Every time you inflict damage to the enemy from afar, the camera for some reason returns to the attacker, when the log of the damage applied is displayed over the head of the defending. Damage can be monitored in the lower right corner of the screen, but it is not convenient. It would be more convenient to completely turn off the centering.

There is also a shortage or bug https://nongamstopsites.uk/ associated with a touch spell. If you squeeze it according to the portrait of the character, the caster will not complete the move. It is necessary to click precisely on the game model.

Otherwise, the step -by -step regime does not raise questions. Extremely convenient and effective, and most importantly, excludes the randomness inherent in real -time battles with an active pause.

Game process

How Wrath of the Righteous is played at all?

Thanks to the more competent entry of the player into the process and step -by -step regime, the general impressions of the battles in Wrath of the Righteous are similar to those that can be tested in the game in Divinity: Original Sin. An incredibly huge list of abilities – according to the description of the project in Steam, then there are more than a thousand: magic of call, charm, control, etc.D. The abundance of all kinds of options is amazing. Intricacies – no less. And in all this diversity you need to delve into.

About the randomness of the game. Indeed, Pathfinder role -playing system, like D&D, is tied to the throws of the cube, and therefore involves some random. Looking around personal experience, I note that the management of the available resources and wide variability in the builds just serve as the goals so that the random in the battles play you, and not your opponents. This is the Kor-gimpley-use resources wisely.

Unlike Kingmaker in the new game, it is much better to feel the progression of the player due to the fact that Luta became corny more. There are more armor and weapons, many objects are enchanted by spontaneous damage, there are things with additional properties, there are sharpened things from +1 to +6. And this good lies almost underfoot. Kingmaker was wrong in Kingmaker. Some improved sword was perceived by the gift of God, not otherwise. Perhaps there will be connoisseurs of a similar approach, but personally in this regard, Wrath of the Righteous in this regard is much closer to me. There is no fashion.

In general, in many aspects of Wrath of the Righteous, it is perceived as a kind of work on errors in relation to Kingmaker. Here, for example, the study of the world is not limited by time. Perhaps in some other game, such a restriction can be justified, but for a role-playing game, where you want to touch a lot of things beyond the scope of the main plot-it is more destructive. A ticking timer on the soul of a player, the developers of Wrath of the Righteous replaced corruption.

The bottom line is that leaving the city and to explorely exploring the world will not work. The detachment gets tired of travel and spends combat resources on random battles – he needs to rest from time to time. When the detachment is resting, the damage scale accumulates. According to the plot, Holaryon suffers from a global ulcer – phenomena with which demons calmly invade someone else’s land, poisoning it. The journey through the spoiled territory does not promise anything good, and the danger from going to the world ulcer is just emphasized. If the player often rests to replenish resources, then he will impose serious debuffs.

This is much better than time limit. Not so categorical, but some challeng. The return to the city, by the way, can be realized not only on your two, but also with the help of a teleport, if you build a special structure. And it will still have to relax outside the territory of the world ulcer to get rid of a dying state.

In practice, most importantly, the presence of damage is not annoying – only in particularly difficult stages inserts sticks into the wheels, but not more than.

Annoyed in Kingmaker and constant random battles. In Wrath of the Righteous, there are clearly no less, but at one moment when the pumping of secrecy gains a certain value, 99% of the battles become easily ignored. Just at the moment when they begin to bother. I used the services of auto -rolling for partners, and therefore the secrecy was swinging automatically – I did not have to apply even individual efforts.

Mythical path

Great find for role -playing game. The bottom line is that as Wrath of the Righteous, the player will be able to go along one of the proposed ways: demon, angel, tricster, lich, azata, etc.D. It works as an additional class of a character, as new mythical skills are opened.

There is also a series of unique quests associated with the selected way. If they once wanted to play an evil demon who longs for power and greatness, then this option is also provided for. In the end, by the way, even the visual appearance of your character will be transformed – my wings have grown here.

Mythical paths not only affect the gameplay and your waging, but also involved in the nonlinearity of the game and are great reflected in relaying. I liked what I saw along the way Azata, but I would like to see other options.

Balance of complexity

I suffered, bit my elbows, hung on some battles for several hours. With something, but such a gameplay is not associated with my concept of normal complexity on which the game was held.

A couple of examples. Imagine, at the level you are waiting for high -armed, dense and strong enemies. In fact, there are many of them in the game, and single copies are not so scary. But when, as part of one battle, seven powerful demons fall into the player, it becomes uneasy. And this is not even bosses. How did I go through those battles? According to the classical methodology, he locked enemies in the doorway and barely killed archers, which took 40+ moves. Repeat several times to go through the quest.

Was there a more legal way of passing this scene? Yes, the game will advise cutting the regeneration of enemies with electric damage. It was 10 hp/sec., will become 5. And they have a healthy 200. Everyone has seven pieces. Seven enemies on which you barely fall by blows, and if you get, then demolish a penny. Maybe magic? So she also needs to get, and fines for getting on enemies who are involved in battle are rather big. And the damage is not great.

The second example is one of the bosses. The hit is counted only in the event of a 20 on a twenty-degree cube. Kills for any. Invincible. Is there a way to win it? After a few moves, an angel will come to your aid, which gets on the boss often, and good damage has. It seems that there was a problem, here there was a solution. Only this angel himself falls in one series of blows, and the only way to tear out the long -awaited victory from the game is to hope that the boss will not beat him for a while.

In general, it was very painful in places. Sometimes I thought that I rested on the ceiling, and then only a decrease in complexity. And all this is provided that almost all the quests are executed, that is, there was no lag in experience.

However, there is a story mode where there is practically nothing from the player, and the difficulty itself can be configured for yourself at any time. But I am a fan of more thoughtful tests, and not independent settings. In general, be prepared for hardcore.

Go there – I don’t know where

Another aspect that raised questions in Kingmaker is quest design. Some plot quests suggested a thorough study of a certain territory on a global map. Sometimes the search area was unknown at all. Who was looking for a stolen throne will understand. And the quest with the need to find a point somewhere in the fog before the final mission I still remember with horror.

In the new game, they completely refused that it was pleasant. Only within the framework of the site quest, the developers left space for a thorough study of the area-it will be necessary to find special runes in the world for the unraveling of the global rebus.

Here I would like to note the narrative itself. Kingmaker had eight acts, each of which told a specific story. In Wrath of the Righteous, the adventure is more holistic and from now on the acts are not divided, only to conditional.

Presentation of the game

It implies a set of things such as art design, music and graphics.

The music is beautiful. I am not a musical critic, and therefore I can hardly say something detailed, but I liked the approach to the sound design, where the compositions of a variety of moods, from disturbing to frankly frivolous, set a certain, and most importantly, easily readable tone of the stage.

Art-design since Kingmaker has clearly jumped forward. Previously, I had to be content most often by forest landscapes, dark caves and urban environment, and in Wrath of the Righteous the scenery became more diverse and designed from the point of view of details. Demonic stylistics positively affects the visual wealth of the project.

One of the locations that the player will visit is the city of Alushinirra, located in the abyss. An insanely beautiful interior that changes dynamically depending on the perspective of the camera: houses are advanced, opening a new passage, and sometimes entire areas change their location.

Consolidates visual impressions of the game of graphics. Before the release, there were fears that nothing would change since Kingmaker, but still the picture became an order of magnitude more spectacular. The characters acquired a unique appearance, the game models were brought up in the training grounds, although they did not get rid of the share of schematic, and global lighting and shadows became better.

Even full-fledged KAT scenes on the game engine appeared, but, unfortunately, there are very few of them. Basically, the isometric perspective does not change.

Narrative and characters

And this is what I love the Pathfinder series. I really think that the narrative support of this series of games is an order of magnitude better than absolutely all CRPGs that have been published recently.

Owlcat Games manages to write living characters, inside which a certain dualism, a certain internal conflict, which the player will be resolved is often read. A great example is Sukkubsha Arushalai, who throughout the game fights with its murderous nature. Or Palladdinch Siila – a wonderful, open and good -natured person, whose faith in people sometimes plays a cruel joke with her. Or the arrogant Count Daureran tenants (why is the name and surname in his Andrey?) At first, I didn’t even want to take it into the group, but having revealed his family secret, as well as watching him in the course of history, you open in him, in fact, an interesting and brave guy. Corner? Just the best. Infinitely sweet and good -natured elf, who in my adventure made a whole hell to repent of sins. In a figurative meaning, of course. Without spoilers.

This is the real power of the Pathfinder Games series.

And no less important, these are not role -playing games for twenty hours. Wrath of the Righteous, like her predecessor, immense. It feels more text in it than in all Obsidian games that have been published over the past five years taken together. And this is a high -quality text that carries you through a kaleidoscope of various adventures. After passing Pathfinder, not important which one, I do not feel that I went through the game. I have experienced a real trip long to life.

It is very difficult to drop from this splendor, hence and played 100 hours after 10 days after the release are completely crazy numbers for me.

Heroes of Sword and Magic

The crusade is a new game mode where the player has to collect a personal army, break demonic forces in the strategic arena, build up the city and capture outposts. Simply speaking, the new gameplay superstructure in Pathfinder is an analogue of the heroes of the sword and magic.

Something at the Crusade happened. A feeling of constant growth of the army and accumulation, like many years ago, gives rise to a sense of excitement. There are many units, the state has different resources, heroes attacking with spells, and at the rate of command the player is free to form their own ways to develop the Crusade. In general, it is addictive, but the pitfalls are available.

Very few units that are hired directly in the city. Since the game is non-linear, I can assume that someone can have otherwise, but I had only four units on the end of the game on the end of the game: archers, knights, horse soldiers and armored warriors. The rest, that is, mercenary armies, are formed for the most part randomly. The case is also aggravated by the fact that taking everyone and it will not work right away – you need to pump your hero with a special line in the manner of King’s Bounty so that he can command a large number of army. In the end, it turns out that the first hours of the new mode can hardly be called interesting. But in the end, of course, the whole thing is gaining momentum – the heroes are pumped, and the army is increasing.

A few more presentation of the Crusade is suffering. There is little rent, and the development of outposts and the arrangement of the city visually does not look like something significant. Personally, I would prefer the system that was directly in the heroes of the sword and magic: with 2D or 3D reinforcing cities, with the branches of construction, with manually drawn portraits of units. What is now in Wrath of the Righteous is knocked out against the background of the rest, beautiful, rich in the details of the game. In fairness, the models of units look good (not in portraits), and there are many varieties.

You also need to know that the crusade sometimes blocks access to quests, in particular to the final mission and to a number of secondary. If you planned to leave the game in the heroes at the mercy of AI, then access to closed activities will still not be open immediately. I played myself. There were no problems with the passage. On the contrary, after stressful battles in the main game, relax on a strategic map, breaking the hordes of demons literally alone with fireballs and archers so that they do not even have time to walk – it is a pleasure!

In general, as a gameplay superstructure for the main game, the Crusade works: it is played interesting, fervently, there is a lot of magic, there is a pumping of everything and everything. But do not expect a full -fledged substitute for heroes from him. The idea is good, but the implementation in a number of moments disappeared.

Owlcat Games, just make a new part of the heroes of the sword and magic inside Pathfinder, fans on your hands will be worn! Like if I agree.

A fly in the ointment

I am a very sensitive person to the dramatic side of the work. Often the narrative context of many games I grab on the fly and almost always, focusing on the author’s position, I make decisions based on them if the game allows. Most often successful, leading to conditionally good ending. So it was with Kingmaker. The new game did not work.

The bottom line is the following – in order to get a conditionally good ending in Wrath of the Righteous, to find an alternative way to resolve the conflict, it is necessary to make some actions in the course of the game, as in the third witcher. And I understand why these actions lead to a resolution of the conflict. But I do not understand how the player should have guessed the fulfillment of the given conditions, not knowing the true motivation of the antagonist. Kingmaker was wrong in Kingmaker. I initially sought to solve the conflict peacefully, and in the end I succeeded. There was a certain moral, a certain central idea that contains a message, a message. In the very story of the new Pathfinder, all this is certainly there, but this is not tied in any way from the point of view of the hero’s actions to the alternative finale that I wanted to see.

Or I misunderstood something that is unlikely.

And from the final episode, what players love the final Mass Effect 2 disappeared. Sorry for the general formulations, I have no right to spoil, but it is not difficult to guess on my own, which is about.

I’ll clarify once again that in the scenario aspect of the final episode, of course, there is nothing criminal – the player in any case will receive the ending that he wants (except alternative): finalized, integrated and offering answers to all questions asked in the course of the game. And if you close your eyes to frankly incomprehensible triggers to open an alternative ending, from the point of view of scriptwriting, everything is fine here. In Divinity: Original Sin 2 at the end, in general, a hefty piano is stuck in the bushes, but nothing. We value the way we are.

Just as I wrote earlier, I personally are quite sensitive to the dramatic side of the work of art. The actions of the hero are important to me during the adventure, and if my actions did not lead to the desired result, it is upsetting me.

Afterword

Despite a number of roughnesses, as the same balance of complexity or individual aspects of the Crusade, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous personally becomes the first contender for the title of the year. And it is doubly nice that behind such an ambitious and extremely competent project, which can be safely put on a par with Larian Studios games, compatriots are worth.

It is also impossible not to note the fact that almost all the shortcomings of Kingmaker in the new game were eliminated. The release build works stably, the rules of the combat system have become more understandable, a step -by -step mode has appeared, and the number of small stimuli like a timer in a plot campaign and permanent enncounters on a global map significantly decreased. Owlcat Games listened to the audience and did a good job on mistakes.

For an insanely interesting narrative and characters, for an unforgettable adventure that I do not want to part with. Thank you!