Excellent story & characters and a playing world worth to spend lots of time in.
It takes me usually about 60 hours in an RPG to achieve "God Status", meaning being invincible - this game however is much more realistic: After 100+ hours played I still need to be extremely careful not to be ambushed.
-Expect to be frustrated for a long time about the combat system until you get the knack.
-You will loose your hard earned money without loaded dice. Find some first before gambling.
This is one of the very few reviews I've ever written for a game, and I'm doing this because this masterpiece and Warhorse Studios deserve it. This masterfully realized Czech medieval life simulator ruined the open world genre for me, because I know probably nothing will top this for my personal taste (I'd be very happy to be disproven). Everything is meticulously cared for: the 3D models of humans, animals, weapons, armors, buildings (much care for materials, scale of the brickwork etc.), the beautiful, varied and lifelike environments (every tree, rock etc. seem to be placed with thought), the beautiful music I've grown very fond of, the english dubbing, the amount of research put by the studio in the history of the places where the game is set, and that is reflected in the beautifully intricated and convincing lore, and in the ingame codex. I played in hardcore mode, so without fast traveling, and never grew bored of wandering the map. Combat is very interesting, well designed, and satisfying, even if not perfectly balanced; I've found combos hard to be performed successfully, and I ended up not using them very often. Other than that, the feeling of striking the opponent is very realistic, and it's enhanced by the well designed sound effects. It's not a perfect game, but the merits far outweigh the defects. I played the final version of the game I think, so haven't experienced many bugs, apart from the occasional crash, or the (rare) sudden death upon descending from the horse (happens when you're on a steep area, or in the bushes, I believe). Maybe the worst one is when you go close to some enemies and they don't react for quite a bit. Another small defect is the facial animations that are a bit stiff, but it's to be expected when you have so many characters, and not a big deal in the total experience. An unforgettable game for me, it'll never leave my hard disk, and I'm looking forward to KCD 2, hoping it'll be up to the magnificence of this first chapter.
+ best dialogue in any game so far
+ very detailed. Carrying rotten eggs and even your clothing has gameplay consequences beyond armor and stealth
+ teaches and visualizes a whole lot about the European middle ages in a concise way
+ feels like you're part of a world instead of a player in a game
+ full of options to complete/fail a quest, including hidden ones
+ works fine on Linux (using Xorg for now, but Wayland support will likely become the better option soon), even on a HDD
+ the realism plays well with RPG elements
+ moderately slow paced. Some people dislike it but I prefer it this way
+ Kunesh and Father Godwin
- poor lock-on controls during combat
- the AI of wild animals is too simple
- some few gameplay mechanics aren't communicated well enough, such as randomly releasing the bow when your skill is low. While they make sense it's sometimes hard to tell if it's intended or not
I recommend this game to everyone who has the patience to complete the prologue.
I recommend to learn patience to everyone else.
I like the idea of this game. I love the worldbuilding, the historical accuracy, characters, story, etc. But I cannot get over how it works as a game. It feels somewhat unintuitive at times, not telling you even the things it does well, such as how much practicing with Bernard and upgrading your combat skills means a whole lot when fighting real enemies. But I can get over the somewhat unintuitive features and janky mechanics. What I cannot get over is the way you save the game, and more explicitly - the way the game saves itself.
As a person who has limited time for gameplay in a week, the way the game handles saving my progress is such an insult to my time that I doubt I will bring myself to finishing it, despite loving the world and caring for the story.
Option 1) Save the game by sleeping in a bed your character owns or rents (yes, not any bed will do). I have no problem only saving the game a certain way, but then it would make sense to make that way quickly available at any point in an open world game. Fast travel isn't just a loading screen here.
Option 2) Quicksaves get you drunk. They are only possible by drinking a special kind of alcoholic potion, so you are punished by having to obtain them and then by drinking them.
Option 3) Autosaves. This is it. They are far too rare. Normally they happen at the beggining and end of a quest. They do not occur as your quest objective changes. There are no checkpoints and at this stage the immersive world becomes a hindrance. If you get too engrossed and forget to save and you wonder how a situation might have been resolved differently, or you die? Tough luck, you have an hour to replay. This has happened way too many times for me. Even worse when I was doing a few quests in an area in a bunch. I had 3 hours to replay because I got mobbed and killed. That was a gaming session I had been looking for for 4 days.
I don't know. If you got the time and less curiosity than me, then go ahead. You'll have a good time.
I absolutely despised this game at first. Nothing made sense and I was just a poor peasant boy, playing as another even poorer, more confused peasant boy named Henry. I rage quit multiple times. Then I discovered the cheese. No not the cheese Henry's mother gives him for breakfast, but the sweet, sweet aged cheese of the murder hobo profession. To unlock your muder hobo potential, simply get those four measly lockpicks from Fritz in the beginning of the game and after stealing Kunesh's stuff, find yourself a nice quiet house on the outskirts of Skallitz. Make sure you press "C" to sneak and enter this unsuspecting family's humble domicile. Find the wife, because the husband is likely out doing chores or his job. Sneak up behind her and choke her tf out like a serial killer with a tiny penis and a lifelong grudge against the fairer sex. Then snap her neck and loot her corpse. There will be a key to a chest on her. DO NOT USE THIS! It is tempting, but it is weakness to rely on crutches. Then simply save and quit before lockpicking the chest in the house so you have a save point. Practice lockpicking until the mingame is literally impossible to fail. Quit but don't save if you break a lockpick. Yes, I know this takes a long time, but you need to take advantage of this games save and quit system to practice. Once you are confident in your lockpicking abilities, break into that chest and steal those sweet Groshcen out of it. Repeat this until you are in posession of every single coin in the town of Skallitz. This should give your stealth and lockpicking skills a nice early game boost and fill your pockets with enough coin to make your life relatively more comfortable after the prologue.
