You know, i would have written my review 273.1 hours ago, but i was too busy having a good time, with an actually well developed game, with a great concept done properly, with good humor and amazing ideas and great design, and so you'll just have to deal with this delayed temporary pre-1.0 review. This is a gem, an absolute precious gemstone amongst a muck of disgusting, greedy devs, that barely do any work and focus all on money. This game started out in rough EA - i did NOT want to review it yet, i wanted to wait until a moment when it actually came together into an experience, DO NOT get me wrong, this is early access yet, but this is exactly the time, when i can for the first time review this. Gameplay 8.5/10 - Rimworld/DF meets 3D, but with some twists no other games of this type actually has, this has a unique interaction system with your pawns, and you can even control your "main ruler" in combat - as a system designer myself, i love what they've combined and created here, its a majestic experience. I would easily give this a 10/10, but this game isnt done yet, refinement needed, for example interacting with people is more of "i like X, you also like X, positive!" where as it could use a bit of flair like "how are you?" and actually using charisma to achieve results, and definitely needs magic.. But you end up making unique items with fun names, i recently made; "Hammering hammer of hammering", lol! Storytelling/Quests 6/10 - This is something this game is lacking, i find myself strangely missing characters having specific stories other than "now i want a room with THIS impressiveness, or some new boots", and the stories that is in currently, while fun! Like a drunken dwarf, wanting booze to locate caves, or a wizard who comes to help you when you interact with a demonic object, they all just need... A bit more, and to have a bit more of a purpose. The game really wants you to ascend quickly, which i presume most players would just do, but it really takes AWAY from saying "no i wont ascend, ill stay for now" and experiencing it at a much deeper level. Quests are currently a bit lackluster, needs more details in the quest description of "why/what happened". Graphics/UI 6.5/10 - Its FUN TO LOOK AT! I love how wierd my little people look, the graphical update of people was SORELY needed, now they actually look like people, but in a fun way. Dwarf ladies with beards? Funky looking elves? Its fun - and the graphics of the game are pleasing yet simple. Its fun having random items that are generated naturally, and characters/locations But the actual game UI just feels.. Strange, the weird blue. The character tabs; vitals/esteem/prestige, it just feels cluttered, and unnecessary. Instead a window that would open and display more things would be more informative, i bet a new player wouldn't understand how to treat a wound, or find very specifics. I love details, but not clutter Future promise 10/10 - For sure. This has HUGE potential, and this is a one time purchase and is a game you could actually be playing in 10 years. Both with mods, new colonies, updates! Its GOOD updates too. Not just "have a random new png". If you like the game after an hour or two you'll thank yourself for having made the choice. This is one of the few games actually worth supporting, over pirating. Trust me. Combat 7/10 - This is the bread and butter of the game, having height factor into arrow distances, having traits and abilities come into play - while i wish there was more magic and abilities, what is there already is great, tanky abilities/more damaging abilities, it can be fun and even skillful; positioning, building your fortifications, BUT WHY IS THERE NO MORE TRAPS! Like a fake-ceiling you can place over a hole, with a spike.. Or a bear-chomp deployable trap, whatever its called! AI and chase mechanics need fixing, so often are my characters just slowly wobbling/dancing 1 meter away from the target and never hitting them, and so often do characters get away while people who has bows dont even use them at them, or hamstringing them for the others to catch up. It feels annoying that 1 person would EVER get away from 10 chasing them down.. The ruler control is amazing for this, allowing you to be IN the combat with your pawns, but this SHOULD be expanded upon. It really brings a level of immersion, even if it does take away your micromanaging abilities, but its a sacrifice that does feel fun. Imagine if you could cast spells? Performance 4/10 - It becomes quite.. Laggy, with just 20/30 pawns already, while expected the game does a good job at trying to handle it, the ai often has trouble finding pathing to places to build, or gets stuck having mined themselves up unto a hovering platform, though it automatically teleports them once they just simply dig it away under them, so its forgiving! But the game does need some heavy optimization. Which is sadly all too common for this genre of games Though i will say that even late game with lots of pawns, it DOES still run decently well, and -is- still playable. Needs optimization but playable. Suggestions! Legendary quality chance and give them "epic names" like imagine this; "Grimbane" name with post-fix like "of Despair", or even better; have the crafter tell his stories unto the weapon, say you have a character that just defeated a large breacher named Gary or something "Gary's Demonslayer" or "Defeater of demons" so forth. Tells a story! This needs crafting / smithing / chores? to become seperate tasks in the priority menu, so often do i find my best crafter, wasting time tanning hides, when they could be creating magical weaponry! micro-managing them individually is not fun. Expeditions/Travel - being able to send a specific pawn/herd animals towards a specific ruler with a set of items, travel time as trade-off, allowing you to trade with them directly; More coins, easily offload excess, buy more/rare items. Perhaps an ambush chance? Or just being able to go visit/RAID them. Or sending off a character(s) to explore surroundings, and having chance encounters of loot / monsters, and with enough supplies and strength, they return home. It's risk/sacrifice of being without a character but for some random loot. Bigger map sizes. Though this will definitely not be a good thing for optimization, but i desperately dislike the small little square... Perhaps a solution to this, is bigger map, but the same building area? Like, an invisible limit to "this is your area to build in" - perhaps even increasable, but having actually more map for your pawns to go out into when YOU specifically designate it (so it doesnt take path-finding time) More ruler/control and powers! Micromanaging in combat, like "target pawn, go here", or "speak with" one of your nobles, convincing them individually; "maybe you should like this more" or "be better friends with X over here". Magic! perhaps some demonic event, or random loot, could give you a spellbook, that you could give to a character, and every 5 levels, if they still had their spellbook, they could go on a pilgrimage to wizards college to learn a spell, one of three. Or your offspring, could be born with "magic potential" as a trait to learn spells? Dedicated healer? Wizard? Yes please. Chickens. Eggs. Cheese. Wheat/Flour. Bread. Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk You CAN NOT save individually/over a save, ending with "save number 500" instead of saving over A COUPLE of saves, it wastes SSD space, and feels bad. You should be able to name your saves properly, and save over them. Please for the love of my sanity, do this NEXT. Overall / TLDR; Get this! Its amazing. If you like how it looks, dont mind early access, and understand that theres probably a lot more to come. This is a good purchase, and the devs deserve it. Thankyou Xobermon, for this game.
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