FRONTIERS Reviews

A partially completed game that is barely playable at best. More of a walking simulator than a game.

(I will update this review from time to time, as I make it further though the game.) Ever since I booted up Morrowind for the first time over a decade ago, I've been looking for a game to help me recapture that since of wonder and fulfillment I felt while exploring the island of Vvardenfell. I bought Frontiers hoping that it finally might be that game. I crashed shortly after finishing the Prologue. Well, that was mightily disappointing! But I'm still plugging away at the game, optimizing and prodding game settings until I can finally manage struggle past the post-prologue. Until then, I'll leave off by saying that this is one of the few games I've purchased since last year that has given me hope for another classic experience akin to the early Elder Scrolls games. cannot give the development team enough of my support and wish them the best in making this extremely ambitiously promising game! UPDATE! So I made it out the area immediately after the prologue! Hooray!!! Without spoiling the post-prologue region too much, I can tell you that already I am pleased with what I see. The environments of the game, even on lower graphics settings, still manage to inspire a tingle of excitement. You'll be treated to sweeping grasslands and sparkling seas, foreboding mountains and quaint, if slightly static, villages. Whenever I begin to wander, I am immediately reminded of when you first clambered out of that prison drainpipe in Oblivion. You are bluntly presented with the game world, which is both tantalizingly open and slightly intimidating. You are given a rough direction and a license to travel, but if you want to go off rails, you have complete freedom! Mechanically, the game rides comfortably in the ruts of previous survival crafting sim trailblazers like Minecraft, but with some very pleasing additions. You can move and interact with most objects in the game with the right mouse button or by pressing the 'use' button. Some objects and even NPC's have descriptions attached to them that either give some insight into your objectives or are just a morsel of humorous fluff that fleshes out the game and gives its sometimes worlds some additional character. While that itself is probably not too amazing, I was impressed by the amount of objects with which you can interact right at the start (Note: picking up entire cabinets/tables/crates of baked bread is possible, though not advised). You also have your basic survival meters of health, hunger, thirst, etc. Rather then plain bars that decrease over time, these needs are represent by icons that grow larger as your character's desire for them increases. Fulfilling these needs currently gives you a boost to certain stats and encourages you to make yourself as comfortable/prepared as possible before starting an arduous journey to parts unknown. I haven't investigated crafting very much, and will do so later on. Stylistically, the game actually reminds me a bit of the Thief series, albeit brighter, cheerier, and significantly less claustrophobic. Yes, that is a strange comparison, and I will do my best to elaborate. The NPCs, for one, remind me so strongly of the old character models from Thief that I have began mentally referring to anyone in the game wearing face paint as a 'woodsy one'. Mind you, this isn't a criticism! I loved the look of those angular puppet people back in the day, and the character models in Frontiers much more detailed than the taffers in Thief 2 ever were. The models in Arx Fatalis might also make for a good comparison. The game also toys around with the same pseudo-medieval/early modern vibe that Thief perfected. You carry around an oil lantern, but many rooms are also lit with torches or candles. Character wear sometimes robes and tunics. while they also don long-cuffed gloves and knee boots while no doubt searching around for their heavy, leather greatcoats. While there isn't yet quite as much world building as Thief yet, no doubt it isn't far in coming. To end this next installment succinctly, I'll just say that I still have shaken my strong sense of excitement for this game. I can't wait to dive back in as the builds get more stable and I can explore further!

I really loved this game. I really did. I followed the progress, and looked forward to the result. But now the developer has decided to completely change this beautiful game into a pixly minecraft-esque game. Shame on you. I wish i could get a refund. This is the last time i'll ever buy an early access game.

The game is really good as far as concept and being really fun and interesting. The bad stuff currently outweighs the good. So am I saying that you should not buy this? No thats not my verdict at this time. I say if you are a patient person and dont mind waiting a while for a polished experience and want to support the games development then buy now. The game is packed full of content and lots of areas to explore and systems to learn. Only problem with that is that half the time you have no idea where you are going or even why you are going there. This is mainly because of the map being bugged, buildings and towns dissappearing, yes thats right! locations gone and nothing there but good ol terrain. If you are lucky and the buildings are there then the quest item or person is missing. I have been playing this game for what feels like forever. I backed the game and been with it since the very first build was released. The game has improved over time but honestly I really dont think a game of this magnitude with only one person working on it can be finished without dropping some things in the game that are really not needed or just boring. I will give it to the developer, he has stuck with it and never once have I felt this guy is going to burn us and abandon the game.

A game like Frontiers is the reason Early Access exists--to give independant game developers the time, money, and resources to develop great tailored games at an affordable price without having to rely on compromising with the big name developers. Unfortunately Early Access is riddled with so many games whose developers do not honor the implied code of the privelage they have been granted with infrequent updates, total lack of communication, and their own closed vision of a game that is not open to input from the community who paid to develop it. Frontiers is not one of those games. This is an outstanding example of how an early access game should be. The game, although buggy, is still enjoyable and playable. This alone does not make this a great Early Access game; what does is that the developer is in CONSTANT contact with the community regarding what he is doing and asking for input with what he should do and he is fixing problems as fast as they are being discovered all-the-while continuing the development of the game. This does not give due credit to a scripted story of great quality uncommon to not only independant developers, but the "big-guys" alike. What also makes this a great game is a currently small active community of players who were excited about this game since it's Greenlight on Steam. The majority recognize that this is a work in progress with a great foundation and a committed developer and are regularly submitting their bug reports in a helpful and professional manner--not bitching and moaning about how this game is nothing like Call of Duty. Though the balancing isn't quite there yet but I'm sure will be very soon (as the Developer has stated so and let nobody down yet), this is a unique game and the first of its very specific type to the genre--a successful hybrid adventure-survival game. As this game develops into what it's potential dictates, it will wake the sleeping point-and-click adventure enthusiasts and reel in the survivalists. Whatsmore, if the player is only interested in one of those aspects or even if they simply want to explore without the dangers of a true survival game, they are invited and able to do so. Whatever your interests are, Frontiers has something for you. Well, actually, it's not like Candy Crush... F!@# that game.

A game that gets my enthusiasm juices running again. Fantastic what I have played so far (I walked out of the university building thingy lecturehall after the intro and fell into the unrendered village and got a bit...lost) Felt a pang of emotion having to tell characters they weren't cut out for the expedition, which instantly made me think that this game has huuuuuge potential. I love the RPG feel of the game without the spending numbers to invest in your anti-flame death to get screwed over by the pointy-spear death monster 2/3 of the way in and feel like you just wasted your life -_-. It captures the feeling of exploration in a kind of Jules-Verne Journey to the Centre of the Earth (or Atlantis' frankenstein amalgomation of the above and 20'000 leagues) kind of way and is very relaxing to wander the world and see what mysteries contront you. It's like the perfect blend of Morrowind meets Myst without the tedium of either. It is also refreshing to show off that games don't always have to be about maiming and slaughter. That is not to say there is no element of conflict or danger in the game, but it takes a very much backseat to emphesise the scope of the world and the people around you. It is a very vast project and I do have some reservations when it comes to early-access titles, that some devs bite off more than they can chew and end up releasing the game unfinished because of time, money or sheer boredom and begin working on a 4x Strategy instead. I can see there is a passion for the genre they are trying to encapsulate here and I am feeling enthusiastic about the project. As Darth Vader would say... it's a feeling I've not felt since.... Keep up the phenominal work guys and I cannot wait for as many people to play this that it becomes a household name to go down along with games like The Elder Scrolls, Myst, Baulder's Gate and Minecraft.

Started early access, and had some promise. Got re-hauled with a completely different look and gameplay (really just a major cut of gameplay/graphics so the dev could actually roll out something finished). Never really finished.

Lars. Lars.....Lars....LARS! Frontiers is dead....DEAD. Stop talking like there's ever going to be a functional game...because there isn't. Stop with the business plan and charts and graphs and lawyer goobledy-gook. When I see you writing about VR and see you in pictures with a VR set on your head....I know this game is dead. You've moved on already in your heart. I recommend you let the game go and remove it from Steam. It's actually been almost a year and you've done nothing major on it. It languishes. The game, and the excuses, make you look bad...even if your explanations are honestly given. The absolute right thing to do is take it down so that noone else spends any of their money on it. Chalk this one up to a learning experience, Amigo, and let it go at that. Now go forth and make better games!

First the positive. This game captures that wonderful essence of games from days gone by - it has that sense of wonder and really makes you want to explore the world and see what is out there. The graphics fall somewhere between Morrowind and Skyrim - certainly serviceable. I read another review that said the game is unplayable on mid-level machines. My PC is the embodiment of mid-level and it ran fine, although the frame rates need to be improved a bit - other wise I had no problems. Now for the downside. I know that this is a survival game but if I eat a loaf of bread, a sausage and a banana, should I really be starting to get hungry less than five minutes later? Honestly, I don't mind foraging for food but in all these types of games, your character must be an insatiable, gluttonous hog-demon for all the food and water that they need. Also, by all appearances it seemed to be mild weather outside with people milling about, yet I am freezing to death in a matter of minutes and need to run to the fireplace to get warm again. There isn't a backpack or wheelbarrow big enough to get you a mile down the road for all of your "needs". I hope that this gets tweaked - I'd like to see a survival game that actually let you explore for five minutes without your dashboard flashing red for some trivial thing that you took care of three minutes previously. That said, I am enjoying exploring the initial town and hope to be able to get outfitted to explore further. I'd recommend this game highly to anyone who misses that good old fashioned game that doesn't hold you by the hand and doesn't feel the need to knock you over the head with contant tutorial style gameplay. I really hope this game succeeds and wish there were more like it.

Update: 1/22/2020 "The Final Update". This should still not be for sale on Steam. I have been trying to give it a fair go and experience the world the dev crafted over 6 years, but this version of the game seems to actually be WORSE than the version I played 3+ years ago. It looks bad, plays bad, runs bad, and is riddled with bugs. I've restarted the game from the beginning three times trying to get past bugs but it's becoming too much of a pain to be worth it. I really want to like this game and I am really sad how this all turned out. I think the dev entered the project with the best intentions but they clearly weren't up for the task. They should have passed the project to someone else. Giving up, stopping support, and still offering this "game" for sale at $15 is extremely poor taste. I'd give this two thumbs down if I could. Original 11/16/2016 review follows: This should not still be for sale on Steam. It's essentially a dead Early Access product. The dev is still working on it half-heartedly, seemingly just out of obligation, but at this rate it will never be finished. The idea for this game is so great, and the dev seems like a nice guy. It's a tragic situation, really. Buy if you want to vote with your dollar, but don't expect something playable or expect it to be completed.