To bring clarity over the 2-3 star reviews one might see, they are absolutely deserved by the game because the gameplay itself is horrible, and this comes from someone with over 400 hours on Steam and someone who created builds to trivialize hardcore with all negative perks whilst being merciful and virgin runs. What this game does very well is creating a believable world, which was the main reason why I spent so much time playing it, whilst studying various objects within. I can tell you every historical inaccuracy this game has. If you are passionate about that, like me, 5/5 stars. The game's codex is a gem. Why the 2 stars? Most players want gameplay, and that is just boring. Fights are challenging until you level up a bit and then with the right perks and armour it becomes trivial, even on hardcore merciful runs. A lot of QoL features are missing, with the excuse that 'the game is highly realistic'. Spending half of your time looking at a time wheel passing by is NOT realistic. Awkward combat that can be easily abused by master striking is NOT realistic. Eating only raisins is NOT realistic, because if you eat normal food, then your energy drops and you can do less in a day, leading you again to the stupid time wheel watch, so you need to consume medieval potions equivalent of taurine based drinks to get energy. 90% of the time you spend grinding and doing boring chores until you become rich through the dlc town, or by boringly looting and selling stuff. After that the game becomes hollow since you have the stuff you want and the story is rarely interesting. Even selling is a chore because sellers need to be constantly traded and tipped in order for them to get more funds. The story is a chore, and besides a few nice moments and quests it is lackluster and very disappointing. What's more sad is that the story turns sour exactly after its best moments, ruining them, not to mention it felt unfinished.
You get your money's worth from this awesome boardgame and quite some hours of gameplay spent 'Offline' or 'Online'. Best when played with friends. + Exceptionally polished game, works terrific on aged tablets and laptops! + Graphics are astonishing. Animations are crisp. + Soundtrack and sound effects are awesome. Its imported from Witcher 3 for the most part. + Tons of fun repliability value, since most of the development and foul fate cards are randomized very well and the order you receive them (when and where) can change your gameplay experience drastically ( from a horrible lose to a decisive victory). + Player interaction is just right: depending on foul fates card that are in play and hero positioning you can make someone's life more miserable, or quite the opposite. With friends or random folks online you can strike deals to work together to achieve some goals, especially when you are not in the lead. The negatives most other reviewers find are rubbish, or they compare this board game with some very high end expensive board game they have in hard copy. - The AI can sometimes goof up and do poor choices on 'Offline' mode. It happens rarely, and its usually just 1AI hero, not all. When it happened I looked at it like playing with someone new to the game, therefore a negligible minus. In conclusion: buy the game, especially on a sale and have fun with friends. If you look at it as a single player game... well it will still give you 10 or so hours of gameplay, but this is at its core a board game ment to be played with friends, something most GoG reviewers seem to forget.
It was a must play 20 years ago. Now its just a waste of time. Only buy it if you're out for nostalgia, or you want to show your kids what game you played when you were young. There are far better games on GoG for a more fairer price. $10 is Blizzard milking the game.
