I'm searching for THAT horse game like my whole life. A game, that is well programmed, has beautiful graphics, decent animations and first of all - a game where you can tell that the publishers actually have good knowledge about horses.
Well ... this game clearly ain't it.
I wanted to love it, I really did. But heres what I've got in 45 Minutes of gameplay:
- while changing the graphic settings, the game split itself into two ♥♥♥♥♥♥ versions on each of my monitors??
- lagging camera
- character looks like it has dislocated shoulders
- breast-piece for the horse, that had to be in the game for some reason, that isn't even connected to the reins
- ♥♥♥♥♥♥ jump animation
- ♥♥♥♥♥♥ kanter animation
- why tf do you jump before you even learn to kanter
- who the hell feeds their horses still pure sugar in 2024
- getting on the horse that is still in it's box
- character is not even holding the reins in his hands. When you move the horses head, the hands are just floating
- horse getting complety stuck midway through a jump - unable to move
- NPC who's texting me, calling me "girl" instead of choosen name (probably depends if you got "male" or "female")
- unfinished programmed textboxes
...
The list goes on.
Can people stop publishing unfinished early-access-games? Take your time. I waited forever, wouldn't have hurt me to wait another year to get an actually decent programmed game. I just can't recommend it at this point.

This is not good enough.

I will be doing a review on the game on my Youtube channel so feel free to watch that once it is live.

This game is an insult to equestrians and horse gamers alike. With +90% of assets being bought from the Unity Asset store, stuttering gameplay and unacceptable rider animations, this game smells of cash grab.

Pros:
-Nice enough lighting
-Solid character writing
-Lovely character artwork and UI

Cons:
-Bugs
-Gameplay stutters
-Horse handles like a school bus
-Female character looks uncanny valley
-Constant clipping through saddle and horse
-Rider has the worst jump seat I have ever seen
-Rider animations look like they were created by someone who has never seen a human ride a horse
-Features that do not make sense to people who know anything about horses (mounting in a stable, calling a broken down hot walker a 'round pen')
-Poor gameplay design (making me walk my horse 150meters to talk to a character who has a cell phone, and I cannot increase the pace because I haven't learnt how)


Overall I am appalled by the state of this game, and the fact that Games Incubator has been working on this title FOR YEARS. Do not buy.

It’s middle of the road for me, and not in the good way.

What is going on…(A question I've asked too many times while playing...)
Here is a short list of some of the other weird things I came across in the game in no particular order:

• Turning controls are overly sensitive, while increasing or decreasing speed has a slight lag in response time. (Update 2: This is a continuing issue from pre-release)

• The camera moves when the game lags. Game lag happens on two occasions, loading of an area or when the game is autosaving. Normally not a big issue, but when the game lags the camera can move to the bottom of the horse or off to the side. (Update 2: Camera issues were brought to the devs attention as early as January. So, these issues are a continuation of those.)

• Status bars are sensitive, and there’s no obvious connection as to what low stat causes what illness. On that note, illnesses seem to happen “out of nowhere.” My horse’s “Joy” bar (which is directly linked to being brushed) was the only bar that was low and the horse wound up with two illnesses.

(Update 2: Devs have stated the illness bug will be fixed in a patch. I also include my additional suggestions for clarifying statuses and illnesses under suggestions in the discussion forum)

• Status bars, bonding bar, and other metrics lower at a rapid rate and are difficult to maintain or bring back to high status. (Update 2: I have a long post under the suggestions discussion with feedback on how to fix this.)

• Management system & showing: No straight-forward way to understand the rating system. Horse performed a novice lesson and came back with a “F” rating, but there were no other details. (Was my horse not experienced enough? How do they get experience when they are under management aside from lessons or participation? Why won't the game tell me where my combo needs improvement?) (Update 2: I have a long post under the suggestions discussion with feedback on this.)


• On that note of the management system...where does it show the current day? Update 2: It's there, the colors are just difficult to distinguish. The current date is in the Stable Management tab at the far left highlighted in a very subtle orange. I have suggestions to fix in the discussion forum.

• If the NPCs call me when I just finished a race and my horse is still running one more time…

• Does the game want to hold my hand for the entire game? Or is it a sandbox? I see hints of a sandbox idea, but I’m still playing with tutorial quests three hours in. There are also other ways the game comes off as invasive such as NPC calls the second a quest is completed.

Update 2 based on Dev response: Please see other games for how this "balance" is handled. RDR2 gives chapters, other games have controls that are intuitive with quests for progression (Stardew, PalWorld), yet others still have quick tutorials and send players on their way (Helldivers 2). Note: All of those games I mentioned except RDR2 are Indie Dev and smaller studios. Being a small team does not excuse lack of forethought.

• There’s no in-game guidebook or catalog of features that were covered in the tutorial for future reference. If you must look something up for clarity…good luck. Update 2: I have a post in the suggestions discussion for this.

• OH, this is important, character customization is locked at the beginning of the game. You are given a few options, but much of the options are locked and become unlocked through the story.

• The longer I played the more issues I noticed: wrong language in the my horse screen, interacting with the horse shows “my horse” or “horse” instead of horse name. My horse (Starlight) loves to randomly lay down which makes it a pain to brush, feed, tack up. Oh and you need to "unlock" your horse's personality traits. It's not great I found out at level 6 that my horse is lazy and prone to eating a lot, especially when my farm doesn't have the income.

Overall I think there’s a lot of “this could be more clear” going on. If the developers don't have a clear picture, players certainly won't.


Update on Discord - Devs seem to be working on providing communication on Steam (as they should!) I still have concerns with the accuracy and lack of transparency. I've since left the discord because it seems to be a place for Devs to moderate player feedback the most "we're working on it!". Just seems fishy, but this is a group that cranks out titles rapidly - which is the real issue.


Edit: I forgot about this - I don't care about the publisher/developer discord, but I joined because I wanted answers for a bug I encountered. The fact that the discord is pushed by developers doesn't thrill me. It's an annoyance. Discord should be an option, not a requirement. And if it's a requirement, the discord should be clean and easy to navigate. (If you decide to join, you will need to navigate the categories of all the published games. There's a lot. Selecting a game role does not hide the categories.)