(English isn't my first language) Look, I love Lovecraft's mythos and I can talk about it for hours, but I'd usually start with "Lovecraft's not the best novelist around" and that's why I think is important to discern if something is "Lovecraftian" or cosmic horror. The latter is about themes and even though the game tries to play that note, I didn't feel really crushed by the futility of existence or whatever. And that's actually a good thing, because I think that wouldn't make a good RPG game. The game isn't "Lovecraftian" either, since it doesn't really add anything new or original to the way Lovecraft wrote his works. And that's a good thing, too. The game is just a loveletter and should be seen as such - I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't know its source material because its streghts lies in constant callbacks, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who's enamored with Lovecraft's (pun very much intended) works uncritically. BUT! If you're just a little more than a casual fan of the Mythos, this is perfect for you. The game never feels bloated, because it's actually short for its genre and offers a lot of nice role-playing opportunities. I felt almost always motivated to do stuff so I could buy stuff to do more. To learn more. But then the last act happens and the game loses its momentum and... well, that's the one star down.
Honestly, I didn't even finish the tutorial. The reason why is the stealth "mechanic" solely. Once I visited the farm and tried to sneak around the owner, I was sure there's something wrong, but the moment I visited Suzy in the Saloon and had to run, the game was over for me. During the escape I died numerous times (on easy difficulty, mind you!) because no matter if I was sneaking or not, I was shoot at and couldn't do anything about it, because it seems it's purely random. Then there's a whip and swinging mechanic that requires you to stand in the exact distance from the branch to use it. How to actually succesfully swing myself over the chasm I have a zero idea and I don't want to know. Look, it's 2024 now and there are no reasons to put up with the jank like the 'stealth' or the 'whip mechanic', I'm also hundred percent sure that those were used in the game kind of regularly. No. Just no. I'm going to try other games from the series, but damn...
Look, I was a kid once (shock!) and one of my first games was some bullshit formula racing from Apogee which was disappointing to say the very least. If I was a kid again, Hero of the Kingdom would be the perfect entry to the genre of computer games I came to enjoy. It's nice enough to look at and I don't think it's going to get ugly over the next years. "Gameplay" formula is basically combination of memory and hidden object hunt but completely stress free. I don't know if you can lock yourself out of the game, but that would surely take either some dedication or unbelievably bad luck. So, what I'm saying is - if you're a parent and want to introduce your kid to computer games and they can read, go ahead. Chances are you'll have three hours or so to yourself - and I think that's good enough. Or - and that's what happened to me - if you're so stressed from work you can't really do anything else except for sleeping, staring in to the wall and drinking wine, this game should help. It's basically equivalent to squeezing a stress ball.
The good: - Story is nice, writers can eventually jerk some emotions out of me and I don't feel stupid for it - Main character speaks and even though he's sometimes your classroom edgelord that has war instead of personality - Colourful cast of supporting characters helps very much with the way the story is presented and is often in that bitter comedy zone - Alternative history genre usually is not very well realized in the videogames, not so here! I felt like I was learning interesting information about the world almost constantly. The bad: - Developers didn't understand how the FPS games work, so instead we've got this hybrid of really bad stealth game and very boring cover based shooter - AI in this game is brain dead. Shooters will take cover. That's about it. - There are basically two types of maps - corridors and arenas. When the developers felt cheeky, they designed arenas comprised of corridors. And they felt cheeky a lot. The worst: - I don't rember any of the weapons. The looks, the gunplay,... not a single characteristics. What I do remember very well is that the game rarely misses an opportunity to take away your guns. Seriously, WHY?! - Seven eighths of The New Order take place in various locations like metro tunnels, factories, storage facilities, logistic centers and such. There's nicely realized alternative history world all around but you're not going to see any of it. - Enemies are the same as maps, locations and weapons. They're not only stupid as I mentioned before, they're incredibly boring meat-robots. - For some reason the game runs better on PS4 than on the brand new gaming laptop that runs Alan Wake 2 on the highest settings.
