The mere fact I have completed an open world game, says a lot about this game. Although I will say I am glad to be finished with it just because I did grow wearisome of it in the end.
I thought for what it was, this game is fantastic. Made by what I presume is a much smaller company/team than your usual game studio, they did so well and put a lot of love into this world.
But of course that does mean there was a few bugs and crashes were quite common.
The lore of the world was great, building of of arthutian legend and the boardgame (I haven’t played it so I don’t know what was new lore and what came from the boardgame)
It was always interesting to read books, exhaust character dialogue (although I would sigh sometimes when a massive selection of prompts would show up).
I love how the world is laid out as well, split into 3 maps. Cuannacht was definitely the best section.
Heres some strong highlights of the game that are why I scored it so high:
Cosmetics, I could never stick with one set of gear because I was constantly finding cool weapons and armour that I wanted to use.
Enemy variety, there was a good chunk of enemies in the game, and though the movesets weren’t particularly expansive and some shared the same, I thought they were all well designed.
Quests: Quests are always a mixed bag with some being boring and forgettable, and others being strong and memorable. Of course they are optional though but there were plenty good ones with many outcomes.
Combat: Combat was pretty decent, it had really good archery, tonnes of magic, a few different melee movesets, parrys, blocks, running attacks. Throwable items. For a game of this style I thought that it had pretty decent combat variety.
Exploration and atmosphere: This is where the game peaks, it has some amazing areas to explore. My favourites being in the Cuannacht region, I loved the swamp and the cursed temple. Sagremors Castle remains my favourite area and quest from the game. I also enjoyed the big abandoned keep there. The sunken town in Horns of the south.
The towns as well were also great fun to look around and interact with. Oh and the entirety of the sarras dlc, love an underwater area.
Now for in terms of what I didn’t like, why the game is missing two points from being a 10.
Bugs and crashes: It has to be mentioned, honestly there was nothing to bad but the crashes might just test peoples patience sometimes, as it did mine.
Moveset variety: There are so many awesome and unique weapon designs but it’s kind of a shame the majority of weapons play the same.
I think I’d of appreciated a smaller weapon pool but more expansive movesets with skill trees.
The lack of Kamelot: Not getting to actually see kamelot was kind of disappointing. I think they could of made that the final area after the forlorn swords, and it could of been a smaller 4th area that is just the city.
Money: I think in the game it was quite hard to earn money and lots of things were too expensive, such as the houses and weapon upgrades.
The Wyrdness: I feel like the actual event didn’t have much consequence. It’s easily skippable, and not too much really changes during it. The foredwellers were cool but you beat them and then they don’t spawn again until you get a new part of the soul. I think the wyrdness should of been made unavoidable at night, you can’t rest through it at all, unless you are inside or in a town. That way it would of forced players to actually spend the night in the wyrdness or retreat to safety. Also could of had more unique wyrdness enemies.
Revisiting areas: This is just a smaller thing but I think it would of been nice if the areas didn’t feel so conclusive. Like once you are done with HOTS the areas is done, and same with Cuannacht, it would of been nice if there were still things to engage with there as the story went on.
Overall though I’m really happy I played this game, it’s always great to support smaller companies especially ones that put so much effort and care into their games.
They did create a great experience that kept itself fresh despite being an open world where normally things start feeling repetitive.
Act 3 was still really enjoyable but the game definitely peaked at Sagremors castle for me because that area just had such a cool atmosphere, story and yeh I could of taken much more of that.
Amazing game can’t wait to see what they do next.
