First up, if you like everything (or most things) handed to you; or if you want to feel like a god, this isn't the game for you. You're not supposed to win a 1v5 just because you're the "hero", and the game is not afraid to just randomly ♥♥♥♥ you because that's reality, baby.

While it's not perfect in every regard, the realism in this game is basically unmatched for a RPG; (almost) everything that happens is based on historical events or items. Yes, every house is enterable, everyone has a bed, people go about their activities even if you're not around, and there are toilets with piles of ♥♥♥♥. You get dirty (and can get cleaned up at the baths), need to eat, need to sleep, and can't just teleport around like many open world RPGs. There is a "fast travel" feature, but it still takes time; and you can get ambushed on the road or run into travelers.

I could sing this game's praises for hours, so I mostly want to focus on the parts I felt like could be improved which were the lack of a local dub, lack of hydration, item weight (especially armor), weapon alignment in combat, and some minor stuff like visors always being down. Most of those are super minor compared to the great things about the game, so I'm definitely willing to overlook those especially since the game had a lot of issues in development.
The lack of a local dub is generally not a big deal in most games, but the problem is the game does have some lines in Czech even if you have it on English. I feel like they could have gone a little further and cast the game in Czech. This is kind of funny because the game was made in Austria turns out that's just the publisher not the developer with Deutsch as a voice over option which is too appropriate considering Bohemia was heavily influenced by German culture being in the HRE. I'll probably do a playthrough in Deutsch with English subtitles since that would be more accurate than people with English or even American accents in Bohemia.
You need to eat and sleep, and there are definitely items that would impact your hydration levels (and there are water skins/carriers already in the game); so it feels a bit weird they left that out. Dried meat is great to carry around since it doesn't spoil, but there's not really any downside to it. Fruit is similarly in a weird spot since fruit would normally be a source of hydration and some calories while there's really no incentive to eat anything besides meat and bread since they provide a lot of nourishment and keep well.
Many of the pieces of armor in the game not only get more protective but get lighter as they are better, and this gets really crazy at the best items especially since the game punishes you for equipping heavy items. Cuirasses are not lighter than a big coat ffs. This is fixable by modding the game, so it's something I can fix. There is *some* truth to better armor being lighter, but it's extreme in KCD. For example a coat the Cumans wear that's extremely decorative weighs 9 while one of the best cuirasses weighs 4. I don't know exactly what 4 and 9 mean, but that's totally wrong.
The combat system in the game tries to be unique and based on actual historical fighting styles, but it falls a bit flat because many of the things the tutorials emphasize don't really matter. There's almost no reason to align your weapon with the enemy's weapon, and it takes out what could have added some depth to one of the less polished areas of the game. That said combat is not that big a part of the game (unless you really want it to be), so it's not a dealbreaker for me.
There's an animation for Henry to put down his visor (on helmets that have one) when he draws his weapon, but it's always down in cutscenes or dialogue which kind of ruins wearing them. It's not a huge thing, but it's a request I see many people bring up.

All that negativity out of the way; the game is beautiful, immersive, logical (most of the time anyway), very accurate to the times (okay except maybe for potions), and gives you a glimpse into medieval life that basically all other media portrays horribly wrong. As of writing this review, I have 91 hours played which was enough time to do almost all the side quests and main quest. That's a really amazing deal for 30$, and it's one of if not the best games I've played. Definitely the best RPG, and it would take a truly amazing studio/director to make something else on this game's level.

Update: The more I play this game, the more issues I seem to have with either crashes or poor performance. I feel like I'm redoing this battle every few days, and it can get really frustrating. I almost always restart my computer before launching the game because if I don't, the performance will just be crap for some reason even if I hadn't launched it that day. I still think the game is worth it, but this could be frustrating for some people. On the plus side, the game rarely crashes.

First up, if you like everything (or most things) handed to you; or if you want to feel like a god, this isn't the game for you. You're not supposed to win a 1v5 just because you're the "hero", and the game is not afraid to just randomly fuck you because that's reality, baby. While it's not perfect in every regard, the realism in this game is basically unmatched for a RPG; (almost) everything that happens is based on historical events or items. Yes, every house is enterable, everyone has a bed, people go about their activities even if you're not around, and there are toilets with piles of shit. You get dirty (and can get cleaned up at the baths), need to eat, need to sleep, and can't just teleport around like many open world RPGs. There is a "fast travel" feature, but it still takes time; and you can get ambushed on the road or run into travelers. I could sing this game's praises for hours, so I mostly want to focus on the parts I felt like could be improved which were the lack of a local dub, lack of hydration, item weight (especially armor), weapon alignment in combat, and some minor stuff like visors always being down. Most of those are super minor compared to the great things about the game, so I'm definitely willing to overlook those especially since the game had a lot of issues in development. The lack of a local dub is generally not a big deal in most games, but the problem is the game does have some lines in Czech even if you have it on English. I feel like they could have gone a little further and cast the game in Czech. This is kind of funny because [strike]the game was made in Austria[/strike] turns out that's just the publisher not the developer with Deutsch as a voice over option which is too appropriate considering Bohemia was heavily influenced by German culture being in the HRE. I'll probably do a playthrough in Deutsch with English subtitles since that would be more accurate than people with English or even American accents in Bohemia. You need to eat and sleep, and there are definitely items that would impact your hydration levels (and there are water skins/carriers already in the game); so it feels a bit weird they left that out. Dried meat is great to carry around since it doesn't spoil, but there's not really any downside to it. Fruit is similarly in a weird spot since fruit would normally be a source of hydration and some calories while there's really no incentive to eat anything besides meat and bread since they provide a lot of nourishment and keep well. Many of the pieces of armor in the game not only get more protective but get lighter as they are better, and this gets really crazy at the best items especially since the game punishes you for equipping heavy items. Cuirasses are not lighter than a big coat ffs. This is fixable by modding the game, so it's something I can fix. There is *some* truth to better armor being lighter, but it's extreme in KCD. For example a coat the Cumans wear that's extremely decorative weighs 9 while one of the best cuirasses weighs 4. I don't know exactly what 4 and 9 mean, but that's totally wrong. The combat system in the game tries to be unique and based on actual historical fighting styles, but it falls a bit flat because many of the things the tutorials emphasize don't really matter. There's almost no reason to align your weapon with the enemy's weapon, and it takes out what could have added some depth to one of the less polished areas of the game. That said combat is not that big a part of the game (unless you really want it to be), so it's not a dealbreaker for me. There's an animation for Henry to put down his visor (on helmets that have one) when he draws his weapon, but it's always down in cutscenes or dialogue which kind of ruins wearing them. It's not a huge thing, but it's a request I see many people bring up. All that negativity out of the way; the game is beautiful, immersive, logical (most of the time anyway), very accurate to the times (okay except maybe for potions), and gives you a glimpse into medieval life that basically all other media portrays horribly wrong. As of writing this review, I have 91 hours played which was enough time to do almost all the side quests and main quest. That's a really amazing deal for 30$, and it's one of if not the best games I've played. Definitely the best RPG, and it would take a truly amazing studio/director to make something else on this game's level. Update: The more I play this game, the more issues I seem to have with either crashes or poor performance. I feel like I'm redoing this battle every few days, and it can get really frustrating. I almost always restart my computer before launching the game because if I don't, the performance will just be crap for some reason even if I hadn't launched it that day. I still think the game is worth it, but this could be frustrating for some people. On the plus side, the game rarely crashes.