Wonderful game, very authentic to the era and, though present here and there, is not riddled with modernisms and performative morality like most games of its type. Would recommend.

I can see the merits of it being a grounded game, but ultimately it's just a bit too unpolished and janky of a game for me to enjoy. The scenery is stunning and the characters feel pretty nuanced and interesting for the most part, though the main story has been dog water, but the inventory system is hot trash. Combat is genuinely abysmal. For the argument that you get used to it, it's hard to play a half a dozen other games with similar directional combat that does it far better. For example, Chivalry 2? And I've played plenty of games with... interesting, combat mechanics (especially older games. Looking at you STALKER), but this one is just not good. I get you aren't supposed to be good at combat as a lowly son of a blacksmith. Played plenty of those games too. But tell that to the drunk old man too pissed to stand but still hitting me with Master Strikes like they're going out of fashion. Every single task is a major chore. Fast Travel genuinely takes ages. Quests have no fulfilling rewards even in early game. Perks are either meta or useless. Overall, wanted to like it more, but it just feels like a giant chore to play and it just isn't for me. Maybe some day I'll come back, but even with Vanilla+ QoL mods this game just didn't click.

Jesus Christ be praised!