Grimmwood Open Beta

Original Review, edit at bottom. The game is a ton of fun, has huge potential, I enjoy the graphics and the entire idea behind the game. Unfortunately for some reason you only get to play it for 5-10 minutes a day as it has the slowest energy system of any game I’ve ever seen. I see people talking about how they like it because then you don’t have some try hard playing constantly all day. The issue I have is that it is a co op game, and who doesn’t want a committed teammate. I’d love to see them put their day system on a 1-2 hour loop and make it an actual survival/ work together game that you actually play, but I get that they aren’t going to. I’ll keep on it for a bit and see what they do with it, but for now as I don’t really feel you’re actually playing a game, I can’t suggest it (even though I realllllllly want to be able to) Edit: It's getting there. With the recent increase to how much stamina you get in a time period the devs are moving in the right direction. I'm still on the fence as to if i could recommend it, but i think the devs are moving in the right direction. Depending on how they decide to go with things i think i could change it to a for sure recommendation to buy, but we'll get there

I have played this game, and ignore the other reviews. This is an open beta to test the game and the server. Of course there will be some server drops. Also this game has ZERO microtransactions and will not have them at time of release. This is a unique game that is pretty fun. It really is more of a base managment game with a social aspect. You have to work with 30 others players. I am looking forward to more updates and the release.

Has great potiential if the devs account for player feedback. I'm going to reccomend it for now, despite the copious issues, in the hopes that they will be resolved ( a lot of the issues seem to deal with sp balancing and server issues, which are completely fixable) however if they do not get resolved I will change my stance. Just know that this game is very unstable and I also perfer really niche games so my postive review may not make sense to you. Con's - Need a great deal of work on providing adequate player feedback. Ex. It's really hard to tell if you are meditating, since the colour of the ring when meditate ( and other actions) are active is almost indistinguishable from the thinner yellow ring when not active, and it blends into the other colour in the game too easiy. Needs better feedback for resting SP gains and rates. - Game isn't super intuitive in design, takes a bit of looking around and asking to figure out how some things work. There is a wikipedia page but flipping between a wiki and gameplay can be annoying. - Doesn't make sense why you can only make things or build things if the item is in storage, but not in your inventory. - Servers are extremely unstable ( Devs posted on discord that this is due to a DDOS attack so should be resolved now) - Can't really play the game for more than 10 min due to SP issues, which is not ideal unless this game was intended to be an idle or mobile esque game. I think most people thought this game was different, such as myself, when they downloaded it, which is why many are frustrated. There wasn't really much indication that this game ran on an sp system. But if they intend it to be played this way, they should change the product description so people don't come into the game thinking one thing and get bamboozled and upset realizing it's not like the description seemed. - You can get stranded in the middle of nowhere because of SP issues easily. Pro's + Concept is very unique, working with a small number of players to get things done. + I like the artistic style + Takes strategy management single player themes from other games, and makes it into a multiplayer. + If you like Darkest Dungeon, you will probably like this + There is a wikipedia page that has a lot of information on it + Devs are active on discord and answer questions from players.

I'm really sorry to give this game thumbs down, but it simply lacks too much in current state. It feels to me like missed chance. The atmosphere is great, graphic also great, idea about group of people working together toward survival, again, great. So what went wrong? After few days of surviving yours impact to the game is as follows: you log in, see who's died last night by leaving his toon just on the wrong side of the fence, pick up the things he carried (and that is usually half of the village storage), and bring that stuff back to storage. Than you look what mats you need for next level of defense and go just outside to collect them (after day 2, you really dont need to go beyond 2 spaces around the village, you will die before you collect everything usefull from those spaces). Than you transform raw mats into advanced mats, and then you use all your remaining stamina on building the damn structure. That can be done in 5-10 mins tops. Then you log in some 8 hrs later, and again spend all stamina on building the damn structure. That is 1 more minute. Than in evening you do the same. So another minute. And thats it. log in, click build for 200, log out. There are creatures in the woods, but I just dont see any point in killing them, much easier is just to ignore them. So what can be done? Rehaul. The game should be about players investing their time adventuring, not building the damn wall (sounds familiar eh?). Players should focus on chasing monsters thru woods, exploring dungeons (which are currently nonexistent), looting their arses for ocasional armor or weapon, and some mats (there should be just one form of mats, no need for idiotic crafting system) which you bring back to village. Nonplaying villagers should worry about building a wall, maybe you should vote each day on what to build next day. You should 'level' in form of aquiring new traits or boons, not HP, so experinced player is just a tad more harder to hit or maybe he/she is just a bit stronger etc. And you should have a chance on escaping the village the day it gets destroyed, so you could transfer your toon (maybe with some negative effects) to next village. In current state there is no real connection with character. After day 2, when game slows down to building a wall, there is no reason why not to just go out and kill yourself in order to go to new village and do some exploring.

The main problem the negative reviews have is the "lack of stamina". That completely misses the point of the game. Stamina is a valuable, limited resource and you need to use it well. Once you get organized and communicate future plans, you work together efficiently. Play to your strengths and you do better. The goal is to see how long you can last - but know that you will all die eventually. "I can't do anything because I run out of juice" is the core of the challenge. This is 30-person game, you can't do everything yourself. It's like raiding in an MMO and complaining you can only heal. You are one part of many - of course you are limited in your actions.

I can honestly say that at first, I was confused, frustrated, and dissapointed with the game. I kept on saying to myself the same things I'v read here so much. "I wanted so badly to like this game. But I don't. I can't do anything and I feel frustrated." And then I realized how it was mean to be played and that changed everything. If you approach this game the way the devs meant for it to be played (and if you enjoy games like that) you will enjoy it greatly. First, and most important thing to say: You are going to die. No matter what you do, you will die. It does not mean you will not have fun. This is a survival game, a test of team cooperation and resilience, and ultimately a race against overwhelming odds that you will not win. Your reward is the fun you have in between. Kinda like real life, if you think about it. :) It is very important to approach this game knowing what to expect or you will have a bad time. 1. You will NOT sit and play for 10 hours straight and build an entire village from scratch by yourself. 2. You will NOT explore the whole map in one sitting and return home safely. 3. You will NOT grab an axe and run through all the monsters on the map like you are Kratos. 4. You will have to cooperate with others in order to truly get the best experience. In order for your village, and you by extension, to survive as long as possible, there are a mutitude of tasks that need to be done. From gathering building materials, to constructing tools and actual building defenses, to gatheing and preparing food and potions, there is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of work to do and not enough stamina to do it. You can eat food to regain stamina but you will quickly become "well fed" which is a sign to stop eating at which point eating more will do more harm than good (much as in real life). You will be able to do a limited number of actions per day for a total of 20-60 minutes active gameplay per day. You will have to manage your stamina to do the things that you want to accomplish. So if you want to complete a large project that would meaningully benefit your village, it would have to be a team effort. So, you chop the wood, carry a bit and get back to safety. Your buddy, collects the leftovers that you couldn't carry. Then someone in the village makes pillars out of the wood. Then a bunch of people put the effort to build a defensive structure. Then when nightitme comes and the monsters attack, you get to live another day. Someone else is doing potions to buff your efforts, someone else is hogging all the food and is not doing any work so the villagers have to kick him out. The only way to achieve that is if you have players who are communicating with one another. And that's the beauty of this game, once you get communication going and things start getting done as a team, you feel a sense of accomplisment, even though you individually can't do that much each day. That's the bare bones of the game - small bursts of action, mixed with a lot of communication to lead to either very strong feeling of satisfaction of a job well done, or utter frustration with teammates who just mess things up. Past that bare minimum necessity of the game, it offers a lot of exploration (which is difficult because if you end up stranded outside overnight, you risk being killed by the night attack). Multiple items and monsters as well. But those are to be accessed after you have died a few times, and you have learned how to ballance the exploration with the whole need to survive tonight and build up my village for tomorrow thing. Accept that you will have to die, over and over to really lean how to be better for the next run and to do more and experience more on your next run. The game has good ambiance, nice graphics that set the mood well. There is also nice sound, that matches the mood well too. The gameplay can be considered slow by it has to be deliberate in order for it to be satisfying. There are still bugs that pop up but it is still a beta.

I like the idea of this game very much, but you need stamina points to basically do everything. And the stamina points are loading very slowly. You can get them through eating, but at some point you cannot do that either. Basically it means you can play maybe 20-30 minutes per day and you are done and this game is real time play. I've just did some exploration to get stuff for my village and now I am stuck for hours before I even can come back. Then I will use the points to get back and won't be able to do anything to help protect the village. It's so frustrating, because I want to play not wait, wait, wait and wait. At this rate of loading stamina points it's simply not playable. Update: There's something wrong with the game balance. I am playing for a week now, and at this point there are just six players alive in my village and over thirty dead. Apparently you can die from not drinking, which looks like you die if you simply won't log in. No newcomers in the village and slow stamina regeneration means it's simply not possible to protect the village during next night attack: we will all be dead in a day or two.

So ... I probably want to say the same things than the other, with some points in addition. First of all, my english is really not perfect, so sorry for writing mystakes. PROS * This game have a huge potential. * The community spirit, the cooperative play develop is absolutly awesome. If we take care and involve a little, you can easily imagine this harsh and brutal world. You try to help your village, travel through this evilish land to gather precious ressources and hardly help building poor defenses against the grey horde. You placard notices on Town Hall to federate your community and try to lead them to survive. * The graphics, ambiances and sound are very good. Deep you in this dark atmosphere, with no music except the sound of yours steps. * The playing system is hard and grateful. The remain and vital tasks are difficult, and you need everybody to be involved. In french, there is a expression which fit very well, like "Put your stone to the building", and thats represent the feeling. MEHS * The character system is correct, but not very interesting. In cause, the lack of personalisation, with the total absence of explanations about skills, stats or perks, and mainly the fact that this stats are completly useless in your task choice : like the others, you build, gather, hunt, cook, fight with no real difference except a sentence in your sheet thats says "you are good in gather wood", but don't feel the advantage. * The conditions system is attractive, but strange. This game try to be a little close to real life (a little), but every time you do something, that's randomly pop a Thirsty or Hungry condition (and with the stamina system, eating is powerful but like i said ... strange). CONS * The fighting system is barely meaningless, it's basicly a "press one unique button and look what happen". And that's the case where you fight random monster outside the town. In Night Attack mode, you simply do nothing, and more of that, you don't know if wearing a weapon, or a specific type of weapon, influence the fight in any ways (both in Squirmish or Night Attack). * The social actions (dance, flirt, chat) have a total lack of details. What's the difference beetwen them ? What's the tru effect on Sanity ? and more of that, What's the use/effect of Sanity ? (for me, the Sanity bar is always full or barely, and all loss are anecdotic). * The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful stamina system. Don't need to say more, see the other comments. Slow regeneration, hight spending, unique way to do something for 10 minutes a day, and no capacity to refull it except with Sleep (almost 1 point every 3 minutes ... where cut a tree cost 20 points) and Rejuvenation Potion wich be un-craftable and extremely rare to find. * The Death. Oh that's the last surprise i've got and force me to leave and uninstall, because there is no informations, no clues, no warnings. In a world of darkness and bloodshed, in a world where every steps is dangerous and deadly, the death is completly f*** up. You can die several times (and you die several times), and be resurrect by *insert random ancient magic entities* until ... suprise ! ... you die definitly and delete your character, and kick off your town, and propose to recreate a new one, and load you in a new different town. O.K.A.Y ! So all i do in my town, all friends i met, all time i spend to improve and protect my village is just ... gone ? vanish ? delete ?. And, like me, he can happen in log in screen with the message "You die in Night Attack ! Do you want to create a new character ?". F*** ! Can i let a message to my friends ? Send them a email from the otheworld to prevent i can't coming back ? God ! Sorry for that's long textpoint but that's take me out of hell. ---- Conclusion I spend 3 hours in this game (in almost 7 days) and i like it. I can pass through the stamina system, but the death ... In my actual opinion, this game doesn't deserve to be invest until deep changes, and deep systems review. So that's why i put a red thumb. My final words are : "I install a paying game on my computer (free now, but not in future). I play 10/20 minutes a day on it, die and be erase from my game. And all i feel the same when i play a pay-to-play mobile facebook game, only difference by graphics. That's it. I will look it from far away but i probably move to other seas". Cheer

Hardly much of a game here at all. Pros: Nice victorian style artwork. Nice audio. Cons: Totally blows as a "game". Looks like some potential here, but I wouldn't even call it an alpha. You can move around on a hexagonal grid, you'll probably run out of stamina before you find anything interesting. You might fight some badies here and there but it will be one battle maybe and if you even survive you will have to wait until you heal up and have stamina again. It's looking to be more of a survival thing wherre you will get a bunch of random calmities thrown at you. After one fight I could not fight again until at least a day later do several random negative conditions and having no stamina and no way to restore it. There is little gameplay, and what there is of it isn't fun. Maybe it will become somthing someday, but as it is in stage it's frankly not worth the time it takes to download.