I have read that the game is about fifty plus hours long and can only respond with "What!" Twenty five hours in and I've barely scratched the surface; I saw one YouTube post where the girl had played seventy hours and only then felt she was getting the hang of it.
Certainly it is not a game that holds your hand as you play; without very much in the way of guiding or training you are essentially thrown out into the world like a newborn infant to the wolves. You start as a wretch - and stay that way for a good long time (I'm still only slightly less of a wretch than I was at the start). But don't let this put you off. I've seen countless reports of how hard it is, how the combat system is nigh on impossible to master - of how hours and hours must be spent training in order to get to a point where you can survive even the simplest of confrontations. Bullshit! For starters, there is simply so much to do that the training never becomes onerous - I've already broken away from the main quest-line and done one of the dlc's (I think - I'm talking about the extended section where you play as Theresa as she deals with the attack on Skalitz) and while it wasn't easy, it always gave you sufficient leeway to approach problems in a variety of ways that made the thing doable.
I absolutely love the historical realism - and not being the fikkin' Dragonborn or some other fire-spouting hero. I've now re-entered the main game and am setting off on some of the side quests (learning to read will be an early necessity if I'm going to get on) in which I hope to build up a character that can at least survive out in the wider world. I am desperately short of money - a real problem in a place that demands you eat, keep your appearance up to speed and pay for your training in hard coin - but it's bloody hard to come by! I've got a horrible feeling that for all of my best intentions (Henry is a good boy! A good boy I tell you!) I've got a feeling that a life of crime might be beckoning (and being medieval the punishments for this tend to be - well - medieval!). Ah well - I'll do my best, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!
