Playtime:
448 minutes
So, I'm rewriting my review now that the initial hate-arc has worn off. I do believe in helping indie studios and games, so I want to do the right thing here and make a good, coherent review. My last review was sort of mean and not really helpful. Simply put, I don't recommend this game if you're looking for a finished, consistently enjoyable product for most RPG players.
To go more into detail, it's very well crafted, but it falls into the same problem a lot of indies do which is A. mislabelling, and B. inconsistent levels of polish. The first is self-explanatory. Sorry, but this is NOT a soulslike in the slightest. There's really nothing that puts this in that category outside of a semi-functional dodge mechanic. The second, to put it simply, means that some parts of the game have AAA-level development and shine on them, and others seem very lowly: especially the inventory UI and UI in general. I like the dialogue menus, I like the passing NPC comments and such, but things that the player can click on are tricky and the controls are strange. They don't look very nice either, though that's a very secondary issue. Leveling up is actually somewhat of a chore for this reason.
On the gameplay, to be honest, it's meh. I do feel the RPG aspects are very fleshed out after the last few major updates, but the game markets itself on the combat, and I was unable to see why, personally. It's unrewarding and seems poorly engineered. You're sort of stuck in place while you attack with no real way to cancel your moves, and enemies all swarm and attack at once. You essentially have to trade damage most of the time. The combat has lots of fun mechanics but there's no incentive to use them, because they don't fully work or there's easier (or cheesier) alternatives.
On a side note, the enemy variety is really nice. A good portion of them feel just like reskinned versions of eachother, but patches are fixing that and those happen quite often.
A major plus to this title is that the developer updates the game constantly, and listens to player feedback on the balancing side.
A major minus, though, is that the dev seems rather protective of the game's larger mechanics such as the combat. Not willing to accept criticism on certain things. A quick look through any of the negative comments will show this. Including mine. I have seen a few where he curses at players, which, generally speaking isn't a great look.
I read online where he justifies this in a press release, saying something along the lines of "sometimes the players are wrong" and I do agree with him on that. Gamers say stuff for no reason sometimes. I did a little bit before I edited this review. Unfortunately he seems to have gotten too comfortable with assuming so. There's some criticisms that need to be taken more seriously that aren't.
And yeah, I'm sorry, I don't care what anyone says, 35 dollars is too much for this game, at least right now. It's just not worth that amount of money. With that amount of money, you could easily get a well-known game that has had more time in the spotlight and is easier for you to find information on and decide whether you want to buy it or not. You could buy a pizza pie for 35 dollars and it would probably hold your attention for longer than this game.
Maybe that's mean, but in truth it's hard to get into this game, and hard to stay into it. Gameplay loop is repetitive, and the quests are sort of all the same. The aim is to capture combat zones, but after a while they all feel the same, and the combat isn't good enough to give reason to keep playing.
The lore is really well-written. I believe a writer from Bethesda wrote it. It does feel a little shallow, and a little copy-paste generic fantasy. Some of it is incredibly fleshed out and thoughtful. Make you think. Other parts are wide as an ocean and deep as a puddle. Lot of text, not a lot of depth. Again, this sort of goes with the inconsistent polish argument.
It is worth mentioning that these things tend to get solved as time goes on and the developer is able to focus on more fine-tuning. The lore sort of feels like a placeholder right now, at least most of it.
I don't think this game should have removed its Early Access tag. It does still feel very much like an Early Access game, even more so than some games that are actually in Early Access. The character models are kinda ugly. It's sort of a good thing that the camera is so far away from any of them. However, weapons, armor, items, environments and such are actually incredibly well-made. Generally, the visual assets for this game are some of the best I've ever seen in an indie game, and that's saying a lot. I do really want to drive that point home- This game looks great.
I guess my main problem is that I just wish it played as good as it looked.
If it's on sale for 20 or less, you should *maybe* buy it. There's a decent amount of people who love this game and everything about it. Maybe you'll be one of them. But if you've played any larger-scale RPGs like this title aspires to be, you'll likely be disappointed as I was by Alaloth. Is it worth supporting to see where it goes? At this rate, yes, updates are constant. The developer, though, being rather argumentative and involved in several controversies, has potential to fail if we're going by history. I would think through a purchase of this game before doing it. Probably not worth it.
👍 : 14 |
😃 : 2