What happened to this game? Worse than AP/CW in every aspect.

[F-kid]

What happened on the development of this game?

I was expecting an epic game just like its ancestors, but I get more and more disappointed as I play.

I haven't finished the game yet (currently at level 52), but I can list MANY things that should have improved or at least kept the same way.

Minor spoilers below:

1- Crashes: As I do with most games, I waited a few months after the release, so the patches would correct almost every bug. I was mistaken, this game crashes A LOT, specially on big battles. Quite annoying having to start a massive/boss battle over and hope for the game not to crash again.

2- Difficulty: As with the other games from the series, I played on impossible. The challenge is fine until the big spider. After that, I get so much land to explore and collect leadership and money that everything gets easy. I remember that in AP I had a very hard time choosing which battle I should fight first, they were all classified as "deadly" or "invincible. In WotN I arrive at a new area and I get surprisingly easy battles almost every time. I also get to fly too early in the game, making it even easier to kite enemies and collect treasures behind them.

3- Money: too easy to get and too useless as well. I got over 6 million and nothing to buy. The things I do want can't be found anywhere in the game so far, such as some scrolls or set items.

4- Quests: mosts quests in this game are boring and pointless. Tons of uninteresting text that in 95% of the cases are absolutely useless. Quests rewarding ridiculously low. Getting 3000 gold as a reward for a quest that you complete at level 40+ is completely nonsense.

5- Quest items: I remember that in CW many of the quest items had a use apart from the quest itself, like trying myself some potion that is to be delivered and getting some bonuses for it. Now I don't even bother what they are, and consider all as a package that has to be delivered.

6- Balance: As soon as I got past the big spiders, I got myself an army of knights, paladins, archmages, rune mages and inquisitors. Never had to change my army. Right before the castle in greenworth became unavailable I also purchased every unit to keep these stacks in reserve (after all gold is so abundant that it wasn't even 20% of what I had). The enemy armies are also too weak at certain areas that just opened.

7- Bosses: The big spider AGAIN? Come on 1C, you should be good at creating boss battles. I saw 3 bosses so far (ONLY 3!! And I'm at level 52!) and 2 of them are from other games.

8- Enemy rating: anything rated strong/very strong/deadly/invincible should actually be challenging. My army can often manage deadly/invincible fights (even with an enemy hero) without losses on the first try. It doesn't seem right. Don't use the words "impossible" and "invincible" if the game doesn't even come close to that.

9- Achievements and titles: achievements should be given upon challenges that are an addition to the game, such as winning 100 consecutive battles without losses or getting all medals to level 3. Killing a demon that is mandatory (and not challenging at all) for the story and being awarded a title (for what?) and an achievement for that seems a little too much.

10- Power ups: not only the enemies are too easy, there are countless power ups to improve your army even more: talents, songs, valkyrie passives, valkyrie pre-combat abilities, pre-combat scrolls, criticals, medal bonuses. The impossible difficulty setting should have an impact on those.

11- Graphics: As far as I noticed, the graphics are exactly the same since the Legend. Not that I really care for that, it's the least significant of all issues from this game, but it would be nice to play something that doesn't look like just an add-on to a previous game.

That's probably enough for now. I hope that 1C takes these critics as a positive thing and use it on the next king's bounty. I got disappointed with this one but I think that 1C can and will make a better job in the future.

And don't forget the patches for WotN, there are still plenty issues to be fixed.