Do yourself a favor and, if you haven’t yet, play the first game before playing this one. I remember hearing about this game back in 2017-18 when I first learned about its Kickstarter. I didn’t play it back then because of its mechanics, and I thought it was a bad game. When I heard that part 2 was coming out, I gave the first game a chance because the difficulty of the game is also its most appealing feature. Personally, since Elden Ring came out, hard games have become more appealing to me. Overcoming a challenge brings a high level of satisfaction, so I told myself I was finally going to play this game. It’s a much better version of the first game in terms of scope, graphics, optimization, and dialogue. It’s a great RPG with simulator-like gameplay.

The game is a challenge, especially if you’re going in blind or haven’t played the first game. I recommend reading the tutorial and getting used to the mechanics. You aren’t Geralt like in The Witcher 3, where you can kill everything and feel like an overpowered hero. It’s tough fighting even 2-3 enemies at once. NPCs are actually smarter than the usual Ubisoft AI. There’s so much to do. You can be a herbalist, blacksmith, thief, assassin, gambler, knight, brawler, or hunter.

In one quest, I was captured, and all my things were taken away. I was a prisoner and had to work. I didn’t, though, and tried to sneak my way out. I didn’t have a lockpick, so I was very limited in what I could do. I knocked out a guard and stole his key to his chest. I got his uniform and some weapons. I blended in with the crowd and continued on my quest. A couple of in-game hours later, the same guard recognized me and said, "Hey, that was my stuff!" I was captured again and punished for my actions. Consequences matter. I had a choice to turn in some traitors or let them go. Ultimately, it affected my later playthrough because I let them all die. Committing a lot of heinous crimes could get Henry hanged, and the game ends there.

The game is beautiful. In the first game, I was so annoyed with the collision of bushes and plants. I had to download a mod just to traverse the map more easily. In this game, the collision is much better. Nothing stops me from going through a bunch of bushes. Plus, there are cities, villages, lakes, ponds, and other areas of interest to explore.

The combat can be a turnoff for some people, but it’s much more intuitive than you might think. There’s a lot more depth in the combat compared to the first game, with the addition of movesets for each class. You’ve got polearms, axes, maces, swords, longswords, bows, short bows, pistols, and assassin knives. You have to block, counter, and attack from different angles—left, right, down, or upwards—depending on your opponent. You need to feint your attacks or the AI will counter you every time, as you’ll become predictable in your movements. Players who are struggling are playing like bots, while the AI is playing like real humans, trying not to die. You have to use what the game gives you and teaches you. You can’t use the same weapons on all enemies. If you see someone fully equipped with armor plates, you need to use a blunt weapon instead of a sword/longsword, as blunt weapons will crush the enemy to death. If you use a sword, you’ll do almost no damage, and you’ll be hacking at the enemy for hours instead of just a couple of minutes with an axe.




Cons:

Cons I have with this game is that, in some quests, the game can break, and you’ll need to reload an earlier save. In one quest, I needed to shoot the bandit chief in the head with a bow. I shot him in the head, and he died, but the bandits kept saying, “Shoot him in the head!” for minutes. I waited for 15-20 minutes, reloaded the save, and did the same thing. It happened again. I had to reload the save four times before the questline actually progressed.

When NPCs get hurt and you have to follow them, they walk very slowly. It was so annoying when I had to follow Godwin through the castle secret tunnels, but he got hurt badly in a fight, and I barely caught up after stealing the key for the door.

The rain looks horrible with upscaling/DLSS. It’s a shimmering mess at times, though sometimes it looks like normal rain. Call me ignorant but I wished there was more diverse weather. I'm guessing without looking it up that Bohemia doesn't have snow or any other weather but rain.

There’s no HDR support. However, the game looks incredible with RTX HDR if you can configure it correctly.

It’s very hard to navigate where quest items are in this game. I know the devs want you to play detective and immerse yourself, but if the map shows the whole castle, it’s annoying to search the entire castle only to find out the quest item is outside the castle walls the whole time.