so I cannot play considering wasd controls are garbage on my keyboard. Even if it's still a demo, key binding is kind of a mandatory feature considering how many different keyboards settings there are in the world. I'll return to KCD2 until the game can be played with my keyboard.
Their previous titles were better in term of strategy. The problem comes from turn based mechanics, that lower the strategic level required, which is a shame in a strategy game. Also, I'd rather play civilization than a pale copy of it.
Overall, the game is excellent. The story, the character, the ambiance, the locations... and even the gameplay which is probably where the game shines the less. You'll follow Amicia and Hugo through a campaign revolving around the plague and the inquisition whose leader want to take advantage of the plague. Hugo is born sick and he's related to the plague. The Inquisition is looking for him. You'll have to uncover the mystery around the plague and its rats in this stealthy game. That's where the game shines the less, apart from a few set of actions you'll just have to wander through levels without much freedom to visit them and no way to come back. It's restrictive, but suits the storytelling. Still, levels feel a bit small. I advise turning off intel about what you can do so the exploration part will be interesting. Apart from a gameplay that could have been richer, everything else is just great.
Well, to be straight, Owlcat has, in my opinion, only one good title, and it's Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Despite not being able to set some AI behaviors for your team, the RTwP mechanics are well implemented and the challenge is there. Then, WotR comes, and nothing was really improved. So they go for a TB mechanics, and it's so basic and unimaginative that it's almost as bad as the way they implemented it in both Pathfinder games. Story-wise, that's the same, Kingmaker was really interesting. Then, well, it's like they don't want to engage in something interesting and just accumulate tropes for both WotR and now Rogue Trader. So, if you enjoy the Warhammer world, you might enjoy it, but there's not much interesting things to read. As for the game overall, you'll have to wait for all their DLCs to come out before having a fully baked game. It's overprice for the quality of the game, the price being more a reflection of a too huge team of amateurish workers that seems unable to learn from their previous titles than a really well crafted world with an engaging story and fully operational game mechanics. Decisions matter seem to be the only focus of their team. But you have to be imaginative to stimulate the desire to replay a rather bland storytelling. I'm probably harsh with two stars, but three stars would be generous on the other hand. And being disappointed with WotR just made me chose two instead of three. Their games are long, so you really need to improve the storytelling for me to want to replay it. Kingmaker did well, WotR didn't, and Rogue Trader isn't appealing so far I'm not even sure I'll even finish it.
Just bought it and completed two runs already, increasing the difficulty after each. And yet, I didn't save anybody yet, didn't unlock all locations and NPC,... Which means there's still plentiful of content to get and new characters to play to enjoy this content while not repeating the same thing all the time. Replayability is therefore a very strong point for its nine classes divided in three factions. The game is pretty simple for deck-builders afficionados, they'll clearly see what their character will benefit from considering their own playstyle. For the two classes played, it seems to have mainly two specialized approaches and one mixed. But it might offer more as I didn't unlock all their cards in one run (not even half of them), neither their faction's ones. On game mechanics, it seems that is very solid for each class, and I may be surprised by the later cards. As for the content, you'll meet a good bunch of NPCs with all of them having a quest (or I suppose some will have one). Seven of them will be in your village where you'll unlock bonuses for further runs (and there're a lot), thirteen specific NPCs you'll meet and try to save (also, I don't know what "saving" means so far as I didn't save anyone). Fixteen other NPC classified as "regular". You have twenty-three locations adding to NPCs. Everything is randomized so we might have to wait some time before solving quests. The dark fantasy ambiance is well set and the story is engaging. And considering there's a Goat-man guiding us, I expect the good old devil to be behind it. Deck-builder and dark fantasy lovers, go for it. Newcomers to both, you might want to give it a shot even though it could be overwhelming at the beginning.
I use this comment section as I already used the game's one just to tell that is even worse than expected. The level of writing is oriented towards teens with dull standards. The roleplaying is extremely weak, especially the companion writing. The story is uninteresting. There's too much useless fan service really badly written. The difficulty is far too easy even at the highest difficulty, there's absolutely nothing for tactical lovers as there's no proper threat while you have Giths, Illithids, Dragons,... that are supposed to be tough races. If it feels better than the original saga it's because we're in 2023. But in fact, this is pure jank for 2023 standards while the original saga was a blast compared to the production of the late 90's. If you enjoyed early Larian's games and the original saga back in the days, avoid this title.
