Within 2 minutes of scenario 1 I was being slaughtered and absolutely had zero guidance on even the interface. Since it is old, you don't get the same design expectations as something more modern (select and click to send etc), I guess if you already know how to play or stayed up reading the manual all night sure go ahead. Just don't come into it cold. Thankfully was not an expensive toss into the trash bin,
Tried the entire range of resolution options and the tooltip fonts were always too small for me to read. Probably fine for anyone with decent eyes, but not playable for me.
I have 45 hours on the GOG 1.0 version, ignore the review which calls it upplayable. Zero crashes, minor bugs. They do need to update here as well as Steam, but Dev has already said its in the works. Game is not a simple casual game, it takes thought, balance, and effort to keep ahead. That said some balancing tweaks around employees would be much appreciated. Worth the money if you like business tycoon style games, setting, story, and challenge are good. Currently more click intensive (growing process) than I would ultimately like.
So I've finished it. That's more than I can say for W2 or W3 (or 95% of back library) This is very nearly a lock for 5 stars. I have only 2 reasons for leaving only 4: 1. Resource balance is non-existent. Honestly its so generous that it might as well not be a counter. Then again I collected *everthing*. If your worried about skipping pickups on a play through, don't be. 2. The unexcusably hard boss battle. After 4 days of redoing decks and replaying over and over, I finally cheated (memory editor) just to get it over with. If I had not done so, this review would have been 2 starts at most. Look I know I'm terrible at Gwent online, but if 95% of the game is easy, don't have the final battle be RNG brutal difficult. There are a couple of non-essential bugged cards. I assume they will get corrected. Puzzle design and story, top notch. Setting perfect. My complaints are things that should have worked out during play testing and likely will be patched soon (played version 1.0). Anyway no regrets.
I bought on pure rose color memories, with so many hours of 16y me back in 85-86 on an Apple II. So jaded present day me expected it to fail quickly. So, 8 hours later - its better than it aught to be! On current day standards, this is going to be grindy and unforgiving. However I can honestly say, it plays rock solid on Win10 and it has never looked as sharp as this. My conditions to avoid losing stars in the future: 1. Obviously follow through on 2&3. 2. The manual was a treasure to teenage me. I want to see it again. 3. I accidently hit some key that makes the minimap spin around me instead of me turning. I need to know how to undo that asap (as it makes navigation impossible!). Dev's you go a forum anywhere? My advice, if you played this 30 years ago, it will be received fondly. If not, don't even.
I liked Conquistador, but I might just love Vikings. 6 straight hours on first play through before sunrise reminded me that I'm too old for that. About to restart from scratch to be smarter. ++Surprisingly strong story +Combat is effective the same as first tile, but you have a lot more character customization -As this is release version, there are a few bugs, but not story breaking. -I'm less in love with the changes to campaign map approach, but it might just take time to grow on me. -Really, really could use a Tab button to highlight clickable items on ground. -Game defaults to "Insane" level at start. That's a bad idea.... Those are very minor critiques (most might even get patched). If you like like the first or like turn based strategy, this should be a very quick buy.
