Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Intro:
… boasts an embarrassment of riches for those with the time (and patience) to drink in its many and varied charms.
Epic high fantasy is currently the foamy crest of the zeitgeist wave, particularly on the telly. We’ve got House of the Dragon (the Game of Thrones prequel), Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (which is hugely popular and also bafflingly divisive), The Sandman, Wheel of Time, The Witcher, His Dark Materials, Shadow and Bone and an upcoming continuation of Willow (1988).
For fantasy nerds, this is a time of feast, and the same can be said of the video game space as well. For example, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Enhanced Edition has ported the popular CRPG from PC to consoles and the result is a fiddly but fascinating high fantasy adventure that comes with a few caveats.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is set in the fairly generic Fantasy country of Mendev. It’s the usual sort of “ye olde England but with added dragons and magic” situation, with a series of wars brewing against the Worldwound: a magical portal to a dimension of demons.
The player-created character finds themselves embroiled in the caper when a demonic invasion of Kenabres takes place, absolutely shitmixing the local populace and unleashing all manner of evil wankers around the joint. So, it’s up to your player character and the team you assemble to unravel the secrets of the Worldwound, delve into dungeons and mysterious realms and take on quests both vital and banal in a journey that feels truly epic, both in terms of scope and the amount of time you’ll be playing.
Pathfinder: WotR is a classic CRPG, using either real time with pause or turn-based combat. Pleasingly, you can switch between the two on the fly, which means you can wipe out trash mobs by letting your team handle itself and then switch to turn-based for more challenging combat with bosses or new enemy types. It’s a system that does require a lot of micromanaging and fiddly mechanics, however there are a huge number of accessibility options that can make the entire process much more streamlined and easier or – if you’re an old hand at this RPG caper – much more difficult and unforgiving. It’s a really smart way to make you feel much more in control of the process which, quite honestly, is dauntingly complicated and opaque at times.
In terms of presentation, WotR is a slick, if unspectacular, presentation with decent graphics, slightly stilted animations and an occasional over-reliance on walls and walls of exposition to read. Even with the font size increased, it can get a little tiring and you may find yourself skipping all but the most essential plot beats. There’s also some jankiness to the proceedings, which is being patched out as we speak, but it’s definitely noticeable in some of the more populated areas.
Still and all, if you’ve been wooed by television’s current crop of excellent high fantasy and feel the need to dig deep into an adventure that can consume anywhere from 60-100 hours of your life, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous boasts an embarrassment of riches for those with the time (and patience) to drink in its many and varied charms.
