I started this the other day. I have just joined radzig's service.
First impressions are good. But lockpicking is a bit of a joke and has the worst mechanics I have seen in any genre in a long time. Nigh on impossible without tons of failed attempts and practice. I want to play the game, not spend hours (literally) practicing lock picking.
So I just ignore locked doors/chests now as my game time is limited. I'd rather see more of the story than benefit from items that may be locked away.
Enjoying the game a lot overall.
As I understood it, the lockpicking aspect was taken straight from the PC game, where you have the finesse of a mouse to get it right - that just didn't translate into movement on a controller. But it's a skill you will eventually require, so it's worth stocking up on picks and finding isolated 'easy' chests to work on. I find that it's all about finding the correct turn rate for both sticks - the one controlling the outer ring needs to be moved briskly, whereas the yellow sweet spot can move a lot slower, and not always in a perfect circle.
I pretty much explored for the start of the game - as soon as I had a decent enough bow, sword and a horse, I made it my mission to attack small bandit camps - though you often find camps of enemy soldiers; so have to leg it! Doing this allowed me to rank up sneaking, bow and lock picking skills decently, before I then tackled the main quest.
It's a clumsy game with a steep learning curve, but it has been one of the best experiences on console imo.
