THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES IN THE EPIC MIDWAY POINT

I have been waiting or this one for months on end! Last year, the first book of Daedalic Entertainment’s point and click adventure Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth (aptly titled – From the Ashes) was such a dark horse in my opinion featuring unique visuals, a dramatic story (albeit a bit slow at times) with several twists and turns and showed a great insight to the hardships and structure of 12th century England. And it found itself taking a very prestigious spot on *drum roll* WESTY’S TOP 10 GAMES OF 2017!!! *pause for applaud*. Well months have passed and we finally see the second part of this interactive novel see the light of day with Sowing the Wind, which carries on from the theatrical conclusion from the first book and even goes on to touch on some sensitive and interesting subject matters, but still holds on to its glitchy and flawed gameplay unfortunately.

Sowing the Wind begins not long after the conclusion of the first book and delves more into the characters of Aliena and Richard and the loss of their status following their father’s loss of his Earldom due to the Hamleigh’s,  and chronicles their transition from people of high society to normal hard-working civilians. After a time leap of a few years we found our characters all in great places with the construction of the Kingsbridge Cathedral coming along without a hitch, but little do they know that worst is yet to come. Much like the first book, Sowing the Wind begins at a slower pace but with a bit more substance straight from the get go with more emphasis on our villains rise to power and gives us an insight to the harsh working conditions of crusade era England (if you’re into that sought of thing anyway). Sowing the Wind also touches on some subjects that would be seen as taboo in the 12th century like baring children out of wedlock ad a man of the cloth questioning the existence of a God, there is also one plot point from the 1st book that is absent from this one a tiny nit-pick but maybe it’ll be expanded upon later down the road. Everything leads up to a conclusion that left me foaming at the mouth for the climactic final 3rd part.

Sowing the Wind continues the unique pastoral visuals that we saw in From the Ashes and it does a stellar job of showing us the beauty of the good times with lush green fields, a bustling community and wonderful summertime lighting and the ravages of war that make you feel the losses, fires and the clanging of steel. There is also some seriously shocking and unsettling imagery throughout this game that really brings out the gravity and overall savagery of this time in history, which like last time is pretty accurate in both sight and sound.

Again, like the last offering, where Sowing the Wind sores with excellent storytelling and wonderfully vibrant visuals, it sadly stumbles gracefully with its gameplay. Between great plot point to great plot point there are a few tedious quests to undertake, grab this and take it to point a to point b and find this particular NPC at this particular place etc etc. But in spite of this there are still some parts of each chapter that will really make you think and you’ll eventually see them play out in creative ways. Its also great to see that some of the choices I made in the first book and some I made in the opening chapters having some consistency as this book moves on, there are also some really tough decisions to make that well and truly make you think about your own morality, when it came down to it I found myself having doubts about every decision I made, and it was that weight on my shoulders that makes this title great. Sadly, Sowing the Wind has some noticeable flaws in its mechanical presentation. Several times I experienced character models flapping like crazy when they are walking into corners and walls (yes I hear you all now ‘WELL STOP DOING THAT THEN!’ but it still happened ok!?!) and even some characters just straight up glitching from one point to another and parts where parts of the interface were missing, no game breaking glitches though like last time which is a big bonus.