Recent reviews by Shovel Priest

(I played exclusively from downloads off of Sierra's blog prior to this review, so disregard the Steam playtime)

I would love nothing more than to spend paragraphs waxing philosophical about why I love this game so much. But there are also plenty of other reviews that say basically what I would have said about the excellent writing, the mature political/economical/religious focus of conflict resolution, the design of war events, the endearing and memorable characters, the integration of adult content (as opposed to it being a gratuitous tack-on), and so on. All of that is true, but not really where I can add value with a separate review.

Where I can add value as a reviewer is to talk about something that is the key reason I became so obsessed with the game, beyond it just being a 'very good RPG'.

One of the key features of the gameplay and storytelling is a huge array of stats and variables that are hidden to you as the player. These stats represent things like collateral damage sustained during a war, the overall economic health of a country, or your level of influence over some political figure. These stats are then used by the game to control things like whether there's visible destruction in a city, the presence or absence of some NPCs, and your access to some scenes and items.

For two types of players, I think this system will be immensely satisfying. If you see yourself as one of these two types, this game is basically a must-play.

First are the sorts of players who are able to embrace imperfection in their story-based gaming. If you can let your mistakes and failures lead you into a story that results in more compromise, I think you'll have a fascinating and rewarding experience where you will see those mistakes and compromises pan out in the resulting world you build over the course of the game.

I have to say "I think" for the above, because I am personally of the second type - insane, min-maxing spreadsheet enthusiasts. In any predictable system where big numbers are better, there is opportunity for optimization and mix-maxing. I have spent (and enjoyed) a truly unconscionable number of hours organizing information, creating tools, deciding priorities, and planning out my ideal playthrough to 'get' as much as I can. The community has put a ton of effort into the wiki, so if you want to put problem-solving skills to the test in order to extract every last drop out of a great story, this game is a wonderful vehicle for that experience.

For a third type of player, however, this system might be really frustrating - RPG Completionists. Some people just want to see everything and to get all of the items in a game, no matter how minor or optional they are. There are a lot of variables, and there are many places where they are modified and used. Because of that, it's not always feasible to go from realizing that you've missed something to finding out why you missed it. If you are a Completionist, you really must strictly adhere to a guide (you can find a couple on the wiki).

If you're not an Imperfection Embracer or a Spreadsheet Min-Maxer, even if you are an RPG Completionist, I do encourage you to look over some other reviews if you're on the fence - this game has an enthusiastic community and many of the other reviews do a better job than I could covering the game as a whole, rather than my little deep dive.