Lessons from Kingdom Come Deliverance and how to complete games

I've been playing Kingdom Come Deliverance for the past year and a half now. It is basically my 'current game' and at the time of writing this I have spent nearly 140 hours on it. I still feel like I'm very far from completeing the main story line. I love it. I think it's a great game. It can be a bit slow at the start but once you get a hand of the combat it's so much fun. The setting and world is incredibly interesting to me and the survival aspects of it do create a strong level of realism. It has been a long time of playing it. Often I find I need to set aside a large amount of time just for a session, and as a result while I've been playing it, I've taken breaks with different games where I've completed Tomb Raider (2013), Doom (2016) and Halo from The Master Chief Collection. KCD is just a massive and expansive game with so many cool and interesting quests, but a lot can sort of 'go wrong' in the quests. There are characters that can live or die and numerous different decisions to make. This can be really cool for multiple playthroughs, but I don't really have time for that.

Given that I'm in my late 20s I have a lot of other responsibilities and hobbies to focus on. I work jobs, I set aside time to socialise with my friends, I take part in amateur theatre and I read a lot, not to mention all the chores I need to get done. And even with video games I have a huge backlog I feel the need to get through. I have a strategy game of Rome Total War Remastered going on, and after I've finished KCD I want to get through Bioshock, then maybe Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age Origins, Halo 2, Fallou3 and New Vegas, Metro 2033, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, a load of Sniper Elite games and all the Devil May Cry games, and that's just some of the games I already own, not to mention a whole list of games I don't own that I need to get though.

So, in my fear of making the 'wrong decision' I look up how a lot of quest lines go. I hate myself for it because I know I'm depriving myself of a big part of what makes these games so much fun, and that there isn't really a right or wrong way with these games because each different outcome gives the player their own story. But I can't help myself. One of the reasons I've struggled to get KCD completed and have taken breaks with other games is because of this decision paralysis keeping me from playing.

And that decision paralysis effects me in other games too. It's why I initially struggled to get through a Total War campaign and why I can never really make much progress on a Paradox Grand Strategy game. I load up a game of Hearts of Iron IV, and I'm stuck worried about doing the wrong thing. This is an issue that I don't think I'm alone in having.

I haven't found a solution for it yet. It's a mindset issue and those are often the hardest to solve. It's just something I need to keep working on and trying to figure out how to deal with.

But at least for now I'm really enjoying KCD. In the past month or so I've managed to make a lot of progress so hopefully I'll be able to say it's completed soon and get on with my backlog.