Suzerain: Kingdom of Rizia Review (Rawb)
Anton Rayne was always going to be a tough act to follow, but I'm very pleasantly surprised at how well this DLC improves on the base game and adds another narrative equal in quality to the first. There are great improvements in lawmaking and economic considerations. It's an interesting challenge seeing the same characters in a different light and adjusting to the realities of monarchical rule. The DLC is as effective as the base game in making me genuinely consider my choices, writing my own notes and trying to forge the best possible path forward. As an aside, I'm very happy that the game has a war system that I never had to actually use. It seemed like a great selling point (I am determined to never get another "Battle of Holsord") but I was never forced into using it because there were plenty of peaceful diplomatic options. The writing meets the great standard set in the original.
It's imperfect of course. As with the base game I'd love an ability to say "Wait hold up" before making some major choices. I announced some pretty big decisions before knowing I was about to do that, and I wasn't able to check my military situation before doing so. A couple of things I wanted to pursue (murder inquiries, a special present for Smolak) seemed to get dropped along the way because I chose a dialogue option thinking that I would be able to circle back and pursue the other option later, or just seemed to get dropped behind the scenes. It'd be good to have a Disco Elysium style dialogue system that made it clear when you were asking a question for more information, rather than committing to a route. Thankfully there's a start of turn autosave I could use.
Regardless, it's still a joy to play. It kept me up at night questioning what I was going to do. I actually put off playing on a couple of occasions because I was enjoying it too much to rush, or I needed all my braincells in order to make a decision. If you liked the original, you will love this. And if you didn't like the original, report yourself to Mr K Grieser, Internal Security - we'll run you a nice bath and then see about changing your mind.