In about 11 hours of game time, with the help of another member of the community, I have reached the end game content, and I feel now that I can accurately review Dragon Extinction.
TL;DR: The game is rough around the edges but is a fun niche for at least someone like me, and I do recommend it.
I'm gonna start off my review with a warning. Dragon Extinction is very rough. You'll probably spend your money on it and play it for a few hours and think it was a waste and write a negative review, and I don't think I would blame you. But you have to remember just how early access this game is. There is still so much the developer can and will do. Not only this, but trust me, you may think it is a singleplayer slog but once you get into that discord and meet some of the community, this game will become a wholly different experience (and it wouldn't hurt to have some more community members!).
With that warning out of the way, let me talk about why I, personally, WOULD recommend Dragon Extinction.
Pros:
- Dragon Extinction is simple. There aren't any hoops you have to leap through, nor are there any walls or checkpoints or any benchmark that you have to meet. All you have to do is kill things, get gear, level up, rinse and repeat. Of course, this may not be for everyone, but compared to a lot of games out there, every goal you can set in this game seems like it'll be achievable.
- The game's graphics are, neat. They're not over the top beautiful, and in fact I think some of them are default assets from whatever engine the game is built on, but the developer uses them in a way that makes them feel very unique. (To be fair, the developer is also developing this on very little money considering how little this game has been bought, and how much more the negative reviewers have refunded it.) The game uses very fascinating particle effects for the spells, something I don't think I've actually seen in other games with magic before.
- Dragon Extinction's sound design is pleasant. It isn't Dark Souls in sound design, but nor is it Tetris. The music is fitting to each zone, and, in the 11 hours I've played, I haven't yet truly wanted to turn the music off. The sounds for the combat are nothing special, but they're fun, too.
- Dragon Extinction has enjoyable combat. It is very hack and slashy, with a lot of fights in the early game being won by pressing M1 over and over, spam casting your 3 spells on a loop, etc. But the end game fights incorporate blocking and dodge rolling much more.
Cons (Sorry in advance, Xefier):
- The maps are annoying. Outright, the maps are incredibly annoying to deal with from time to time. Don't get me wrong, they LOOK great, but you can be walking around for ages to get to your objective, especially the early game forest and snow forest map whenever you have to fight bandits.
- The combat is FUN, to a point. You get to the point where you'll have several enemies rushing you at once as you're trying to traverse the map, and later in the game, enemies are stronger and stronger to the point where this is practically a death wish. Especially because, unlike bandits and undead, the animals for example can NOT be staggered by blocking their attacks, so you have to attack into them without dying while trying not to worry about anything else that's attacking you.
- Power climb. This game starts out easy, almost to a fault. You can do most missions under the required level. Which means you can unlock the next tier of missions. Me, personally, I had unlocked the 4 star missions when I was about 10 levels underneath the MINIMUM recommended level, and maybe that's why it felt this way, but there's a point in the end game where you feel like the game hates you and wants to watch you suffer. It's not a dark souls kind of difficulty, where you're struggling against the toughest fight of your life, and can overcome it through skill and determination, it is the kind of difficulty where if you don't level up to where the game wants you to be, you're gonna get screwed. It is very hard to get materials from the end game zones to get better gear -because- of how tough surviving is. You reach a point where you will fail more quests than succeed.
Is Dragon Extinction a rough game? Yes. Is it gonna be everyone's cup of tea? No. Do *I* recommend it? Yeah, I do, actually. I see a lot of potential here, and if the community can grow more, perhaps with the help of you reading this, we can make the game a whole lot bigger. Believe me, co-op changes the game entirely. Thank you for reading my honest review of Dragon Extinction!
