The more I'm playing this game the more I'm liking it. The game in itself is really simple but the story and lore is really rich. In yesterdays session I managed to get revenge on the Nilfgaardians and progress the story a little bit. I'm at the very end of the first chapter.
One thing I'm starting to notice now is the consequences of my choices. As I've mentioned earlier this game is abundant with choices, both small and and big and they really make an impact. I mentioned in short that I had chosen to intervene between some humans and non-humans fighting. The humans slaughtered the non-humans and I chose to spare the humans, only punishing them instead of killing them. I felt it was the right thing to do. In the process the non-humans in my army defected because they felt their lives weren't valued.
I also met a troll who was a really cool dude.
The elf
However, yesterday I was met with a similar choice. An elf was being harassed and beaten up by humans. The humans thought he had led the Nilfgaardians to their town and that he was responsible for their plunder. There was no evidence to this so I chose to save him and when he asked to join my army I complied. The other choice was to leave him behind in the town which would see him killed off by the humans for sure.
I had a bad feeling about making the choice. If he really was a Nilfgaardian spy having him in my ranks could turn into a rightful disaster. Still, I felt it was the right thing to do over leaving him behind to be killed. I took the chance.
My feeling was right. Not long after taking him in some of my soldiers and officers fell ill. Very clearly poisoned. I knew right away that it was him but I didn't have the choice to apprehend him there and then. He was later caught poisoning our food or water supplies.
Turns out he wasn't a Nilfgaardian spy and had no affiliation to them at all. He's just had it with humans oppressing his race so he does all he can to hurt them. I was given any choice here and he was hanged by the side of the road. I guess no matter which choice I had made when first encountering him he would have died anyway. Either in the town, killed by the humans out of pure hate and discrimination or killed by me as punishment for his actions.
Even though I lost a few men I still feel like I made the right choice in the grand scheme. This way the humans didn't get to feed their hate by killing him. Instead he met his end by his own accord. He would have died either way.
Eyck the Knight
I also met this knight called Eyck. A honorable man out and about to do good. To save citizens from certain death by a wyvern. He seemed like a cool guy who could turn out to be a great asset so I invited to help him slay his beast if he would join us in fighting the Nilfgaardians.
While he much appreciated the help he would get he declined the invitation to join my army. He was a knight and not one to take sides. He wanted to stay far out of the squabbles of men. I was given the choice to "insist" on him joining us which I felt would turn into me forcing him during the dialogue. Instead I chose to honor his choice and not force him. We then parted ways.
I feel like I missed out on having a pretty cool character in my army, as well as what would probably had been a great battle with a wyvern. It could also be that there was no way to actually recruit him and no matter what choice I would have made we would have parted ways. Who knows. I guess I'll need to play the game a second time over if I want to know.
Affecting the end
Now these choices aren't really affecting my gameplay. I still have the same units to use in battles and I don't lose out on any resources. I do however think much of this will matter in the end though, seeing as the game is supposed to have 20 different endings. With so many endings I'm guessing that all of these major choices will make their impact come the end. I'm really curious to see how it all turns out.
Join me on my stream
I'm about to go live on my stream. I've just arrived at the capital and that will conclude the first chapter of the game. I'm quite excited to see what happens next.
However we will be backtracking a bit first. I still have some loot and puzzles to pick up and finish and I want to get that done first. I don't know if I can go back through the areas once I leave them so I'm not taking my chances. And the resources I get will be helpful in the future.
I'll be live for 1-2 hours today.
I stream only for fun and because I can. Feel free to stop by and say hello. My gameplay sessions are saved as VODs for 14 days.
All screenshots in this post are taken by me.