Recent reviews by Bashar

Although the game is great, the amount of DLCs most of which looks like cut content, is closing to Paradox and EA. This is no good practice. At least put them into some packs or smth.

And it crashes later in the game.

Well, It's definitely not HoMM.... But it has the spirit that's for sure.

Okay, what's next? Extermination camp manager simulator?

GOT award? Totally deserved.
Overwhelmingly positive? Well earned.

This game is a masterpiece, an adventure of epic proportions, a test to your tactical thinking, a pleasure for sore eyes. Telling this from experience of somebody who played first parts of BG, Fallout and generally an RPG lover for 20+ years.

Don't. Just don't even try to buy this. The game is infested with bugs. One mission will start, the other will not, sound will disappear, the game will crash... There is a troubleshooting section in the devs forum, and it takes less fuss to launch a shuttle into space then to properly launch this game. Sorry, I didn't pay for the game to perform some weird actions like reinstalling drivers and DX libraries, renaming file directories and many more. I want to use the product I payed for, and I want to use it easily. With this game you can't do it. So my sincere recommendation - avoid.

I dunno, maybe I'm spoiled by good RPGs, but this one made me uninstall right after first dialogue." - Who are you? - I don't remember." Wow. What a brilliant piece of storytelling. "We don't know you, now you may go." Eh... Seriously? No introduction, no cutscene to at least give some idea where and what's happening... Maybe the game is that good, but it failed to hook me up right from the start.

It's not a bad game, but the company is just awful.

I don't want to buy something from you just to find after the free weekend ends that I can only play in Russian despite the fact I'm not from Russia and never was.

Seriously Paradox, what's wrong with you? You take great ideas and completely spoil them with realization. I'm playing as a martial ruler, 24 prowess, excellent aptitudes, and I didn't even qualify for a melee tournament? And instead characters with 9, 8 prowess and the aptitude labeled as "non-existent" qualify. What the heck?
I go on a pilgrimage for 2 years, and in the middle of the journey my wife, who is left as a regent, gets pregnant. My SOULMATE wife! Add some sense to your game, eh?

Instead of finishing and fixing the game we'll do some ♥♥♥♥ nobody asked for and that adds nothing in terms of gameplay.

So, I tried the game during the free weekend, and I'm not buying. And wouldn't recommend buying it to anyone.

First of all, the good things:
- the picture is nice. Maybe not the top-notch, but even a mediocre PC will let you play.
- the non-target combat system.
- weapons and their behavior
- fishing. No, really, it's probably the best I've ever seen.

And now for the bad:
- combat. The enemies seem to not give a f@ck about what your character is doing - they just hit you, breaking your combos and even abilities.
- enemies. 3-4 major archetypes and different skins for them.
- quests. Guys, you might have not noticed, but it's 2022. The Lineage 2 style quests (kill x monsters, loot x chests) are not fun anymore. And never were, actually.
- grind. I did some research, and I found out that if you want to be a high level crafter, and craft high-end gear, you have to craft about 17 000 low end items. SEVENTEEN THOUSAND, guys, are you f@cking kidding me?! And that's for 1 are, say weapons, but there is also armor, jewelry... I say, even Lineage 2 had a better crafting system.
- solo experience. I played both solo and in a group, and while group play is ok, solo is not. While you are dealing with ordinary mobs, even 3-4 lvls above you, it's ok. But wjen it comes to bosses, or quest monsters... You see, they are often surrounded buy lesser enemies. What's your general strategy? Kill the small, then deal with the large. But the small mobs respawn so fast, that you don't have time to deal with the boss! After you get him to half HP, or even close to the end, those small mobs respawn and swarm you. The respawn time is a minute or what?
LOL I checked. A minute and a half in some cases.
- servers. Did you really need that many for the week-end, if 90% of your existing servers are just dead? And why people have to pay money to get themselves transferred to another server? Is it THEIR fault that the server is dead? And how are you going to merge the new servers - pour the newcmers, which are lvl 25-30 at max into existing ones? Great plan, Walter.
- PvP. I haven't even seen it. Nobody just want's to duel, and the battles are end-game content from what I understand.
- the free-weekend itself. I might understand why you blocked trading (although I don't), but why block chats? Why cap the gold at 2 000? And did you block the voice chat too? Why can't I talk to anyone?

To sum it up, based on my experience and the reviews I read and watched about the bugs and exploits, I can tell for sure - these devs don't have a slightest clue about what they are doing, or how to make games at all. And the numbers of players coming during the free-weekend suggest I'm correct you now. 3% increase from the current player base? Meh. I think the game will become F2P in a year, or two at most.

OH, YES I FORGOT - WALKING UNDER WATER!!! Just amazing, guys.