When I first started playing this game, it enraged me. I was used to playing games where, even on harder difficulties, I was a walking disaster area, capable of destroying huge numbers of enemies, as long as I didn't make a major mistake. This is not that kind of game. This is the kind of game where even at your most powerful, if you see three or four decently armored guys running toward you, if you want to survive, your reaction should not be "CHARGE!" I made the mistake of not understanding that and was getting killed by things I thought I should be able to beat. This was my mistake, trying to make the game bend to me, rather than adapting to the intended style. This is a game that lives and dies on its attempt to be realistic in a variety of ways. The combat is non-intuitive, and at least for me, and different from other games I'd played. Eventually you learn all the tricks and become a pretty nasty fighter, but you absolutely start out dying from a stiff breeze. Huge attempts were made to be realistic in other ways, basing much of the game on real historical events and people, and just generally putting in a huge amount of effort into making the buildings, clothing, etc. as period accurate. While this doesn't guarantee a good game, I personally feel they nailed the atmosphere, giving it a unique and quite enjoyable feeling. And to address it's biggest problem, it is a bit buggy. I got into the game late, after the developers had a chance to patch some things, so I didn't run into any game-breaking bugs. I did hit some annoying ones, but nothing that even made me reload my game. I wouldn't call it a real issue now. tldr; this game can be frustratingly difficult, a bit buggy, and sometimes a little too realistic for its own good, but I enjoyed the hell out of it, and would heartily recommend it to just about anyone who's got time to sink into it.
