That's good to know. I've just made it to Rattay, but I haven't had a chance to do much there yet. Question- Have you noticed if your skills improve (level up) whilst doing the free training?
I just finished a four hour straight gaming session, so I'm about 6 hours in now altogether, and I am enjoying myself immensely. This game is right up my alley. It's quite a bit scripted getting off the ground in the first few hours, but due to the quality of the writing and story, I don't mind at all.
I'm going to list a few things that have impressed me and/or been one of those "man that's really cool" moments:
- the hunger/food system and fatigue/sleep system is persistent, but not overdone (yes you will get hungry and have to address it and eat, but food is fairly plentiful and I have not stressed about it.)
- I appreciated the fact that I found a certain type of weapon, and I could wield it, but because my character doesn't possess a high enough minimum agility rating, it gave me an alert that I wouldn't be very effective using it.
- The writing and voice acting is much better than I anticipated.
- The lighting is really well done. Walking around at night with a torch, or entering a room with only a little bit of candlelight feels right.
- Combat is not punishingly difficult so far. I was braced for it being really hard, but the actual swordplay has not been frustrating so far, albeit I have only really encountered a few bandits that are likely low level, but I've dispatched them pretty quickly.
- The armor system. OMG I love having the layered armor. That gratifying feeling when you peel a gambeson and better shoes off of a thug who was coming at you with bad intentions. I'm in heaven in this department.
- Ok, there was free kettle of food, so I thought to myself "ooh, I just ate a carrot, but I think I'll top off the 'ol tank with some free soup...don't mind if I do..." So then it gives me a debuff, including an icon of a pig to indicate that I've overeaten and I will be clumsy and sluggish for a while! (this hits too close to home, like in real life lol)
Ok, to balance it out fairly, here's a few things I've seen that can be improved:
- just a few glitches like bad NPC pathing while they walk around and get stuck on something (only once saw that); a cow standing on top of a fence; (but nothing anywhere close to annoying or detrimental to the game)
- performance on XB1 is not the best. Not a huge deal to me, but some textures are kinda low res, and I've seen a little bit of pop-in, but nothing too bad on frame rate so far. Overall graphic style is well done, but I think the PC screens before release had my expectations a little too high.
- Like the ACG review posted earlier in this thread, there's not enough wildlife outside the towns. I think all I've seen so far is a butterfly, but it must be noted that I have not even tried to venture into the woods yet.
Ok, this is probably not a spoiler, and definitely not a story spoiler, but just in case I'll present this next one in spoiler mode:
Note: If you are considering buying this game, you should really invest some time watching gameplay videos and watching and reading reviews. The ACG video linked earlier was a fair review. It pointed out many of the pros and cons that I agree with. I realize that I've been gushing about this game, and I really do dig it, but I'd like to reiterate my opinion that this type of game won't be for everyone. I like games like Horizon Zero Dawn, AC: Origins, Far Cry games, & Zelda: BotW, but this one is not really like those. Whereas those games excel in getting you into the action really quick and having a sense of "go go go", this one presents itself in a very different way. Yes, there are moments of action and combat that feel intense, but half of the fun in this one includes slowing down and appreciating the depth of the game world and system they've created, and how much care they have put into it. It's pretty much a medieval life simulator wrapped around what's shaping up to be a very compelling story.