>>714711268 (OP)
>tedium in every little aspect of the game, from exploration to combat, thanks to rest mechanics and permanent stat drains.
This is doubly as egregious in the 1st act where not only do you have very limited resources, you are also on a rather tight time limit which if you're not fast enough makes you lose chunks content. Any time you get stat drained in the 1st act, it is objectively better to just reload the game and redo the fight, rather than rest it out or travel back to the base of operations to buy restoration scrolls thus wasting limited time and money - a clear evidence of garbage game design.
>equally as tedious and exceptionally shitty tacked-on HoMM clone minigame, which if disabled through a difficulty option makes you miss out on some good gear.
>even MORE tedious prebuff rituals that you have to redo any time you load into a new map, the further you are into the game the longer they become.
>combat encounters are numerous and feel like shit.
Vast majority of them pose zero challenge, and those that do aren't won by approaching from different angles (more often than not there aren't any) or careful planning and positioning - they're won by stacking as many short buffs as possible and beelining for priority targets.
>the gameplay.
Above paragraph pretty much says it all - it's as mindless and samey as it can be.
>loading screens EVERYWHERE.
Here's your average experience: leave the location you're in *load*; teleport and enter drezen *load*; rest *load*; go out of the keep to sell loot *load*; decide to put some loot in the stash - back into the keep *load*; go back to world map *load*; start building projects - *load x2* PER SETTLEMENT; engage an enemy army *load x2*; travel and enter new location *load*; you can now play the game (after you complete your 5 minute long prebuff session) :)
