Developer: Owlcat Games
Publisher: META Publishing
Reviewed on: PC
Code Received.
The kings of the CRPG are back at it again with Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Developer OwlCat Games, this time with publisher META, have delivered again, setting the bar even higher than their previous game, Pathfinder: Kingmaker. This time I played the PC version, but there are Xbox and PlayStation versions coming early next year.
This time around we are facing demons from the Worldwound who invaded the lands years ago and the game takes no time getting into things. It opens with you enjoying a festival after being brought into the town of Kenebras. Once you are up and about you do a few tutorial tasks to learn the basics, then are quickly interrupted by Deskari, Lord of Locusts, and the city is thrown into chaos. From here the real game starts as it is time to explore, form new alliances, and right the evil that had come to the world.
Of course, before you can get into the game your first big challenge is creating or selecting your character. Where Kingmaker has 12 class choices Wrath of the Righteous delivers us 25 Class choices each with their own subclass archetypes. This could be the single hardest part of the game, but the game does give you some preconfigured options to choose from if you just want to dive into the action. The game also delivers multiple difficulty options ranging from Story to Unfair, along with a custom option that gives tons of options to turn on and off to configure the experience just how you would like it.
The game is once again built using the Unity Engine, but this time it’s been optimized to deliver better performance and load times. We also now have more classes, a better implementation of the Pathfinder rulesets, which is a custom build of the Dungeon and Dragons 3.5 ruleset by Paizo, and now a mythic class progression system. The most notable change from Kingmaker is the amount of tutorial and pop up tips that we have. Not only are general tips shown, but if there are conflicts in gear or a choice with leveling your character the system will let you know. It’s great to get you up to speed and help newcomers to the Pathfinder ruleset.
The game is played from an isometric top down display which works amazingly well for this style of a game. The click to move system is super responsive and makes it easy to move around. The only thing that gets a bit jarring is you use Q and E to rotate the camera left or right, that did take a bit to get used to. The bottom middle has pictures of each of your party members. The far right side has your chat window and combat details. The left is all of your menu options from inventory, to characters, to even selecting the formation your party is when exploring.
Pathfinder also looks as amazing as ever. The graphics are crisp and clean and the sound quality is top notch from the voice acting to the sound effects.
With this all in mind we have another 100 plus hour adventure from Owlcat games based on the lore from Pathfinder. With so many options for classes and so many companions to join your fight against the demons, I am left still saying they are the kings of Dungeon and Dragons style video games. Now don’t get me wrong, Baldur’s Gate III is amazing even in early access, but Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous just delivers a complete, massive, and immersive experience.
