Overall, it is a fairly average game with a realistic medieval setting - very low fantasy. It is alot like Skyrim in gameplay, very open world. The main quest is interesting, the side quests are bland, hunting is fun at first, but gets boring quickly due to a lack of different types fo animals to hunt.

Combat is unique.. much like Mount & Blade, but not as fluid and archery is just annoying.

After a few days of playing, it feels like a mediocre game that has potential, but not the budget to pull it off.


Graphics are very mediocre. The artwork feels like they were purchased off the Unity Store. It's like the developers wanted it to be realistic, but didn't have the available resources to really pull it off. The constant head bob and motion movement makes it tough to play for more than an hour or two without getting motion sickness. It would be nice if they could disable this as the camera bounces even when the player isn't moving - if you are prone to motion sickness, this game is going to be tough to play.

Framerates are low on a higher end system - barely getting 40-50fps and it drops heavily in the cities or when it is raining. I don't see how this game runs on the Xbox.. It doesn't feel very optomized and the models look to have a high poly count.

** Edit **

- The forests look great, so it seems all of the art power was spent in the wilderness area. The hunting looks great and except for some buggy AI, it works well. The animations look good on the animals and it feels about the same as hunting in Skyrim, but with a slightly higher aiming difficulty.
-- Animals get stuck on things all the time.. so it's easy to just chase an animal until it gets stuck and kill it with your sword. Very easy to cheat the hunting system.


Combat
The combat is interesting and a bit like they were trying to mimic Mount & Blade style combat. Unfortunately, the animations take forever and it feels clunky when fighting. It almost feels like monster hunter where you spend more time worry about animation frames to chain attacks than you do about the actual combat.

I understand where they were trying to go with it - but they should have stayed closer to the faster combat of Mount & Blade instead of the stylistic combat of Monster Hunter.

Archery is very tough at first, but get's easier it seems.. don't expect to hit much early on.

The difficulty seems spot on for me.. it's hard at first and if you get into a fight with a stronger enemy, you will die.. unfortunately dieing really sucks for the wrong reasons in this game (The save system is awful.. you have to mod it)

** Edit **
-- Combat takes some practice.. until you get to level 5 in your weapons, they're hard to control.
-- Combat is fun above level 5 or when it starts to feel a bit more natural and makes sense. It's alot like monster hunter where the combat is not your traditional action roleplay. Its still not as fun as Mount & Blade melee combat, but it's close.
-- When fighting more than one enemy the slow combat animations lead to you dieing alot.. it is realistic to fighting multiple foes, but its not very fun to have to repeat quests due to dieing the moment you fightt more than one guy. The worst part is that the animations block you from doing other actions, so combat doesn't really feel fluid, it leaves you feeling trapped as compared to Skyrim or other action rpg games.


The quests seem to have some meaning and the story is decent so far. However, there are SOOooo.. many cutscenes that it gets annoying after a while.

This is a problem for most interaction with NPC's.. you hear the same bland message and click through it. When you visit a trader - you spend a good 5-10 seconds watching the cutscene and the same boring remark every time. Developers.. when a player has seen the cutscene once, don't show it over and over.. just let us sell our goods.

I understand the immersion aspect, but its simply not fun to watch the trader say the same phrase, click the same speech "Trade" button.. if 'Trade' is the only option, then why not just open up the trade menu? Why have all the repetitive actions? It makes the game feel clunky and tedious.

I'll review it a bit more.. but these are my initial impressions and they weren't overly positive - it felt less like a $60 game and more like a $40 game.. Putting this beside a game like Assasins Creed: Origins, it feels dated and low quality though both games are the same price tag.

I'll keep playing it some more and update the review based on what I see, but the motion sickness issue is really annoying..



-- The game crashes quite easily if you kill chickens.. they explode, the game hangs. Uhhh.. annoying bug - do they not have a QA department?
-- Updated my overall score.. the game grows on you. It took me about two hours to get through one of the worst tutorial / pre-gameplay's ever. They really need to speed that part up..
-- The story is actually interesting, once you get far enough into the game.. it took me about two towns to really get into the story. When you start hunting the story get's interesting.. hang in there until that point and it looks to be worth it.
-- Lockpicking is still tedious.. it's not that fun at early levels.
-- The save system still sucks.. it's annoying to have to find a bed everywhere and has caused me to repeat large parts of the quest lines.
-- Bugs.. bugs bugs.. the game is full of annoying little bugs. One of the worst is when an NPC blocks a door, which causes it to not trigger the 'Open' action - thus causing you to be stuck in a house and having to fast forward time. It feels like the developers bit off more than they could chew or they realesed it a little early.
-- The game starts to get a bit boring after about a week of playtime.. The game map is not as large as skyrim and the quests, outside of the main story are not that great.
-- The quests often leave you confused as to when / what you are supposed to do things. Many of the quests can only be completed at a certain time, but it doesn't state that in the description, so you have little chance of guessing the correct time. Prepare to spend some time googling the side quests to figure out what to do..

[h1]Total Score: 5/10[/h1] Overall, it is a fairly average game with a realistic medieval setting - very low fantasy. It is alot like Skyrim in gameplay, very open world. The main quest is interesting, the side quests are bland, hunting is fun at first, but gets boring quickly due to a lack of different types fo animals to hunt. Combat is unique.. much like Mount & Blade, but not as fluid and archery is just annoying. After a few days of playing, it feels like a mediocre game that has potential, but not the budget to pull it off. [h1]Graphics: 5/10[/h1] Graphics are very mediocre. The artwork feels like they were purchased off the Unity Store. It's like the developers wanted it to be realistic, but didn't have the available resources to really pull it off. The constant head bob and motion movement makes it tough to play for more than an hour or two without getting motion sickness. It would be nice if they could disable this as the camera bounces even when the player isn't moving - if you are prone to motion sickness, this game is going to be tough to play. Framerates are low on a higher end system - barely getting 40-50fps and it drops heavily in the cities or when it is raining. I don't see how this game runs on the Xbox.. It doesn't feel very optomized and the models look to have a high poly count. ** Edit ** - The forests look great, so it seems all of the art power was spent in the wilderness area. The hunting looks great and except for some buggy AI, it works well. The animations look good on the animals and it feels about the same as hunting in Skyrim, but with a slightly higher aiming difficulty. -- Animals get stuck on things all the time.. so it's easy to just chase an animal until it gets stuck and kill it with your sword. Very easy to cheat the hunting system. [h1]Gameplay: 6/10[/h1] [b]Combat[/b] The combat is interesting and a bit like they were trying to mimic Mount & Blade style combat. Unfortunately, the animations take forever and it feels clunky when fighting. It almost feels like monster hunter where you spend more time worry about animation frames to chain attacks than you do about the actual combat. I understand where they were trying to go with it - but they should have stayed closer to the faster combat of Mount & Blade instead of the stylistic combat of Monster Hunter. Archery is very tough at first, but get's easier it seems.. don't expect to hit much early on. The difficulty seems spot on for me.. it's hard at first and if you get into a fight with a stronger enemy, you will die.. unfortunately dieing really sucks for the wrong reasons in this game (The save system is awful.. you have to mod it) ** Edit ** -- Combat takes some practice.. until you get to level 5 in your weapons, they're hard to control. -- Combat is fun above level 5 or when it starts to feel a bit more natural and makes sense. It's alot like monster hunter where the combat is not your traditional action roleplay. Its still not as fun as Mount & Blade melee combat, but it's close. -- When fighting more than one enemy the slow combat animations lead to you dieing alot.. it is realistic to fighting multiple foes, but its not very fun to have to repeat quests due to dieing the moment you fightt more than one guy. The worst part is that the animations block you from doing other actions, so combat doesn't really feel fluid, it leaves you feeling trapped as compared to Skyrim or other action rpg games. [h1]Quests & Story: 5/10[/h1] The quests seem to have some meaning and the story is decent so far. However, there are SOOooo.. many cutscenes that it gets annoying after a while. This is a problem for most interaction with NPC's.. you hear the same bland message and click through it. When you visit a trader - you spend a good 5-10 seconds watching the cutscene and the same boring remark every time. Developers.. when a player has seen the cutscene once, don't show it over and over.. just let us sell our goods. I understand the immersion aspect, but its simply not fun to watch the trader say the same phrase, click the same speech "Trade" button.. if 'Trade' is the only option, then why not just open up the trade menu? Why have all the repetitive actions? It makes the game feel clunky and tedious. I'll review it a bit more.. but these are my initial impressions and they weren't overly positive - it felt less like a $60 game and more like a $40 game.. Putting this beside a game like Assasins Creed: Origins, it feels dated and low quality though both games are the same price tag. I'll keep playing it some more and update the review based on what I see, but the motion sickness issue is really annoying.. [h1]*** EDITS ****[/h1] -- The game crashes quite easily if you kill chickens.. they explode, the game hangs. Uhhh.. annoying bug - do they not have a QA department? -- Updated my overall score.. the game grows on you. It took me about two hours to get through one of the worst tutorial / pre-gameplay's ever. They really need to speed that part up.. -- The story is actually interesting, once you get far enough into the game.. it took me about two towns to really get into the story. When you start hunting the story get's interesting.. hang in there until that point and it looks to be worth it. -- Lockpicking is still tedious.. it's not that fun at early levels. -- The save system still sucks.. it's annoying to have to find a bed everywhere and has caused me to repeat large parts of the quest lines. -- Bugs.. bugs bugs.. the game is full of annoying little bugs. One of the worst is when an NPC blocks a door, which causes it to not trigger the 'Open' action - thus causing you to be stuck in a house and having to fast forward time. It feels like the developers bit off more than they could chew or they realesed it a little early. -- The game starts to get a bit boring after about a week of playtime.. The game map is not as large as skyrim and the quests, outside of the main story are not that great. -- The quests often leave you confused as to when / what you are supposed to do things. Many of the quests can only be completed at a certain time, but it doesn't state that in the description, so you have little chance of guessing the correct time. Prepare to spend some time googling the side quests to figure out what to do..