Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2017/07/05/the-further-adventures-of-pathfinder/
iOS, Android, PC/Mac •
This will be Stately Play’s ninth article mentioning Pathfinder Adventures. If you’re not into PA, our apologies. Dave’s the guy who stands in my way when I propose something terrible, but our affections overlap enough that it’s not an ideal example of checks and balances. But political commentary is an even worse idea than a ninth PA article, so let’s proceed to check out the differences between the mobile and PC/Mac versions!
There aren’t many. The biggest difference I find in the play of the game is the tooltips, which I have long wanted on my iPad. Perhaps more broadly important is the buy-once approach. That made very little difference to my experience of the game, since I started off with the season pass on iOS, but it simplifies decision-making in the new version. With so much content already released and developer support still going strong, it’s still a modest price by PC standards. If you already own the game on another platform, you can create a link code on your existing device and port over all your characters’ progress. Note that this is different from simply signing in with your Asmodeé account. Not understanding this, I experienced briefly the same “what have I done?” I recall from my college years, after my parents successfully persuaded me to clean my stuff out of the attic. I miss the titans and battlemechs most.
[caption id=“attachment_2562” align=“aligncenter” width=“1242”]
I get how this works for boots and such. But wouldn’t I be selling my guide into slavery?[/caption]
Brief aside: Alex already mentioned that Harebrained Schemes are working on a superb-looking update of Battletech for PCs, and apparently Adeptus Titanicus is coming back, so I’ll soon be able to forgive myself that shortsighted decluttering.
Anyway, that’s kind of it for differences between the mobile and PC versions of PA. If you haven’t been keeping up with the game for a while, gold’s handled differently now, but it seems like a pretty sensible way to unlock new cards. I, myself, had paused my time with PA in order to play some other things for review, and discovered that I was uncomfortable returning to it out of fear that I’d play poorly and end up banishing cards I needed. I’m finally over that, I think, and look forward to playing more, but I do wonder whether it’s worth thinking more carefully about how games should handle this problem. Since I tend to enjoy a meaty game on occasion, the brevity of the half-life of my memory of how to play is distressing.
[caption id=“attachment_2462” align=“aligncenter” width=“1242”]
Man, that worm from Labyrinth really hit adolescence hard.[/caption]
I still prefer the couch comfort of the iPad version, but, especially given that I am often away from the game long enough to forget some important stuff, I do find those tooltips very handy. So those of you with laptops may well have an optimal opportunity to experience a really special game. It doesn’t feel much like the radical freedom of the tabletop role-playing it so pleasantly evokes, but it blends deck-building with progression, and has perhaps the only digital die rolls the suspense of which I relish.