izigame.me

TDLR: Strictly a downgrade from conquistador. Went from a uniquely delightful but flawed role-playing travel simulator with decent tactical combat - to a mediocre roleplaying game with a much heavier emphasis on combat.

Pros:
+ I love me vikangs. Simple as.
+ Compared to conquistador: actual character customization, more build variety, more interesting equipment to empower said builds.
+ A very strong first few hours - the prologue is done very well.

Cons:
-The combat system was downgraded in a few very bothersome ways. Firstly, the battlemaps are maybe 20% of the size of conquistador: there's very few opportunities to flank because everything is so tightly packed. Ranged is still strictly worse than melee and it's even worse in this game - but hybrids with a focus on perception are now really solid damage dealers. Stuns and CC are now rolls - and enemies use them much more frequently. So your tank can only use stun twice per fight unless you take powerful rebuke, which requires an empty spot behind them AND you still have to pass a check AND it costs more skill points.

This makes archers better at crowd control than TANKS. Stuns are a flat roll against enemy PR so your strength and finesse doesn't matter at all, stunners than your tanks. Speaking of which - strength is basically a dump stat for everyone, since KNIVES are better than SWORDS AND AXES! You can use a spear for regular swings and switch back to your knife & shield for blocking - which is was buffed from conquistador.

(((EVEN IF YOU AMBUSH THEM! THE SURPRISE ROUND SYSTEM IS DOGSHITE - YOU CAN ONLY MOVE AND NOT ATTACK - IT'S ALWAYS MORE ADVANTAGEOUS TO TAKE CLEAN FIGHTS SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY TAKE ACTIONS))).

-YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOUR OWN NPCS!!!! Conquistador had 20 mercenaries for you to pick from - not including the strays you pick up along the way. This game has you make them all from scratch, and YOU ARE FORCED TO MAKE AT LEAST THREE. Or you can't get into act 2, lol. Would not complain if they went with the quality over quantity approach - but they didn't!
-You will not care about ANYONE. There is not ONE memorable NPC, party member or otherwise - and the game smothers you with Ketil and Nefja at the beginning - limiting space for people you might theoretically want to bring instead and limiting the actions you can take to not hurt their morale.

-The morale/approval system is by far the worst in any game you'll ever play. Want to murder homeless children? The honorable warrior maiden will APPROVE!!! Because it was an "aggressive action" (killing homeless children is pretty aggressive, ngl). ONLY 2 PARTY MEMBERS TAKE ISSUE WITH YOU KILLING CHILDREN! Why they mad though? You can use non-lethal attacks, but it doesn't effect morale or the quest outcome in any way.

-The quest design takes a nosedive after Ribe, as does the writing. I mentioned how weak the characters are, but the quests are so uninteresting - mostly because they're formulaic fetchquests with extra steps but the ones that impact the story are few and far between. Maybe they only had the kickstarter budget for the first 2-4 hours, but this game is too long to drag on this much for such little payoff.

-Worse music, worse camping system, worse map traveling, etc etc etc.

This review is long enough - I could forgive the worse combat if the roleplaying and story were almost as good as last time - but they're all worse. Considerably so.

In short - I recommend acquiring the game through unsavory means and playing through at LEAST all of act one. If you still decide to keep playing it, give it a buy - but don't make an impulse purchase off the first couple hours.