To start, let me say that I absolutely LOVE the armor layering system in this game. It allows for much more diversity not only in your character’s stats, but also his appearance. I also appreciate how much gold it takes to maintain a decked out set complete with all the undergarments, especially if they have any kind of quality to them.
Now that being said…I am 20+ hours into this game and haven’t died yet. In fact, I haven’t even come close. Why? I’m untouchable, and this is using a set that I collected over my first 6-8 hours of playing. I can solo a bandit camp of 5+ enemies without even breaking a sweat. And I don’t think it’s because I’m exceptionally good at the melee combat, I just think my stats are making me invincible.
This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if enemies seemed to have the same level of protection, or at least something in the same ballpark. Instead, I’m 1, 2 or 3 hitting a guy that’s in full plate, and doing so with a sword. This is something I was told before the game released would be next to impossible to do, since you can really only damage a guy in plate by using blunt force trauma - so a mace or an axe. Not the case at all, as I’m sure some of you have figured out by now.
Even a badly placed arrow or two is enough to down these guys - and by badly placed, I mean hitting them in a non-critical area like the leg or arm. And it could be that the answer is nerfing weapon damage instead of increasing enemy NPC protection. I think WH would be the better judge of the best approach.
Either way. In its current state, combat is far too easy. And for the time and effort that WH put into making the combat so beautiful and immersive, it’s a shame when I’ve spent 10-15 minutes seeking out a bandit or Cuman camp to have the fight be over in another 2-3 minutes.
This is even more of a glaring downside in the game for me than the inconsistent AI, which I can live with in a combat scenario (though would still love to see some of the kinks worked out). I’m an honorable knight, so I wait for an enemy to acknowledge my presence before I engage him. This is just something I’ve incorporated into my roleplaying experience as a way of excusing the fact that often times, I have to assume certain bandits and Cumans are deaf, blind and/or cowardly - due to the glitchy AI.
I know this topic has been brought up a few times before. I want to keep pushing it. Right now, I am still enjoying this game. Down the road though, I can tell this is one of those games that will slowly fade from view for me if it can’t build on what strengths it already has. The in-depth armor layering is a definite strength, but requires quite a bit of fine tuning. The massive imbalance in my early-game power VS enemy units takes away any sense of accomplishment I would otherwise have when surviving combat. I don’t want to have to take off a few pieces of armor in order to make myself weaker (and also not look as cool!) but this is currently what I’m having to do just to make the game feel challenging.
Thanks for reading!