Dreadful River

Nope, Had to log into epic games through my steam account in order to play. Hard pass, if I buy a game on steam I dont wanna jump through effing hoops to play it. I would absolutely refund if the two week period had not elapsed. Plus steering the raft is completely annoying, so the very first game mechanic you are introduced to sucks hard. Think I played less than 5 minutes and the game managed to annoy me to no end.

Enderal was one of the most memorable games I have ever played. This may be their intro into all stages of game development and a work in progress but this remains the only studio (beyond long war for Xcom) that I still think of years later for their contribution to gaming. Buying this game is the least I could do for the memories they created.

[h1] Dreadful Controls [/h1] [b] What I Liked [/b] Love the idea of the game. Procedurally generated, loot, building my team how I want, quaint graphics. [b] What I Did Not Like [/b] The controls are horrible. I’m an older gamer at this point, and having to constantly press down on keys hurts after a short time. This game really needs controller support to be better. The sound settings were also wonky. The voices were dead quiet, to the point I had to adjust all the other sound settings. [b] Why I Stopped Playing [/b] My hands were quickly hurting, so I refunded it. I may pick it up later if controller support is added. [b] Disclaimer [/b] I have been a gamer for over 30 years. I tend to play mostly PC games. I also bounce around between games A LOT. I may purchase a $60 game and play it for 2 hours or spend $10 on a game and spend 50 hours on it. Even if I played a game a short time, it does not mean it is bad. It just means another game caught my attention. I also complain about flaws in games a lot, even about the littlest of things. Keep that in mind when reading my reviews. If I do not have a complaint, then the game must be special!

[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38888018-United-Critics/] Please follow [b]United Critics[/b] for quality reviews[/url] [h2]Dreadful River Review[/h2] Dreadful River is an early access sandbox/RPG about a group of nameless heroes that embark in a quest to save their kingdom from… I guess evil… like in general… sailing through a river… I’m going to be honest with you, the build that I played didn’t have much of a story. So be aware that with how often this game gets updated, this review will be outdated in a month or less time. [h1] Questions you might have if you're interested in playing it: [/h1] [list] [*][b]What is it exactly that you do in the game?[/b] You control a knight that has a party of AI companions and you travel down a river in a boat fighting baddies on land and in other boats. You can gather money and other resources to buy, craft or improve gear in order to get more efficient at killing stuff… and that is the whole game. [*][b] Will it make my eyes bleed?[/b] As far as $15 early access indie games on Steam goes. Dreadful River looks quite good. I love the color palette during the day and the reflections of the water are beautiful. The 3D models are simple but serviceable. My only 2 complaints are: -How stiff most of the animations look, specially the walking cycle and melee attack animations with sword and shield. -How dark the shadows are during the night, if you decide not to explore the map and you strictly stay in your boat this wouldn't be a problem. But if you are like me and you like to explore, you will find yourself stringing your eyes to see through those shadows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZsixe0rLyc [*][b]Does it have a good story?[/b] The game doesn’t really have a story in the build that I’m reviewing at the moment. [*][b]Does it have a good soundtrack?[/b] It's fine. It’s quite catchy but I won’t say that it is “great”. It helps with the playful tone of the game. [*][b]Does it have replay value?[/b] So far the game map looks to be randomly generated and there is a decent variety of weapons and upgrades for you to craft and experiment. Even when I thought this game was too “early accessy” for my taste, I can see someone else replaying this game for a while. [*][b]Does it run well?[/b] It runs flawlessly. There is not much else to say. It’s a game that is not very demanding and I didn’t have any problems with it. [*][b]Is it fun?[/b] Not for me. Like I said before this game is too “early accessy” for my taste. [/list] [h1] Is this game worth my hard earned money?[/h1] Uff… hard to say. I’m a huge fan of the previous works of these devs. The Enderal mod for Skyrim is amazing and showed me that this studio knows how to craft amazing experiences, so I’m hopeful that in the future when this game gets more content and gets refined, it will be amazing like Enderal was. But in its current state, it’s not terrible but everything is so janky… yes… yes… I know that “jankiness” is expected out of an early access game, but I honestly think that at this point in time, you could spend the $15 that this game asks for more polished and complete experiences. I don’t hate what is in this game, but I just don’t like it either. It feels so barebones and janky… I will re-review this game in a year and check if it is worth your money then. But for now, just skip it. Rating: 5/10 Barebones and janky.

Looks like the devs have abandoned this one and are just leaving it out in the store to try to pick up a little revenue. I tried the early access version. It seemed fun, I wanted to support the devs, and I also knew that I wanted to play the full version, so I bought it. Turns out that, when I play the full version, the graphics _still_ say "Early Access" and you still have a button that takes you to the page of their feature roadmap. Ugh. It's very hit-and-miss to try to figure out the gameplay unless you're already accustomed to games like it because there are very few pop-up hints. I can't figure out how to save your progress while in-game; you can only "save and exit". If you ask questions about how to play the game on their official Discord, your questions go mostly ignored. So, to recap, it looks like they did a lot of work to get the game 80-90% there, then they changed priorities to other projects and they just decided to put it out in the store to see if they could get some money from the work they've already done. I'm a fan of these overhead-at-an-angle realtime adventure games, but this one handles the viewpoint poorly. Normally, you're over and behind the character(s), and you can zoom in and out as you please. However, if you walk your character so that there's a wall behind them, the viewpoint immediately zooms in so that it's right where the wall/ceiling/object is (so that all you can really see is the back of your character's head, filling your screen). This is _infuriating_ when walking through a dungeon where the ceiling height is always changing. My guess is because the devs couldn't figure out how to (or didn't get around to) have intervening barriers turn invisible to your view, so, unable to see through them, the viewpoint has to move close enough to the character to be in the room with them. I love the concept of the river kinda pulling you through the adventure, but... man... it's just not polished.

Game has a console interface, not designed for mouse+KB. First dungeon, game breaking bug : the NPCs can't follow the hero into the 2nd room. It seems they cant find the path using the corridor between the 2 rooms. And you can't solo it with only the main character.

Wonderful game . Devs responsive to the playerbase. That's a first. Just buy it!!

A very fun passion project and a great way to pass the time without needing to get too immersed, but you can if you want. The gameplay is simple but fun and the world and characters are charming. 7/10

This turned out to be kinda bad.

Beautiful graphics and scenery. The raft controls are very good and have a natural feel. Early days in the features, but it has the potential to be a really good game.