My thoughts

[Lighthope]

Now that they have lifted (most of) the NDA, I can finally say what I think about the game.

I have about 97 hours into the game. That isn't too much by many standards, but I've play it on Normal, Hard, and Very Hard.

This is a great sequel to the first.

The original was "What do we think we can do." The sequel is "What do we want to do."

So KoH2 is everything you wanted to see in the first. It's a great game. If you liked KoH1, you'll love KoH2.

Yes, there are things that are different. The new building system took a little bit to get used to, but in the end you get more out of it. So it is not restrictive at all.

The Court is a new addition and makes a good wrench in the works. It's something else you need to keep an eye on. I liked it.

Spies are massively reworked and are very useful. I barely used spies in the original. I can't live without them here.

Diplomacy is still weak. There are a number of things you should be able to do with diplomacy but can't. Especially when it comes to vassals.

I've always said this game is a worthy successor to Medieval II: Total War.

I will admit, though, that I really didn't play with the tactical battles, preferring to just let the computer handle it. They didn't include Quick Battles, which is painful by its omission.

For those who think Crusader Kings is too complicated, KoH2 will be a breath of fresh air.

My only major complaint is that the AI is too easy. Once you get your economy running and your armies built up, the game is essentially over. You'll roll-stomp your enemy. Even on Very Hard mode. Hopefully they will fix that in a future patch.

The AI doesn't seem to play to the minor victory conditions, so if you are a solo player, those won't add any variety to the game for you.

So based on its price point, KoH2 is a good investment. My only concern is that this may not be a game that you'll be playing months from now. At least not in its vanilla form. The game is moddable. And it won't be long before you'll see new varieties of the modded game coming out.

[tudyniuz]

Originally posted by DeLastOne:

I hope we can deactivated it though. It bothered me so much in the first one because every time you clicked on a menu item you had those voice. Very repetitive to be honest. I had to use a work around to stop it

That voice was iconic. I'm scared as the game seems to just be a remake of the first one, that the different voice will just mess with my head too much.

[Kukurutz]

Originally posted by DeLastOne:

I hope we can deactivated it though. It bothered me so much in the first one because every time you clicked on a menu item you had those voice. Very repetitive to be honest. I had to use a work around to stop it

Yes, you can set the volume for the narrator and your other knights' voices separately or completely deactivate them.

[DeLastOne]

Originally posted by Kukurutz:

Originally posted by DeLastOne:

I hope we can deactivated it though. It bothered me so much in the first one because every time you clicked on a menu item you had those voice. Very repetitive to be honest. I had to use a work around to stop it

Yes, you can set the volume for the narrator and your other knights' voices separately or completely deactivate them.

Cheers for that ! :)

[Red Dragon]

Originally posted by Cyan:

I have a geforce gtx970 and only 8 gb ram. i suppose this wont be enough to play this beautiful game, right?

Nah, I got the exact same. The graphics card is totally fine and 8 GB are complying with the minimum specs so we will be okay. 16 GB are probably more of a "better safe than sorry" recommendation, just don't run too much carp in the background while you play and it will be okay.

EDIT: Also, we can buy it and then just test it out. As long as we stay below 2 hours of playtime we can easily refund it (100% guaranteed) if it turns out that the performance is actually too bad for us. I do it with a lot of games where it's iffy if my specs are actually enough or not.

[devlos]

Is there a server browser? Where you can join random PvP and Co-op games?

[Kukurutz]

Originally posted by devlos:

Is there a server browser? Where you can join random PvP and Co-op games?

yes, there is a browser for public games.

[ViciousV]

Originally posted by when khan die i die:

Originally posted by Mr Butters 99:

Thanks for all the input. It sounds like the developers didn't learn a thing from the original game, as the lack of a real challenge was the main issue. I'll certainly buy the game at some point when its at deep discount, but full retail? I at least expected a challenge this round for that, and I don't think that's asking too much.

I think difficulty will be modded as soon as people will start modding the game. I hope we will have steam workshop here.

original game with Earth mode was hard enough for the challenge btw
upd. it called world scenario

That scenario was broken, not hard

[( °□°） ︵GAMBALUCK]

Originally posted by Warriordude:

This is in my wish list but sadly I can't play it since it's for Windows 10/11. I know it's soon to be 2023 but I only have Widows 8.1, I'll upgrade to Window 10 eventually.

I understand if u have win7 but win8 u should upgrade it to 10

[Iommonaut]

Originally posted by Lighthope:

I've always said this game is a worthy successor to Medieval II: Total War.

Originally posted by Lighthope:

I will admit, though, that I really didn't play with the tactical battles, preferring to just let the computer handle it.

Wut

[Lighthope]

Originally posted by yenni_mx:

Can you say why you didn't play the tactical battles much? Not interested or because they are poorly implemented?

I have read that they are "laughably bad" and "had no business being shipped with the finished game".

The game doesn't have a Quick Battle feature, so there was no way to practice. Any tactical battle would have main game ministrations, and I didn't want do that. Especially since I wasn't terribly good at the few battles I did try.

That and the tactical battles really didn't grab me. They seemed to be the same as in KoH1. So there wasn't a whole lot of incentive for me to try.

[Lighthope]

Originally posted by ViciousV:

There have been many suggestions as to what to do with vassals in diplomacy. Nobody listened.

We still can't talk about the beta process itself.

I can say that we were listened to. They may not have agreed with us, or maybe our suggestion wasn't able to be implemented for a variety of reasons.

But I wholly reject the claim that we weren't listened to.

[Arizona Ranger]

Originally posted by Kukurutz:

Originally posted by Mcz:

What about the voice acting and music? That made the 1st game for me. "Let us starve them to death!" "Move, move, everybody out!" just ingrained in my head for all eternity.

If you liked the voice overs in the first game, I'm pretty sure you'll like them in this one :)

Playing the game for 12 hours straight "Leaving so soon?" I adore the 1st game.

[Lighthope]

Originally posted by Heraclius Caesar:

Lighthope my dude now that we're 12 hours away can you amplify on the diplomacy bit a little more? What do you feel should be there that isn't?

You are fairly limited in what you can ask of other countries. Diplomacy should be far more robust. I always like to compare diplomacy to Civ 6 or maybe even Crusader Kings. But diplomacy is KoH2 is almost non-existent.

With vassals, you should be able to order them to do a whole bunch of things. Stop a war, give you items, ect. You can't do any of that. Vassals give you some money and that is about it. They may support you in a war. and they will certainly demand that you help in in war. But it is all very shallow.

Diplomacy is a major disappointment.

Don't even get me started on how useless princesses are!

[Lighthope]

Originally posted by ShadowFox:

My biggest question you have almost 100 hours in atm. Do you still feel the desire/urge to play more or are you kind of over it/burnt out?

Honestly, no? And I hate to say that.

The AI is just too easy. There is no mid-game. Once you get your kingdom up and running, there is no reason to play any further. The AI will melt before you.

Generally speaking, by the time I had less than a quarter of the map either under my control or as vassal, the game was over.

And this was on Very Hard mode.

Believe me, I really really like this game. But it's mid-game is awful.

[zeitbauer]

iN koh 1 your survival depended on your start location and its resources. Is this game similar, because that's how to make the game harder?