Beard & Axe

I really wanted to like this game, specially since I got it for free from the devs. But sadly it's not good. * Way too grindy You're constantly forced to go back to dungeons you've already clear to get provisions. * Boring combat Combat is really dull, as it mostly consists of waiting around for enemies to come to you, striking, running - rinse and repeat The fact that you have to grind to even be able to use your ranged weapon doesn't help either. Enemies have no sense of strategy. Encounters constantly repeat with only the number of enemies changin until you get to a new dungeon. For more details - here's a video review: https://youtu.be/pcwAFR4sEh8

When we first booted up the game we quickly became quite confused and puzzled as to the different controls as we somewhat expected the different buttons to be different than what the default layout appeared to be, thankfully this can be changed through the options in the game and as a nice added bonus and to our surprise the game also features the ability to use a Gamepad if one wished to do so. Unfortunately for us though we do not currently possess a functioning Gamepad and thus this review will be with the experience of using a keyboard instead, however seeing the ability to use a Gamepad if one wished to do so was a rather nice feature nonetheless. The game features a nice set of tutorials if one so wished to go through them each tutorial explaining the various different mechanics rather well and very detailed, it also allowed you to practise said mechanics if necessary which was rather useful. Each mechanic felt very fluid and easy to pull off often requiring a simple press of a single button which for someone new to PC gaming such as ourselves was very helpful. As we continued onwards we noticed that the game seems rather quiet with very little music, though this perhaps is not too much of a big deal adding more tracks may just improve the game and our overall enjoyment. I often felt like I had gone deaf when venturing through areas in which I was sometimes expecting music but sadly never got any. I do appreciate the fact that in areas in which you do tend to spend more time in such as the enemy filled locations we did get music, though it seemed like a never-ending loop of the same thing even when fighting the random fiends that would sometimes appear from nowhere in typical RPG fashion. Moving on we did find ourselves enjoying the various different quest requirements of which often needed you to collect a certain amount of supplies in order to complete each quest, we thought this was good as it was quite straight forward, however it was also somewhat of a challenge too as each map was clouded off so to speak requiring you to traverse the areas in order to find what you are looking for and unveil more of the map, each time you enter and re-enter the said maps also refreshes the area thus you can kiss goodbye to any item you have managed to notice, but for some reason seemed to walk past, this we feel was a great little feature too and helped in the overall challenge. There are also optional bonus items in which you can also try and hunt down too for that much more added difficulty. As we continued to wander the various different maps slaying each foe in our path we couldn't help but notice the lack of a mouse, though we could hear it squeaking next to our keyboard the game didn't seem to need it at all, most if not all of the mechanics where pulled off mainly via the handy buttons on the keypad and keyboard. We are not sure if this is normal for PC gaming but it certainly gave us a bit of a surprise. The game also managed to feature two different difficulty modes either normal and a mode known as 'IronDwarf' which I think its safe to say would be classed as being the somewhat more difficult mode. We played on both difficulties and we where somewhat surprised at how different the two modes are especially when it came to the very first quest, or as we like to call the tutorial quest. IronDwarf is as it is described in the game can be quite unforgiven often requiring you to think before making any sudden moves, otherwise things can easily get rather sour in a matter of minutes. OVERALL: We think this game has heaps of potential featuring easy enough yet challenging quests to undertake, easy and fluid mechanics that even PC gaming novices such are ourselves can master in mere seconds. It feels like a take on an RPG game without the actual recognizable RPG elements that one would come to expect when playing an RPG, so why not pick up your trusty Axe, polish your Beard and join the adventure? If you think your Dwarf enough of course! no pun intended. PROS: + Easy yet challenging quests or Oaths as they are called in-game. + Combat and movement mechanics are easy enough to follow and get used to. + Game features two different difficulty modes for those seeking more of a challenge. CONS: + Not too much of a complaint but it may be nice to add more music tracks to the game.