It has it all, items to distract enemies, to make stealth easier, various costume options that come with inherent advantages and drawbacks - which play out entirely different - and a nice story to tie it all together. New Game Plus is also great... and not often a option in a stealth game as this. Full price is totally worth it, but sales are an absolute steal. So have fun with this one.
First off: You can have fun with Rising Lords, if you are willing to accept that it's far, far from perfect. The main reasons why I wouldn't recommend the game is that you can't create more fields in any region. That means your growth is ALWAYS limited by that. It sounds good on paper, it's frustrating in-game. Mostly because it means that any region that holds 3 fields, instead of the usual 2, is highly incentived to be a central province. This is problematic for two reasons: You should have food diversity, which means that rearing cows is most effective, due to the milk they give and having a wheat field on top of that. Sheep usually shouldn't be eaten, you need the wool. Same with horses, you need them for your mounted units. This game mechanic, which I find rather arbitrary, is not fun to play with. And woe to you if you find a province with 3 fields that is close to an aggressive enemy. Not fun. And that brings me to my true gripe with Rising Lords: Combat! Combat is utterly miserable, it relies on a rudimentary card system and Rock, Paper, Scissor system. Sounds good in theory. It is absolutely atrocious though. There's no initiative, usually the AI gets a full turn where they can wallop on your troops. Forget smart positioning, it's barely helping. I ran with a full roster of 7 or 8 units through the campaign, each unit sporting 300 people. After each fight I had even in the easiest fights to replace dozens of people. The first real fight? A few hundred. And that's barely sustainable when you have properly built provinces. This expectations that you have to take everything on the chin makes combat frustrating, because you can't shine, and the enemy often sports "FUN" card decks that make your attacks useless. You COULD do the same, the problem is that the AI seems to know what units not to attack then. So yeah, it's not a bad game, it's just has some mechanics that are unfun. If you can put up with those? Then it's a solid middle of the pack game.
Great game, you can have fun with a relatively relaxing survival game. The developers were also so generous to make eating not a core part of the experience, it's just a optional supplement, albeit with a strong incentive to at least cook each recipe once. For the first time eating something new gives +5 HP. And that adds up. Combat is nice, starts easy, gets a bit harder, but never feels unfair. Quite balanced actually. There's building your own base, if you want to, so that you can have your very own travel hub. It's ok, works fine, but for me it's not the most important. Rather gaining more XP and therefore levels to get access to better and better equipment is the loop I like most. And the fact that some equipment has to be found (mostly happening through the DLCs, if I got that right). Overall good game, crazy good value if you get it on a sale. Co-op is a bit weird, but it works just fine. Makes the game even better. Slaying monster together with a buddy is just what the doctor ordered! :)
The game is just fun, and while base building is no longer a thing in DoW2 it's still a fun romp to go out and crush the Xenos with your Space Marines. Best thing is that even in 2025 and a Intel A770 graphics cared the game runs flawless. That was my only concern that the graphic card would not be compatible with such an old title. Shouldn't have worried, GoG did it's thing and it's running great. So yeah, grab the game bash some Xenos and have fun!
Just to REMIND everyone complaining in the reviews: The Deadfire DLC Pack is FREE for everyone who already owns Pillars of Eternity. So there is really no reason to complain about Obsidian. Just checking the store like a grown up, instead of going entitled keyboard warrior and presto no problem in the first place. Some people. :( The specific option I backed was never listed in the first place in the GOG store, yet everything worked fine from day one and still does. Five stars for that. Und nochmal auf Deutsch: Den Deadfire DLC gibts für lau für jeden der Pillars of Eternity schon hat. Also nicht quängeln, sondern erst schauen bevor man den endzeitlichen Keyboardkrieger gibt. :) Manche Leute... also wirklich.
I got this game when it got published back 2005 and bought in on a hunch. One of the best investments ever. :) The campaign is nicely done, the cut scenes in between missions are good at furthering the story and finally the gameplay is everything you know from other games with some twists of their own. It was a blast going through the campaign. Capturing enemy soldiers, ruining enemy plans with exosekeleton soldiers or waltzing through the enemy base with the heavy stuff. :) Sadly I couldn't get the Base Game, nor the expansion to run properly a few years later. I really hoped that some digital distribution service would figure out how to do so properly. Seeing it here on GOG it was an instabuy. Can't recommend this little gem enough. BUY IT! PLAY IT! LOVE IT! This gets solid 4,5 stars from me. PS: I really hope now that Shattered Union finds it's way to GOG.
