Dragonhold

This game is so close to that threshold of being worth buying but it's just not quite there yet. The world is pretty, combat is alright when you play the right class, dragon mode is obviously the best part of the game and the soundtrack was even rather good. Unfortunately the game just feels so empty. It's a huge world with no npcs in it aside from enemies. Multiplayer servers are usually empty. Voice acting is soulless and low quality, wouldn't surprise me if it's AI. Unless you have a group of friends to run missions with, nothing in this game feels worth doing and is a boring grind. I really wanted to like it, I'm starving for a well designed dragon game but this one is a no for me. It needs more detail, a story that I give a damn about, more life in the world, and a viable player base. Maybe I'll check in on it again later this year.

Developers, I beg you. You've had over 25 years to figure out this whole "mouselook" thing. If Half-Life could do it in 1998, then you can do it in 2026. It's really not that difficult. If you insist on separating X and Y sensitivity, please make them somehow related instead of making each setting completely arbitrary so that I can never get it the same on both axes. I've been keeping an eye on this game for a few months now, and finally pulled the trigger. All I can say, this is NOT a 1.0 release. In terms of content, maybe, but the polish just isn't there. "Janky" doesn't even begin to describe it. Crosshairs doesn't correspond to where you're ACTUALLY aiming, the camera is constantly either rolling on the ground, or blocked almost entirely by the dragon. Enemies have less complex behaviors than Koopas in SMB 1. Combat lacks punchy feedback. The game has some great ideas and it's very unique, but you really can't call it "1.0" if it feels this unfinished. I really hope the team can work on the polish and feel of the gameplay, and for the love of all that is holy, fix mouse settings and camera. This has the potential to be something great, but at this point in time, it just isn't there yet.

I very rarely post reviews, because I struggle to make them funny. But finishing just the first area of this game was such a chore that I felt I had to. In the first hour of gameplay, I: Used a ring for a magical attack that went straight through an ogre and had no effect. Tried three times to rebind keys on the keyboard side, and never had any of them work. Encountered floating terrain disconnected from the ground <10 minutes in. Was launched into the air by the first boss, repeatedly bouncing on his head and preventing me from continuing the fight. I love this concept, I love the creativity behind it. And I'm all for supporting early access works. But calling this is a 1.0 release feels criminal and disrespectful to other games in the process. P.S. what in the name of all that is holy is that run animation? The shoulder dip is insane.

I like this game. its hard. it doesnt hold your hand. it gives you an out to keep resources, so you dont HAVE to complete the mission... which is a saving grace. I like this. i really like this. Still rough around the edges, but it has promise!

After playing for two hours I can already see the game sucks on solo play. I haven't tried multiplayer much but I really don't get enough down time for multi-play. What I can tell you is that the starter quest doesn't feel like a starter quest. Enemies spawn in at random, most are stronger than you and because they seem to always attack in groups you really don't have time to learn the game or time your attacks, blocks and dodges. I tried playing as a Knight, not enough healing items scattered around, no way to buy them at the start, haven't found a way to buy them in level and knights don't seem to have a healing skill of any kind. When you get into the world to do a quest you must kill a number of enemies to be able to summon your dragon, unfortunately living long enough to accomplish this can be a challenge. I bought the game because the description showed game features I enjoy such as building a city/town from a first person perspective and collecting resources. Unfortunately the game interface for town building makes it feel more like a mobile game than a PC one and the ability to buy "Supporter" gems in game to speed along the grind just reinforces that this game is essentially meant to be played like a "Gotcha" game. Sorry devs but the effort you put in just wasn't worth the $11.99 I spent and without major refinement it won't be worth the $19.99 your asking after your promo expires. The game needs a better start from the low level, every player should have a way to heal, players should be able to wait and "catch their breath" outside of combat every now and then without getting attacked, healing items such as potions should be an item you can buy and use before starting your first quest or earning a class level and resources need to be a bit easier to gather than what they are. I mean come on why do I have to find wood in chests? why cant I hack down trees? if I wanted a mobile phone styled MMORPG with town building elements id download a free one on my phone, save your money folks because that's all this game feels like. Oh and the dragon is pointless because even though its powerful, nothing drops loot or gives experience when killed by a dragon so its really just a mount that can fling fireballs for show.

Do not buy Dragonhold if you are expecting to play with friends. One month before 1.0 and there are no options for peer to peer connection. Dedicated servers are the only way to play with others, but there are not any official servers. At the time, all of the dedicated servers were password protected. The only server that was not password protected was in Asia, giving me a decently high ping. We attempted to connect but gave up after about five minutes of loading, which playing by myself, took about thirty seconds. The game itself seemed pretty fun, perhaps a bit of jank, but for me, this was a deal-breaker. If nothing else it got me to question what the priorities were, what would come in 1.0, and how long this game would last. Response edit: Beyond assuming that I missed it, and personally believing that installing a server tool and port forwarding is a bit more involved than a few button clicks, there are quite a few things that would prevent someone from doing this. I would like to specifically point out the two instances on the store page where it says there are freely provided official dedicated servers, which there are not.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the game as is. The concept is fantastic and I will continue to follow the project. However, currently it is one of the most "jank" games I have ever played. Your character just slides around on the ground. Enemies spawn in front of you and just waddle towards you. Player animations are so minimal that I could not even tell if I was attacking. Lighting is extremely overtuned (blinded by walk near a torch. Cast a spell and you'll need a guide dog). Cannot set the resolution to 4k despite there being an option. It just forces to 1080 and shrinks the window. (BTW, devs. Its 2026. EVERY setting that has multiple options should be a DROP DOWN menu. Dont force people to slowly slide through each individual resolution to reach the one they want). I'll check back in a year and see if things improve, but as is, this still feels like an alpha build and is NOT ready for 1.0 release.

It's nice to see a game actually leave EA, so I thought I would try this out. Unfortunately, I do not think this game is ready for a 1.0 release. If the developers stick with it, it could be a fun, casual time-sink.

tl;dr: play divinity 2: ego draconis instead. the *concept* is cool - be a dragonrider but also fight badguys on foot; with all gameplay aspects having progression systems! unfortunately...dragonriding sucks, the camera is super wayyy too close. Your primary ability is "shoot a straight, slowish moving projectile" ...but your wings/head will be in the way more often than not, making aerial combat annoying at best. Luckily, the dragon part is -from what I experienced- a relatively minor part of gameplay; i mostly used the dragon for map traversal (which is mildly annoying cuz the dismount/mount animation takes a while and is disorienting). However...the on-foot gameplay isnt much better. Combat in incredibly simplistic: you have a "spam left click" attack (does a very simplistic combo) and a couple of janky af "special" skills that have a way too long CD to be fun, and frankly...not enough impact to be particularly worthwhile (as knight at least. I briefly played ranger/sorc and quit after being so dissappointed by their incredibly bad models/animations). Finally we have the actual "explore the map, fight badguys, get loots" gamplay loop. Welp...most of the time you will instead be hunting down the chests that always spawn at the same general locations because that's the only way you get base materials to upgrade your stuff/build more gear...so each map is "spend 5 minutes unlocking dragon form cuz badguys spawn hella slow" -> "spend 10 mins going to the city to grab all the chests/get levels" -> "spend 5 minutes doing the quest; or longer if i wanna farm specific materials". i.e. 10-15 minutes of every session is boring ♥♥♥♥ I don't wanna do. atp I just, don't think the game is very fun. Would recommend the devs add basic resources to enemy loot tables/remove them from chests/remove overworld chests (or maybe add temp weapons/consumables instead? idk), make the dragon camera not suck, make combat abilities cool/useful (and ffs, get rid of the spam LMB combat, do "hold to combo" or something...sorc is incredibly painful to play). And actually make some decent models for all the classes other than knight (more than 1 female playable character would also be nice). Will come back and give it another shot after some more updates (assuming the game gets more...), as the concept is cool, but is a pretty hard pass for now.