71 hours of gameplay so far. You make a little progress and the game almost predictably throws another hurdle at you. For example, kill off your King right after you take a province, or spawn rebel after rebel in provinces with a positive value, or have a country declare war on you even though they were kin to you. It seemingly never ends. My advise would be to save often and reload. The reload at least allows a new random seed so that maybe your King doesn't die for a while longer, or the rebels don't spawn as often, or your allies remain on your side, or a bleeping spy doesn't assassinate your General just before you make the final assault on an enemy nation. I'm still playing because I do like a challenge but this is not the game to play after a bad at the office.
I must love the game because I'm still playing it even after all the crashes. So far the game only crashes while playing Georgia and when scrolling over some parts of the game map. I love reading about the historical contexts and the different units and buildings. There's plenty to be desired in the game but overall it is an enjoyable experience. I like it more than the newer version.
I wanted to like the game and kept trying to find a different approach to the battles. Hard to enjoy a game with so many inconsistencies. How does a 20 man squad defeat my 280 units with upgraded armor and archers... uuugh. The battle formations don't seem to change anything. The enemy is able to out flank you or outrun you. The help and advisor are also a waste. So upsetting that I don't even want to finish this review.
It's more like watching a movie than playing a video game , at least at first. The starting tasks were these really simple goals. And then you're suddenly trying to figure out how to steer a horse while being stuck with arrows. I died 14 times on a horse in a ditch. My only chance was causing a guard to fall off his horse before his comrades finished me off. Not sure if I have the motivation to try again. Brutal, but beautiful game and I didn't run into any bugs. It did remind me a lot of Witcher 3, which I was bored with. At least this one is interesting. I'm sure the rest of you will get a better handle on this game than I did.
