Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Nov 8, 2021

  DLC encounters are not properly balanced - it's basically just a slog fest, a series of ridiculously difficult encounter, one after another. Once you leave an area you won't be able to come back, so either you fight all the encounter and get all the loot in one go or just skip some. You don't have any control of which area to go next or the freedom to explore, and there's only one meaningful choice that affect the outcome - which is generally not what you'd want from an RP game.
• gamedeal user

  May 5, 2022

  Welp, that was pretty terrible. I loved the main game, but I have to write something here. I don't leave lots of reviews but this time I feel like I do, even if it's kinda late. I pushed to the end of the dlc and regret doing so. First, for the overview, it's spoiler-heavy, and should not be done as intended (meaning at the start of the Varnhold vanishing chapter, which is kinda the best chapter of the game, and for the most part because the mystery, which is heavily spoilt by this dlc here, surrounding this chapter of the main game is delightful). SPOILERS FOLLOWING The thing is, as said before, if you don't do the dlc when "advised" (on the internet of course, you could never guess it by playing the game, seriously), well you're punished when you finally do it. You start when, spoiler alert but I don't think this is relevant anymore, your main character is anoblished by Jamandi Aldori, and you go on with Varnhold's story while your character is busy with her (or his) shenanigans. The characters are nice, and, first punishment, you'll discover Maegar Varn's personality. While he is a completely empty shell in the main game (yay he becomes your vassal in the game and fights with you during the end against the lantern king, and that's it), here you can see his real personality (yeah, you have to play this very optional dlc to finally add the minimum depth required to this character). The dlc is kinda (very "kinda") good with its moments (the best one was the cows and republic quest which was nice for me) but god damn woman, what the fuck is that last big dungeon? It took me a lot of resolve to do it to the end, I almost gave up about 7 times. It's the worst this game has to offer (paired with the house at the edge of time). Time wasted, I had to really force myself (and I admit, partly because I just wanted to get the stupied achievment) to end it and... The end is more than disappointing. So now, let's talk about the end. It's a big disappointment but wanna know the biggest joke of it all? If you didn't know you had to leave your own campaign to suffer this for a few hours, or if you just didn't want to SPOIL YOURSELF THE STORY MY GOD HOW WAS THIS DLC DESIGNED? well you'll never see the real end, because the real end is played during a big down boring time during the main campaign. In summary, if you don't want to spoil your campaign with a terrible and very optional dlc, don't waste your time on this. If you want to waste time and spoil the campaign, then go for it I guess? That's weird.
• entireleaves

  Nov 11, 2022

  Would definitely skip Varnhold's Lot. The idea of a little side adventure that tells more of the main story is interesting but it is absolutely tedious and horribly designed. It is just non stop fight after fight with monsters that for some reason all seem to be twice your level and have massive damage resistance. Even if you set the difficulty at the lowest to try to just enjoy the story it is a tedious snooze. I finally got fed up when my party of 4 level 8 characters was facing a group of level 15 undead that I was only hitting for 2 points of damage a turn. Skip this. Stick with the main game. I regret the time I wasted on this.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 12, 2022

  This is a very combat heavy DLC. Plan accordingly. You also don't have control over where you go on the map or if you can go back to town or not. So make sure you have some sort of solution for permanent-duration afflictions like Blind. People who struggled with Kingmaker difficulty will struggle in Varnhold's Lot. Consider dropping the difficulty or customizing it to give less bonuses to opponents. I played through this blind on Challenging (with no difficulty tweaks) with a custom party: Scaled Fist Monk, Hospitaler Paladin, Kineticist, and Defender of the True World Druid - all pures save the Monk who had 1 Thug. The last two slots go to mandatory story NPCs: a pure Rogue and a pure Conjuration Wizard. The custom characters were thoughtfully built but not min-maxed given I knew nothing of the DLC or even Varnhold's story for meta hints as to what to take. You could get a lot more out of your 4 custom characters than I did, especially if you know what's coming. Finally, don't use the suggested pregen characters: they're garbage and have no unique lines or anything. The first map was initially bumpy due to bad gear and a stingy starting budget, but past that initial rockiness the DLC wasn't particularly difficult, though there definitely are a ton of fights. If you're struggling mightily it's probably because you're using your spells for the wrong thing, or don't know fundamental spell combos yet. Dialog can also make things much much easier. Voice acting is good, the maps are well-done, and there are twists that might surprise you. It still felt very disconnected from the main story though - if you finish it you'll see what I mean - and when I got back to the main story and imported the DLC save... not all that much changed. I kept expecting to find more and never did. It's a good deal at the current MSRP of $7 though. Maegar's character is properly roguish and appropriately not above doing bad to do good. Your character can influence him - but only that. Maegar is the equivalent of your main character in Kingmaker, and you're a companion. Neat to see it from the other side.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 17, 2023

  Absolute joke that you don't get prompted to jump to DLC during the campaign (and there is specific point where you are supposed to do it), or that you need to do that yourself in the first place for that matter, instead of DLC being integrated into the game.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 1, 2019

  I bought this sht as soon as it came out. kingmaker is such an awesome game. Buy it if you like 200 hours min/max on character creation!
• gamedeal user

  Mar 1, 2019

  This is a very cool expansion. You are basically running a secondary character down a parallel story line to your main character. I was hooked within a few minutes.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 5, 2019

  Not bad. Pros: - Nice side story - Interesting wizard companion Cons: - Linear - Maegar goes from cool guy to shmuck Finished it in maybe 10 hours. In still not certain if its worth the price but would probably buy it again.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 8, 2019

  If you enjoy isometric RPGs and Pathfinder, then what are you wait for? Pick this up! It's not like such games are rolling out in the hundreds!
• gamedeal user

  Mar 26, 2019

  The design of Lostlarn Keep is dreadful .. pretty much completely ruined my enjoyment of the game to the point i just gave up trying to finish the DLC. Same with some maps in the main game, wasting hours in non-intuitive mazes is the opposite of fun.