Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 - out now (nearly)

[Sly Boots]

Haha, that's ok, I was vaguely aware as one of vids I watched on it alluded to it, but honestly I didn't really read any reviews for it beyond glancing at a couple of scores just to see it was as good as anticipated...

[Snowy]

There's a second map?!

I thought I was doing pretty well exploring the world lol, this is Far Cry 2 all over again

What, you mean it is utter shit?

/gets coat

[Sly Boots]

There's a second map?!

I thought I was doing pretty well exploring the world lol, this is Far Cry 2 all over again

What, you mean it is utter shit?

/gets coat

[Snowy]

I will never, never forgive that atrocity of a game

[Wrathbone]

I’m kitted out now with the best equipment money can buy, trained to master level in swordsmanship. I stumbled upon a group of six bandits yesterday - two well armoured, the rest not. It wasn’t a fair fight. I felt like Darth Vader marching into camp, deftly turning their own attacks against them, obliterating an unarmoured wretch with a single thrust to the chest, plunging my blade straight through the head of another as their strikes glanced off my impenetrable plate. It was trivial and brutal.

High level Henry is badass.

[Sly Boots]

Sounds fun! My Henry is still a bit of a schlub although I can take on 2-3 bandits at a time now as long as they're not heavily armoured. I recently learned the masterstrike move, although actually applying it in combat is proving challenging still...

[Wrathbone]

I should point out there is still plenty of challenge at high levels - there's one area with a large hostile group of heavily-armoured and capable men-at-arms that I can barely make a dent in. I managed to take out a few before having to flee, and I took out a couple more at night sneaking around like a ninja, but I have no idea how I'm going to take on the rest. I'm not sure I'm even supposed to be going on a killing spree there (I suspect there may be quest stuff there later on), I just like that the game lets me.

[Sly Boots]

I've not tried it here, but something I did in the first game with enemy camps was sneak in at night and poison their cookpot... you have to wait for them to then actually go and eat some, but it was quite effective at clearing out a group I couldn't have otherwise taken on.

[Wrathbone]

That's a good shout, but I'll need to improve my stealth. Even with an all-black outfit and no footwear, I may as well be wearing hi-vis and clanging pots and pans together.

[Sly Boots]

I'm nearly 40 hours in and still pootling around the first map. Today I helped a couple of budding troubadours called George and Michael steal, break, fix and then play a lute, performing an actually hysterical tribute to Henry as a reward, hunted some poachers for the local alcoholic gamekeeper then stumbled randomly across a villager who'd fallen out of a tree, who recounted an increasingly hilarious tale of his lifelong woes to prove he's actually cursed.

Game of the year.

[Wrathbone]

The lute song is a proper bop, as kids are wont to say.

I’m at 86 hours now and I think approaching the endgame, just clearing up various side quests at the moment. It’s been a monumentally fun ride and there are so many moments I want to highlight, but I’ll hold off until others have got through the game. Everyone’s Henry is going to be different, yet there is a Henry core that is sometimes complex, sometimes laughably blunt and always fundamentally endearing. I think he’s one of the finest (and funniest) characters in gaming, the unassuming yet courageous dork that defines the Everyman.

I agree, game of the year. Maybe game of the decade for me.

[Rusty]

I randomly found a troubadour in a burned out camp. He had a lute or some such shoved up his butt and another in his ear or mouth.
Nothing came of it apart from being marked as an abandoned camp.

I wonder if it's anything to do with a missed quest..

[Sly Boots]

Tough crowd, clearly

[eny]

Thought I'd get refamiliar with the first game last night, so reinstalled—March 2018 was my last save! I have no clue why I stopped playing, it is still sublime. Environment is delicious and so well realised, and tasks are intricate and fun. Currently mending legs and various other injured parties at a makeshift hospital at a monestry, with everything from weeding a herb garden, finding a hermit priest, to convincing an executioner to rearrange some broken bones. I will wait till 2 drops in price and continue with the delights of 1.

[Wrathbone]

There are plenty of opportunities in the sequel to practice medicine, sometimes requiring you to apply of bit of logic in your diagnosis, which is fun and has actual consequences. There was at least one instance where I think Dr Henry botched it, but reported success to those concerned and fled before the results came in.

(Insert "just like the NHS" joke here ¬_¬)