I really wish Steam allowed you to give a Neutral rating instead of thumbs up or down and this game is one of the reasons why.
I give it a recommend, but only barely. Its a pretty game, in a nice setting, and a decent storyline, but it is mainly a visual novel with excessive cut scenes.
Combat is awful. Even after you level and "git gud" to a certain extent, it remains bad. Either you are near godly (against solos or weak opponents, and with use of masterstrike) or you get completely run over because you can't see or maneuver.
You will notice that none of the online videos where fans purport to demonstrate combat "skill" ever show you an encounter (A) in the dense woods, (B) at night, and (C) with 4-5 plate wearing enemies + dogs. They always show you a daytime fight in the open where you are free to move as you please and can see and usually against lower tier opponents like chain equipped bandits or Cumans.
It is a joke when a dog can grab your wrist, in platemail mind you, and keep you from doing anything against the 4 guys surrounding you and bashing on you until it is killed.
Mods may or may not help the combat situation but this is a review of the base game. Most people I imagine get through the game with the barest of combat skills and cheese or avoid it as much as possible while finishing up the quests.
I won't go on extensively about it but it drags the game down. You will start off absolutely loving the game and overtime you may find yourself growing more and more annoyed with the mechanics. For me, one of the worst is the dog pet, where you have to endure not one, but TWO cutscenes just to give the beast a command like stay, heel, or go home.
The clothes washing and eating aspects of the game also start to border on un fun busywork. The armor system is pretty nice, letting you equip a large variety of items in many slots instead of the boring Head, Arms, Chest, Leg items of traditional games, but it too turns into a chore as all these items get absolutely savaged during even minimal combat. This requires repairs, yet the kits you can buy to use yourself will not repair them below a certain level (which they often reach from just a little fighting), so it necessitates a visit to an NPC who is not to be found in every town, and mainly only in the Southern part of the map. This requires constant running around to just fix your gear.
Usually I like a game more after playing it awhile, this game was the reverse and it really started to drag mid-game when I had leveled up and grew absolutely tired of all of the little impediments thrown up.
