Despite of the attacks of relentless bugs I managed to finis the game. And my impression is, the game is awesome enough regardless of the bug.
Yes there are some quests with frustrating bugs but non of them were as bad as game-breaking.
The main quest line is rich enough, it’s even better and has more depth then other so called AAA games.
I am aware that devs are working on bugs and so do the modders.
So overall I am looking forward to play sequel. You guys are gonna make sequel right? After talking so much about Jan Hus, Prague, Rosenbergs etc, with so many characters it will be mad if you guys don’t make sequel.
The endings is kinda cliff hanger too, so I just can’t wait for the part 2 of the game.
I really wonder where the story will take us to. For now we are following Henry’s footsteps. Central Europe in 15th century was volatile glass pot and Ottoman conquest was starting to come up to the peak from the fall of Constantinople in 1453. So following Henry’s lineage after finishing Henry story will really expand the universe.
Having said that I have a list of improvement to the gameplay which I would like to see. The game has so much potential to start S.t.a.l.k.e.r like genre in 1st person medieval RPG.
Please feel free to add your ideas too!
1st - Worlds and activities
I would like to see the in game world to be more lively.
Current game world feels rather empty as you rarely see anyone outside of the village and city. So seeing more group travelers such as merchant guild, Roaming knights on Horse back, patrol groups ant etc. Adding more hold-up and group battles such as patrolling group battling bandits who assaulted traveling merchant will be awesome. So far these events seems to happen too seldom.
More Intractable with civilians, during my play through I have encountered many families in remote location. It is sad that they will just chase you away despite of them saying ‘Glad to see you Henry’… so as described above making the road more dangerous and allowing Henry to take a shelter inside these families houses will fit in nicely. Seeing a group of guards talking a shelter inside these houses time to time and fending off outlaws who try to Reid these places, will be awesome.
However you really have to stay in good term with locals as well as passing the speech check, before dwelling into someone’s house. Also some spontaneous activities such as defend the house holds from pillaging bandits and subsequent side quest will give player more reason to explore the world. Not to mention some nice rewards such as unique items, Extra skill levels, or NPCs provding helps during Main and side quests (like the one from Sausau where if you saved that guy in infirmary and he provides valuable infos to your main quest).
More dangerous forest-
Add wolves and lynx and have them attacking other wild animals, yourself and other NPC. Seeing bandits being raided by a pack of wolves will be entertaining. Also the wild boars felt too docile. They should be aggressive too. Lurking around the forest at night is so far, too peaceful in KCD. Also more birds suchs owls. Don’t forget to add glowing eyes! Adding some kind of ecosystem to the wild life will be good where these animals have daily routine, such as feeding, drinking, hunting and sleeping. And this ties nicely with in game skills which I am going to talk about next.
More detailed and meaning full skills
Hunting -
Improved tracking and trap placement. - You have to track down animal hunting spot by following the trails of animal feces. You can use your hunting dog companions too. Animals will be much harder for you to kill just with a bow as well. You may have to use spear to hunt boars or lures and traps to catch wolves. Or you can just fight them in gladiator style. Sometimes these animal lures can be used to your advantages when you attack a large bandit encampments in the forests. Such as luring a large pack of wolves into the camp or boars to smash things …etc.
Animals loots has more values -
Animal skins should be used as crafting materials for certain clothing and shoes as well as some armours. Some animal parts such as antler or tusks can be used to make accessories/ unique gifts for NPC. - More reasons to hunt asides from improving your bow skills. Games will contributes to cooking where you will need them to create gourmet dishes.
Cooking skills.
Throughout the whole game i did not see a point of adding grocers and bakers. I could punch some roaming chicken and cook them which is enough for food. There are many food items in the game so why not use them ?
Similar to alchemy, you should be able to do some cooking mini game. And depending on the type of available cooking utensils, the dishes will vary and each dish will give you different temporary stat bonus.
Language skills
This is my idea for more immersive gameplay. As you know The holly Roman empire had people speaking various languages. So I actually would like to hear Bohemians speaking Czech and German. Also different NPC will speak their own language. These will matter during speech check or solving quest documents as Henry travels to different region (if devs have plan to expand the game world larger). So Higher the language level the foreign text will appear in English and Henry will be able to talk to certain NPC.
side Quest designs.
-
spontaneous quest which requires Henry to explore certain area to receive.
-
Proper quest lines and story progression with wayfarers. - Rather than dueling same knight over and over again, You could get a quest and each wayfarers will have their own back story. If you complete their quest and stay in good term they may even join you as companion. It will be interesting to see an NPC like faint-hearted knight to become a badass knight as you progress with his side quests.
-
Choices actually matters! Some side quest should impacts outcomes of certain main quests
-
Deeper romance relationships and more interesting romance quests - I was disappointed to see the story of Henry and Theresa or Lady Stephanie not progressing after sex! Also getting laid just after simple fetch quests felt underwhelming. i hope the character relationships to be more dynamic and deeper.
Also there should be multiple options for the partner so that Henry may ends up like his father (spoiler) by neglecting Theresa. And if Dev has plans for sequels featuring Henry’s Child as protagonist, these choices will matter.
Next up I will talk about combat.