If you want slow repetitive combat this is the game for you. The basic mechanic if just a replica of the child card game snap. Basically wait and shout snap. It's about as fluid and smooth as frozen Nutella. Its cowards combat, the whole gameplay is just about block timing. Which is just joyless. I've seen chess pieces move quicker. Its slow predictable combat just looking for patterns. May as well just play a Rubik's cube. The combat looks like a 6 year old doing a karate kata. Its slow movement with pauses it's as if a child is trying to remember what move to do next. The lunge attack just feels and looks like an old grandmother trying to turn a light switch off with a pool cue with the same dexterity. I hate these slow parry combat style games which people think are hard but it's just monotonous repetitive skill development. May as well just pick up knitting, combat would only be this slow if you gave a one-legged neanderthal dope cake, make him stand in the cold doing yin yoga for 45 mins then give him a sword. That's how slow the combat is. And when he blocks his mates pulls a paper party poppers to celebrate such a great feat as sticking your hand up in the air. Joyless and pointless. If Tyler durden from fight club got a bunch of ents from the lord of the rings they would still have faster combat and that would include the time allocated for their build-up speech.