I am not super deep in this game yet, having purchased it a few days ago, but my first impression is better than Vikings, worse than Conquistador.
I value highly that they cut out a lot of time wasting bullshit. The maps are no longer littered with ressources staches of questionable usefullness as if they were Skyrim tombs. Instead you usually only find treasure on battlefields after you have won a fight, stashed in a few sensible chests.
The managment mechanics were also changed to be much less obnoxious, the camping minigame was fun and challenging in Expeditions, but a waste of time in Vikings, once you have figured out how to have a party that has multiple doctors and still enough hunters, trappers and watchmen to get the full benefits then micromanaging the watches became annoying.
However this positive streamlining is also accompanied by retarded streamlining. Attributes are gone, completely and entirely. And while I fundamentally like class systems more than classless systems, the 4 class system in this game has considerably less depth than the open system of Vikings. Itemisation has become more interesting, but to the detriment of the skill tree as you gain good abilities now by equiping a stronger weapon, and most benefits from the skill tree are minor until you reach the deep late game perks. Character building is more uninteresting than it has ever been.
Combat has been sidegraded. Expeditions has always been a fairly realistic combat system. Killing someone in a single strike was possible, but difficult, and at most you could kill 2 enemies with a single move. Many attacks glance or get parried, although if you get through the defense people don't have terribly high health. It was all very simulationists, not terribly deep or exciting, and fitted well with the autistic wound system for immersion.
Here the combat system is faster, flashier, with more room for skill based outplays, but also very arcady with no room for immersion. Yes, my sword and dagger assassin can murder 5 people in a single turn even before the broken perks at the end of the skilltree just by abusing the action reset on killing grunts, my archer can shoot three arrows per turn and still enter overwatch afterwards, yes the difficulty on insane leads to very interesting maps which offer a good mental challenge without too much frustration, but at the end of the day the system keeps you hyperaware that you are playing a videogame at all times, much to the detriment of atmosphere.
As for companions and characters, on average they are the same quality, but most of the women are really unlikeable, mostly due to their schizophrenic attitude of going with "this is a realistic world where there is sexism but we still have girlbosses disguised as men". The storytelling is more character driven than vikings even, which is also unfortunate because while I like half of my characters a lot I want to kill the other half, and the game does not let me because it loves its special snowflakes too much.
From my first impression it is a two steps ahead, two steps back kind of situation. The game didn't necessarily become better or worse than its predecessor, but it shifted the appeal around a lot, so some people like it more, some like it less.
I personally dig it more than Vikings, after all I did not dig Vikingd at first at all, and refunded the game, only to complete it MUCH later. But Vikings was backloaded and some of the penultimate maps in the game also had the most interesting quests, while this game appears to be frontloaded.
I value highly that they cut out a lot of time wasting bullshit. The maps are no longer littered with ressources staches of questionable usefullness as if they were Skyrim tombs. Instead you usually only find treasure on battlefields after you have won a fight, stashed in a few sensible chests.
The managment mechanics were also changed to be much less obnoxious, the camping minigame was fun and challenging in Expeditions, but a waste of time in Vikings, once you have figured out how to have a party that has multiple doctors and still enough hunters, trappers and watchmen to get the full benefits then micromanaging the watches became annoying.
However this positive streamlining is also accompanied by retarded streamlining. Attributes are gone, completely and entirely. And while I fundamentally like class systems more than classless systems, the 4 class system in this game has considerably less depth than the open system of Vikings. Itemisation has become more interesting, but to the detriment of the skill tree as you gain good abilities now by equiping a stronger weapon, and most benefits from the skill tree are minor until you reach the deep late game perks. Character building is more uninteresting than it has ever been.
Combat has been sidegraded. Expeditions has always been a fairly realistic combat system. Killing someone in a single strike was possible, but difficult, and at most you could kill 2 enemies with a single move. Many attacks glance or get parried, although if you get through the defense people don't have terribly high health. It was all very simulationists, not terribly deep or exciting, and fitted well with the autistic wound system for immersion.
Here the combat system is faster, flashier, with more room for skill based outplays, but also very arcady with no room for immersion. Yes, my sword and dagger assassin can murder 5 people in a single turn even before the broken perks at the end of the skilltree just by abusing the action reset on killing grunts, my archer can shoot three arrows per turn and still enter overwatch afterwards, yes the difficulty on insane leads to very interesting maps which offer a good mental challenge without too much frustration, but at the end of the day the system keeps you hyperaware that you are playing a videogame at all times, much to the detriment of atmosphere.
As for companions and characters, on average they are the same quality, but most of the women are really unlikeable, mostly due to their schizophrenic attitude of going with "this is a realistic world where there is sexism but we still have girlbosses disguised as men". The storytelling is more character driven than vikings even, which is also unfortunate because while I like half of my characters a lot I want to kill the other half, and the game does not let me because it loves its special snowflakes too much.
From my first impression it is a two steps ahead, two steps back kind of situation. The game didn't necessarily become better or worse than its predecessor, but it shifted the appeal around a lot, so some people like it more, some like it less.
I personally dig it more than Vikings, after all I did not dig Vikingd at first at all, and refunded the game, only to complete it MUCH later. But Vikings was backloaded and some of the penultimate maps in the game also had the most interesting quests, while this game appears to be frontloaded.
