Recent reviews by wanoO

I play without it, the quality of the equipment icons is laughable. Highly recommend you don't buy or remember to refund after testing.

They don't match the style of the original icons:
- they're very flat, lacking in detail and color
- they have this heavy black outline compared to the softer drop shadow of the original icons
- parts are off-scale, i.e. the interwar aircraft's wheel is the same size as the fuselage of the plane ?!
- the BA-20 is smaller compared to other armored car icons, maybe it's for soviet ants idk...
They look out of place and they're not as good as the originals to tell you at a glance what you are looking at.
Art is subjective but I find these icons get in the way, I also don't understand how someone signed off on a style that doesn't come close to matching the rest of the game's icons: that's PDX QA for you.
Focus icons are okay but those don't matter much, best to turn the DLC off imo.

Masterwork, GOTY contender and an example for bigger studios to follow

There are sequels that do justice, those that fail to meet expectations and others that change little but KCD2 takes everything that made KCD a good game and refines it into one the best RPGs ever made!
An immersive medieval setting like no other, a story far more epic and well rounded than the first, a world richer and more colorful. Warhorse have clearly polished an absolute gem, you can tell just how much work and passion went into this sequel and like any great game it leaves you wanting more even after beating it. The characters are so well fleshed out that throughout the intricate story you navigate through, you are bound to remember them long after playing, both the good and the bad.
Outside the epic main story, you have a plethora of random encounters, varied side quests and activities to take part in. Just like the first game, it's a world that draws you in, giving you freedom to explore outside of your epic adventure. You are treated to cinematic moments that are movie worthy but everything is taken up a notch or even two compared to the previous title.
While I have some minor gripes with progression, the economy, some of the stealth and combat mechanics, these are things you can easily overlook when you are having this much fun. I can't wait for what Warhorse will deliver next as I AM QUITE HUNGRY!

The best non-fantasy medieval RPG, until the sequel rolled around that is.
Counting the DLCs you are not far off of a hundred hours of story driven questing, in an immersive and enthralling world.
This game is a masterclass gaming experience and a must play for any fans of medieval history as it is by far the most accurate portrayal of it in any game. Engaging combat, fun minigames and tasks, gorgeous graphics backed up by a wonderful score, an open world game you can lose yourself in and still feel at home.
A true passion project by a studio that knows what they are about, with qualities you don't find in some AAA titles nowadays and the sequel improves in almost every way imaginable. It's a sin not to play it!

Embarrassing

Made by the same team at PDX that are responsible for the train wreck that is Trial of Allegiance.
Hope this will serve as a wake up call to PDX for releasing these low effort country packs.
Trial of Allegiance, Graveyard of Empires and to an extent Battle for the Bosphorus (excluding the content on Greece) are all heavily focused on countries that at most barely played a part in WW2; I am talking declaring war when the conflict was already well decided or neutrality throughout... Barely anyone plays these minor nations so who the hell are these DLCs for? Mostly Negative steam reviews every single time! The majority of HOI4 players are clear that they do not want this.
At least pretend to acknowledge the feedback. Bug fixes are continually delayed, QA is a mess and communication is almost none existent when the DLC is poorly received. Please do better, instead of running into a brick wall time and time again. I am no longer preordering or purchasing any expansion pass, I was happy to support the development of a game I enjoy but this is ridiculous.

7/10 - Nice expansion, lot of new content for the main nation of the game but buggy and very unbalanced 3 months after release
The Germany rework adds a huge amount of flavor for the nation but it suffers from the same issue as all new focus trees do: it's way to big! 35 day focuses are a big mistake in my opinion forcing the player back too often to the focus screen rather then staying in the action. There are many interesting focuses that add secondary benefits but I can't justify the time to go for them when playing historical.
Decision spam is minimal, but I am not a fan of focus adding more than 4 decisions...
The added units and special projects are fun but many are either really OP (in typical Paradox fashion to sell the DLC), I am sure they will nerf most and some into oblivion. Special projects and facilities are interesting but introduce significant NRG with long term game impact, to me this is not a good design.
Some units are too expensive to justify. Germany's economy was strengthened even if they set out to nerf it in the early game. Reichskommisariats are a noob trap, they save manpower losses from occupation but give you far less then occupation in every other aspect, borderline useless. There are also many areas that can't be made into one.
Raids are a nice touch but with the prep time being 30 days or more, I never took time or even needed to do them in singleplayer.

Is it worth the money? IMO yes, along with the MTG and NSB expansions this one of the most important packs for the game
Main shortcomings? Many nonsensical balance decisions and oversights
I hope the remaining issues are patch in a reasonable time, currently there are major bugs plaguing the game but regardless I am happy with it as it makes the most fun nation better.

No Steam Deck support because the game is hamstrung by Denuvo. Physics and UI glitches. Career mode is ever so slightly improved but it could be so much better. No alternative football game sadly...

A near-masterpiece, brilliant game and epic tale, definitely a strong contender for GOTY! 9/10 for me

Competition is definitely weak this year and Black Myth Wukong is truly a welcome change to how AAA games tend to release nowadays: No live service, no 3rd party account requirement and no micro-transaction of ANY kind. You get a great single player game that knows what it's about. I found it to be mostly bug free, none that bothered me anyway. The game looks amazing and the amount of assets modeled for it is staggering, the mo-cap and voice acting are top tier (both in CN and EN), the soundtrack is beautiful and the story is wonderful and confusing in the best way possible. As I had no real knowledge of the rich mythology the game is steeped in, I was truly captivated in just the first Chapter. There are a lot of characters in the game and if you are not familiar with the cultural and religious elements in the game like I am it can be hard to follow motives and understand how everything fits together but exploring the lore is as good as the fighting itself.
This is exactly why I would rate Wukong higher than God of War on a story basis as it was all new to me which made it that much more interesting. There are many lessons of morality with a lot of nuance and depth in a really well told and well paced story, except for the final chapter in my opinion. And it is not just a totally fresh setting but also the much higher difficulty that makes the game that much more rewarding. While I did enjoy that, it did too often feel like a boss was either far too challenging or a complete pushover, the progression in GoW is clearly more refined. To put it simply: I struggled a lot more in the first 2 Chapters than in the last 4 and that didn't feel quite right. Some fights also rely on specific items to take most of the challenge out, but the items do require you to explore optional areas with optional bosses. What I liked is how the game often forces you to adapt your build to the boss and there is no one-size-fits-all build that I found as some may be mostly immune to the spell or attack style you are relying too much on. I still don't really get why the early bosses were that tough as I cleared many of the last ones on the first go. As there is no punishment for dying the game is nowhere near as challenging as a souls game; personally I would rate some of the bosses in Chapter 1 as highly as the toughest Valkyries in GoW so it's definitely a challenging game and closer to Sekiro or Souls than GoW difficulty wise so do beware, and try to git gud; I had to.

Clearly made by a very passionate and talented team that have a bright future ahead of them. It has an original story that has never been told as a AAA game and the combat combines many gameplay mechanics to create something unique but not unfamiliar. I felt the devs went beyond the standard set by western studios in many respects. It is a high quality product, with a few rough edges, sure, but it in some areas they really went all-out. There are many aspects like the artwork, 3D models and animated cut-scene that truly push the envelop so I hope Black Myth Wukong will be the first of many Chinese titles to succeed as games should when they are this well made.

Great game, hope they fix the sequel.

I really enjoy this DLC. The speeches are well chosen, edited & backed by a great soundtrack. Some of them especially those by FDR and Churchill add so much to the atmosphere of the game. Really makes you appreciate how skilled these orators were and how low the bar has fallen when you look at some heads of state today.
It's frustrating we could never have an Axis pack for a more balanced and historical representation; but while some speeches could possibly be added, it's obviously beyond problematic and risky.
Much happier with this DLC compared to their last low effort country pack for 14.99€.

Legends are anything but Legendary and Plagues are a constant headache.
This DLC truly reflects the approach at Paradox: quantity over quality.

Legends are slow and terribly expensive which is not really a bad thing in the mid to late game, at least to get to the final tier, which is something the AI never bothers doing: since Legends are quite easy to complete since you can totally stop at Tier 1 or Tier 2, that's what the AI always does. The rewards can be decent but pretty boring for the most part even for Tier 3. The real problem is how generic it all is; most legend seeds are generic and so are the rewards and the special buildings you can get. It's very poorly thought out. And since every King and Emperor can easily start a Legend, there will be dozens during your playthrough, to the point where calling these "Legends" is absurd.
Plagues never stop, there are always at least 2 to 3 plagues in the world and it can go much higher. When a plague approaches your realm you will start to get bombarded with notifications on how you wish to deal with it. Doesn't matter much as it's all RNG outside of having a good court physician and the associated buildings (which take away from your economy and military: great). In the playthroughs I did, I lost most of my dynasty members and heirs to plagues, even when living in well developed capitals the plague would rip through my court and nothing I did was enough even with 90+ plague resistance, guess I'll die...
This is the first DLC that I would rather play without, in my opinion Legends of the Dead makes the game worse. Even if these systems were better implemented, there is no way to justify an asking price of 20€ for so little unique content.