safe dirge
Initial summary
This is the game I have been looking for. The survival genre has many games that just maintain the status quo with mechanics and repetitive concepts. Do not take the list of things I see as problems as a negative opinion or review, just pain points I had and ways I believe you can make it more approachable to a wider audience. Bellwright stays true to the survival genre while implementing its own flair of settlement building and resource management. There are systems that could continue to be refined, such as hunting with a bow, but all in all it would be a game I would happily buy in Early access today while they continue to improve and develop it. I would take some of my concerns with a grain of salt, due to the fact that by the last few hours of the play test, I had realized that I had not progressed the main quests enough and had just started to really understand some mechanics. Part of this is due to real life distractions that limited focus on the game and not necessarily from lack of explanation or tutorial.
Things I enjoyed.
• The openness of play. There is more story than many Early Access survival games, but not so much that it pigeonholes you into playing certain parts of the game.
• The orders system was intuitive even without a major amount of tutorial on it. I originally found it by accident with my first follower.
• I did like the changing of the season.
• The weather was great. The first snowstorm I had surprised me and the rain storm felt intense (I do wish the thunder was more .... bassy or loud)
• The method of building the buildings and dropping them in felt intuitive and made it feel and look more realistic than building with usual square and triangles pieces. As a less “creative” person I didn’t have to worry about trying to make a building look right and more on the layout on the town itself.
• I like the tech tree and the ways you unlock things for the most part. The full drop of all the clothing was a tad overwhelming.
• Once I figured out the best way to start progressing my skills was to get the books, I found that I liked the progression of advancing your skills. I just wish the experience gain was faster from actual use of the skills/attributes, but this may just be due to the fact I was on a timeline.
• The progression of quests that you get from NPCs makes sense and tells micro stories that made the world feel more alive.
• I liked how much of the dialog had voice.
• I JUST LIKED THE GAME! It is hard to fill this out because when I enjoyed the game, I found myself not taking time to notate what I specifically liked as opposed to the “issues” I had. I am filling this out after the fact and struggling to list all the things I enjoyed.