KC:D is the first Act of what was intended to be a 3 Act storyline. It turned out to be Acts I & 2 combined in the end, with Act 3 to come as either a future DLC, or more likely, a second game. It is an RPG that goes back to the principles of RPG from over a decade ago, which ironically, makes this refreshing. You can (and will) die. There are no dragons or magic fireballs. You are human, and at the beginning of the game, you are an older teenager with all that goes with it - you think you are great, but the reality is you are pretty useless at just about everything. You need experience, practice, and you need to learn...just about everything. As a blacksmith's son your character can't even read. Getting your first sword and facing your first enemy thinking you can 2 click kill him will quickly teach you the error of your ways. Doing so will most likely mean you have to go back to your last save, which, due to the (in my opinion brilliant) save system implemented, could be some time back - it is much harder to save scum your way through this game. The game saves when you sleep or when you drink a shot of special schnapps. It will also occasionally save when you complete a quest or take on a new one. The best way to save is through the drink, but you don't start the game with any - although a very early quest will give you some. Once they are gone they are gone. You need to buy more. They are expensive. You are a poor blacksmiths son. Or you can make them through learning alchemy. Alchemy is a very useful and profitable skill - but remember you are a teenager who knows just about nothing. You can't even read. If you drink to much (save too often) you will quickly become not just tipsy, but fully out of your mind drunk, and all that goes with that - some serious debuffs, strange vision, and one hell of a hangover. Drink too much too often and you'll even become an alcoholic. That is just one of the controversies in the game however. You'll either love it and appreciate it for what it is, or hate it for inconveniencing you when you mess up. There's a hot topic at the moment about how historically accurate it is. How it treats women in the game, and why there are no blacks in the game, and so on. Ignore all this drama by today's snowflake SJW crowd, and enjoy the (racially diverse by the way) game for the amazing experience it gives you. The combat, lockpicking, pickpocketing, alchemy, archery, horse-riding, armour systems are all in there and debatable. The freedom to make choices and mess up. Most impressively however are the sheer variety of ways you can go about things, and depending on how you go about them will impact how people in the world react to you, and how you proceed in the game. There are certain major side quests, that you can miss entirely or "fail" and get a totally different outcome. The team don't care you haven't seen the hours and hours of work they must have put into the fantastic scripted version of "succeeding" at a quest in a certain way, if you don't go down that path this time you may next time. It is fantastic as an experience. I'm on my second play through and I've enjoyed it second time around even more than the first - and discovered literally dozens of quests I missed first time through, and some of the ones I actually DID the first time through the second time around I approached in a different way and got a different outcome. I'm 145 hours playtime into the game and can easily see a further 100 hours of game time to come. Them bugs! Oh yes. There are bugs. Quite a few of them, although the major ones have mostly been patched out already and the team behind the game are still working on patching up more on a regular basis. Despite the bugs and some are (or were) truly annoying, it STILL shouldn't distract you from this fantastic game. If you are any way inclined towards RPG and want what passes in these times for an adult game of consequence and choice, then this truly beautiful game is an absolute must buy.
