No one has rated this review as helpful yet
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 125.6 hrs on record
Posted: 14 Jul, 2024 @ 6:58pm

This game is good. It's by no means great and by no means bad. It is a very unique experience of being some schmuck from the middle ages who barely knew how to wipe his own ass and throw a punch to a potential one man army or a "pacifist" with a mace taking on three or more men in a fight. Getting there is a slog, though. You dont learn how to parry until a bit into the game and you will be slow and weak for a good portion. And forget about using a bow unless you have really good intuition of tragectory or get the mod to turn on crosshairs with the bow and even then it's a bit of a toss-up.

Combat is a mess. While it's understandable for it to be a bit on the slower side, it does not make sense for a majority of random bandits in peasant clothes to be doing parries and combos like a trained veteran soldier. Enemies have a tendency to swarm you from every direction which again makes sense but sometimes enemies get stuck sprinting/running into you to try and get behind you and switching targets to them sometimes doesnt work and makes swinging difficult when they can parry you or you dont swing at all. Enemies also have the ability to parry you even if you are directly behind them which is not ideal or break out of a parry to parry you right back when you are doing a follow up strike.

There are combos you can learn but they are hard to learn and sometimes not worth it with being unable to pull them off when surrounded due to being stunlocked by 4 guys constantly smacking you (unless you pull off a parry but sometimes the parry move throws the enemy behind you and you turn to face them which means you open your back to their mates). Armor is vital for survival in combat but wont mean much if you dont manage your stamina as you take increased damage when your stamina is drained and are likely to take full damage from an attack from behind. But combat is not all the game has to offer and it's possible to leave the fighting to others or run away on horseback (if you have a horse and can outrun the enemy before they tackle you).

There is also the living in medieval times with a pseudo-realism survival thing where you need to eat and sleep and can get drunk with hangovers and swaying camera that makes one feel sick if watching for too long. There are potions to alleviate hangovers or drop your fill meter if you overate. You can frolick about in dirt but everyone will question why you look so awful. You can wash yourself in a trough or get a proper bath at the bath house or just hire a warm hole or both. You can learn to read and read skill books to help you level up or give unique dialogue options for a handful of quests (though there is also an achievement for one of the dlcs for getting through it without being able to read). There are the less moral quests of robbing and pillaging but you can donate to the church if you want to clear your conscience if you want to rp being a good boi but none of it is really necessary. You can leave the dead alone or rob the dead. You can pick some pockets of the rich (or the poor) for your own gain or someone else's. If you are good at persuasion, you can try to talk your way out of trouble if caught but it doesnt always work. You can ask about towns and learn about the history and lore of the world if that's to your liking.

I encountered a couple bugs but nothing game breaking. I fell through the map once while picking mushrooms (it only happened the one time but still) which caused me to lose an hour's worth of progress because I forgot to save/save by sleeping. Some npc paths bugged out for some quests which needed a reload to fix which again made me lose some time (I think it only happened 3 times). An npc was stuck as hostile towards me despite no interaction prior and would constantly run away until I punched a guard and got arrested (there is a system for that but it was a bandit that should not have that npc flag).

One time out of boredom I skyrim saved and then murdered an entire town which got me 10 days jail time which is the same amount of time I got for punching a guard even though I murdered about 20 guards. I'm not sure how the ruling worked on that but I guess ten days is the max prison sentence back then.

There is a lot to discover and a lot of land to explore but honestly it's not entirely gripping with engagement (seen a forest seen them all etc) with soooome enemy camps spread out but that means having to do combat (tip: get the Stinger or anything with a high Stab damage and just keep stabbing their face, with a chance for knockout with the headcracker perk). There are some graves you can dig up or caves to explore with a torch that throws light 5 feet in front of you so not a good time overall and some herbs for alchemy which I mostly ignored but if it's your thing it's there for you (I just bought potions from the alchemists in towns).

Overall I'd say it's worth it as an experience. Not so much as a game, but an experience. And maaaaybe not worth full price unless you want to fully support the company.
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