If you do not like random looting, don't go there. If you don't like dying easily, don't go there. The game is challenging, and it seems it'll be the core of it, however we can hope that quests and story content will greatly improve during development. You'll have to deal with many stats you don't want to see worsen : hunger, thirst, intoxication, pain, sanity, morale, injuries. Each time they reach a certain level, you get malus, and those can add-up pretty quickly. Your (small) inventory will be full of herbs and food and beverages trying to help you. But beware, drinking alcohol to ease pain makes you drunk, giving you some malus too. At the moment, you can only save at the inn, so prepare your expeditions if you want to finish a quest as there's chances you won't find any help until coming back. Evolve wisely your character to improve the numerous stats they affect, as for skills as you won't be a jack of all trade soon enough. The game need a lot of improvements at its current state. But it'll please people who like difficult games. It's kind of a niche game. After about 15 hours on it, I'm waiting for some updates to experience it more, the Trollslayer recent content was really convincing. I feel this game can provide a very nice experience, with plenty of updates even after its official release. There's plenty to do and what we already have is engaging. Try the prologue, it is available for free and gives good insights on the mechanics.
Yes, because it's an energic shooter with no superfluous gear or mission. All is pretty straight forward. Difficulties are ok. No. That's just a reboot of Return to Castle with way less story, and it's way less interesting overall. Also, it's way too short to be an epic game. It'll be a 2.5/5 as it could have been a magnificient reboot of Return to Castle Wolfenstein with nice touch of Wolfenstein 3D. They stopped at the middle of something great. The final fight is quite disappointing compared to Henrich with ghostly Helga. Über Soldat are ridiculous. There's way to much disappointing things for someone who played the franchise from the beginning. There's plenty of good things for someone who want a simple shooter.
Ok. It's not as complex as the first one. There is less challenges, and less attributes to develop. Instead of 9 challenges, there is only 3 (Physical-Mental-Magic), and instead of 23 attrributes there is only 6. Which gives way less options to trigger some challenges and encounters. The game is a lot simpler. Yes, well, we changed the world in the first one. It's normal to change the difficulty. The Cosmic Tree is back. Life is easier on Thea, even though a new danger arises, the Light. As the world was broken, Darkness and Light got both... "shattered". That's the plot. And once again your God calls for its Chosen. Instead of a starting village, you are a nomad. And you'll need at least one or two games to understand where to settle, if you choose to settle of course. There is other factions, it means trade, alliance, warfare, quest,... Instead of grinding your research points by crafting (which was really annoying in the first game), you can create a school. Your kids can increase skills too before facing the trial of adulhood. The crafting is nice, and way richer. The gathering two, and we can perform more rituals over the game (and invok Rock Trolls). Not too difficult to understand and master, but richer. Weapons need to match your characters' attributes to be effective. Well, there's plenty. It's different. And thank you for that, it's a sequel that do not capitalize on its elder. It changed as Thea changed. And the game is not that easy. It's not a 5 stars as the events are less rich (mostly because of the attribute's system), even though I had fun encountering the Orcish Inquisition (who ever expected the Orcish Inquisition ?) or we meet the Dwarf who married the Rusalka back in the days. But it is great. And I like to sail from an island to another. Good job there.
So, that's a 5 stars mostly because the overall game is really pleasant. That's the spirit of old J-RPG with a more dynamic interface. A good music, and a funny story around gaming, which makes it even more appealing for players. You won't find anything fantastically new except that is a game for gamers (was it make by gamers ?). The Interplay spirit. It may not suit for people who don't like puzzles however. As many levels need you to think about how reaching the end of it. While fights are very entertaining and skill progression quite interesting (choosing between "basic" skills and elemental skills). To me, that's a perfect combinaison. And graphics are quite ok, your eyes won't bleed. And for completionists, you'll have some work.
I bought the game quite a while ago, played a little to have a look (like I do with every new game) so I'd know if I'll enjoy it or not. I came to me that I'd love the game, so I needed to find a time of the year I could play it for hours... And here we are. Even if I found it a bit short, everything is nice. Combats give some challenges, but are not a necessity as you can avoid combats by using other skills. Which is a great addition to a world of CRPG were you fight, and fight, and fight, and... get bored fighting. I mean, RP games are not about fighting, but completing a quest. It can involve fighting, but when I play Vampire or D&D, fighting is not necessary an option : it takes time, good knowledge of your game mechanics, players with experience,... which leads to poor combat systems in video games. The game avoid the trap wonderfully giving the choice to have a challenging fighting game or not. The story. Well, I'm too accustomed to this kind of scenarios to say it is a blast. I read Sci-Fi and Fantasy a lot, so nothing new here. But... the lore worth it. You are inside a complete "new" universe even for those who know D&D universes. Still, it is better than Witcher, Skyrim,... and all other "AAA" games that are usually quite poor, especially with side quests. The only thing I'd like here is no side quest that are not related to the main story. Side quests are usually boring and do not improve the game experience. Fortunately here, like in Baldur's Gate 2, there is few of them. But still, too much for me at my level of expectations. The skill system is nice, but I think it where it can have improvements. I cannot tell what... but the leveling-skill system bore me in most RPG nowadays. They need to find something better/new. It's a 5 stars because it is fresh enough in a world where RPG all look alike. And the game is not about fighting your way through the end if you don't want to. And that's 5 stars for a RPG.
