So i started playing this game. I bought the Royal edition on GOG a couple of months ago and with the recent Epic release i decided to try it out (the GOG version, not the Epic one).
I have to say i really like the atmosphere and, of all things, the UI. I just like all these little ornaments, the drawings on the codex pages (all of which were so far very interesting to read, though at some points i was thinking i might getting spoilers for the story by reading the historical events :-P), even the sliding rock sound when the inventory/map/etc screen opens. And noticed that at a couple of points the text in these codex entries referred to the actual keys i configured instead of the default keys (which reminded me of my adventures in Skyrim trying to solve the puzzle of figuring out what key does the default indicated one really refers to).
Having said that...
I've played up to arriving at the second castle and sleeping until the next day when the army arrives.
I have to say, i'm not a fan of how much scripted the game is so far. It really feels as my participation up to this point has been to move Henry around so that i can unlock the next cutscene - and those cutscenes aren't that short. They are very well animated and acted (i especially liked forging the sword and the one where the lord of the first castle arrives to the second during the storm), but i caught myself sitting back to my chair as if i was watching some movie - and then the cutscene ends and i realize that, oh yes, now i can play again.
This isn't only the cutscenes though, even some gameplay bits felt like that. The part where i have to brawl with the guy to give me the money he owes my father felt like i was *meant* to lose (despite getting both strength points before that) so that the game can "teach" me lockpicking but i had to first get a lockpick from a friend of mine - but the game didn't give me that option. My guess is that i had to follow with the "quest" where we'd throw shit at someone's house but it didn't sound like a good idea so i declined. However even after finding my friends after they threw said shit, i couldn't ask for the lockpick (the game wouldn't even let me initiate a conversation) - it seems i really had to do things in the very specific order they were scripted.
(at least i found another way to get money for the main quest - namely, i picked a bunch of flowers and sold them to the trader)
The "do things in a predetermined order" feel was also when i left the castle to run for the second one. I died a TON of times trying to figure out what exactly to do as no matter what i tried, i would die - often because i didn't run fast enough, or ran to a dead end (especially if i decided to save Theresa) and got surrounded by enemies, or... for some unfathomable reason the game decided to autolock to an enemy while i'm trying to run away. Or i call for the horse at the wrong time and it is too far from me to reach it before getting surrounded again.
But eventually i figured that out and played the next scripted sequence where i have to run away while i am being pursued (since there is a whole cutscene after that about driving the pursuers away there is no way for me to get rid of them, i can only try to keep the horse's stamina levels high enough so that it wont stop, but at least that was easy enough).
Is it going to be like that for the rest of the game or it is just a long tutorial section? So far i do not feel like i have much agency in the game. Is it just a slow starting game?
