Embers Adrift

As of writing this, 21st of April 2026, I've completed all end game raiding bosses, and I also feel like I have experienced most of what the game has to offer where I can do a review of the game. There is still content I haven’t done, like leveling some profession, completing some quests, or maybe even a dungeon I have not done or a section of a dungeon. I wanna say straight away that this game is a bargain for the money that u pay for it. It took me around 1.4k hours on this account (I have also played on other account a bit) to reach a point where we managed to kill all the bosses, let that sink in :D.Game does not suffer from the RMT problems bigger MMOs suffer from. Also, devs seem to have absolutely zero tolerance for any P2W elements that MMOs are plagued by, which is something I love to see. The game is, for the most part, gonna reward u as much as u can put time into it. First, I’d like to start reviewing leveling. I really liked the leveling during early levels. It felt like there was a variety of things I can do. Around level 30ish is where I feel like it gets more limited—not as many quests, dungeons, or EVs to do. Also, I didn’t have that many players to play with after 30, so that might also affect my subjective judgement. I would also like to point out that I’m an EU-based player, and the majority of the playerbase is NA, so I would play during off-hours for NA (although I also played quite a bit during NA hours). I really wanted to point this out because I feel like if u are an EU player, u really need to go an extra mile with this game, but if u like oldschool MMOs, I feel like it’s worth it. That all being said, though, the game does offer an alternative to more traditional group leveling, which seems to be the "vision" of the devs. One thing I really loved about leveling was raiding bosses during leveling and the gear u would get from them. It felt so good to get new weapons and see my character being able to kill stuff so much better than I was before. Also, I really liked the fact that u have to learn all the areas because there is no minimap, and ur character is also not shown on the map other than when u reach Ember Ring. I also loved the fact that quests were something that u had to do research for, figure out urself, or ask other players what to do. It really gave this game such an oldschool feel to it, which is caused, of course, by the low population, so there are actually positives for the game being low pop :D. So with leveling, there are positives and negatives. As someone who is used to oldschool MMOs, I really don’t care about leveling. It’s something I find rather boring in any MMO, tbh—just a grind that u have to complete. And this game’s leveling, like I said, had some positives and some negatives. I feel like I’m not the "target audience" of the EQ-esque approach of leveling, where I felt like other ppl actually care about getting certain gear during leveling. I really am not able to see the appeal—I’m gonna replace those gear regardless in a few days to weeks. Also, the length of the leveling seems to be too long of a grind for the majority of ppl who try the game. For me, it took 21 days 21 hours in-game /played time. I did not feel like it was that bad, but I can see why ppl can’t make it to max level. I would also like to add that, for whatever reason, I’m unable to really appreciate any MMO till I reach max lvl and start to understand how the game works in its entirety. Maybe it’s my inability to see the bigger picture till I can see everything—like forming that central coherency from individual parts—and that’s why leveling to max feels like a jump in the dark. Overall, though, I would say leveling was a positive yet boring experience at times. Devs have also revamped Highland Hills zone, which was during my leveling period the most boring part by far, so my experience leveling might not reflect the state of the game anymore. Next, I’d like to tackle professions. They, imo, are nothing special—just your run-of-the-mill professions. They work but are a bit on the boring end. Endgame—this is where the game shines for me. Grizzled Peaks as a zone is awesome. There are lots of level 50 monsters which are challenging and rewarding to kill, like stalkers, and the highlight of the zone has to be 3 raiding bosses. Mechanic-wise, they are nothing special, but for whatever reason, after killing them so many times, I’m still not bored of them. I found them kinda fun still. The other endgame zone, Ibaxus, is where it gets really fun. Ibaxus is split into two sections: lower and central. Lower has 3 boss encounters and 1 miniboss—the fights here have mechanics and are fun to do. Central also has 3 boss encounters and 2 minibosses—these are even better than the lower ones. Mechanics are something that could be compared to an mmo like vanilla aka classic wow. Where Ibaxus really shines is the creativity that u can do with the gear u get from there. U can reach such high numbers in stats that the playstyle is vastly different than the rest of the zones in the game. Also, I love the fact once again that the game is low population, which means we have to actually come up with some tactics ourselves on how to approach bosses and kill them. That has been so much fun, and theorycrafting how to itemize my character. I’d like to thank the devs for the work they have put into the game and continue putting in. I really like the weather system they have implemented, and also GM events are a great addition to the game, which are also done during EU hours! :D. Also, huge thanks to the raiding community and especially Allies guild for being awesome. TLDR; great oldschool MMO if u are willing to grind. Ibaxus is awesome, u can really let ur creativity shine.

J'ai retrouvé Everquest ! 25 ans que je le cherche ! le vrai MMO difficile qui nécessite de grouper, avec des nommés qui spawnent et qu'on campe, pas de petit point d'interrogation sur la tête des donneurs de quetes et des fleches pour nous montrer la direction ou il faut aller. les quetes dans Embers Adrift ca se lit ! on retrouve tout ce qui faisait le charme de notre cher EQ ! meme sa laideur ! :)

FROM DEVELOPER / BTW do no buy it has its moments.. but ZERO FUTURE... On population: This isn't for lack of listening or lack of trying. Thousands of games launch on Steam every year, all competing for the same finite pool of player time. We have zero marketing budget, so word of mouth is basically our only channel, and word of mouth doesn't do much when the population is already low. Steam sales bring in a wave of new players, but retention is the problem we haven't cracked in four years. So you make almost NO money from sales (the population shows this), but too small for word of mouth. When you sell pretty close to ZERO copies a year, an limp along on ' optional subs '.. Going Free to play would cost you what exactly? Because no sales, is better then ' more people who might stick '.. an pay a monthly o.O The logic is baffling.. instead its the same few people playing.. an the game is effecetively dead. I think its more then ' no marketing ', I think you ' lack the ability to critically think about finances '. So keep it walled off, maybe get a lucky bite here or there. Till its time to crawl into a corner an die. The path notes show that has pretty much already happened. Remember this game didn't fail because it ' wasn't given a chance.. It failed because you were too moronic to pull the pillow away from its face while it slept in the crib.. After 4 years of failing, why not try the hail mary, what else do you have to lose..

Embers Adrift is a fantastic game. It’s very different from any other MMO, with unique systems for magic, stats, and gear.

I enjoy the classic mmorpg feeling that Embers has. I just grabbed it on sale and have had fun running around the first zone. The day/night cycle is nice and harvesting was enjoyable.

Wait wait wait did i just see 24 player raids in the key feature tab... you dont even have that on a daily bases as a peak player count... this is false advertisement at this point... i played this game a lot when it was on its own launcher i tried to like it i really did i invested a good amount of time but im gonna say it for all the devs that want to make "old school mmos that force group play' MAKE SURE YOUR GAME HAS PLAYERS BEFORE DOING THAT and if after a few months its not happening either shut down or make things soloable this game is dead like dead dead dead if you are a new player you wont find groups to play with cause the 20 or so players still logging in are max level players trying to hang on to a dream that will eventually fade away so so so many systems are bad in this game the weight armor system the lack of character marker on the map the fact that you have to talk to npcs to get quests (all those things were faded away from mmos for a reason) im an old school mmo players i started with everquest in 1999 and played about every mmo that came out since then and i can tell you that all those "old school" nostalgia goggles are just that nostalgia goggles Monsters and memories are trying to do that pantheon are trying to do that and well pantheon is dead and for now MnM is free the minute the mandatory sub will be in effect i can garantee you the playerbase will drop by more than half that slow burn grind, forced group play and extreme lack of QOL where you dropp your stuff on death and in MnM you even drop your skill book so you are completely and utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you die yeah thats gonna end well... anyway all of this to say that this game had something it did but unless it makes all the content soloable and even then i dont really see a future unless you like throwing bear piss at your enemies to taunt them or carry armor pieces you cant wear cause you dont have the carry weight to wear them, no bank space and no possibility to sell your stuff outside the auction house where no max level player want your puny low level mats and a crafting system that is subpar and very limited then just dont bother sorry...

This game is a gem and a pity not more people give it a try. the developers are still active and supporting their passion project which is really nice. sure it is niche - sure missing magic might be a blocker for many - but give it a try if you like old-school MMOs feelings and a slower combat.