MASTERPIECE | PEAK | ABSOLUTE CINEMA | MUST PLAY | GAME OF THE YEAR
This game is, without a doubt, one of the absolute best games I have ever played. I don't like RPGs or at least they're not my type and I have always avoided and criticized them but when I watched the trailer for this game (and never hearing of the first one before) it took a sudden deep interest in me mostly because of the setting and year the game takes place in and now, after having the game finished and over 100 hours in it with the first dlc finished and having a hardcore playthrough going on, I can say that I really wish for a sequel somewhere in the future (thank God there's 2 more dlcs at least and that I just started playing the first game)
World
The world in this game is breathtaking. Every landscape, every forest, every village, town, castle and basically anything you look at is a beautiful master craft. Everything is gorgeous and it will leave you very pleasantly surprised when you are going to ride by yourself for the first time and find yourself walking through the Trosky Region as the sun is setting down, covering the small villages and the planted crops and grass.
The world not only does it look astonishing, but it feels completely alive and fully immerses you in and that's because every single NPC has their own chores, a full day cycle of activity. You will never find one being bugged and T-Posing, have them stare at nothing or sit in the same place the whole day until it is night and they go to sleep, no no. They wake up and go do their chores for the rest of the day. They go do the laundry, cut some wood, go to shopping, plant crops, go eat and drink at the tavern, talk to their friends, cut some wood, practicing shooting, cooking and doing alchemy, taking care of the horses, the guards are patrolling the cities and much much more.
Story
Having not played the first game at the time when I started this one and not knowing what to expect, the game did a great job recapping important points from the first one so much so that you can understand things in the beginning without having to play the first game.
The story follows Henry, the main protagonist, as he's waging through the civil war of the 15th century on a quest for personal revenge and the political struggles between the Kings. I cannot detail it without spoiling but I am gonna say that it is very well written with great cutscenes and dialogues that doesn't make you bored. The voice acting is beyond great and the characters are amazing, not a single one is written bad or feels out of place and they all evolve equally nice.
One of the best things is that you have multiple ways of finishing a quest despite the game not showing any other options except the one it tells you and it doesn't hint at any other one unless you failed their prime objective and even then there's still multiple ways to finish it.
Gameplay
I've seen a lot of negativity in regards to the gameplay in the first one and after playing it for a bit I think it is deserved as the mechanics weren't fully fledged like you had more attack points on the crosshair and blocking was weird and even now I don't get how to block in that game but it has been refined in this instance, it's much more fluent and easier to perform and the ones that dislike it are mostly bots that don't understand it. Everytime the enemy attacks you, you can do a perfect block which is shown on the crosshair as a green shield when they swing at you so it's very easy to encounter them. It's also easy on hardcore, where you don't even have that crosshair and indicator.
There are easier and harder enemies but as for the hard ones you also have things that you can learn in order for you to become better than them and those are: learning perks, studying books to get experience and level up, training with special npcs and learning new combos. The best thing you can learn (which is kinda game breaking) is the Master Strike which has you aim at the opposite direction of the enemy and when they strike you, instead of pressing the perfect dodge button you press the hit button and that guarantees you a safe hit which they cannot block. You should not abuse this mechanic as it will ruin your immersion, just use it when in need like when you are on low health or the enemy is clearly stronger.
I had a side quest where I had to defeat an armored knight with an awful weapon and no armor for a trader so I could get his vote for something and I couldn't combo anything and in the end after a few hours I finally finished after 50-100 tries where I only used the Master Strike for straight 15-20 minutes, it was hell.
The skills in this game have a huge impact, the perks are very rewarding and the grind is easy. For example, picking locks will contribute to your thievery. The higher the thievery, the easier the locks are to pick (they range from Very easy to very hard) and it is EXTREMELY useful. Traders always keep the items they sell on shop inside a chest next to the counter somewhere or behind a few doors in their shop so you can just go in and steal everything and if you have some exclusive Thievery skills then you can even sell these items the next day at shops in the same region (NPCs know which items are stolen and they will make comments on them if they see you wearing them or if you try selling them back to 'em, but with 2 perks you can make them forget them faster and you can safely sell in other regions or cities even if they appear as stolen)
My favorite, which is the speech, is one of the best things in the game. You have multiple social status skills that contribute to your speech level. What does that mean ? Well you have more categories, for example sweet talk, the knight/aggressive one, the liar, noble and a few others that I forgot their name or are very specific (for example houndmaster where Mutt, your dog, will be able to be chosen as an option to help in certain missions if your houndmaster skill is high enough and his loyalty as well).
Let's take the nobility for example. The better you are dressed, the higher your nobility speech stats will be (and of course you need the overall speech stats to be better) If you are seen committing a thief for example and the guard will ask you to hand it over or to punish you, Henry will say something like "How dare you accuse me ? Me, a man of such nobility" and there TONS of funny dialogues based on what you select. You can choke a woman and tell the guard that you wanted to hug her from behind because he heard that's what they like and there's plenty of instances like that, it's a very funny and well done system.
Soundtrack
Masterpiece. I don't even know what to say, every track is mesmerizing, has a very nice melodic tune that makes you feel hopeful and full of joy and it fits so well in the game, it adds to the immersion and sounds like it is from the 15th century.
Graphics and Performance
The game looks absolutely stunning, every view is memorable which is why it helps a lot with the world and I consider it breathtaking and it's even more surprising that it is very optimized. I am able to play at over 60 fps on max settings with specs under the recommended.
First DLC
It was 20-30 hours long and it was good. Nothing wow but nothing bad, it was a nice story that towards the end it became very good and funny and added the ability to paint your shields which is a nice addition.
I don't want to sound super biased but the game is insanely good, it wasn't my type and I only got it because I like the time period and after a few hours I just fell in love with it. The gameplay, dialogues, choices, graphics, locations, views, NPCs, mechanics, story (which made me tear up in the end) and basically everything is simply amazing and I cannot wait for the rest of the dlcs and hopefully a sequel.
Definitely my GOTY.
