All of the bad elements of Kingmaker have been maximized, and any possible streamlining has been thrown to the wind. The puzzles are bad, for some godforsaken reason the combat log is harder to scroll through now, the companions are even more shallow than Kingmaker's, and the new timewasting minigame wastes even MORE time than Kingmaker's (congrats on that one, Owlcat). But hey, respecing characters is free now, and the score is pretty kickass! These are small comforts in the grand scheme of things, as the horribly balanced encounters and tedious overworld traveling inspire no excitement. Remember how in Kingmaker travel speed would increase as you conquered territories and established optimal travel routes? Well, you can forget about that, cause there are maybe two ways to get anywhere, and traveling has one speed: molasses! Bugs plague the game almost a year into release, as the turn based mode breaks cutscenes often, along with dialogue boxes spasming out during crusade events. You'd think Owlcat would've learned from Kingmaker's release, but I suppose not. Possible buyers will just have to wait for three years until the game's in a stable state like last time.

The upshot is that the story and mythic quests are well thought out and intriguing, providing a variety of options for the player in their quest to seal the worldwound. This is something that works DESPITE the dialogue system, which only offers caricatured responses to situations: expect to see '(Good) I will help you!' and '(Lawful) You should be arrested!' a lot with no leeway in-between. It's a pity that the polish in the story leaks into no other facet in this game: it's all number crunching and no soul. The aforementioned minigame this time around is managing a crusade, which has some rudimentary combat inspired by HoMM. The strategy is nil, as the only way to win is to pick a mage general or stack silly numbers of units to gib your enemy. No roleplaying, just yawn-worthy optimization. People loved crying about Kingdom Management, but it provided some insight into one's character and consequences to the ending: here, your ending slide has an arbitrary good/bad result based on how many blank armies you slaughtered, along with how many times you autoclicked the recruit armies option. To call this garbage bland and forgettable is being kind.

Conclusion: trash fire with an excellent OST.