There's some alright gameplay in this, the world feels kind of alive in some ways and you get lost in the beauty of the natural landscape. Unfortunately, there's a whole host of really annoying mechanics that make it a very very frustrating and punishing experience a lot of the time. Combat - It's really, really hard, because it's just not clear what actions do exactly what or if you have agency in certain parts of the procedure. You can end up in klinch-loops with the enemy and it seems to be completely random who comes out as the winner each time. You're limited to one-on-one combat in melee, which is sort of realistic. But enemies teleport, float through the air etc if the terrain won't let them move to you in a proper way. Firing a bow is quite satisfying and the weapons all have different characteristics which I like. But making a pin-cushion out of a guard with like 6 arrows not downing him can be a bit annoying. Stealth - The game tries to feature stealth mechanics and yes, I suppose it's realistic in some ways, but sometimes guards just sit there half a mile away going "what's that? What's moving over there?" even though you're naked in the bush on a pitch black rainy night just sitting still. I found it incredibly annoying. Breaking the law - You're able to move in forbidden areas as long as you're not seen. For the most part. Sometimes guards will find you no matter what. Sometimes they'll hear a door open from ten miles away. Skills - Not everything is explained properly regarding all skills, some seem to level as soon as you take one step in any direction. I haven't gotten around to pickpocketing because nothing so far has explained how it works. You get a timer in a ball that you can move across the screen and it changes color...? But even if you keep it green they'll just notice you. The perks aren't really interesting for the most part, you just end up picking them on random almost. Conclusion - Bought it cheap, had some fun and I found it more interesting than Skyrim by miles, but the jank is just as bad if not worse. It's not a great game, though it may have a nice story and some good parts to it. The main mechanics are just too frustrating to want to spend much time on. Also, why is it I have to keep eating to keep myself nourished but I don't have to take a dump, ever? There's loads of outhouses where you can sit so it feels like that should've been a thing considering your smell plays a part in stealth etc? Feels like eating's just a pointless remnant of a scrapped system. Runs really well, Ryzen 5 3600, 32GB of ram and an RX9070XT. Edit: I got to "the nightraid" and whatever I do, the game just says "You committed treachery." and I have to start over again and watch the guards scale the wall. If I climb the ladder too slow, climb the ladder too fast, don't take the guards out quickly or take them out too quick, the game just comes up with another big "Screw you."-sign and restarts the quest for me. That 's it, I've had it. It doesn't tell me what I'm doing wrong and it clearly doesn't care for me to finish it so it can go burn. Not going to buy the sequel either, not with this kind of non-polish. Oh and the further you get in the game, the less sense the cutscenes make wardrobe-wise. You switch clothes from one cut to the other, no-one apparently did any QA for the later parts of it. Maybe it was too hard, who knows. An annoying pile of jank, out of ten.
