Overall this game is a banger. There are a few things that displease me but I have yet to really get deeper in the game to draw a final conclusion. I am saying that even though I am 50 hours in. But now for the breakdown

Pros:
-Massive variety of choices for building your characters
-This is probably a 200 hour game... no joke for a first time play through. If you are playing on the higher difficulties, I imagine it is considerably more.
-Excellent music score, I would love to have this sound track for my DND group!
-Visuals are good, not great. World detail is adequate. Animations are better than Kingmaker. This does not detract from the game but I would love to see more effects.
-Writing is top notch. Nothing feels smashed together as if it were made in separate places. (like dialogue in cyberpunk lol) Also…I think they changed the name of the bugs at the start of A3... ? I have no idea what most characters true motives are, every big reveal has not been predictable for me. A lot of games fall short on this.
-Mythic paths feel like they really have a lot of unique dialogue and reactions from people. Also, I read briefly about the swarm mythic path and to be honest, the fact that option exists is amazing... for real! Picking a mythic path for the first time made me feel like a badass!
-One of the first games where playing an evil character doesn't feel disadvantageous. I am running a Lawful Evil character and I don't feel penalized (yet!). Even some mythic paths REQUIRE being a bad dude which… is amazing.
-Memorable Characters. They are all fleshed out pretty well and I want to learn more about them as the game proceeds.
-Difficulty changing on the fly. I bumped down to normal because I was getting ♥♥♥♥ on. I just don’t enjoy buffing for like 5 minutes before I do an encounter in order to succeed, then I would need to go rest again. Normal is more of the same but less often.

Cons:
-The game is freaking long. I don’t feel like I am moving forward at times because I have to run back to town or deal with crusader campaign.
-Crusade campaign feels very unfinished and VERY unbalanced. I think it is cool, but it detracts from the game. There is a cap on recruits so once you hit a wall you need to wait a ridiculous amount of time reconstituting your forces. If you don’t smash an enemy armies face in, you are pretty much crippled for a massive period of time. I resorted to cheating (editing game files) in order to allow myself to play the game. This is easily the worst part of the game.
-Complexity. Even though characters can be “autolevelled,” anyone new to DND or this series is going to be massively confused. The tutorial tips are helpful, but they won’t create a powerful character for someone who just develops theirs with no plan. Some of the spells and tooltips are unfinished too lol. There is no easy around this problem but there needs to be mini tutorials that just direct someone around for more of the basic aspects of the game available in the menu.
- Difficulty spike after A2. As soon as you start A3 you are given a quest to track down a dragon. That was clearly not the right next step. It was pretty funny cuz combat began and the thing just looked at me, charged up a breath attack and my entire party was 1 shot. The game will get tweaked in time, I just feel like I went from comfortable to cripple. For anyone reading this, go south at the start of A3 lol.
-Corruption mechanic cripples so fast it forces you do slow your progress and go back to town. Like kingmaker the kingdom management, building management, army management and so fourth are so poorly introduced I had to find youtube videos to explain the basics of them. The game really needs to have “force fed” tutorials a new player can opt into so they get to see what is happening. I totally forgot to build buildings for a few weeks into A3 because I didn’t push the “manage” button as I always entered the city.
-There is no prompt when a day rolls over to indicate to the player that their armies have their move points restored. Also if you rest for 2D you will lose an entire crusader day since you cannot hot swap to this feature. This isn’t game breaking but the main campaign is gated with crusader mode forts and fights so losing time means more needless waiting.
-I know this is DND and not Pillars of eternity but I will admit I like having all my tools available for every fight. Adding a meaningless 15 minute time sink so I can run back to a town to rest does not add to the game for me. Note to self: Create paint drying simulator.

This sums up my main points, thank you for reading, but seriously pick up this game if you are into DND, good stories and isometric type games. I kickstarted this and have no regrets whatsoever, I just hope they keep the tweaks coming and turn it into another epic like Kingmaker. This one was definitely better out the box than their previous release which was great to see!

Overall this game is a banger. There are a few things that displease me but I have yet to really get deeper in the game to draw a final conclusion. I am saying that even though I am 50 hours in. But now for the breakdown Pros: -Massive variety of choices for building your characters -This is probably a 200 hour game... no joke for a first time play through. If you are playing on the higher difficulties, I imagine it is considerably more. -Excellent music score, I would love to have this sound track for my DND group! -Visuals are good, not great. World detail is adequate. Animations are better than Kingmaker. This does not detract from the game but I would love to see more effects. -Writing is top notch. Nothing feels smashed together as if it were made in separate places. (like dialogue in cyberpunk lol) Also…I think they changed the name of the bugs at the start of A3... ? I have no idea what most characters true motives are, every big reveal has not been predictable for me. A lot of games fall short on this. -Mythic paths feel like they really have a lot of unique dialogue and reactions from people. Also, I read briefly about the swarm mythic path and to be honest, the fact that option exists is amazing... for real! Picking a mythic path for the first time made me feel like a badass! -One of the first games where playing an evil character doesn't feel disadvantageous. I am running a Lawful Evil character and I don't feel penalized (yet!). Even some mythic paths REQUIRE being a bad dude which… is amazing. -Memorable Characters. They are all fleshed out pretty well and I want to learn more about them as the game proceeds. -Difficulty changing on the fly. I bumped down to normal because I was getting shit on. I just don’t enjoy buffing for like 5 minutes before I do an encounter in order to succeed, then I would need to go rest again. Normal is more of the same but less often. Cons: -The game is freaking long. I don’t feel like I am moving forward at times because I have to run back to town or deal with crusader campaign. -Crusade campaign feels very unfinished and VERY unbalanced. I think it is cool, but it detracts from the game. There is a cap on recruits so once you hit a wall you need to wait a ridiculous amount of time reconstituting your forces. If you don’t smash an enemy armies face in, you are pretty much crippled for a massive period of time. I resorted to cheating (editing game files) in order to allow myself to play the game. This is easily the worst part of the game. -Complexity. Even though characters can be “autolevelled,” anyone new to DND or this series is going to be massively confused. The tutorial tips are helpful, but they won’t create a powerful character for someone who just develops theirs with no plan. Some of the spells and tooltips are unfinished too lol. There is no easy around this problem but there needs to be mini tutorials that just direct someone around for more of the basic aspects of the game available in the menu. - Difficulty spike after A2. As soon as you start A3 you are given a quest to track down a dragon. That was clearly not the right next step. It was pretty funny cuz combat began and the thing just looked at me, charged up a breath attack and my entire party was 1 shot. The game will get tweaked in time, I just feel like I went from comfortable to cripple. For anyone reading this, go south at the start of A3 lol. -Corruption mechanic cripples so fast it forces you do slow your progress and go back to town. Like kingmaker the kingdom management, building management, army management and so fourth are so poorly introduced I had to find youtube videos to explain the basics of them. The game really needs to have “force fed” tutorials a new player can opt into so they get to see what is happening. I totally forgot to build buildings for a few weeks into A3 because I didn’t push the “manage” button as I always entered the city. -There is no prompt when a day rolls over to indicate to the player that their armies have their move points restored. Also if you rest for 2D you will lose an entire crusader day since you cannot hot swap to this feature. This isn’t game breaking but the main campaign is gated with crusader mode forts and fights so losing time means more needless waiting. -I know this is DND and not Pillars of eternity but I will admit I like having all my tools available for every fight. Adding a meaningless 15 minute time sink so I can run back to a town to rest does not add to the game for me. Note to self: Create paint drying simulator. This sums up my main points, thank you for reading, but seriously pick up this game if you are into DND, good stories and isometric type games. I kickstarted this and have no regrets whatsoever, I just hope they keep the tweaks coming and turn it into another epic like Kingmaker. This one was definitely better out the box than their previous release which was great to see!