On one hand, I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ adore this game, it is genuinely my dream setting. A gothic fantasy game where you play as a half vampire / half human who has to grapple with his identity while figuring out how to save his family, and by extension, vale Sangora? Genuinely such a phenomenal setting. That being said, there are just some things I wish the game did better. I wish that there was more of an impact on coen’s thirst, I remember running into the tutorial for it earlier and thinking ‘♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I’ve got to be careful’ yeah that didn’t last, the game does not use this like ever. Another thing is that the NPCs are incredibly lackluster, I mean it’s the same asset for the npc characters each time and they all say the exact same thing, it’s not as immersive as, I believe, a game like this should be. I would’ve loved for there to be more of an impact on the world from my actions, I thought the whole court system was awesome, but it really left a lot on the table by not making the enemies change that much, not implementing actual changes that carried weight, and just not making me feel all that infamous I guess, there should’ve been more consequence to outting myself this much to the vampire big bad in my opinion. I also wish that exploration had been more rewarding, I had reached 8 days left to save my family and I was doing random ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to pass time, cooler open world events or even interesting puzzles that didnt feel like a chore would’ve brought the open world up by a lot and made me prioritize moving around by foot instead of shrine to shrine. And finally, I really do think that there should’ve been more substantial changes to the environment and endings based on your corruption level and how you behaved/treated your vampire abilities, maybe a small nod to the horrific crimes you’ve committed, or even a pat on the back for showing restraint when others would’ve let their fangs do the talking, maybe even a little stealth would’ve been great (dishonored bias speaking). I know this has been a little monologue about my gripes, but there is a LOT to love as well. I absolutely adore the combat, the directional blocks and attacks are so addicting, enough to where the modest amount of enemy types wasn’t even an annoyance, I was genuinely pleased with the idea of having more grunts sent to me so I could hack them into pieces. I loved loved LOVED phasewalk or whatever it’s called, it’s not the most innovative mechanic I suppose, but it is so incredibly addicting teleporting from place to place, wall to wall, and becoming a black mist in the night. I thought the inclusion of hexes was amazing, kept the human combat from being repetitive or boring, and I genuinely struggled with brencis at the end. Another positive is the unbelievable amount of autonomy in this game, you’re able to outright KILL major NPCs, ignore your family, leave, kill brencis in the prologue, kill him early in the game, or kill him to avenge your family, there is a lot of freedom in just being allowed to function however you want, and I would love to experiment in a second playthrough. I thought the uriashi were sick, their culture, disdain for humans, and even a typical teenage/young adult daughter who felt limited by her mother’s impositions, all of it was very well done. And man, the story. Coen’s actor did amazing, I thought everything was very well paced, nothing ever got stale or boring, I might have some bias as a 23 year old Pakistani man who’s been parentified for most of his formative years, but still. I thought the complexities of pietr were well fleshed out, same with yanna and coen, I thought the different resolutions and the relationships coen formed were awesome and genuinely interesting, and idk, I was a huge fan of this story that they told, enough to where it made me angry, sad, happy, hopeful, dejected, all of it. I loved the game for a lot of reasons, and have my own criticisms of a couple of areas, but I do say all this with a grain of salt since this is the developers debut project, so I’m not gonna dog on optimization or lack of taxing mechanics. I do hope that they improve upon the mechanics in future games (what they have is already fantastic, make more, build upon what works), and I’m so incredibly excited to see how this story continues into a saga.
One note to end off on, the hate on the time system is lame, it’s a fantastic system that encourages choice and organization. Rebel Wolves should be praised for being one of the few developers looking to further the mechanical capabilities of newer titles.
