Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Here's a title I was really looking forward to.  It's a huge game, 25 gigs of downloads.  I just picked the default fighter character to avoid getting bogged down in details right away.  

The game world is gorgeous.  

As it claimed, it was the first major orthogonal map world using the Pathfinder system.  I really should be enjoying it more, but I'm a sandbox guy and an explorer at heart and you start off stuck in one particular castle in one particular story.  I picked up some NPCs along the way, mostly because I have no idea how to remove them from my party.

There were some fine choices of UI, like using the Tab key to highlight all items in the scene that you can interact with.  But using the old WASD keys (or moving the mouse off the side of the screen) to scroll the view is clunky.  When traps appear or combat comes up, it automatically pauses to let you make choices, which is nice.  Actual voices performing the dialog is high-end and actors do an enjoyable job, though after about an hour it drones on.  Everyone just talks about fighting and gold and kingdom stuff.  I guess we're not going to get existential or philosophical talk in these worlds, but I did find a book with a beautifully written weird food recipe.

What put me off for the night was that I made it to the big battle with the frost giant and dropped to 3hp for some reason (the combat is really a blur and I will have to try the turn-based option), and then I simply could not find a way to use the 18 healing potions in our group inventory.  I figured I could r-click and Use it, but no.  Even a spellcaster r-clicking and choosing Use does nothing.  I equipped it and hit Use, nothing, I'm still at 3hp.

The character sheets and abilities pages are enormous and complicated.  I hope I get past the learning curve and start to enjoy it, but that really depends on whether it lets me go off exploring or just railroads me through this generic story the whole time.