Bellwright

A lot of potential! Combat is a horrible joke, crafting is tedious, but not horrible. Graphics are pretty good, until they're not and the shaders are all over the place. Can't wait to check it out later when it's more complete. For now it has to be a pass for me. I think it will be a lot of fun maybe in another year? The problem with early access: You are in fact buying a product, and the rating is based on that product at that time, not the potential. The rating system really needs more nuance.

Bellwright has the bones of a great game, but after 70 hours the loop starts falling apart. You can often tell how healthy a gameplay loop is by how quickly you start browsing the Workshop. If you are looking for more content, great. If you are looking for mods that remove tedium, the game has a problem. For me, the warning signs appeared about two hours in. Your first hall should grow into a fortress town. Bellwright has caravans and remote logistics, but expansion never quite feels cumulative. Finite resources and long travel distances still push you toward rebuilding the same production chain closer to the next ore node. That is not meaningful expansion; it is tedium dressed up as progression. The villagers are where the game really loses me. The priority system gives control on paper, but not urgency. If I mark a job as priority 1, I want villagers to act like it matters, perhaps even running to do the job? More importantly, give them some personality and stronger character design. I am not asking for Sims-level social AI or anime nonsense, but this is a colony sim. Once you give villagers names, faces, beds, food, injuries and homes, the game is asking me to see them as people. They need enough persistent preferences, consequences, visible history and visual identity to support that fantasy. RimWorld pawns are tiny sprites and Kenshi characters are ugly as sin, but both have far more emotional gravity because bad decisions leave consequences. Bellwright’s chickens somehow feel more alive than its peasants; losing a chicken has more weight than waiting for an interchangeable villager to respawn and wander back to work. All in all, there is a very good game hiding in here. It just needs settlements that become permanent centres of power, priorities that create actual urgency, and villagers who feel like people rather than interchangeable cogs in a non-descript medieval machine.

I wish I could recommend this game wholeheartedly, I really do. It has an incredibly promising core, the ability to build a settlement almost anywhere in the wilderness and recruit villagers to automate gathering and crafting to advance your own settlement's gear, buildings and equipment. Every mechanic feeds into the idea that you are the driving force behind encouraging common folk to band together to better their lot as a whole. There are a few minor issues that cause friction. Some of the music tracks get irritating, specifically one featuring a prominent vocal chorus consisting solely of elongated "aah-aaaaah". It played so frequently I eventually just turned the music off because it was so grating it was distracting from the gameplay to the point of annoyance. There is an issue with multiplayer at the moment where you will join the friend who is hosting, finding yourself put back at the start of the game with an empty inventory and your death marker way off the map, losing progress of any books you might be reading, any well-fed buffs and anything that might have been in your inventory. Entirely gone. Up until now I would still give a tentative thumbs up. The true breaking point of this game however, is the combat. It feels awful. It attempts to emulate Kingdom Come's style, directional attacks and blocking. Thus, fighting any more than one enemy at a time is incredibly difficult, especially when they come equipped with shields which can block any attack. The issue here however is the AI behaviours negate any attempt at actual skill, which is baffling with a skill-based system. Successfully blocking an attack simply prevents the damage, leaving an enemy free to simply swing again. Enemies can, and will, move so close to one another that they occupy the same space, meaning you can't actually focus one down, and in the case of enemies with shields will block attacks not meant for them because they are standing INSIDE their ally. None of this prevents the enemy hitting YOU however, they simply swing THROUGH their ally. In many cases, playing multiplayer means you can't engage with the system at all because desync issues mean you can't see enemies animations properly so don't know what they're doing. In the end, just as with Kingdom Come, the 'best' method is simply to avoid the system entirely. Sit on a rock and use archery to kill enemies who can't attack you and just stand there. Shields on AI block attacks when they aren't even blocking with them (whether this is a desync issue is unknown, I have shot an AI, seen the projectile hit their body with a shield by their side and yet the game has reported that I hit their shield). The combat feels incredibly frustrating because the system doesn't actually reward good play, it simply punishes the slightest mistakes. The desync issues ruin a system reliant upon having accurate information. How can I block an attack when I don't even know which direction it is coming from, or when? The solution thus becomes taking a goon squad of armed villagers everywhere and overwhelming the problem with numbers which is time consuming since they have to travel in real time and, frankly, boring since the numbers tend to mean you are effectively side-lined.

was just minding my busness cutting some trees down ran into a boar. boar ran into me. left boar alone. bandits came to kill me. boar Killed them all. I worship the boar now. we should all worship the boar now ALL HAIL MIGHTY BOAR

After 50 hours, I think I've experienced enough of Bellwright to give a fair review. The early game is outstanding. Building your first village, recruiting settlers, unlocking new technology, crafting, and watching your settlement slowly grow is some of the most enjoyable survival gameplay I've played in years. The world is beautiful, the atmosphere is excellent, and the progression feels rewarding. Unfortunately, the game eventually changes into something I simply didn't enjoy. Progression slows dramatically, and many essential resources become locked behind increasingly tedious systems. Iron is the biggest offender. Instead of discovering iron and expanding naturally, you're expected to unlock villages one by one across the map until you finally reach the iron region, then establish another settlement, build duplicate infrastructure, manage caravans, assign workers, and configure logistics just to produce one of the most important resources in the game. Yes, you can simply travel across the map yourself, mine some iron, and haul it home. But that's tedious too. You have to recruit NPCs to accompany you for protection, travel long distances through hostile territory, avoid or fight enemy patrols, mine the ore, and then make the entire trip back. The problem is that iron is required in large quantities while carry capacity is limited, so what should feel like an exciting expedition quickly becomes a repetitive chore. And it doesn't stop with iron. Moss, peat, granite, cotton, hardwood, fur, and other key resources are scattered across distant regions, often deep in hostile territory. Having to venture out for a rare resource once in a while can be exciting. Having nearly every new crafting tier depend on another long-distance logistics problem isn't. Instead of rewarding exploration, the game repeatedly asks you to solve progression by creating more settlements, more caravans, and more administrative work. That isn't fun. It's work. Questing also becomes repetitive, with constant travel back and forth across the map while progression slows to a crawl. Eventually I found myself spending more time managing villagers, settlements, and caravans than actually exploring, fighting, or building. I understand this is the developers' vision, and I know some players love kingdom management. But for me, Bellwright starts as an immersive survival RPG and gradually turns into a logistics simulator. That's where it lost me. I don't regret my 50 hours. The early game is genuinely fantastic and kept me completely hooked. But once the focus shifted from playing the game to managing supply chains and multiple settlements, I stopped having fun. If the late game emphasized adventure, exploration, and meaningful progression instead of expanding logistics and administration, this could have been one of my favorite games in years. **Overall: 6.5/10** Bellwright has one of the best survival and settlement-building foundations I've played in years. Unfortunately, its late game buries that foundation under repetitive travel, slow progression, and logistics systems that feel more like a second job than a rewarding gameplay loop.

Guys, I have 2 questions - why there is no leveling Strength during mining? Why man who spends 12 hours a day swinging pickaxe does not receive even 10 exp? Leveling strength is the hardest part of the game. And why during road building minimap is disabled?I have to cancel construction, open the normal map to check if I'm moving correctly, and start construction again. This is bad.

Интересная, затягивающая игра. Похожа на Medieval Dynasty, в свое время тоже затянула. НПС намного лучше чем в других похожих играх, не смотря на то что запинаются, спрыгнуть не могут в работе отлажено трудятся. Есть конечно свои баги и недоработки, думаю в дальнейшем исправят , да и фиксят потихоньку. Крафт интересный, развитие навыков своими руками или прочтением книг как самим, так и НПС. Врагов в достатке, если еще поиграть с настройками то соскучиться точно не дадут своими набегами, особенно после освобождения деревень, собаки сутулые!) Есть свой шарм во всем этом. отряд бойцов хорошо одетых проходят никого не оставляя на своем пути, облегчают задачу в зачистке набегов. Правда на ранней стадии они вам особо не помогут. Виды красивые, звуки, музыка, расслабляешься между набегами и стычками с бандитами и дикой животиной. Советую, хоть и в альфе, но похожа на релиз. Рекомендую! Приятной игры.)

The use of AI is a huge downside for me and honestly takes away from the game rather than adding anything worthwhile. On top of that, some of the mechanics feel clunky and wonky enough that they get in the way of actually enjoying the experience. Having to travel everywhere on foot also gets old fast and turns basic tasks into more of a chore than they need to be. There’s definitely potential here, but in its current state it feels like it could be a lot better.

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☑ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☑ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10 ---{ Author }--- ☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

I can't recommend this game. The AI voices are bad enough but the combat is terrible. The movement isn't good either. The whole game feels like it was coded by AI and the developer wasn't even checking to make sure that things worked properly. I put my campfire underwater which was funny but there are just too many things that don't make this game fun. Controller support is lacking and when you get a "popup" in the game you can't even use the controller to close it. The menus are awful as well.