Ash of Gods: Redemption

That's my second playthrough of the game. I wanted to refresh my memories before the upcoming release of Ash of Gods: The Way and finally decided to leave a review. The very first time I played it offline mostly, so the real hours on the record should be about 20-25, I guess.
I can say I enjoyed it but to be completely honest the game is very flawed.
First of all, it's merciless to new players in terms of lore. I am 5 minutes in the game and I was overwhelmed with a number of words and names it throws at me in the very beginning. Umbra, curro, Gordinn, Blance aka Hopper Rouly, Divine Retribution, Reaping, Terminum and a lot of other names and places which are not that important. I have already played the game and still find it really hard to understand.
Second problem is texts. The English translation is okay-ish but I played in Russian (thanks, Mom!) which is the original language of the game. It was written by some Russian fantasy writer Sergey Malitsky. I have to admit, I am not a fan of his work. Dialogues are often tedious. Pointless. In the end of the game there's a lot of pure grafomania. It's not a game. It's a book in the shape of a game. That's why there are about 50-60 characters in the game, and most of them are flat as f*ck. And again, it is just really hard to remember everyone. God knows, I will kill some of them deliberately this time just to ease my pain.
The story itself is again — yes, you are right — too complicated. Reapers, enses, Gods, Northern Kingdoms fight kingdoms from the South, a curse, a family issues etc. But once you get used to it, it is pretty nice. It grows on you.
What works bad, though, is some choices. Sometimes they are kinda stupid and not really obvious. You can die with all your party just because you click the wrong answer in a dialogue. Or you can't save your friend just because you decided to buy your wife a pendant instead of a shawl in the beginning of the game.
The combat system is flawed, too, but to be honest, I never had much troubles with it. A few very hard fights — and that's it. It's bearable. But I am glad that the new game is different, I played the Prologue, and the combat system is very nice. But it is also a game of a different genre. Anyway, I can tell the devs learn from their mistakes.
Perhaps, it seems like I concentrates on bad things only (thanks to Russian roots and mentality, I guess), so let's talk about good things.
Visuals are awesome. Yes, it feels a lot like The Banner Saga but with its own flavor. It looks like every story line has its own style when it comes to characters. Like they were drawn by three different artists. I like that. And the frame-by-frame animation is also very nice. It's very smooth.
Music is unbelievably good. I liked it back then, I still in love with it today. Believe me, you should consider buying the soundtrack. You won't regret this. It was written by The Witcher's composer Adam Skorupa and it is perfect.
Some ideas behind the game are also nice. A guy who's willing to save his family no matter the cost, a silent elite warrior (perhaps inspired by unsullied from Game of Thrones series) who is trying to understand the concept of humanity, an umbra who is trying to resist his own people in order to save humans... This is good. The execution is not always as good as it should be, alas.
I would rate the game between 6/7 our of 10. It's a nice game. But I am pretty sure the new game, Ash of Gods: The Way, is going to be even better. Will see.

If you can see the game for what it is, and not for what you want it to be, buy it, 100%.
Now, what IS Ash of Gods: A bloody, text filled, narrative focused game. The story is truly unique, your choices have immediate and future impact, the characters are actually interesting B U T, and I really mean this, it is UNFAIR. I don't try to say the game is hard, no, I mean UNFAIR. When you first start the game it will ask you to choose a dificulty, I think until diff. 3 the enemies can't use cards, what are cards? Cards are instant spells, one such card hits for 10 points of damage. The problem? Some characters have LESS than 10 full health, so sometimes the enemy will play that card and instakill them. And in this game, characters DIE when the die, so remember that. If you don't care resetting once or twice, or choosing one of the lower diffs (or simply get through) CONGRATS! you have an amaxing story, interesting characters and a unique world ready for you!

Well, I have tried to beat this at hard difficulty 2 times.
Then I gave up. No, combat was not hard. I was beaten by the map. If you dont know exactly the shortest route it is really easy to lose the game to the map screen where your characters go insane and die due to the lack of resources.
The rest is really good. The plot is above decent (assuming you know Russian, because the translation is kinda... unique).
There are a few different routes (at least in Thorn story) to play. Unlike the reviewers I disagree that you need a guide - you will get more or less unique experience. The music is awesome, art is also great.
Really, this should have been a TV series or a book instead of a game, alas

sifting through the negative reviews i can see they're virtually all about difficulty. tbh, the difficulty never bothered me. very well done and every bit the banner saga's equal. they are very similar games.

Many of the negative reviews for this game are chock full of Russiaphobia, and biased against this game for that reason alone, or from folks who wanted to play Banner Saga and failed to see that this was not Banner Saga.
This game is designed to be a bit punishing, and bleak, and it conveys that very well through the combat and story. The combat could use a little polish, but is otherwise what you expect from a TRPG; wait your turn, make your choices. watch it happen, reload your save when it doesn't go your way...
I enjoyed it, and will likely play through it again, so I can take a different path and make different dialogue choices to see how things play out.

good game.

Loved this game. Great story, incredible soundtrack, enjoyable gameplay. It's a mix of the Witcher and Banner Saga. I would give this game 9/10.