Gemlands

This looked like it would be a fun indie clone of Spyro the Dragon...until I noticed my CPU use was stuck at 100%. And this is after the "CPU use fix" patch was implemented. No other game I've ever played has done this to my CPU, and I've played plenty of modern games on my rig. I hope the creator of the game sees this review and tries to fix whatever has gone wrong here. If it's even possible anymore. My guess is that you can't put the entire game world into a single area, because then it's all being processed at once. Look up optimization tutorials for your game engine and try to find if there's a way to only load in certain sections of the game at a time, depending on which section the player is in. I really want to enjoy Gemlands but not at the expense of killing my PC.

UPDATED REVIEW: April 11, 2022: In less than 24 hours after I sadly felt that I needed to give this game my "Not Recommend" because the original FOV was locked in too low and made me feel queasy to play the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4lCVmurXwo I also suggested below in my original review that they added sound sliders and resolution options as well as an option to play the game in windowed mode. This indie developer took my review and listened! They quickly added FOV options to help with my feeling queasy as I explained in my original review video! They also added resolution options, windowed or fullscreen options and sound sliders for both the music and sound effects! ..Wow! Now we not only have a fun little indie adventure game that I can recommend, but we also have a nice, fun and very affordable game that I'm going to give a very impressive 8.5 first impressions score! ..and that score might even increase if I play the game more and see it get more challenging and addicting to play! ..In fact, I'm going to add another half point just because this developer obviously listens and cares about feedback and so quickly makes updates to make their game better! - I wish every indie developer responded so professionally and with such care about their games! MY UPDATED FIRST IMPRESSIONS SCORE: Recommended! My Score: 9 out of 10! A fantastic value at only $3 USD and any fan of those old PS1 style adventure games should snag this little gem for sure! ------------ ORIGINAL REVIEW (On April 10, 2022) ------------ I hate to give this game a "Not Recommend" because after playing it for about a half an hour, it's obvious that a lot of care of work went into making this game.. and it's also obvious that this game is sooo close to being a little gem of an indie game! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHefKI7TYAQ The Developer made a poor decision however to lock the FOV (Field of View) in too low, likely because he didn't want to have to create a hand holding your sword or weapon equipped. Instead he wanted to simply put the FOV too low (say 70) so the equipped sword asset was only seen and that's a big problem for many people. Our brain and eyes are used to around a 90 FOV in real life, and when a game locks in a FOV too low, it can make many people start feeling queasy or sick to their stomach just playing the game for any extended amount of time. In my case with this game, that started being felt only about 10-15 minutes into the game, and it slowly starts making you feel more and more queasy the longer you play. I also don't like or understand the developers decision to make all the mobs re-spawn just a few seconds after you slay them, because they all drop loot and this could make it way too easy to acquire gold and resources just by running in circles slaying mobs over and over. Another gripe I have is that this game has NO options at all for audio adjustments or video quality settings. There's not even any way to change the game from full screen to windowed. The developer made a cool little game here, don't get me wrong, but I feel like his laziness with the above mentioned problems is what makes this game a bad game! ..It could so easily be a great little gem, that is frustrating to me as an indie game critic! It's so close to being a great little indie adventure game, especially at this $3 price point. I hope the developer cares enough about his first title to make the changes needed to not make a good percentage of people who play his game feel sick to their stomach just playing it! NOT Recommended (until the FOV is set to 90 or 95 minimum). Another great and pretty easy change would be allowing the player to adjust the game volume as there is no current options in the game at all.