The Cryptkeepers of Hallowford Reviews

I found The CryptKeeppers of hallowford to be a worthy successor to The Hero of Kendrickstone. While it is not as good as Guns/Swords of Infinity by the same author, it is well worth the money to play. In addition, If you play the Hero of Kendrickstone first, you can continue your character from the first game. Who doesn't want to continue their Mage/General?

I was thrilled whenever I started readin this and found out that it was a part 2 for the Hero of Kendrickstone. I really enjoyed the characters in this story, although I don't feel that this one had as much effort put into it as the first one did. The ending seemed really rushed. I hope that there will be a part three to continue onto this. Overall, I'd give this a 7/10.

Ehhh. This wasn't a BAD game, though some characters are maybe a bit too telegraphed. As a story, it was really sub-par, but Hero of Kendrickstone was a fun enough game that I wanted to play through the continued story. As a sequel, though, it was even MORE lacking. Hero of Kendrickstone is LOADED with easy to understand decisions that affect the development of your character, which are completely lacking in this game. I didn't feel my character changed at all, probably because he didn't, aside from some extra gold at the end. This teases at a 3rd installment, but I think I'm good without it.

I enjoyed the previous story "Hero of Kendrickstone" so I eagerly bought "Hallowford". I have tried several times but I just can not get interested in the story. Personally I do not enjoy stories that throw you into an almost impossible situation and expect you to somehow make it work. Having said that, I noticed there are several people who really enjoyed the story, so maybe it's just me. On that note I will recommend it if you think you might enjoy the challenge. One minor complaint: "Hallowford" lacks a female romance option, with a guy and a transgender being the only options I saw. There is another story apparently coming in the future but I doubt I will bother.

It left a bad taste in my mouth at first, largely for reasons that other reviewers have already pointed out. However, after revisiting it nearly a year and a half later, I've actually come to appreciate it far more. I think the main issues are the somewhat disappointing ending, and the game as a whole not being as good as the original. Everything else was actually pretty good. The author has made plenty of other great games, so I'm sure the sequel to this one will be better.

A decent sequel to "Hero of Kendrickstone". It has less character development and it's a bit short. Still worth the money if you liked the first game though.

This story was short, offered few character advancement options...but was still entertaining. Honestly, I felt like it would have been better suited as something like the setup of Choice Of Vampires, sold as DLC to the original. Also, I hope it follows through on teasing a third installment, because lacking or not, I would like more of this storyline, and my characters.

Disappointingly short(only took couple of hours for a playthrough), and none of the things I did mattered, leading to the same result(except for the very ending). Second half of the story feels needlessly rushed and ends abruptly.

A definite improvement over the first game, focusing a lot more on characters and a single adventure, but still not as good as Paul Wang's other works. The skill system is still extremely simple and pigeonholes players into very specific paths. I would just say that this game is good if you're looking for some simple pulpy fun in a cool fantasy world with some really nice writing, but don't expect much more. I think its clear Paul Wang has a lot of potential writing but this series really needs a redo gameplay wise, there's just not enough to do and your character really feels very cookie cutter and narrow minded. Regardless it was a fun read and I am actually excited for the sequel.

[h1]Update:[/h1] Sadly CoG has decided to take away our ability to mod and bugfix our games for no apparent reason. This had been happening to some players of some games already but I, running Linux Mint, hadn't been affected immediately. Now though, after a recent round of updates for all CoG games attempting to fix a blank screen bug that some linux players had, I too no longer have access to the scene files that I had used to fix and/or mod my games. For reference, here's the discussion where we realized what was happening: https://web.archive.org/web/20230720234059/https://steamcommunity.com/app/1290270/discussions/0/3199240675527224092/ And here's a couple instances where the ability to see and modify the scene files helped fix, or would have helped fix, game-breaking bugs: https://web.archive.org/web/20230519122839/https://steamcommunity.com/app/1290270/discussions/0/5350815203295610478/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230720234237/https://steamcommunity.com/app/1290270/discussions/0/3199245116724505358/ To reiterate, CoG has removed our ability to improve our game experience or to fix the games we own ourselves if they break. While I'm not switching any of my reviews to 'not recommend', unless CoG reverses this anti-consumer practice I can't fully endorse any of their games either. [h1]Original Review:[/h1] A decent game, though not without flaws. Basically the beginning and ending are lackluster, but everything in between is pretty good. If you enjoyed the Hero of Kendrickstone, you'll probably enjoy this. [h1]Cons:[/h1] The beginning and ending are too brief. If my character has a mentor from the first game, why do they let you head off on this adventure? For my knight character, where is my horse and squire? That sort of thing is left unaddressed. The ending is basically your character saying "Well that happened" and setting off back to Kendrickstone. You know in general terms how things will probably turn out in Hallowford after you leave, but you don't get to see or hear about it so the ending doesn't provide much closure. Characters are hard to keep track of. A lot of people get introduced very quickly, and with little description. Two of them are in-universe famous heroes that your character recognizes, but the game doesn't tell us, the players, [i]why[/i] they are famous enough for you to recognize them on sight. If you talk to them you can learn about them, but that means not pursuing other things that may be more interesting or give you stat boosts. Two other characters vanish from the story as soon as their parts are done, not even mentioned in passing as far as I can tell. [h1]Pros:[/h1] Replayability. This is also where having played the previous game and importing a save file really pays off. Puzzles, fights, traps and information gathering all have different ways to succeed. My well educated wizard armed with a tome of eldritch horror had unique opportunities to find out information and act on it, my famous warrior was instantly recognized and trusted by almost everyone, my knight has some actual authority as an agent of the Duke and started the game with good armor, and so on. You also have plenty of opportunity to decide who you're really working for/what your goal is and why.