Recent reviews by Lord.Teabaggins

I really really want to like this game. I think it's definitely an upgrade in many ways to civ in terms of feeling like a true ruler over a kingdom making interesting decisions and crafting a legacy. The whole family>children dynasty feeling is great. The event system really shines here, it makes it 5x more fun than anything civ had. I really think the AI is a lot smarter and unlike many I really like keeping it in one era.
I can't get over how cool the events are to be honest and the differnt things that can happen.

HOWEVER, as most of these type of games, it becomes such a SLOG to get through. It's great at first but when you're trying to manage 12 cities, 30 workers, 50 military units, and you have to micromanage every little aspect (you can automate certain things which is such a boon but it takes forever to get that research IMO and frankly it's just not fun at that point anyway). I was just hoping it would end sooner, this needs to be reworked so it's not so freaking long and boring after a bit.

It took 37 hours to finish ONE GAME. ONE SINGLE GAME.

I'd recommend this only on sale for those who enjoyed DD1 and really want more, with some major caveats. It 100% needs some mandatory light modding for it to even be fun. IMO, they put in way too much RNG and it feels AWFUL.

Things that are great:
Animations, look and feel, polish outside of gameplay mechanics.
The bosses are pretty hardcore and one of the more interesting parts of this new game.

Things that are mid:
If you played the first one, the overall game feels the same, there's not much different in terms of enemy types or different strategies.

Things that suck:

Relationship mechanic: Introduces way too much punishing RNG. (Mod fixes this)

Riding mechanic: It's just boring, additional RNG, and not fun - in DD1 this was still boring, but quicker and less impacting .. why would they emphasize this?! (Mod to increase game speed at least gets you through it quicker)

Grind for candles which unlock everything: just not fun to have things locked (Mod for cheats fixes this)

Some character abilities: It's wild to me how many abilities or even characters just kind of suck and it seems like there wasn't much effort to balance everything out to give more playstyles. (You can go into game files and edit csv files to make changes to abilities manually if there's something thats bugging you)

Enhancements:
Needs more mod support and character mods
Needs another region or two

Big fan. Heavily team-focused capture-the-flag meets push-the-point gameplay with a great look and feel. It's balanced, fast-paced, and chaotic. The levels are fully destructible (the best game to do so IMO) and you can quite literally use a sledgehammer to level an entire building to bring the objective down to you. Super fun.

Cons:
- Monetization is not great.. currently not able to get practically any in-game cosmetics without spending money... Now you might say, who cares, but customization is so limited there's only like no-joke like 1 or 2 items to wear so everyone looks the same... LOL. Nexon please don't be nexon and let the players live a little.

Initial review, only 5 hours in but absolutely enjoying it. Very creative and mechnically polished rogue-lite w/ RPG elements. It's easy to pick up and i'm finding it very satisfying as I get better. The levels, enemies, and mechanics vary enough from life-to-life and I keep learning different playstyles/classes/traits while I progress through my playthrough with better trinkets/stats/amor/weapons so I can get further and further each time. Each life the map morphs slightly and enemies vary a bit but generally stay consistent so you know where things are and what to expect.

It's way way better than 'Slay the Spire' or comparable rogue-lites and requires a bit of skill and has a much higher skill ceiling. It's also pretty hilarious at times, with each life you only have 3 chars to choose from who sometimes have hilariously terrible and funny traits which can be pure comedy.

Edit: 25hrs in at this point. I've defeated the first 2 bosses, almost the 3rd out of 6 bosses (before endgame). Really love this game. I've added a mod to reduce labor costs and increase gold by 20% across the board so it's a bit less grindy which i recommend. It feels good early, but mid-late game I noticed each (minor) upgrade was getting to be like 4-5k+ which is as much as you'll get clearing 2 whole zones. Can't wait for more content.

So (18 hours in), I feel like the game has huge potential but needs a month or two (or 6) in the oven. Combat/parkour feels good, the story is meh which isn't a big deal, however, what really sucks is character progression is locked behind that "storywall" and simply put the game isn't as much fun early on when you don't have abilities and feels like a grind. The core AI system for zombies right now is pretty lame but good news is there is some excellent mod development happening really quickly to improve zombie AI to make them WAY more aggressive, interesting, and dynamic ("I am legion" mod). From what i've seen with that alone, this'll be in a good spot in a few weeks. Other gripe would be the 'world feeling alive' is just alright, i'd like to see better and bigger events which I think they can improve on in 6 months. I guess overall what i'm saying is I think it'll be great eventually, wait a little while unless you can't.

The best roguelite game i've ever played. Strategic challenging and sometimes the RNG can be downright brutal but it always feels rewarding to figure things out and beat a tough boss or figure out a run. The customization and workshop is 100. Any minor things I wasn't a fan of in the game I immediately fixed and added a bunch of really great characters through modding.I wish there was a bit more content though but then again i've put like 60+ hours in it. A++ i'll probably put another 30+.

Played a few hours. Love Act 1 so far. I'm getting better and it's really spooky, challenging, and mysterious. Card game is genius.

SPOOKY, ADVENTURE, STRAIGHT CHILLS. YOU WILL FREAK OUT AT FIRST. Very fun, having a blast but definitely need buddys to enjoy it fully, tons of spooky moments. Animations & Controls are really wonky and developers definitely need to fix some things like sometimes you drop things that disappear (UGH FIX) but the frights are dope and trying to solve can be challenging sometimes.

Probably the best Strategy + FPS game of all time. You gotta outsmart your opponent and has an extremely high skill ceiling but needs more people playing.

What an amazing game... it's challenging yet fair, brutal yet hilarious. I can't tell you how many times i've busted out laughing at the things you see on the battlefield like a fiercesome horse coming your way with... a lute-player strumming a ballad or a naked guy with a frying pan chasing down a knight in full armor. A++ would buy again. The combat is really quite good, some complaints overall like balancing issues with some weapons (zweihander) and some that feel terrible (longbow - projectile lag). Map selection is pretty good at launch but I would love to see a few more maps. Regarding skill level, it doesn't take much to get pretty okay at the game but there's a definite skill curve to getting gud and it'll be a long road.