Looks like it is currently heavily discounted on Steam to me.
Personally. this is one of those games where - if I ever manage to come back to it - I would seriously consider just finding some mods to make the game easier/more forgiving. The combat system in this game is bad to terrible, and while I can certainly see how people might enjoy some of its elements, IMO the game is good very much in spite of the combat than because of it. It’s falls into the common trap of trying to be realistic, without understanding that a game of this type can per definition not be realistic (and also - actual realism sucks).
I should play this again. My problem is that I put about 25 hours in back in 2019, so I’d have to start over and I really don’t like replaying that much content. It would be nicer to play too since I have a better computer than I had then. I thought it was pretty decent, but like @roguefrog I didn’t master the different moves and stuck with the basics due to my lack of memorization skills.
Yes, and it’s all your fault. YOU WILL ANSWER FOR YOUR CRIMES! Press G to surrender.
If instead you’d simply crouched behind be before committing the crime I wouldn’t have a clue it was you who’d done it, despite you being the only person in the area, and you’d get away with it.
I’ve got 1/3 of the way through the story, decided I was doing nothing but story and wanted some sidequestin’, so looked up on the wiki to see if it was a timed quest and it wasn’t until I spoke to a certain person. So I’ve just crunched through all available side quests, activities and treasure map. So in-game I’m about to continue the desperate hunt for someone that I delayed for 2+ in-game weeks. I imagine a few more side quests will pop up, but it’s mostly going to be main story line from here on out?
In a way I kind of wish they didn’t have the side quests, as then I wouldn’t feel compelled to complete them and I could have continued on with the story, as I was very much enjoying it. Can’t designers take my feeble mind into consideration when designing games?! The story itself is one of the best renditions I’ve seen in a game. If you ignore the terrible animations during the cutscenes the writing and music can be incredibally moving at times.
So far the only mods I’m using are the inventory sorting one and bow crosshair. I added the bow crosshair after about 40 hours of playing because I couldn’t take it anymore. It was far too variable depending on the bow, arrow, and my orientation on a horse. I’ve shot bows IRL and it’s instinctual and physical in a way that the floating knuckles weren’t, so I gave in and downloaded that mod. I’ve been much happier since! Also, you didn’t get XP from hitting targets, and I needed to level it by shooting hares, which was far, far too difficult without a crosshair. (Though now I can practically stand on them without running away due to my skills)
I agree with the above comments about the combat system. It was pointlessly fiddly.
Especially true for combat. The combat is not “realistic”, it’s stupid. The AI is dumb as rocks and simply walks towards you at all times, forcing you to go backwards or clinch. All of the stuff you spend learning with Bernard, e.g. parries, timing, feints etc are completely useless in a real fight. There’s an achievement for doing 20 combos – I didn’t get it, but got almost every other, because I just never bothered with combos, as trying to do anything fancy just gets you blocked and parried. Just whack-whack-wack. If they’re too armoured for that, just master-strike them to get them off balance and then whack-whack-whack. Preferably whilst aiming for the head with some kind of blunt force weapon.
It’s no different than every other arcadey melee game (Skyrim, Mount and Blade etc), it just has a steeper learning curve that locks abilities (like parrying) behind skill checks.
Also, fighting groups is tedious AF because of the “lock on” system. I much prefer something like Skyrim or Mount and Blade or whatever where I can just swing my weapons in whatever direction and it all works fine. In duels it’s ok, as it keeps you centred, but I’m only ever duelling in the Rattay tourney, or on the last bandit out of the group of 10. But every other time I have that band of 10 men to kill first.
I wouldn’t mind a complete combat overhaul. Mainly to replace the combos with something better. It just doesn’t work and feels ill suited for the simulation. Up, side, side, thrust, down, combo!!! No.
I think you aren’t really suppose to fight multiple enemies at once. At least not very well. I tended to get my ass kicked.
This is a game that would benefit from a current gen remaster with overhauled combat. I wanted to love it, but after starting a new game recently–for the 4th time since release–I uninstalled it. Always end up quitting around the 6th hour or so. Could just not get the hang of combat (on console).
In probably 99% of the cases you can avoid mobs. I think the only times I remember the game requiring you deal with mobs were almost scripted battles where you could literally stand back and let NPCs do the dirty work.
The combat isn’t perfect. But compared to other games I did feel it required some thinking instead of just button spamming. It required thinking with your shield, and you couldn’t just wade into mobs swinging and expect to live.
Oh, I don’t necessarily disagree with you or @roguefrog in general. I found the combat very difficult though, and I do think @Pod has a really good point. The combat is IMO poorly tuned. It neither captures the realistic and challenging but doable with practice side of things, nor the don’t worry about it and get on with the story way of doing things. It is stuck somewhere awkwardly in the middle in many ways, and is easily the least interesting part of the game I think.
Avoiding fights though runs totally counter to not only player instincts in games like this, but also to the game’s own internal narrative. It’s about your journey to become essentially a knight, and that means a warrior, and that means being combat effective. And then the game pulls the rug out from under you.
The entire prologue is about running from fights…or dying. And early on you should still run from fights. It’s smart. There are combat encounters you have no chance of winning. No one does. Not you the rookie green knight, or the best damn sword saint in all the land. Both will die if they choose to fight.
That being said, once you do become a respectable swordsman, taken down a couple of those wandering armored duelists bros, bested the tourney, etc…the highwayman aren’t as much trouble anymore. But fuck me if you can actually memorize, use, and execute all those combos.
There’s still innate combat progress, but the combo system they made is a total waste.
There is, but still unannounced. Friend of a friend who works at Warhorse said they planned announcing this year, but given how far we are in the year, maybe that plan was changed.
I also beat up lots of mobs :D I can’t imagine not fighting mobs. A lot of the quests are “kill these mobs”, and the options are to fight them, or poison their food.
Frankly the easiest way to fight bandit gangs is on horseback with a bow, even without the crosshair mod. This doesn’t work in tight spaces or dense forests, and then I’d go for a volley of arrows until they closed and just switch to spamming swings. The directionality lost all meaning once in a real fight.
Frankly, that sounds realistic to me :)
I can’t imagine starting a game 4 times! Most games get one chance with me.
Yes, large parts of the game seems to be about killing bandits. Sure, you can poison them, but who has time for that? I like to deliver the poison more directly, via my weapons.
