Playtime:
1407 minutes
Yes, I highly recommend this game. I think this game may be a little misunderstood or perhaps misrepresented, be it intentionally or unintentionally. Great game, nice devs, they've been responsive on the Discord too. I've asked some questions about the game when I'm stuck and provided a bunch of feedback and they've been kind enough to respond and they're still working on fixing bugs and adding more content.
[b]What is this game?[/b]
This is NOT survivalcraft game. This is a very oldschool RPG with some crafting involved. Eating/drinking is far less important in this game than what is typical in survival games and there is no building system - rather it has villages that you rescue and unlock. Eating/drinking gives you a small convenient buff but you don't even need to do it. Oldschool RPG style, you're thrown into this world without too much of a guiding hand and any quests that you take on, you receive no exact quest markers or pointers to where to go, but instead you get rough directions and then you get to explore the game world as you look for the quest objective. The game is you, an adventurer and the game is an oldschool RPG experience, circa early 2000-2005 ish style I'd say.
The game reminds me most of the games Valheim and Outward, with the combat being that of a druid in World of Warcraft and I think the whole shapeshifting thing is a big sell of the game's niche. It was the reason I got this game.
The game looks most like Valheim than anything else, that with the Norse theme but that's kind of the end of it. Otherwise it's not anything like Valheim. What I really like is that the game is set in the real world of Norway and there is dialogue that references Sweden and Germany (Lubeck, the Hanseatic league etc) while also incorporating Norse mythology. Thematically, the game is quite like Valheim, but in gameplay it is not really like Valheim at all.
The gameplay is more akin to the game Outward. It's an RPG, it gives you a narrative to follow, quests, you can craft stuff, explore the world, kill stuff, do dungeons, talk to people in the towns for some cool lore and a good idea of how the world here functions. I LOVE that you can just ask random people "what's life like on this farm?" or whatever and they'll give you some dialogue based on their personal experience, what is their trade, how hard is their life, what is their leader like etc that is a really nice touch.
The actual gameplay loop is that you will cleanse old villages from a special kind of corruption that I won't spoil and you can claim these villages for two different factions that are competing with one another and you also gain reputation working for each faction. Each of these villages will provide improvements to the way you play the game with better gear upgrades or food and more.
[b]The two factions are:[/b]
-The Sjur family who are a type of aristocratic bourgois, or merchant family who look to invest and expand their wealth by claiming more land, paying mercenaries from Germanic lands and grabbing hold of these old villages and employing more people and let 16th century capitalism do its thing.
- these are more inwards looking and care more about what they already have than to expand. They are traditionalists in that they have their village, their traditions, their way of life, they're essentially a tribe of Norsemen who are indiginous to this land. They are only looking to reclaim the old villages because they know that the Sjur family are here to, in their eyes, ruin the lands.
There's also a pseudo faction of Sami people, who today are kind of known as the last indiginous people of Northern Europe and if you've not heard of these guys, do read about their history and culture, it's extremely interesting. Again, I love that this game is actually set in a real world setting.
[b]Combat:[/b]
You're a shapeshifter, at the moment you can turn into a bear and a lynx (looks like wolf form will also become a thing according to some UI elements) and if you've played World of Warcraft, you know what these two forms are for. Lynx moves fast, can sneak attack, cause bleed, best form against 1-2 enemies and also just for fast travelling. Bear form is tanky, slower, strong, very useful when there's more than 2 enemies. Combat is not that hard, bosses can be tough. It's actually really well balanced because you do have to keep on your toes once you get past the first troll enemies, but it's not dark-souls-difficult.
You can also do some fighting in human form. You have your staff that you can use, it's not as good as the animal forms, but in human form you can also use ranged weapons which are good enough that you can kill enemies with it albeit not as fast as in animal forms - but they're also good for just pulling enemies if you want to single them out.
The game has a block-parry-dodge system. It's actually really well made, it only needs a little bit better feedback which the devs said they're working on. During combat you want hold down the right click button to stay in this combat stance and block attacks, but you can also click it the second before an enemy hits you to parry it entirely and take no damage. There's also a dodge function to quickly shift out of the way of an attack. It looks like some people didn't realise that this whole parry system existed.
Some in-game NPCs try to explain this but they're trying to not break the 4th wall. I think if the devs don't want to break the 4th wall, the game should in addition, explain it with a UI or tutorial pop-up or something because I think it's important to inform people of this. The game isn't about trading hits with enemies like some people seem to think, you have to determine when is a good moment to block/parry and when to strike. If you master this system, you don't need to use healing salves in this game ever.
[b]A few cons[/b]
Some consider this game to be janky but it's honestly not any more janky than the likes of Valheim or Outward. There's like 4 people in the dev team, that's just the way it is.
The game economy, that is to say, the item values in the game are kind of messed up for the time being with some really common items selling for more than some rare items and some beginner mobs dropping higher value loot than higher level mobs etc. The devs have said they're working on this.
Great game, love it. I hope I have explained the game well enough to perhaps have people reconsider some of their opinions because some of the negative reviews are based on incorrect information due to them either missing out on certain game mechanics or because the game just didn't do a good enough job of explaining it.
I imagine this game has about 50 ish hours of gameplay and the devs have said they want to add even more content so I look forward to seeing more.
👍 : 29 |
😃 : 0