Yeah, it's a mixed bag, but I find the game quite fun and engaging. Good offering from an indie producer. While the game lacks a plot or meaningful NPC development, I love the freedom of choosing how to get by in the world, and eventually, being able to reshape the political landscape because of personal choices: who to pledge fealty to, who to support, who to undermine, etc. I enjoy the concept of starting on the ground, with very little, and eventually rising to prominence, even ruling one's own kingdom. Clear-cut character builds and stats. I find that the game heavily favors hack and slash initially, and late game greatly rewards charismatic commander builds for big armies. Micro becomes way more important as the game progresses, such as feeding your army, training fresh recruits, and creating armies that excel in the field. Trade can, with the right stats, be very profittable. After a few characters, I would grind in the arena, until my stats were passable. I've found that winning tourneys and investing in productive enterprises are my go-to strategy for early wealth, building a strong foundation for providing for a burgeoning army. Some great mods out there in the community. Shout-out to Floris and the mod, which balances some of vanilla’s issues. Noticed that save games get consistently corrupted (less so with vanilla), so save early and often. Native AI is at times laughably poor, and you can mercilessly cheese hordes of enemies to death. Mounted forces have a tremendous advantage. I iced 80+ bandits solo, using hit and run horse archery tactics, and mopping up the rest with couched lance damage. It took time to develop the stats to do it, and lots of patience, but nothing more. After getting familiar with commanding larger forces, with the right troops and usage of terrain, the opposing AI will charge your upgraded troops, and you watch as your enemies get dropped into the woodchipper. Not everyone's cup of tea. Grindy and repetitive quests, but a lot of area to cover, and tremendous flexibility.
2 years ago, I saw a trailer for an amazing game, No Man's Sky. I am still waiting for that amazing game, because the one promoted and the one delivered are rather different. The greatest parts of this game are in the trailer, but not in actual gameplay, the actual delivered product. Core promises were not delivered on, such as this being a multiplayer game. That's an issue with Hello Games, not GOG. I want to be clear that my disappointment in this experience lies with the developers and not with distribution. I gave this game a legitimate shot, and over 12 hrs of my time. The first hour, maybe 2, are quite engaging, because you are stuck "en media res," dropped in the middle of a story, and you do the best you can. The game is unforgiving at first. I died at the hands of a ruthless gang of bots. Because I didn't know how to reload. And then, through trial and error, you understand the basics, & you understand the whole. And then it is a grind for resources and managing your resources. And building widgets. Flight is a bit of a challenge, when scouting along the surface, especially when trying to return to a located crash site. NPC's feel like cardboard cutouts. They do nothing but stand around, other than trade with you. I did enjoy the concept that you have to slowly learn the language of these alien powers. But I am surprised that they all seem benevolent, or at the very least ambivalent and tolerant of your presence. Same for most flora and fauna. The gameplay feels like an extended 2001: A Space Odyssey, experiencing all of the isolation and boredom of deep space. After you've cataloged everything on a planet, it just doesn't feel as engaging to do it again. And again. And again. If feels like clerical work. Rinse and repeat. You, as a player, will be so starved for actual achievements in this game, that the game, with great pomp and circumstance, will laud you after you have wandered for a few miles. While at first charming, it gets irritating quickly.
