Giovanni, Giovanni, when did our feelings fade, when did they die out?..

Major plot and gameplay spoilers below

The traitor Kirdan paid the price for his blind, treacherous love (well, at least he sniffed the angelic girl before he died), and it was time to walk the Path of the Necromancer. And let me tell you: serve the Empire, guys, drink beer, and march bravely as part of the red legions (in the literal and in-game sense of the word). Because being a Necromancer is a sad valley.

As I mentioned in my review of "The Price of Love," the author has his own interesting vision of the further history of Ashan. And here it is: after the events of "Dark Messiah of Might & Magic," Ashan resurrects Arantir, which all the other characters are quick to be surprised by, since people usually don't come back after getting beaten by Sareth. So, the legendary Arantir, and not some Anastasia, even though she is regularly mentioned in the dialogues, which warmed my heart, is in charge of Erathia and interferes with the plans of the angels again. The old enemy, Giovanni, has also returned, and I personally didn't enjoy defeating him again. It felt like the spirit of games and movies from the 90s and 00s, when something like this appeared in every third sequel, because you know, you have to come up with something for the sequel, and the box office won't fill itself. And who is Giovanni anyway – a vampire count who appeared in only one mission and was killed not even in a side quest, but in a cutscene. But that's just a matter of taste. Someone might actually enjoy a full-fledged battle with the ambitious count.

Unlike "The Price," I played the easier v2.2 here. I'm a good, law-abiding boy, and after reading about the high difficulty, I assessed my skills and played on "Warrior." My main impression: AstralLein deliberately collected all the annoying and uncomfortable solutions and mechanics. Or he wanted to create an unusual, challenging scenario for himself and experienced fans of the game, it depends on how you look at it. I got the feeling that the author specifically wanted to confuse the player. Not in a bad way, I'm not talking about poor game design or unclear quests. But here's what happened to me: in the intro on the first week, I'm shown a conversation between Arantir and Giovanni, and I start preparing for a battle with the undead. I know that there is also an enemy human hero on the map (and, damn it, I don't know anything about the orc hero, thinking that everything will be limited to orcish ambushes in the style of "The Price"), but I'm sure that the first opponents will be necromancers. And I level up accordingly – Summoning, Chaos, and almost no Darkness. I didn't check the top of the map with the observatory – I rushed to the right, quickly to give the vampire his final death. So when the knight Benedict, geared against Summoning, emerged from the darkness from above, I was completely unprepared for it. I fought off the knight in the city, which dampened his fighting spirit, throwing "Grief" and catching him on demoralization, and it was still difficult. This was the first of two times I had to fight Benedict – the second was during the siege of Mortred (where this jerk managed to ruin my mood again, despite the numerical superiority and complete readiness). Then only the orc Kagraag came, who, despite the boosted resistance to Darkness, is defeated easily (although sometimes he can also spoil your mood). And then comes what I meant at the beginning: endless backtracking and annoying battles with the strengthened Giovanni and Kagraag. You will defeat both at least ten times, I guarantee it. I cursed, seeing the inscription "The 'Subjugation' spell was reflected" again. I gnawed my knuckles, realizing that the magic barrier was preventing me from dealing with Giovanni. I looked for a way to remove it – and I dragged leather cloaks to the BDSM witches, and then I still fell into their trap (I didn't reload – by that time, I had already started to enjoy the pain and re-leveled Arantir). I groaned when the orc entered my lands the very next day after another army loss. As I said, I think AstralLein did this deliberately. To make life not seem like a bee's week. But I'm also to blame – I thought I could lazily run through everything on "Warrior" with just one Arantir. In this scenario, it is strongly recommended to have at least two more heroes with full leveling.

I came to Vessell only with higher liches, bone archers, and higher vampires, expecting a boss like Tashlak. I got a full-fledged fight against the second improvement of Order, whose abilities I had already gotten used to. I had to go down to meet Zoltan, who until recently was driving the orcs with the main forces, pick up the infantry, and go up to the Sanctuary again. I liked the mountain plateau where the epic final battle takes place. I said "final"? I lied to you

Completing the scenario took me almost a year and a half of game time and a month of real time with breaks. Yes, I'm that slow. By the end, I was morally and physically exhausted, and when this glorious Saturday morning, after defeating Vessell, it turned out that this is not all, I burst out laughing – I'm not exaggerating now – I screamed something incoherent, but definitely obscene, and shouting "ARANTIR IS COOL," barely thinking, I rushed to Bertrand. I suffered a predictable defeat (150 Servants of Justice, and with cosmic stats – no joke), picked up the artifacts, carefully arranged the troops, and... "goodbye, my beer." Mission completed!

I also completed all the found side quests (I counted 8 of them). Most of them are "fetch quests," exchange x for y, nothing interesting. The really interesting ones are the quest of Patch and the Witches' Sabbath (don't trust the oaths of dark elves!). In general, there are many unusual moments, as the author promised.

The map is beautiful, full of and diverse, the landscape is awesome. It would be fun and pleasant to explore if it weren't for the constant backtracking.

The text is good, the descriptions are, as always, detailed and fascinating. It would be ideal if, after the cities turned into necropolises, their description would also change, even if only one line was added. But that's just a small detail.

My Giovanni also got the "Ring of Cold," just like Leonard535. It hurt. Vessell was having a lot of fun with "Antimagic," but he never used "Vampirism."

I will definitely replay it on higher difficulty levels later. And if the upcoming "Dark Facets" develops the ideas of masochism – I'm ready

As always, I thank AstralLein for the painstaking work and the great, interesting scenario