This game is one I absolutely adore. Apparently critics didn't like it at first and I can understand why: they play the first hour or so and then write their entire article based on that. In the first hour of this game you are the illiterate son of a blacksmith. You fetch some stuff from town (and through dialogue choices can get up to other things while you're there!) But you don't know how to wield a sword, aren't much in a fistfight and know almost nothing about the outside world. Your character, Henry is a pathetic uneducated commoner - no magic, no legendary weapons and apparently nothing of note about him at all. But after a couple of hours of gameplay you might begin to realise that the game isn't a linear story game with a dull main character at all; instead it has started you off at level 1 where most RPG's start at level 5. This is for the sake of realism, and also to foster a more long term emotional investment in Henry, your character. Personally, I find the most fun in playing the role of Henry. In other RPG's such as fallout I make decisions based on what I would do, and that is certainly possible in this game - but more fun is to step inside the mind of Henry the blacksmiths son. How would he react? What would he say? I deliberately don't choose some of the dialogue options available because I reason that Henry wouldn't be wise enough to actually know things about the politics of 15th century Bohemia (there is an ingame codex available so the player can actually learn about this stuff, but Henry doesn't need to know lol). There are love interest(s), political intrigues and plenty of everyday events that are going on in the game world and you can discover them for yourself. At no point did I get the sense that I was the hero of the land and sometimes my intervention made things worse! At first I felt that the plotline for the main story (which is a revenge/item retrieval story) was a bit far-fetched, almost like it was a maguffin that would even be rejected in an 80's B-movie - but actually the story unfolds beautifully and each new objective seems to flow and there is certainly a "yeah, I think I'd want to do that after X had happened" vibe to things. Now the only thing I think that is far-fetched is this: Henry has a sword to deliver to the Lord, and when he does something stupid and loses the sword, the lord could have just said "stupid peasant, go away and beg in the streets I don't owe you anything and I've got bigger fish to fry" - but he doesn't, and thus plot happens. I still feel, even after I have become thoroughly invested in what happens to Henry and his liege lord, that this is a bit of a stretch and raises several questions that I don't like the potential answers to (is Henry his bastard son? For example). Nonetheless I rationalise reasons that the lord would entertain the revenge fantasy of one of his peasants (in case you're interested, I think he did it because either way he wins and it costs him nothing. He doesn't need to care about his subjects and this one will either die trying, or retrieve a sword that he quite likes). Gameplay: The controls are very smooth, and it doesn't try to do anything revolutionary. Press A (or E on keyboard) to talk. Skill based speech checks. Hold a key to pickpocket, or lockpick. Character animations are good too, like you can look down and see your feet, and see the items of clothing/armour you are wearing (and how clean or torn they are). But where the game really excels is in its battle system. Swordfighting is rarely done properly in a game. In some games you simply swing a weapon and anything in the area of effect gets damage magically affecting it. Not so in this game; it's all about positioning, angle of attack and a parry/guard mechanic that is both smooth to use and beautifully animated! The annoying thing is the lockpick mechanic. I think that they could have sacrificed some of the realism here in the name of not trolling their players . It is what it is though, fiddly and based on levels (you have to come back at a higher level to pick locks that are too sophisticated in some cases). Graphics: the game runs smoothly with beautiful scenery and character rendering. Motion capture has been used to create stunning action and plot sequences. The game world is very well decorated with horse dung on the hoof-beaten roads, houses that are not all (just some) copy-paste interiors and forests and farmlands that feel like they have been treated by a human in almost every inch. On the PC I can run at a solid 60fps with very high graphics on my fairly modest machine so it's definitely had the care and attention in making the whole game a solid, beautiful experience. The bottom line is: if you want a game that doesn't hold your hand through all the choices you have to make and isn't afraid to let you fail, or miss entire side-stories then this is the game you are looking for. It's a real challenge, and a real pleasureRead full review
Verified purchase: No
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best-selling in Video Games
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Video Games