Came back to see what it's like, did a full Empire playthrough until total conquest so I can at least criticize it with knowledge on the problems and missing stuff. Issues down below.
No banners. Retarded AI, both on strategic and tactical maps (objectively, don't even try to defend it.) No village improvements. Borderline mobile-like town improvement. Smithing makes no sense. The balance of skills, weapons and factions is a complete clusterf**k. Spears are useless. Horses handle like it's 1998, Warband did it better. Horseback combat feels awful compared to Warband. The main quest is basically a joke. Companions are the most BAREBONE system I've ever seen in a game, any since the late nineties. Town and castle scenes are empty and there's nothing to do whatsoever. Trading makes you 5% of what battles do. Caravans and Workshop are broken (you make more by farming two enemy parties than a month of revenues from 4 caravans and 6 workshops. Sieges are... unenjoyable to say the least, and they were marketed as, basically, the top feature. Interaction with any character is meaningless. There's no R to this PG WHATSOEVER. The new combat map system is great on paper, but I end up ending up with the same 5 maps until it's nauseatingly boring. The loading times of the UI are still widely unacceptable. The graphical fidelity has somehow gotten worse since your first teaser trailers years ago.
Too long, didn't read: this was, as someone aptly put it before, a grift.
You got me real good though, I must admit. Enjoyed Warband and NW so much I bought it on day one even if it's against my usual rules. Regretted it and have wasted FAR too much time testing every new patch... if they can even be called patches, they're basically used bandaids which will probably get the wound infected.
That's a sarcastic clap for you, Taleworlds. Now enjoy your sweet console money, it's not like players have a lot of common sense nowadays.
.
) , someone has invested "some" time and love in it.
