Finished the early access and loved it
The game really reminds me of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic with the combat and physics, only a bit slower paced and more brutal.
For the pros:
The combat is fun. The sound and feeling of hitting the enemies is great. Now it's not perfect, and i will get to that, but for first person, which generally struggles with melee combat, it's one of the better ones.
The dismemberment mechanic is brutal. You can remove limbs, heads and the highlight was when i was fighting one of those dark elf orc guys and chopped off his arm. As i was looking at him there twitching i was thinking this is it, death animation. Only for him to get back up and fight with one arm!
If they implement more of these into the game, where enemies can fight with missing limbs, it will be great.
It also features environmental kills like spike traps, pitfalls, lightable grounds. Kicking enemies and watching them flying never gets old. Just like in Dark Messiah.
The graphics are gorgeous and i had no problem with stutters or crashes. The environment with the far mountains is beautiful. The dungeon design is solid all around.
Now for the dungeons themselves. They are solid. Handcrafted, with treasures all around, which encourages exploring. Some simple puzzles. However, rather linear. And i do hope the devs will make it a bit more breaching, with optional paths and bosses. Multiple ways to get to a goal and reward backtracking if you miss something.
The early access featured a map for travel, and there was a door you can't unlock until you progress from the other side and open it, like a shortcut. So i'm hoping more optional paths through the game. Kind of like the souls series or the norse god of war games. Not open world, but more exploration heavy than just a linear route to follow. Maybe like Arx Fatalis was?
The enemies aren't that many, but considering it's early access, it makes sense. 2 bosses, which i will get to. And regular grunts and soldiers. The grunts you can pull to yourself and watch them fly, which is hilarious, while the soldiers only stumble, but can get their guard broken if kicked. Also, 3 types of ranged units, which i won't spoil.
The bosses are the slow big, hard hitting type, that require careful blocking and dodging. Aren't that aggressive but hit hard. Kind of like in Dark Souls (some of them).
The weapon and armor design, while limited (again, early access) looks solid, nothing there to say. Not too plain but neither too high fantasy unrealistic like. Perfect balance.
The voice acting is solid, love the banter between the main character and the guide.
Love the alchemy part. Simple but effective. You get 3 types. Potion, Coating and Bomb. Each ingredient has two effects, one for potion and one for coating. You make potions/coatings by mixing 3 parts into it. And it doesn't matter what 3. You can make a potion that heals, restores stamina and increases your attack speed. Or a coating that deals fire damage, poison damage and lowers the target's physical resistance. Mix and match, which is much more creative compared to just typical 'this restores health, this mana, this deals fire damage'...
Now for the cons:
The boss fights, where some of the game mechanics show problems. For one, while dodging works for regular enemies, it's terrible against bosses. I don't believe it even has Iframes.
Quite frankly there is NO REASON to dodge boss attacks, except for the few well telegraphed ones.
The game says how if you lose your stamina you get guard broken and thrown to the ground, but for bosses, which are like the only enemies that DO that, it doesn't matter. Because they are polite and wait for you to get up. The bosses, as i said, are rather passive.
They should really overhaul the dodging to make it more useful for boss fights, which is like the one part it should be useful.
Another thing being that drinking potions takes too much time. Your guy may as well pull out a picnic basket, sit down, and take a sip while enjoying the scenery. It's not like he's getting attacked, right?
The skill menu. This is probably my biggest hurdle.
You start from the center and have 4 trees of sorts that spread out. One for magic, one for health/stamina, one for melee combat and one for alchemy.
The moment you level up the first time, chose a node, the first perk of sorts.
The problem? Once you level up again, you can't chose a second one!
So if you chose alchemy, you can only go into it. Don't think about increasing your weapon damage, or stamina and health, or mana.
Now it's not the end of the world. After a few level ups, you come to the nodes that connect to others in a circle, which if you follow, you can reach the other 3 trees.
The problem? It will take like, 4 level ups to do that! Note, to reach only one of the 3 other trees. If you want to get from magic to weapon skill tree, not even the 13 perks would be enough.
And note, this isn't like, i dunno, Dragon Age, or TES where you can truly spec into one class and go from it. You won't be able to play as a pure mage, or warrior, or thief.
Your character is more like Geralt from The Witcher, a guy who does a bit of everything in a way, a unique one.
Now imagine playing The Witcher 3, leveling up, and learning you can only access the other skill trees if you complete your first chosen tree half way. It makes no sense.
The only silver lining being that the game throws experience at you left and right. By the end i was level 13. I wouldn't be surprised if the max level once the game releases would be 100 or higher.
But again, too much work to get basic perks, which requires you to ignore the tree you have chosen.
If you chose alchemy, no extra health or stamina for you. If you chose the health/stamina path, no magic.
Good luck with your basic spells. And to add for magic, it's more like Geralt's than says TES magic. You can't clear the game with it. It's a tool in your arsenal, so the fact you can either fully focus on it or not focus at all is a bad thing.
Similarly, if you chose weapon path, turning you into a glass cannon.
Normally i'm all for unique game design, but i do hope they overhaul the skill tree completely to be more 'mainstream'.
Another thing. The bonfires. The bonfires are your save points, allowing you to save the game, and if you die, you continue from there.
Now, what i do hope they do is let you heal on the bonfires. Because except for potions and certain perks in the health/stamina tree, the only other way to heal is by leveling up.
Now, i personally had no problems, i'm a collector and picked up every ingredient on the ground.
I've ended the game with like 30 potions in total, 10 of which were for healing.
If you pick up stuff on the ground, you shouldn't run out of stuff to heal with.
But that's the thing, you NEED to do it. If you don't use alchemy and look around for ingredients, you are screwed.
Which comes again to what i said earlier. You are playing as its own thing, an established character, like Geralt. Can't play as a knight, or sorcerer, or rogue. You are this wierd warrior mage druid guy, with heavy armor and heavy weapons, some magic thrown in and alchemy.
That's what you play as! So having another way to heal for those who don't use alchemy that much would be a godsend, especially because there's no way you will get the health regen perks unless you go down the health/stamina tree.
So to finish, and i know it's getting old to compare every game to the souls games, but i do hope they take some stuff from the souls genre. Extra emphasis on dodging for boss fights, bonfire restoring health, more open dungeons, with extra paths, optional routes and bosses. And skill tree overhaul.
Other than that, it has potential. And is worth following. And for 10 bucks, which will increase as the game progresses, now is the time to buy it.
