Wow, out of all the things to cause such an up roar I can't believe it's this.
Let me clarify some things,
It's only chests that you need to open, barrels and crates do nothing but provide cover, obstacles or set them on fire to burn enemies.
I've played 3 chapters and only remember 1 map with chests, the battlefield map. It's an extra objective to open all the chests while clearing the map. The more chests you open the more loot you get. That is explained to you before you do the map. It does say crates in the game but I have tested it, It's chests
Opening no chests got me 3 items of loot.
Opening all 4 chests got me 14 items
Opening no chests but breaking all crates and barrels got me 3 items
Opening all 4 chests and breaking all the barrels and chests got me 13.
All methods paid out the same Ducats(gold)
Hope that clears it up.
Also I might be able to help some people.
If you are buying this game for story, immersion or exploration, don't. There are infinitely better games in that regard.
However, if you are buying this game for fun turn based combat with the twist of useable environments, multiple optional and winning objectives then few other game do it better IMO.
You don't get a lot of AP (experience) in this game to level up so use it wisely and don't be a jack of all trades. If you don't do your build right ( there is some leeway but not much) you will bilk your guys making the game extremely hard or impossible and require a restart. I can only assume the people complaining about difficulty have bilked their guys. I haven't had the difficulty problems others have experienced but I did take some time to learn Dark eye rules. If you don't this game could get frustrating for you.
Combat is the star (or Achilles heel depending on your viewpoint) of this game. I read somewhere that there are 130 battle maps in the game. The other maps are pretty samey towns.So if you don't like this kind of combat steer clear as that is the main focus
I know I keep saying that but it's just the truth. I keep reading claims of there is a story exploration etc. Well, yes there is and the story is mediocre at best and exploration consist of clicking on 130 different battle maps. So , again combat is the star of this game.
All of this may sound negative but it's really not (unless you only like story, immersion or exploration). If this game just gave me map after map Tetris style with no story in between I would still buy it. The combat is that fun IMO.