ShadowWulfe: I need to actually play the first one. I loved Heretic Kingdoms, bought Awakening, and then kind of forgot I had it. Is it good?

227: I imagine that this is all Games Farm. After all, they went to bat for the game and promised the rest of the game to current owners long before Kalypso—who are the worst, most insulting people I've ever dealt with in the industry—were involved. Probably found a way to use Vikings - Wolves of Midgard as leverage or something.

Games Farm has definitely been really great throughout this whole thing, though. They even did their best to keep people up to date on the Steam forums for Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms while they were fighting to get the rights back from bitComposer.

BeatriceElysia: Are we having an option to play the Book One after release of Shadows: Awakening?

groze: As some of you may know, the production and development of the Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms series was a troubled one, with studios shutting down, bankruptcy, broken promises, etc.

Back when Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms was released, it was supposed to be "Book I" of a series of at least two "books"/chapters/games, and "Book II" was promised for free to those who had purchased the first game. Years later, here we are, in August 2018, and there won't be a second game in the series. Instead of that, Games Farm reimagined the first game, improving the engine, tweaking some story elements to accommodate for a whole experience in a single game, including the unfinished "Book II" in it, effectively turning a part one into a parts one-and-two with a conclusion to this particular saga and story arc (the first game in the series is the extremely underrated and overlooked Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, which you can get on GOG with its North American title Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition).

True to their word, Kalypso and Games Farm managed to give us owners of the first game the new one for free, even though there will no longer be a "part one" and a "part two". I found out about this when I opened my GOG library yesterday, the 29th, to check on updated games and their changelogs and, to my surprise, there it was, completely free of charge, the upcoming (should be releasing on the 31st) Shadows: Awakening. Now, I know many gamers give Kalypso a lot of flak for their apparent "anti-consumer" policies, namely when it comes to their Tropico games and the respective DLCs but, in all honesty, if what they are doing with Shadows: Awakening isn't pro-consumer, I don't know what is. They could have ignored their promise, since this is no longer "Book II" of Shadows, but a completely different game, but they stuck to their word, giving owners of Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms a revamped version of the game, for free, costing them €40 (or your local equivalent) per customer. Plus: the great soundtrack -- which you had to buy separately with the previous game -- comes included as a free goodie.

This is just my way of saying a big thank you to Kalypso, Games Farm and GOG, who all worked together so we could get this game free of charge, as an "update". I had published a quick note on my GOG profile, but I figured I should create a thread in a place with more visibility than a profile feed only my GOG friends can see.

Leroux: I wonder, does Shadows: Awakening make playing Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms obsolete? Is it kind or a remake/reboot or a different game? Does it have the same story, similar areas etc., just enhanced, or will it be something entirely new?

blotunga: It does make Heretic Kingdoms obsolete. From what I understand it has both Book I and Book II. Basically it's what we were promised with Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms but never came to fruition... until now that is.