Recent reviews by Loden | Heathen

A classic style MMORPG
It nails the style of old-school MMOs with much more deliberate combat and questing, a world that requires exploration, impactful consequences, characters that you need to talk to, remember the names of, etc. Aside from that it is an MMORPG in the original sense, grouping and generally working cooperatively with other players in a critical part of the game.

This is a very early build and that really is my only concern with this game, its team has been working on it FAR too long for this to be where it is. Why it is taken them a decade to get here I don’t know and I don’t care honestly. What they have here is good but I am a bit worried it will be completed. All that said:

If you understand that Early Access means it is an incomplete game and you know that it may or may not ever be completed … then this is a great concept, what is present now is fun and hits all the right notes. So pick it up if you're happy to be part of a Work In Progress. Otherwise, add it to the wishlist and wait for 1.0

[Edit 2025-Jan-04]
After putting more time in I can say this is the best MMO I have played since DAoC / LotRO, etc
Its nothing like LotRo which was/is a theampark style MMO. This is very much a sandbox more akin to DAoC which is my all-time favorite game of any genre or era.

The game is still incomplete, the UI is buggy in spots, the models and animations are obviously not finished but the actual game under the hood ... also not complete ... but what is there is very well thought out. They still have a ways to go on design and implementation but what is there is a lot of fun if your a fan of that Gen 2 or 3 sandbox MMO style (EQ, DAoC, etc.)

I have been playing Necro and just the little things like equipping your pet, the very deliberate and thought out flow of combat all hits just like I as a DAoC fan would want.

The community I have meet so far is very helpful and that is important as this game requires community. There is no map, there is minimal explanation of anything in game you are expected to interact with your fellow gamers to get much of anything done. Drop rate on items, etc. all of it effectively requires socialization to progress and I really like that. I am not a social person and I do enjoy solo games but I do also miss that style of MMO where social gameplay was core and part of the fun was just that interacting with randoms not just your close friends.

At first I was a little worried this generation of gamer is by in large a Charlie Uniform November Tango ... but so far anyway the people I have engaged with in-game have been normal human beings which is just amazing for a MMO frankly

Such a poor followup to Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen
This version is rather horrible on PC in terms of control schema, the design team clearly had there head up there backside sideways with things like not allowing more than 1 save, the way NPC interrupt game play and take over the control of the character, the drudgery of just navigating around the world.

Dragons Dogma (1st one) was a master peace of a game and still stands out as one of my all time favorite RPGs ... this game is so far a chore, clunky and in generally a massive steep backwards ... if you haven't played it yet pick up Dragons Dogma it still holds up as a great game today ... and only pick this game up if your very board and its on a massive sale

Edit:
Put in a few more hours and stand by the above, the clunky controls get much worse as get deeper in the game with a hand full platformer like mechanics in a few spots. The game loves to take control away from you making this even worse, paws doing a high five, NPCs stoping you in the middle of a full sprint to tell you about a quest which if you reject or dont do in time you wont have available again.

Beyond the design decisions that ware it down there is the gameplay its self. Dragons Dogma (1st one) was a solid ARPG from the over the sholder 3rd person perspective, its classes where all interesting and worth trying out and "Fashon Dogma" was a thing with interesting builds in terms of gear both for the practical side and looks. Dragons Dogma 2 on the other hand really watered down the classes, some of what was there remains but the obtuse means to unlock some "jobs"/"classes" coupled with the uninspired gearing choices just leaves it all feeling flat. Really most of the time it feels like the starter jobs are the best jobs and the rest are just there for a back of the box bullet point.

Monster battles is another area where DD1 shined hugely ... and in DD2 is just meh. In DD1 there was a bit of that shadow of the clossis feel to monster fights, you need to grab enemy, climb up big monster to target specific areas or to cause them to flail it was all much more tactical ... in DD2 you can prity much just smash the attack button and it will die, target the head for most things that speeds it up. Hoping this gets better deeper in but so far its very flat.

The moment to moment game loop is fun
The art style is okay not bad just a bit generic IMO

really the only issue here is that its a F2P game, that means its design past that initial "set the hook" isn't there to be fun or engaging ... its there to piss you off, frustrate you and irritate you till you spend money.

Which fair they need money to exist, nothing is free but the F2P forces them to design a product that forces you to pay and worse as is always with F2P they quickly realize that getting 99.99% of players to pay ANYTHING is basically useless but you can get that last 0.01% to pay a crap ton and so the game's entire design ... past the "set the hook" is centred around that, make the whale happy, make the whale pump that credit card.

It is really a shame if they had any other monetization model and could thus actually focus on developing a fun and engaging product and not a whaling ship then this would be a real contender in the space ... they clearly have the talent but management is just to short-sighted to give it a chance instead its a whaling operation not for you (well) not for 99.99% of you so move on.

And yes I have had a chance to play past the 1hr Steam reports but none of that matters plenty of other reviews here will tell you the same thing ... fun game on the surface, mared by predatory monetisation models that force the design to be a pain for most players.

Superior to Dungeons 4 in every way
Not sure what happened with 4 but 3 is so much better of a game, better designed, the writing is better, art direction is better ... not sure what happened with the dev but 4 is Wish brand version of 3 ... this is the one you want to buy if you only get 1

Get both if can 4 is not horrible its just a notable downgrade from 3
3 is a funny, well-built game with a lot of content to play

This is a HUGE downgrade from Dungeons 3 in so many ways
Visually D3 honestly fits and feels better D4 is newer and fresher but not as well done so much of the art direction in 4 comes off as weak in comparison to 3

The gameplay wise its not even vaguely comparable 3 is just a MUCH better game in every way ... I actually played 4 first, saw others recommend 3 as better so picked it up on sale and my god its night and day

Dungeons 3 is the better game to the point it makes 4 feel like a poorly done clone.
I have it marked as recommended only for fans of the genre ... if you already own 3 and just looking for some more ... well you will be disappointed 4 is not up to par but its better than nothing I suppose

If your new to Dungeons ... dont bother with 4 right now ... go play 3 and if you need more of a fix then pick up 4

While its to early to give a full break down of course ... what is here now is very well done.
There are of course balance issues they are addressing but this is very early access ... and the gameplay loop on display here is very well done. The build craft they have whats present so far anyway is a lot of fun and very flexable. The narative the have is interesting enough to pay attention to ... personally I would like some more attention in this area but I favor narative driven games.

All in all ... if you understand that this is an incomplete game in early access that will break your builds sometimes, has gaps and balance issue but you want to get stuck in and participate with that initial balancing ... the gameplay loop is a lot of fun and well worth the sticker price

Dragon's Prophet
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Looks like it was a fun little niche game that I would love to try but cant even add it to library to install and play.

Unfortunately it's not playable for me. Space Whale pops up and just sets there, the game never loads more than about 600 MB into memory and CPU goes quiet. Tried the usual troubleshooting and forums have plenty noting similar issues with various potential fixes but frankly, there are better things to do than fix their broken game.

Will try again later but at the moment its a dead stick so I can't recommend it.

EDIT:
I have tried several times again, cross a few patches, I have done all the usual updated drivers and tried various community fixes it just refuses to load past the space whale thing.

So nope the recommended game doesn't run in all environments.
I am a dev and run a LOT of games this is the only one with this issue not sure what they have done run other games with EasyAntiCHeat and other anti-cheats as well so no its not that.

Its a free game so no money lost but ya not professionally developed software if it just hangs and sits there with nothing useful in a log, no user feedback at all and the little whale window forces front so very annoying

EDIT:
Gave it a try again and it finally managed to boot though it did take forever on its first run ... I can build UE 5.5 from source faster than this game loads my god.

The game just isn't for me, it reminds me a lot of Black Desert but the controls are nowhere near as tight as the approach to combat input is really strange. It's not action combat based but it acts like it wishes it was. As is typical with this type of RPG it's MASSIVELY over the top, I actually laughed out loud a few times. The wind blows the trees like it is a hurricane leaves gently falling, and everything is dialled up to 100 on a scale that goes 1-10

Visually is a mixed bag as well, loads of errors they seem to be trying to do way to much with dynamic animations so things bounce around flowing in a breeze etc. ... that all looks fine when its tuned properly but here again ... dialled up to 100 its jut comical. UE is doing a good job with the lighting and the animations aren't bad its really just the stylistic choice is very much so not for me but you might like it. I actually do like BDO which is an over-the-top visual style but this just doesn't land for me

Story-wise, again as typical lots of exposition, everything is rushed in at the start and drops off quickly so for me story-wise its a fail as well. Nothing really stood out as worth me digging deeper into

It is free to try but it also sucks a TON of your time just to give it a try so not sure I would recommend it even as free to most ... maybe watch some videos ask some friends that have played and see if its worth the hassle for me its not.

1st impression
It has a lot of potential, there is a ton of HotS era Blizzard going on here that isn't a good or bad thing just a thing. You can tell its built by a smaller team, there is a lot not here yet, a lot that needs cleanup and polishing and that's really all that has me worried.

Its understandable that an early-access game made by a small team is not yet complete ... but ... while this is a small team, its a well-funded team with a lot of experience so I honestly expected a bit more polish and completion at this stage but ... expectations ... not always accurate

For me the current level of completion is just a taste, I am mostly campaign, narrative and some coop-focused so the current state of the game isn't really aimed at me

Dark fantasy strategy game with a couple of campaigns to play through well worth the money IMO
There isn't anything super groundbreaking here but there doesn't need to be, it's a great setting we don't see enough, fairly casual strategy elements to it with a bit of narrative to boot ... so ya if you like dark fantasy and or turn-based strategy gameplay this is a solid play

If you are looking for the next big ... I'll just stop you there this isn't that move on.