Support NeoGAF

[TintoConCasera]

Unfortunately no, but they probably will add it later on

Shit that sucks, loved some aspects of KCD's hardcore like the map not showing where you are, added to the immersion.

 

[clarky]

I will buy this game if it gets above a 93 on Metacritic.

Mate, if this gets above a 93 I will buy you this single player offline game as long as you promise to finish it.

 

[TintoConCasera]

When going to the bath house, I wonder if Henry ever pulls out. Otherwise I am I going to have 300 babies by the time KCD 3 comes out.

 

[pudel]

wow you guys are some pro or something, i was getting me ass kicked even on normal.

Maybe he played with keyboard/mouse? I have the impression controller guys had way more trouble with the game. I mean the "combo-mechanics" where completely not able to execute at all (at least for me), but they were also completely unnecessary. Just block and hit worked perfectly fine for me....and it became way too easy when you learned the "master parry" which guaranteed you at least two following hits.

 

[GymWolf]

I'm convinced KCD2 will do what Witcher 3 did for CDPR. It will probably go down as the best immersive sim ever. Which is pretty cool, given how few AAA sims there are nowadays. Indiana Jones notwithstanding

Both indy and kc are not pure immersive sims tho.

I know people love to give the immersive sims description to every game in first person that is not a straight up arena shooter (i heard people calling wolfenstein the new colossus a semi immersive sims...), but i played some of the first one and it was not an immersive sims except being well...immersive as a game because it is historically well done.

All the systems of henry not being able to read at first, or npcs judgying your look or your armour or how filthy you are are all rpg systems, not immersive sims systems, i doubt you can do 1\10 of the things you can do in dishonored or prey to deal with enemies or enter a locked room or reach an higher place in the map.
I know you can solve sidequest in different ways but you can do the same in other games like cyberpunk or even the freakin watch dogs 2 and they are not immersive sims neither.


Believe me i would love if we had more AAA immersive sims but this ain't unless i didn't played the first game enough and missed all the immersive sims aspect, in that case forget what i said.

I sincerely doubt that as an immersive sims this game is gonna be even comparable to dish or prey, let alone the best ever, maybe a better game overall but not a better immersive sims.

 

[Stafford]

After some of the "vaseline" comments I was expecting way worse than what I just saw. Once I get to buying this I will likely stick with performance mode. 30fps is just too jarring to the eyes.

 

[scydrex]

So cool to read stuff like this after how...insufficiently the first game ran on lastgen.

It says it runs very good and the PS5 Pro accomplish what the PS5 Pro is suppose to do quality but at 60fps.

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

Both indy and kc are not pure immersive sims tho.

I know people love to give the immersive sims description to every game in first person that is not a straight up arena shooter (i heard people calling wolfenstein the new colossus a semi immersive sims...), but i played some of the first one and it was not an immersive sims except being well...immersive as a game because it is historically well done.

All the systems of henry not being able to read at first, or npcs judgying your look or your armour or how filthy you are are all rpg systems, not immersive sims systems, i doubt you can do 1\10 of the things you can do in dishonored or prey to deal with enemies or enter a locked room or reach an higher place in the map.
I know you can solve sidequest in different ways but you can do the same in other games like cyberpunk or even the freakin watch dogs 2 and they are not immersive sims neither.


Believe me i would love if we had more AAA immersive sims but this ain't unless i didn't played the first game enough and missed all the immersive sims aspect, in that case forget what i said.

I sincerely doubt that as an immersive sims this game is gonna be even comparable to dish or prey, let alone the best ever, maybe a better game overall but not a better immersive sims.

Sounds about right, i don't consider KCD pure immersive sims, it's an RPG, with maybe immersive sims elements or whatever?
Like the discussion about if a game is an RPG.. there isn't a definite answer as now days games bland aspects of several genres.
Saw this over reddit:

Seems like Dishonored, Prey and Deus Ex are the most considered immersive sims for now.

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

After some of the "vaseline" comments I was expecting way worse than what I just saw. Once I get to buying this I will likely stick with performance mode. 30fps is just too jarring to the eyes.

Looks great to me, especially for an open-world, and runs above 60fps, hopefully it looks good when playing, from vid looks good.

 

[GymWolf]

Sounds about right, i don't consider KCD pure immersive sims, it's an RPG, with maybe immersive sims elements or whatever?
Like the discussion about if a game is an RPG.. there isn't a definite answer as now days games bland aspects of several genres.
Saw this over reddit:

Seems like Dishonored, Prey and Deus Ex are the most considered immersive sims for now.

Because they are and i agree with the sim-light categories, some games really try their best to give different options but they are not quite there yet.

 

[Stafford]

Looks great to me, especially for an open-world, and runs above 60fps, hopefully it looks good when playing, from vid looks good.

Yep! I'm watching this on a 65 inch Sony A95K but from like 3 meters away, so perhaps that helps as well, lol. However, playing Space Marine 2 yesterday in performance-speed mode I definitely noticed the softer look. It's quite impressive what KCD2 is doing.

 

[coachmcguirk91]

Both indy and kc are not pure immersive sims tho.

I know people love to give the immersive sims description to every game in first person that is not a straight up arena shooter (i heard people calling wolfenstein the new colossus a semi immersive sims...), but i played some of the first one and it was not an immersive sims except being well...immersive as a game because it is historically well done.

All the systems of henry not being able to read at first, or npcs judgying your look or your armour or how filthy you are are all rpg systems, not immersive sims systems, i doubt you can do 1\10 of the things you can do in dishonored or prey to deal with enemies or enter a locked room or reach an higher place in the map.
I know you can solve sidequest in different ways but you can do the same in other gamese cyberpunk or even the freakin watch dogs 2 and they are not immersive sims neither.


Believe me i would love if we had more AAA immersive sims but this ain't unless i didn't played the first game enough and missed all the immersive sims aspect, in that case forget what i said.

I sincerely doubt that as an immersive sims this game is gonna be even comparable to dish or prey, let alone the best ever, maybe a better game overall but not a better immersive sims.

I consider the immersive sim genre as 1st person games that emphasizes exploration and ingenuity over combat/action. KCD, Indiana Jones, Alien Isolation, and Prey all fall under this umbrella. Sure, there is combat in all these games, but 95% of the time you are engaged with all the other systems these games use

And I think you really underestimate how deep some of the systems KCD1 is working with. There is usually 2 or 3 ways to handle any given quest. Stealth, violence, and non-violence can usually be achieved in an given quest.

For example, If I needed to retrieve an item from a bandit camp. I could fight them all at once, I could kill them by poisening their food, I could sneak in there and quietly lockpick the item(if skill high enough), or I could kill an enemy and take his uniform and steal the item by posing as an enemy.

I have never played a game that you can get as lost in the world as KCD. The only reason I probably wouldn't rank it over Prey, my favorite sim, is because of its lack of polish

 

[pudel]

Mate, if this gets above a 93 I will buy you this single player offline game as long as you promise to finish it.

Thats a pretty safe bet! I am sure that THIS game might raise a few (imaginary) problems with some "gaming journalists".

 

[GymWolf]

I consider the immersive sim genre as 1st person games that emphasizes exploration and ingenuity over combat/action. KCD, Indiana Jones, Alien Isolation, and Prey all fall under this umbrella. Sure, there is combat in all these games, but 95% of the time you are engaged with all the other systems these games use

And I think you really underestimate how deep some of the systems KCD1 is working with. There is usually 2 or 3 ways to handle any given quest. Stealth, violence, and non-violence can usually be achieved in an given quest.

For example, If I needed to retrieve an item from a bandit camp. I could fight them all at once, I could kill them by poisening their food, I could sneak in there and quietly lockpick the item(if skill high enough), or I could kill an enemy and take his uniform and steal the item by posing as an enemy.

I have never played a game that you can get as lost in the world as KCD. The only reason I probably wouldn't rank it over Prey, my favorite sim, is because of its lack of polish

Then it's a immersive sims light like a truckload of other games that offer you more option to complete a mission, you have 2-3 ways of completing a quest in stuff like far cry, watch dogs, days gone, cyberpunk and none of them are pure immersive sims.

Even less something like alien isolation, i would never think of that one like an immersive sims at all.

I guess we have very different concept of the immersive sims genre.

 

[GymWolf]

Thats a pretty safe bet! I am sure that THIS game might raise a few (imaginary) problems with some "gaming journalists".

They said the game is gonna have more diversity because the location was more prone to have them.

But it's probably not gonna be enough for the nutjobs, they weren't happy with ff16 literally having caramel skin people because they weren't dark enough...

 

[coachmcguirk91]

Then it's a immersive sims light like a truckload of other games that offer you more option to complete a mission, you have 2-3 ways of completing a quest in stuff like far cry, watch dogs, days gone, cyberpunk and none of them are pure immersive sims.

Even less something like alien isolation, i would never think of that one like an immersive sims at all.

I guess we have very different concept of the immersive sims genre.

Definition- Immersive sims are primarily concerned with making players feel as though they are truly experiencing a believable world by creating mechanics that feel appropriate and logical within the game world and try to avoid feeling arbitrarily 'Gamey'

How again is KCD not an immersive sim under that definition?

 

[GymWolf]

Definition- Immersive sims are primarily concerned with making players feel as though they are truly experiencing a believable world by creating mechanics that feel appropriate and logical within the game world and try to avoid feeling arbitrarily 'Gamey'

How again is KCD not an immersive sim under that definition?

Because that description is valid for a lot of games but not everyone consider all of these games immersive sims.

Like i told you, you can be super immersed and solve quest in various ways in cyberpunk (or watch dogs or many other games) aswell, and at the very best, people consider that one an immersive sims light, most people consider it an open world action rpg, full stop.

Also, Immersive sims usually have protagonist with super powers or weapons\skills that are far beyond a normal human capacity to give as much options to solve stuff, deus ex, dishonored, prey, all have superhuman protagonists with a lot of tools, in comparison something hyper realistic like indy or kc don't feel nearly as varied nor gave you as much options, having super powers\special tools is not a must, but it greatly increase the number of way that you can deal with things.

Sorry, i just don't see kc as a pure immersive sims at all, i would have to call a shitload of games immersive sims if that was the case, and as we both know, the genre has been very anemic in the past years to say the least.

 

[coachmcguirk91]

Because that description is valid for a lot of games but not everyone consider all of these games immersive sims.

Like i told you, you can be super immersed and solve quest in various ways in cyberpunk (or watch dogs or many other games) aswell, and at the very best, people consider that one an immersive sims light, most people consider it an open world action rpg, full stop.

Also, Immersive sims usually have protagonist with super powers or weapons\skills that are far beyond a normal human capacity to give as much options to solve stuff, deus ex, dishonored, prey, all have superhuman protagonists with a lot of tools, in comparison something hyper realistic like indy or kc don't feel nearly as varied nor gave you as much options, having super powers is not a must, but it greatly increase the number of way that you can deal with things.

Sorry, i just don't see kc as a pure immersive sims at all, i would have to call a shitload of games immersive sims if that was the case, and as we both know, the genre has been very anemic in the past years to say the least.

It's the non-gamey aspects that I consider the most crucial aspect of what is or isn't a sim game. I guess that's where we differ. Interesting topic. Agree to disagree

 

[GymWolf]

It's the non-gamey aspects that I consider the most crucial aspect of what is or isn't a sim game. I guess that's where we differ. Interesting topic. Agree to disagree

Yeah, videogame nomenclatures are a super broad and unprecise science.

People still trying to understand what make a jrpg a jrpg or what aspects of the shooting the word "gunplay" include, different for every dude.

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

Yeah, videogame nomenclatures are a super broad and unprecise science.

People still trying to understand what make a jrpg a jrpg or what aspects of the shooting the word "gunplay" include, different for every dude.

Hey hey don't be a bigot, for every lady as well.

 

[StereoVsn]

They said the game is gonna have more diversity because the location was more prone to have them.

But it's probably not gonna be enough for the nutjobs, they weren't happy with ff16 literally having caramel skin people because they weren't dark enough...

Early 15th century mining town in central Bohemia was known to be a greatly diverse place similar to Baghdad or Constantinople!

 

[Luipadre]

All versions looks and runs great based on that video. Good to see a great Pro version. It looks like it uses quality settings and looks crisp aswell

 

[Denton]

Jesus Christ Be Praised guys, stop arguing about immersive sims, we all know immersive sims are amazing but as a rule bomb commercially, so the further KCD is from immersive sims the better

Spoiler

(I would also say it has some features of it, but they have more to do with AI and various interaction systems instead of stuff like physics or superpowers from Dishonored or Prey)

Watch this great interview with devs (EN subs are included) if you haven't already

 

[Gonzito]

I have a YouTuber friend who’s been playing the game for almost 80 hours now, and what he told me completely blew my mind. He said the depth of the open world reminds him of RDR2, with random events happening constantly, a high level of complexity, and NPCs displaying really impressive AI with behaviors that feel cohesive and realistic. He also mentioned that the sidequests are on par with The Witcher 3 in terms of writing and depth. He even said, “Gonzo, I’m not exaggerating when I say this, this is GOTY material.”

Man, I cannot fucking wait!

 

[DeepEnigma]

I have a YouTuber friend who’s been playing the game for almost 80 hours now, and what he told me completely blew my mind. He said the depth of the open world reminds him of RDR2, with random events happening constantly, a high level of complexity, and NPCs displaying really impressive AI with behaviors that feel cohesive and realistic. He also mentioned that the sidequests are on par with The Witcher 3 in terms of writing and depth. He even said, “Gonzo, I’m not exaggerating when I say this, this is GOTY material.”

Man, I cannot fucking wait!

 

[Denton]

“Gonzo, I’m not exaggerating when I say this, this is GOTY material.”

He is wrong, it will be GOAT material
I read impressions of one polish guy and he called it best written game he ever played. Then people confronted him with "better than Disco Elysium or RDR2 or Alan Wake 2? I think not!" to which he replied

I've played all these games and I love them. I will try to explain it thoroughly after the embargo is lifted. I would also like to remind you that this is my very subjective opinion.

 

[Stafford]

52 minutes of gameplay

 

[Agent_Nobody]

wow you guys are some pro or something, i was getting me ass kicked even on normal.

LOL for me it’s the PTSD of playing the game when it first came out, and getting to the end part of act 1 drinking the save schnapps right at the gates of the camp and then having the scene bug out; everyone stopped doing anything and just stood around, I could attack enemies but they wouldn’t die….so I reload the schnapps save same thing. FML…Reload the other save I had which set me back before the scouting mission, re run everything taking me about 2 and a half hours, save schnapps before I hit the gate, and it goes smooth, get through the fight, have the boss introduction…all seems smooth and the game crashes .

 

[Rush2112]

Awful minimum and recommended specs. Not giving my money to people who don’t want to optimize their game.

 

[dEvAnGeL]

I really want to play this. However the first game is the only game that makes me sick. Motion sickness. Is all good but once the fighting starts that is when i cant keep playing. I hope it does well. It looks amazing.

 

[Denton]

Awful minimum and recommended specs. Not giving my money to people who don’t want to optimize their game.

Sarcasm I assume? The game runs great even on steam deck

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

LOL for me it’s the PTSD of playing the game when it first came out, and getting to the end part of act 1 drinking the save schnapps right at the gates of the camp and then having the scene bug out; everyone stopped doing anything and just stood around, I could attack enemies but they wouldn’t die….so I reload the schnapps save same thing. FML…Reload the other save I had which set me back before the scouting mission, re run everything taking me about 2 and a half hours, save schnapps before I hit the gate, and it goes smooth, get through the fight, have the boss introduction…all seems smooth and the game crashes .

The drink to save is cool on paper but i wouldn't made a game messing with players saves lol, that's too much tbh, they later added a save upon exit saving which i used.

The game was so addictive that i probably plucked flowers for 2 hours to improve stats in Henry town before moving in main missions.

 

[Flabagast]

Shit that sucks, loved some aspects of KCD's hardcore like the map not showing where you are, added to the immersion.

Yes, this was truly bold and you could end up absolutely lost in a forest not knowing at all where to go, with sometimes barely any food and health, with danger awaiting you behind the trees. At night it was even worse as nights are really dark in the game and you could not rely on remote landmarks to try to locate you on your map. Also it meant that some times you had to rely on the sun or the moon to make sense of directions, although it did not work during cloudy weathers. So so immersive.

Also it really reinforced the impression of a journey as you could not zap around the map with fast travel, so once you reached a village you had to commit to visit the shops of the place, do local quests, eat and sleep at the inn, before moving on to the next town. And thus when you were for example at the north edge of the map, you felt like you were really far from the main city and did not know what to expect regarding what could await you during the travel back there.

Loved it, hardcore mode really turned this beautiful game into one of the most immersive RPGs of all times.

 

[Luipadre]

He is wrong, it will be GOAT material
I read impressions of one polish guy and he called it best written game he ever played. Then people confronted him with "better than Disco Elysium or RDR2 or Alan Wake 2? I think not!" to which he replied

lmao I hope the game has a lot of moments like this. I know the first one had some hilarious stuff

 

[Hudo]

It's effectively like the original but with parallelism on CPU fixed and further tweaks from what I see. I've been playing KCD 1 lately and the ultra settings + .ini edits for things like shadow resolution and so on makes it look stunning and close to this. They have more vegetation and better character models in KCD2 of course there's only so much .ini settings can change.

Crytek's SVOGI is underrated for the years it was made and how good it performs. It's almost Lumen way before Lumen.

I think CryEngine in general is underrated, imho. Kinda excited for what Crytek are cooking up for Crysis 4.

 

[Last Hearth]

He is wrong, it will be GOAT material
I read impressions of one polish guy and he called it best written game he ever played. Then people confronted him with "better than Disco Elysium or RDR2 or Alan Wake 2? I think not!" to which he replied

Sound great, my dilemma is whether to jump in or start with KCD1. Seems like I would get more from this game if I played the first one, but the downside is that it would be a huge time commitment to play 2 games.

 

[Buggy Loop]

I think CryEngine in general is underrated, imho. Kinda excited for what Crytek are cooking up for Crysis 4.

Yes. I hope Crysis 4 melts faces

Go all in on crazy PC tech.

 

[Agent_Nobody]

The drink to save is cool on paper but i wouldn't made a game messing with players saves lol, that's too much tbh, they later added a save upon exit saving which i used.

The game was so addictive that i probably plucked flowers for 2 hours to improve stats in Henry town before moving in main missions.

Yeah I played it again years later with the DLC and it was much smoother. Adding save on exit, more save slots and I believe they drastically reduced the price of schnapps and added more to merchant inventory:


…but yeah like you said despite wasting like 5 hours of my time due to bugs just in the first act alone I still pushed passed and finished it, it was that good.

 

[Luipadre]

Sound great, my dilemma is whether to jump in or start with KCD1. Seems like I would get more from this game if I played the first one, but the downside is that it would be a huge time commitment to play 2 games.

Playing 1 right before 2 might be a bad idea. Just watch a story recap at this point. Its basically the same game, but more refined and polished and bigger

 

[Elios83]

Ummm mildly interested about this but I haven't played the original. Is this going to be accessible for newcomers?

 

[Luipadre]

 

[Denton]

Yes, this was truly bold and you could end up absolutely lost in a forest not knowing at all where to go, with sometimes barely any food and health, with danger awaiting you behind the trees. At night it was even worse as nights are really dark in the game and you could not rely on remote landmarks to try to locate you on your map. Also it meant that some times you had to rely on the sun or the moon to make sense of directions, although it did not work during cloudy weathers. So so immersive.

Also it really reinforced the impression of a journey as you could not zap around the map with fast travel, so once you reached a village you had to commit to visit the shops of the place, do local quests, eat and sleep at the inn, before moving on to the next town. And thus when you were for example at the north edge of the map, you felt like you were really far from the main city and did not know what to expect regarding what could await you during the travel back there.

Loved it, hardcore mode really turned this beautiful game into one of the most immersive RPGs of all times.

100% agree, I never played the non-hardcore mode and would never want to. You summed up perfectly why it is so brilliant.
I just hope KCD2 will be easily moddale so in the absence of official hardcore mode, there will be quickly mods to at least remove the GPS map icon and disable fast travel.
Btw in latest interview with design lead Victor Bocan, they asked him if hardcore mode is in the game and he said "maybe". So I hope it will still make it in, but maybe they do not want to commit yet because it is still in dev.

 

[Tchu-Espresso]

PS5 Pro: 2160p/60fps upscaled from dynamic 1440p with PSSR (+60fps with VRR)

Seems great to me

Yeah on paper, but the comparison is showing a slightly softer resolve on fine details like grass.

 

[Buggy Loop]

I have a YouTuber friend who’s been playing the game for almost 80 hours now, and what he told me completely blew my mind. He said the depth of the open world reminds him of RDR2, with random events happening constantly, a high level of complexity, and NPCs displaying really impressive AI with behaviors that feel cohesive and realistic. He also mentioned that the sidequests are on par with The Witcher 3 in terms of writing and depth. He even said, “Gonzo, I’m not exaggerating when I say this, this is GOTY material.”

Man, I cannot fucking wait!

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

Ummm mildly interested about this but I haven't played the original. Is this going to be accessible for newcomers?

I'm sure it will, But take notice that it will be a continuation of the first game, a direct sequel which you play as the same main character so there's got to be things you will miss, especially as the MC- Henry, starts off as a dirty peasant and soldier up in the first game.

 

[Neilg]

Ummm mildly interested about this but I haven't played the original. Is this going to be accessible for newcomers?

You'll want to get caught up on the events from the first, but this is under 20 minutes so it's not a big commitment -

I haven't watched that yet. search pulled up a few that are under 10 minutes too.
I'm going to watch one while it's downloading.

 

[Luipadre]

I have a YouTuber friend who’s been playing the game for almost 80 hours now, and what he told me completely blew my mind. He said the depth of the open world reminds him of RDR2, with random events happening constantly, a high level of complexity, and NPCs displaying really impressive AI with behaviors that feel cohesive and realistic. He also mentioned that the sidequests are on par with The Witcher 3 in terms of writing and depth. He even said, “Gonzo, I’m not exaggerating when I say this, this is GOTY material.”

Man, I cannot fucking wait!

im listening to a podcast and the guy there comparing it to RDR2 too in terms of exploration and the open world. Also said the game is really polished, a far cry from the first game

 

[Denton]

im listening to a podcast and the guy there comparing it to RDR2 too in terms of exploration and the open world. Also said the game is really polished, a far cry from the first game

I think in terms of immersion and quality it can be compared, but stuff like animation polish is still going to be far from RDR2 imho. 250 devs vs 1600 devs - Rockstar is still in its own league in that regard.

 

[GymWolf]

I have a YouTuber friend who’s been playing the game for almost 80 hours now, and what he told me completely blew my mind. He said the depth of the open world reminds him of RDR2, with random events happening constantly, a high level of complexity, and NPCs displaying really impressive AI with behaviors that feel cohesive and realistic. He also mentioned that the sidequests are on par with The Witcher 3 in terms of writing and depth. He even said, “Gonzo, I’m not exaggerating when I say this, this is GOTY material.”

Man, I cannot fucking wait!

Curious to see if the npcs and world simulation is gonna be on the level of rdr2.

What sell the world of rdr2 are also the huge amount of unique animations, how different npcs walks etc, i didn't saw anything similar on the preview footage of kc2, they still look pretty janky.


Devs need to start investing on good animations other than just improving the graphic, animations is what sells this shit outside of still frame pics inside forums.

 

[Gonzito]

Curious to see if the npcs and world simulation is gonna be on the level of rdr2.

What sell the world of rdr2 are also the huge amount of unique animations, how different npcs walks etc, i didn't saw anything similar on the preview footage of kc2, they still look pretty janky.


Devs need to start investing on good animations other than just improving the graphic, animations is what sells this shit outside of still frame pics inside forums.

Agreed. Animations are extremely important and not many studios do it right.

Let's see, I think that you are gonna end up buying the game in the end even if the combat doesn't convinced you 100%