Yeah, the lack of alternative routes in quests feels a bit restricting. But i guess it was a budget issue, though i'd *really* *really* *really* prefer if instead of making a seamless open world with 80% being made of emptiness and "interesting places", they'd use the early Fallout approach of abstracting away the uninteresting stuff between the major locations in a worldmap with random encounters (you do get that thing when fast traveling anyway). That would probably leave some budget for spending time on making a few alternative quest routes (or maybe not, i don't know how many different hats people at Warhorse wore).
What feels even more restricting and bothers me a lot, though, is the lack of free saves. I know i already mentioned this, but combined with how buggy the game seems to be and the cumbersome combat (i never liked when games try to pretend pressing more keys or moving the mouse in some way has any resemblance in what you'd do in real life to perform the same actions on screen - the only time that worked for me was in Frictional Games' games and that was because it was the only time when that mouse movement actually *does* feel very similar to what you'd do), it is a recipe for disaster.
Example that just happened: i went to ask Theresa out for a walk (the game saves at that point), then went though the interactive cutscene for that walk (as a sidenote, it looks like NPCs aren't susceptible to the same stamina rules like Henry is), then since i had spent a ton of money on fixing my armor i decided to pick some herbs (that looks to be one of the safest ways to raise money, though not much) and i spend a bit of time doing that, then i thought to try and hunt for some game for a quest, so i try to fast travel towards Rovna because it is closest to woods and the other fast travel points (at least those i have discovered) are in cities that take some time to walk outside of (i *really* dislike walking around unnecessarily, especially when nothing happens). A random encounter with "some armed peasants, what could they want?" which i try to avoid because chances are what they want is to annoy me with the game's cumbersome combat, but i fail, so cumbersome combat it is. Except it isn't because one of the peasants had a spear that he wasn't afraid to use, so i attempted to turn around and flee but as i turned around a dog that was with them attacks me which sends the camera into a fast endless spin, pushes me downside towards "something" (the camera was spinning, i couldn't see), then i get stuck and die because of a combo of camera spin and fast attacks. So, i reload and guess what, the last saved game was right before i asked Theresa. Ragequit right there.
So how would free saving solve any of the above? Well, it wouldn't, but i tend to quicksave after every unpleasant part of a game (and before any potentially unpleasant part, based on experience with previous unpleasant parts when playing that or similar games) so if something happens i wont have to play through that part again. I don't mind jank, i don't mind bugs and i can have fun with a game despite its cumbersome combat (assuming i can avoid or find a way to overpower the enemies so that it doesn't last long), but when the game forces me to go through all that through a decision that it has been shown again and again at the past that creates annoyances, i have a hard time ignoring other issues too.
Which is a shame because the game has a lot of positives and does things i really like. I'll continue playing it because of those, but i have a feeling i'll eventually drop it because all the negatives it has grinds my patience away (negatives that are largely centered around wasting time doing things that would look neat the first couple of times and tiring the next 10000+ times or around being cumbersome for the sake of being cumbersome - not just in combat). It is a game i want to like (...especially after spending the money to buy the Royal edition :-P), but every time i manage to get into the flow and get immersed, something happens that takes me out of it.
Anyway, i hope i'll get used to those issues. Rant over :-P.
(it may sound i am just complaining and don't like the game because i focus on the negatives, but i *do* enjoy the game - it is because of that the negatives stick out to me as much as they do)
