Equinox: Homecoming

Absolute Empfehlung! Dieses Spiel ist eine Perle unter den Games und gehört definitiv zu der Kategorie "Hab ich nicht erwartet und reißt dich mit" Zuallererst noch das offensichtliche: Die Grafik! Wunderschöne Pferdemodels die mit Liebe zum Detail bestechen und einen wirklich glauben lassen auf einem echten Pferd zu sitzen. Von realistischen Muskelbewegungen bis zu kleinen Adern unter der Haut wird hier echt auf alles geachtet! Die wunderschöne Umgebung lässt einen immer wieder staunen. Wohin man auch reitet, überall findet man wunderschöne Orte. Egal ob der Leuchtturm bei Nacht, durch die Wälder bei Tag oder über die Berge bei Sonnenaufgang. Joined dem Discord und schaut euch im Screenshot Channel an was euch da für ein kunstwerk erwartet! Nun zur Story! Zum aktuellen Zeitpunkt ist bei Kapitel 5 Ende aber mein Gott! Wer denkt, man spiele hier nur "Abenteuer auf dem Reiterhof" hat sich geschnitten! Ohne spoilern zu wollen, haltet Snacks und Getränke bereit, ihr seid nicht bereit für die Überraschungen und Spannung die euch hier erwarten wird! Ich habe noch nie eine Story gehabt die mich mit so einem Plottwist so weg gefegt hat! Hat das Spiel kleine Fehler? Ja, natürlich. Es ist wahnsinnig aufwendig und je größer die Open World, desto einfacher schleichen sich Fehler ein. Aber auch nach nun knapp 40 Stunden Spielzeit sind mir keine großen Fehler aufgefallen. Und bei der immensen Qulität kann ich mit einem Mähnen-Fehler hier oder einem kleinen Anzeigefehler da absolut Leben! Bitte, für nicht Mal 15€ im Basisspiel kann man die Entwickler nur unterstützen! Ich empfehle Premium, jeder Cent mehr ist hier gut investiert. Holt es euch, macht euch ein eigenes Bild. Lehnt euch zurück und genießt diese Achterbahnfahrt!

TLDR: There are minor issues but they didn't stop me from falling in love with this game, its story, nor its community. I still strongly recommend this game if you don't mind subpar horse models and animations, subpar human models, mild bugginess, and an incomplete but riveting story which will continue to release in chapters at a relaxed (for employee welfare and given the smaller studio) pace. This game, in the playtime span as of this review, has quickly become one of my favourite games! I debated whether to buy this game or not for a while, but eventually decided the low price was worth the try. Especially as I had watched a few EA playthroughs and was already invested in the story. Why did I hesitate for so long then? The aesthetic issues, the bugs, the incompletion. Have those issues hindered my ability to enjoy this game playing it for myself? NOT AT ALL!!!!! The horse models, animations especially, and human models leave a LOT to be desired, but honestly I got used to them and it doesn't bother me nearly as much as I expected. The character customization is still fairly extensive compared to other horse games, and newer horse models look more their breed than the "dutch warmblood" we start with. The writing in dialogue is mostly pretty good in my opinion, and the occasional jankiness and bugginess doesn't stop me from absorbing into the intense and imo riveting story and mystery. I also adore the side quests, which is RARE for an MMO. In almost every side quest, you learn more about the characters and explore mature themes, and I felt emotional often and grew very attached to some characters very quickly. Initially, being unable to fast-travel is very frustrating, but the game is quite beautiful with its abundance of natural scenery, so riding everywhere wasn't a dealbreaker. Soon enough after completing lots of quests, side quests, and weekly tasks, I have unlocked all except one fast-travel location. It feels rewarding as I've genuinely become closer with the island's residents through the process of grinding their reputations! The current fashion is quite lacking, but the devs have made it clear they will add MORE basic currency-purchasable items and I assume, also more premium currency-purchasable items after summer. Speaking of premium currency, it isn't too hard to save them up if you do all the weekly challenge tasks and I don't think the price to purchase them directly is unreasonable. Before buying the game, I joined the official discord server to get a feel for the community, and was welcomed warmly. Since joining, I've joined a riding club as well and so far, everyone has been very kind and helpful (both in the club and in the server)! If you decide to buy this game now, (currently up to chapter 5 has been released, with chapter 6 reportedly coming after summer as well) please be aware that the devs are quite active and involved with the community via the discord, and while the game is not in a perfectly polished or completed state it has been well worth the money for me, if you don't mind the minor issues I mentioned.

For an open-world game about horse riding and mystery-solving, this game is super grindy. Like let a person explore! I'm guessing if they did that though, players would have a chance to really see the repetitive assets and halfhearted efforts at design. This game could have been so much fun, but the limitations in character design (both human and horse), not to mention how absolutely creepy and bad the faces and movement are (it looks like they trained a discount AI on old horror movies that featured humans with too many teeth/teeth in weird places, because any time any of these characters speak, all I can see are SCARY TEETH). The hair is also badddd, think a pile of thin rubber strings that moves as if it has a mind of its own. It isn't "realistic", it's terrifying. For a game that prominently features riding a horse, the riding part is not great. It's clunky, bumpy, and the energy levels/stamina use are not intuitive at all. The story is fine, and could be enjoyable, but again, it's hard to get past the faces of the characters. The way that quests are assigned and pile up and there doesn't seem to be a way to switch between them - hate it. Controller support is uneven. Sometimes you can use the controller, other times, none of the direction buttons work for navigation. I hate using the keyboard, and it is annoying to keep switching back and forth. The forced MMORPG aspect - ugh. Listen, there should be a button when you first sign on Play with others or Play alone. I was able to find the option in settings after being super annoyed about all the other horse riders whooshing around and the constant chat, but that should be a first thing kind of question. Normally I like when games don't force me to sleep, but with the constant barrage of quests, it seems like an option to sleep to reset the day would be helpful. Time is meaningless in this game and that makes it less enjoyable. The map. The bad, horrible map! PLEASE MAKE A BETTER MAP. One with the actual locations, that you can actually zoom in on and markup would be preferable. In 2026, there is no excuse for a map this bad. In summary, there is so much potential, but so far, I'm underwhelmed and terrified (not of the story, of the uncanny valley horror-show character design). The town is empty--even stores with NPCs don't always have anything to buy or any interesting interactions. The game has crashed twice when trying to exit NPC interaction menus (stores), where the whole thing freezes, and neither gamepad nor keyboard will allow any movement or menu opening. You have to shut down the whole game. Bad development. Buy on sale or not at all unless devs fix a lot

I could not get past the fact it's an MMORPG with character creation where you select a first/last name, but then the character is just called Alex anyways. There are so many simple ways to address this - voiced lines should either use generic pronouns or language that doesn't require saying a name. You could have even had a generic in-game title (ex. their childhood nickname was "Birdie" so that's what everyone calls them on the island). It seems like a small thing (and I know the game is in EA) but the fact that they did it this way instead of just doing one of the many solutions MMORPGs have been doing for years to avoid this exact thing makes it seem like the developers do not have a cohesive image of what the game is supposed to be. It was jarring enough to me that it unfortunately killed my desire to play, hopefully I can one day change my recommendation if they change this conflict!

it is a very fun game and it is worth buying i give it 10/10

First things first: I really like this game and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a horse centred game. Now for a more nuanced take. I enjoyed the story and would play this game almost for that aspect alone. However, as of writing, only 5 chapters have been released and while each quest feels concise in its storytelling and is told without obvious filler content, I have a few issues. The first, and most obvious, is that I really dislike that the story is so far from being finished this late after the official release of the game. It makes the whole experience feel extremely unpolished and half-finished. As far as I can tell, it takes between 2-4 months for each chapter to release and that is a very long time considering that I've quite literally finished everything else I could find to do. Mechanically, the quests are...fine. They're all mostly fetch quests and investigations where your character uses their "Witcher senses" to find clues. It began to irritate me slightly that each quest, even the meaningless weekly ones, took you from one end of the island to the other just to (I must assume) stretch the time it takes to complete them. I really enjoy each character and I wished there were more fully animated cutscenes with voice acting. I think the voice acting is pretty good and dialogue is well-written overall, even in the scene with only captions and no VAs, which is why I think it's a bit of a shame to hear relatively little of it. I don't mind the side quests and other minor things being characters speaking through captions, but the main story would really benefit from more cutscenes, particularly because they hide some of the jank that seems to be present in many of the NPC conversations (player character seems to pop up from the ground or dropping from the sky when initiating dialogue with NPCs). I'm still very invested in where the story is headed and am a bit disappointed in how long I'll have to wait between chapters. I also hope to be able to replay those missions at some point, but being able to replay cutscenes through the compendium will have to do for now. The horses are well animated in my opinion. Each gait feels right and I particularly like the change from a gallop to a sprint. You can see how the horse takes larger strides and how it's using its hind legs more than the front to propel itself forward. The human characters look decent too, although all of them are strangely "yassified" as if every face was modelled on a young woman with a full face of makeup. It was a bit funny to realise that Alderwood does in fact not have a disproportionate amount of older lesbian couples, the men just look like that lol. Again, would have loved to see more cutscenes since the animations look great, despite the yassification, and the VAs deserve more airtime. The multiplayer aspect is decent and I enjoy the races and the crown chases. It's fine to pass time or earn currency to trade for cosmetic options, but those activities begin to feel like a grinding slog after a couple of hours. I'm only going to mention the micro transaction aspect in passing as this really is not a very egregious example, in my opinion. You cannot acquire more horses without a special currency. You can earn this currency by completing story quests, but it's not a whole lot. To be honest, you should just stick with your starter horse. The difference in stats is imperceptible and most likely your starter will be 10-20 levels ahead of the others and so will outperform them in every way.

This game has some of my favorite things all put together: cozy walking sim, horror/mystery and horses. It's bit rough around the edges but still functions well and is enjoyable to play. Do recommend, if you love horses!

Honestly this game feels like an extreme cash grab. Horses are priced insanely. Game is boring, the graphics really try hard to look "realistic" but it gives uncanny valley instead. I rather play a RedM horse server than this..