About Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, a new Russian RPG in a Western style (and primarily for the same audience), they are now saying different things – some are shouting about the best role-playing game of the year, others are pointing out the shortcomings and the danger of so often stepping on the same rake that Muscovites from Owlcat Games never removed after Pathfinder: Kingmaker . So who is right?? Let’s look point by point and answer pressing questions.
There’s an interesting story here?
Quite. Although the plot and plot as a whole are much more standard, traditional than in Kingmaker. We are immediately given to understand that throughout the game we will be fighting with demons who are coming from the Abyss and attacking human lands in the wastelands of the World Plague. Naturally, it is our hero (or heroine) who turns out to be the notorious Chosen One, whom the local goddess, the protector of people, endowed with light and strength to repel the monsters.
Therefore, immediately after the starting city is liberated with our help, the protagonist, who was unknown to anyone yesterday, is looked at as a Hero with a capital “H”, they almost fall at their feet, they hang on his every word. And the queen immediately appoints him commander, responsible for the Fifth Crusade against the demons of the Abyss.
But everything is redeemed by the epic nature of what is happening. It’s still nice to feel like the navel of the earth, which gods, demons, and mortals look at with fearful respect. In addition, behind the seemingly traditional facade there is a lot of intrigue and detail hidden. At key plot points, you can choose what to do – follow the path of an angel with a halo over his head, a demon growing horns before our eyes, an aeon (this is such a keeper of the balance between order and chaos), a lich or a trickster deceiver acting in the style of the Scandinavian sly Loki.
Plus, every now and then something unexpected and interesting happens. Then the tavern, the last stronghold of resistance, will be attacked by demons, and we will have to abandon everything and rush to the rescue. Then the local inquisitor will ask you to investigate an old case of the murder of a noble noble family by demons. It turns out that there is a “rat” in our environment, which has planted bait in our things for bloodthirsty monsters that devour everyone and everything.
IN Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous a lot of interesting events, unusual characters, non-linear quests and non-trivial dialogues – and all this is very cool, written at the level of good literature. And the authors did the right thing that, unlike the developers of Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG, they did not directly voice everything, every sneeze, ending each dialogue with the monotonously cheerful “It was nice to talk to you.”!».
And the partners here are bright?
Well, no one can reach Planescape: Torment, but against the backdrop of Dragon Age and Pillars of Eternity they look quite decent. It is the opportunity to meet many colorful companions that in many ways makes what happens in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous so exciting.
In your squad there may be a tiefling thief we pulled out of prison, who immediately drags us into the criminal showdowns of his accomplices; a witch girl who survived the fire, a beggar who, at the very first meeting, became the reason that several warriors of Light killed each other; half-man, half-lizard who calls himself a descendant of the first crusaders; a cheat and supposedly a noblewoman who looks down on everyone and disdains to communicate with the same beggar; a young aristocrat and rake, who was the only one in his family to survive an attack by demons, and now organizes orgies and drinking parties with local escorts; a science-obsessed girl who was so carried away by her experiments that she even forgot what race she belonged to. And that’s not all.
Everyone has their own burden behind them and personal quests, from which we, for example, learn that the aforementioned noblewoman is not a noblewoman at all, but, conditionally, the daughter of a washerwoman. Many of these quests are spread out over time. For example, a paladin in shining armor first asks to save her comrades, then you need to get drunk with them in the tavern and help with the search for an important item. In the process, it turns out that one of these comrades lured us into a demon trap. And then the paladin will worry for a long time, hinting that sooner or later we will have to return to this story and find the traitor.
A priest in the service of the local goddess of beauty will even suggest taking a walk together to the cemetery. By the way, he constantly draws the main character – and you can pose for him, so to speak, in private.
So what, there is an “agenda”?
To some extent. In addition to the priest, a young aristocratic rake also languidly hints that we “intrigue” him. Yes, in Wrath of the Righteous you can have affairs with representatives of any gender. And in the first half hour you will meet two lesbians who live together, and one of them, a half-orc woman, heads the local intelligence service.
The point is that Wrath of the Righteous – not quite a Russian RPG: it is made based on a well-known Western board game, according to the standards of Western games and is aimed primarily at their audience. That’s why in our native ATOM RPG and Encased there are Russian folk jokes and jokes about “shitty pancakes”, and here there are themes about tolerance, racial injustice and minorities. In addition, our folk vocabulary is present, and in one quest the authors amusingly ironize about the topic of tolerance:
In general, everything is fine with humor in the game. Once I met a skeleton merchant who talked about how they tried to save him from a demonic curse: they signed a contract, and then issued an invoice for the ritual services, calculated penalties, excise taxes and fines. And in the end they were forced to work for Mammon, the demon of money-grubbing, to pay off the resulting debt.
In any case, I don’t see anything seditious in this “agenda” – a lot has been written about xenophobia and racial intolerance, for example, in “The Witcher”. And it’s good if in a role-playing game we are free to do anything (well, almost), talk about anything and love anyone.
Here you can play a role?
More than. Firstly, the game is based on a powerful role-playing system, which was quite carefully transferred here. There is a choice of 25 classes, each of which is divided into subclasses. Then mythical paths are added – the already mentioned angel, demon, lich, and so on. Add to all this the choice of race, biography and unique traits.
You are free to create a unique hero – chaotic or neutral, good or evil, law-abiding, and so on. And play it out in tasks and dialogues, where you almost always have a choice of how to behave and what to say. Or you can shout “Yes, I’m tired of you!»draw your weapon and try to kill everyone – even the quest characters.
For example, I created a half-dead dhampir tracker specializing in the extermination of demons, chose the same half-dead wolf as his favorite animal and enjoyed playing in the dialogues a chaotic-good comrade who doesn’t mind drinking blood from corpses, and likes red wine during orgies, and in general does not wish harm on anyone, but values freedom first of all, and therefore allows himself to make cynical jokes, be insolent and in general he doesn’t owe anyone anything.
As the leader of the Fifth Crusade, he can drink with his soldiers amid the condemnatory cries of other commanders, and then cynically use them as bait to lure the demons into a trap. All our actions, words and decisions have consequences. You can quarrel with some companions and they will leave.
Wrath of the Righteous is as hardcore as Kingmaker?
Yes, the game is a path of pain and humiliation. In any case, when you play on the difficulty level “Fearless” and above, there are also “Harsh”, “Difficult” and “Unfair”. Yes, even on “Normal”, where the damage from enemies is reduced, you won’t be able to relax – bosses and strong opponents don’t give up easily, in a fight with them you can use up half of your spells and potions, get injured or have a penalty to your characteristics, which are removed by “Higher Restoration” or resting in a safe place.
There are a lot of factors that need to be taken into account all the time – all those die saves with numerous tests for toughness, defense, chance of causing or receiving damage/disease, and so on; restrictions on the number of spells used per day, which again forces you to rest, write down scrolls and prepare the most necessary “spells”; Many monsters are resistant to one type of damage or completely immune to magic. And much more.
For example, it was an unpleasant discovery for me that shooters who attack enemies engaged in melee receive penalties for this – this can only be overcome with the help of the “Sharp Shot” ability. Also, dice are often rolled to check characteristics when you need to pick a lock, detect and disarm traps, jump over or go down, use diplomacy, knowledge, and so on.
On the one hand, now the authors https://giochitelematicicasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ explain such nuances in more detail, immediately and clearly. But on the other hand, they left many irritating factors in places. Thus, our fighters often get tired, receiving penalties for this to their characteristics or to the chances of success when rolling a die. This forces you to often set up camp and rest, choosing who will guard it, who will disguise it, and who will brew potions or write down scrolls.
But the more often we rest, the more damage accumulates. And having reached a certain level (there are three in total), it will also begin to reduce its characteristics. Every now and then you have to return to the tavern or to your base to rest in a safe place. And some conditions, like confusion, cannot be relieved even by healthy sleep. Because of this, I once had to replay a large part – my hero, in a state of confusion, with enviable persistence, beat up his comrades who came to hand..
At difficult levels, the passage completely turns into a simulator of mathematically accurate calculation of a working build, since options and opportunities for this are a dime a dozen. However, for hardcore roleplayers this is only more interesting. And for the rest, the game offers a large selection of difficulty options – you are free to fine-tune it for yourself. Plus in Wrath of the Righteous, as in its time Pillars of Eternity, step-by-step mode appeared. That is, classic moves, action points and everything that allows you to calmly estimate, assess the situation and decide how, what and by whom to do it.
There are also battles like in “Heroes of Might and Magic”? Why do they?
And really, why? Apparently, only for nice words in press releases. As in Kingmaker, the authors decided not to limit themselves to pure party CRPG and added other layers of gameplay. They just changed the management of their own kingdom to the management of a crusade. Here we also have to build something, decide, respond to requests and events, consult. And from time to time you can control entire armies of crusaders – we hire squads of archers, swordsmen, priests and others, put generals with their own abilities at the head (they are very expensive), and then move them around the map to capture enemy forts and fight with squads of demons.
For victories, units increase their morale, accumulate experience, and we receive funds for recruiting new fighters, cool trophies and equipment.
But the trouble is that they are still an order of magnitude more primitive than in HoM&M, and often unfold on the same map with a log in the middle. During these dull fights I started to fall asleep and get bored. And most importantly, I began to suspect that the game was brazenly stealing my time, stretching out an already very long passage. Especially considering the fact that there are long loading times at every step.
Problems with optimization? And there are bugs?
Yes, many complained about bugs, but I myself didn’t catch anything critical. Perhaps because it started to pass only a week after the release, when several patches came out. In any case, the game is definitely not ideally optimized.
But it looks and sounds great – here the classical traditions are respected in the heart-warming isometry, in the way objects are highlighted and even in the way the icon looks, indicating the party where to move. On the other hand, cool lighting with shadows, a lot of details and decent animation are noticeable.
Yes, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous has fully earned the right to claim the title of best RPG of the year. In its best moments, it is practically indistinguishable from exemplary works Obsidian Entertainment and old BioWare — takes pride in domestic developers. But there are also problems. And God bless him with hardcore and balance – this can be corrected or learned and adapted. The key question that I would like to ask the authors is: why was it necessary to push unnecessary, burdensome and poorly developed mechanics into the game again?? Wouldn’t it be better to focus on the main thing, thoroughly test the project and produce an RPG that is not so big (and in fact not so long-winded), but verified in all respects?? We hope for the third part of the series.
Pros: interesting plot; many colorful characters; non-linear quests; a well-developed and rich role-playing system; difficult battles; flexible difficulty settings; gorgeous graphics and music.
Cons: the level of hardcore and the entry threshold will seem too high to many; mechanics of managing a crusade and fighting armies in the style "Heroes of Might and Magic" look redundant; bugs and optimization problems.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Best comments
But the difficulties with difficulty (pun intended) are easily overcome by turning on the “History” level, where the enemy literally dies almost after an a-click and the party can do almost nothing.
Yes, of course, there are still unnecessary Heroes on the global map, but besides them, the management of the campaign is implemented as it should: meetings at the headquarters help you get acquainted with the world of the game, understand what events are happening behind the scenes and how they affect what is in the frame, get to know some characters and better get used to the role of the mythical path that has been chosen, through decision-making. RPG, role-playing – that’s all, right concentrated here. To say that the entire crusade is not needed is extremely strange and almost a voluntary throwing away of a very tasty and large part of the role-playing content. Despite the fact that, I repeat, yes, Heroes as a mass combat of armies are garbage here.
In my opinion, it’s strange that the only undeniable problem – the not very interesting mechanics of armies – drags the entire game down to just “commendable”.
I agree, the game is worthy Amazing!
I have a plus for the commentators – the game deserves “amazing”, and the disadvantages include “difficulty” (the one that is very flexibly adjusted, yes) and bugs (although there are almost none and the bugs are fixed with patches, unlike games with incredibly boring gameplay that cannot be fixed with patches)
The big problem is that there are too many rules thrown at an unprepared player, there is no one who can stand up to them (GM, in simpler terms). In one battle they tell you about touch armor, in another – about initiative, in the third about attack of opportunity, in the fourth – about how hit numbers are displayed. It’s clear that these are conventions of the role-playing system, but an unprepared person is overwhelmed by the amount of everything. In fact, in order to sit down and play comfortably, it would be advisable for you to play tabletop PF, a completely different experience. I started playing kingmaker when I wasn’t playing with the PF system at all, I started playing WofR after several years of playing + several months of DMing, the experience differs significantly.
As for the mechanics of crusades, I don’t agree that it’s superfluous. This just dilutes the gameplay and adds epicness. You don’t have time to get very tired of party battles before you immediately switch to army battles. Yes, not as cool as in Heroes, but this is not the main gameplay, but an additional mechanic that you are free to disable.
As for the bugs – I only encountered one that did not allow me to reach the chest. And in general, the situation with bugs is much MUCH better than in Kingmaker at the start, the same with optimization. Kingmaker, in the early days, my start menu took a minute to load on a top-end SSD (Samsung Evo 960), not to mention critical. bugs.
The addition of the mythics mechanics only benefited the game; there are both obvious mythics, both hidden and completely secret ones.
The Sovocats were pleased, in addition to the fact that they created a good game, it is a joy that developers from our country did this. Well, don’t forget that such games bring more players to the NRI camp, which is also very cool
The game is at least the RPG of the year, and for many, the game of the year. It’s strange that there is no video review yet – it was for Kingmaker
But there is not a single screenshot from the 3rd act)
So we made it, Chinese consumer goods with moronic dialogues are highlighted, the best RPG in decades is praised.
And it is better, on the contrary, to increase our “tanks”.
Actually, it’s the other way around – the smaller the character, the more difficult it is to hit him.
And yes, it’s very strange that difficulty is written down in the minuses. RPG of the year, and for me personally the game of the year.
The essence of the comment for those who are too lazy to read is “I didn’t like something, but I don’t know what. The game is shit".
The mage in such games has always been a class that requires time to build up. In Wrath of the Righteous, his time is reduced due to the mythic Abundant Enchantment (taken at the end of the first act), which gives an additional caste, before that he will have to rely on wands and scrolls. At the end of the second act, they let you choose the mythical path, take the Lich and turn into a death machine. In the beta, I didn’t encounter any resistance at all during Acts 3-4, the Lich’s spells are so powerful
so the game is the raisin, lol
If we talk objectively
For me, it was an unpleasant discovery that shooters who attack enemies engaged in melee receive penalties for this – this can only be overcome with the help of the “Sharp Shot” ability.
This mechanics in DND is already several decades old
Pretentious partners? You played the game?
Okay, Reggil is pretentious, but here he is alone. And the pretentious biography… Even Reggil tells it in a down-to-earth manner… Siila, perhaps.
For me, the complexity of the mechanics is the main advantage of the game. These are all 25+ classes with a gigantic variety of possible combinations – this is a unique field for experimentation for computer RPGs. This is the kind of construction set that you can play with for a very long time, assembling an interesting and unique character for yourself. And considering that we have a large batch, which can also be customized, this is fun for many hours. And the double thrill is watching how carefully optimized characters bend enemies at high difficulty levels.
The second feature that really caught my eye was the mythical paths. They are not given enough attention in the review, but for me this is the main feature of this part. This is a choice that radically changes the passage, both in plot and gameplay. You play as an angel and are drowned in pathetic holiness, you give light of hope to those around you, people come to your rescue from heaven. Or, as a lich, you bring death and despondency, companions run away from you, but instead of them you raise new (and unique) ones for yourself. But there are also more unique myths in the game, for example, the opportunity to become a living swarm of insects.
I’m about halfway through and so far it’s amazing (but with a discount on DLC and fixes).
The characters are cool, there is non-linearity (if you want, parallel to the main story, be a hippie with good creatures, or if you want, go to the Abyss and rise as a demon lord), the picture is nice, the plot (again, for now) is not bad and… bugs. And also the entry threshold.
With the first ones everything is clear, visual stretching of models, disappearance of the interface, drop in FPS.
Well, the second point is controversial. On the one hand, the difficulty is still flexibly adjusted, there are a lot of context clues and, still, the devil will break his leg.
How many hours have you played, Mr. Voloshin??
No, such a quantity of everything from the doorstep is a problem with the game. If a player were given 10 classes, which then after at least 1-2 hours could be changed to another class, and then generally upgraded to a third, then it would be normal. There are no complaints about the same plot myths, there is a gap between them and it is necessary to play out.
Baldura regarding the second part of the ranger according to class diversity nervously hiccups and cries in the corner. 25 classes with 7 subclasses each, and this subclass can change the mechanics of the class quite well. Moreover, if you start collecting classes into groups, you quickly get the feeling that the classes should have been collapsed.
As for the party scattering – turn-based mode is everything.
As for the pretentious Persians – in my opinion, only one is strong in pathos, Regill, who is a pretentious lawyer, will kill the wounded so that the rest do not die, etc. But this is explained by his character and view of the world. Of my party members, I don’t have only 1, the rest don’t shine with pathos. In fact, you have a burnt child, a lizard who knows that he is allotted 4 years and this puts pressure on him, a stupid good-natured paladin, a typical egoistic thief, a rushing priest and a hedonist oracle (well, he can also get into pathos, yes). All of them have different dialogues and are very interesting, in my opinion.
Well… He mentioned council and construction… Probably this means that he reached… Until the third act.
