KCD is a great game with unique elements, engrossing story, well designed characters, and a really cool historical setting. The game really shines at certain moments, but at the same time, falls flat at many others and is not without flaws. IMO, the story, dialogue, and characters are the most interesting part of the game. They did a great job of making Henry a likable character and adding other characters that are easy to associate with. A few of them, in particular, really help bring the story alive. I'd venture that one of the characters you encounter mid game (a priest) is one of the more entertaining "serious" characters I've ever encountered in a video game. The game is full of these moments. The environment is also gorgeous and well designed. It's important to remember it is still a video game, so some realism sacrifices had to be made, but the environment is put together about as well as one could expect a historical setting to be. Things move on without you and some of the small details in the game world, like how characters go throughout their daily routine or react to changes around them, are really interesting to watch. The other aspects of it are hit or miss. Some like them, some don't. I found the gameplay mechanics like combat enjoyable. Henry starts off weak and so do you, as the player. You have to learn the techniques just as Henry does. It's not gonna be something that comes with just leveling up and adding perks. All that said, the game has flaws. Despite some character interactions being some of the most believable I've seen in a video game, they end abruptly (one love interest is a good example) and in a very immersion breaking manner. Many have also had issues with bugs and some quests are broken, although they are working on them and I haven't had many issues personally. The same system was also a questionable design choice. Overall, KCD is a really enjoyable game, but you will have to look past it's flaws, which I found easy to do.
The short version is that this game is enjoyable, although somewhat repetitive and not in the same category as 90's shooters. What it does right: The procedural generation is done well, the rooms are well laid out and clearly designed with some thought rather than just shoved together. The monsters seem well balanced and the difficulty definitely ramps up with each new zone, although it is a bit more of a spike than you would expect. The weapons feel powerful and the weapon mods are fun. The other game modes are really enjoyable, especially if you have 30 minutes you just want to go shoot at stuff with. It is really apparent that they put a lot of work into the game and it is a fun experience....BUT.... It is not a mashup of any 90's shooters. Shooters from the 90s did not include things like procedural generation, limited weapon options, random/few available weapon modifications, no ammo pickups except for your main weapon, nearly no health items, no saving, and repetitive zones. The only thing this game has in common with shooters of that era is arguably the difficulty and the fast paced movement/controls, it shares almost no mechanics with them. Does it improve on that formula? Maybe this is more of a criticism of procgen in shooters, but I find it really annoying and repetitive to have to go through the same zone every time you die. There are ways around this, but you end up with a weaker build starting in a more difficult zone. In the hours I've played this, I found I spent almost half my time in the first 3 or 4 zones, which got old really fast. I also don't get the replayability argument, we've had the same Doom maps for over 20 years and we keep replaying them because they were designed well. In all, it's an enjoyable game, but probably one that'll get 10 hours max from me. The shooting is fun and engaging, but the repetitive environments are what does it in for me. I also found the difficulty to be artificial due to limited health/ammo pickups.
I bought this game on a whim, thought it looked interesting, and it really sucked me in. It's the first game in a while that made me laugh out loud at the way they poke fun at other games across multiple genres. I also found the story to be really engaging and interesting, I know it's nothing super in depth, but it was enjoyable and fit in was integrated well with the humor. I did not encounter the bugs or problems other people had, except one instance of it crashing when I closed the game, I'm running Windows 7 x64. I also had no stuttering. It's a shame that the top rated review for this game is about one person's bugs, which could be caused by a lot of different factors. As for the complaint about no camera angle adjustment, it's accurate, but I don't think the game needs it or was built around it. The camera auto-adjusts based on your location and I found that to work well. The gameplay is a little rough around the edges, you can tell it was meant around a controller. I played with mouse and keyboard, which worked ok, but is not ideal. In particular, combat can be challenging when you are trying to target an enemy, you'll end up swiping around in mid air until you get re-oriented. The other gripe I have is the save system, it uses well designed save crystals, which can be a nuisance, but there were only 2 times in the game that they were a problem. There are enough of them and they are in the right places, although I would have preferred to just save from the menu. The skill tree is fairly simple, but again it fits in with the game well. I thought the simplicity in the character progression was enough to keep things interesting, but not overcomplicate the game. The best part of the game is the story. The characters are funny, well written, and they all fit their roles well. They poke fun at RPG tropes, each other, and the game world with both obvious and subtle jabs. The underlying story I found very interesting and it was worth the few thorns in gameplay
I don't really care much about the drama the developer started. The game is now in the hands of someone else and, frankly, I don't care that much what he did, as long as the game is good. Too bad it isn't. There are times that fusing ideas works well and times that it does not. I think this had the potential to be a fun game, but it falls short in being enjoyable. This is one of the few games I play for more than 5 minutes, then wonder what I'm doing with my life. The guns are boring, the interface sucks, the gameplay just makes you wonder why you even bother. I'm not sure I can describe why, it just does. For me, shooting games need to have enjoyable shooting, which this game does not. The weapons are pretty weak in design and execution, the enemies are cheap, and the environments just lack charm and character. This is a dull game. It could be rescued if the weapons were made interesting or the environments made a little more charming, but I doubt that will happen. I would pass on this one.
I love roguelikes, but a lot of them fall short in one way or another. Either they aren't engaging, the class selection is boring, the maps are boring, or there is a complete lack of lore & story. Tales of Maj'Eyal doesn't suffer from any of these faults. The game has a really engaging world, the class selection is really interesting, and I found the maps to be really enjoyable. I always get mauled before I am able to really pursue the story, but there are definitely lore aspects of the game that are interesting and engaging, even early on in the game. Further, the game engine is open source and you can "Try" the game at http://te4.org/. I would highly recommend buying it, though, because it helps support the game and bring new content (e.g. the new expansion). If roguelikes are your thing, this is a fantastic game that is very engaging and with lots of content.
