A very interesting, enjoyable horse game!
I’ve played many horse games and am always on the lookout for new ones with different ideas. I’ve got to say this one really stands out to me, I’m very impressed. If you want a game where the horse and character animation and design are beautiful and perfect, then this is probably not the game for you. But if (like me) you want a horse game that includes unusual, interesting features (something a little different from the rest!) and an open world to explore freely, then you’d probably really enjoy this game. Let me go over some of the features:
World: Large and open, with some beautiful, detailed animations in it. Things like the plants moving in the breeze, leaves falling in the forests and the other little animals running around are nice touches. There is also a nice range of biomes: a large beach, some mountain like areas, and a lovely forest, with a village and some houses and farms to explore. Additionally, there is a day and night cycle and a choice to change the time by sleeping.
Quests: Plenty to keep you busy for a while. The dialogue is a little bit strange in English, but understandable.
Races/Steering mechanics: Steering has improved since Beta but can still be a little difficult. Levelling up your horse (or buying skills) does improve this a lot though. The races themselves are quite challenging, which was fine for me (I like a challenge), but perhaps not for people who like things easy.
Character customisation: Could be better, but hey, there’s a solution to this (see point of view). There is a fair amount of characters to choose from and it’s not just limited to one gender (unlike the many other horse games that only allow you to play as a girl). The animation of the character’s moving and jumping is a bit strange looking, though you get used to it after a while.
Horse customisation: No, there’s not a selection screen to pick and customize any of your horses. But you can choose your horse’s mane colour and change it as much as you want, either by finding or buying different colours. And by colours, I mean you can have bright green or blue if you want!
Music: Very relaxing background music, very appropriate.
Positive Features (a cut above many other horse games!):
Swimming: Most horse games have limits on your swimming abilities, either not allowing you to or limiting the time you can spend. On this game, as long as you’re on your horse, if there’s water then you can swim!
Point of view: The solution if you dislike your character! You can play entirely in first person and never have to look at the character! Unlike many other games in general which limit your point of view to only third person or first person, you get to choose by just pressing Tab!
Taming: Not many other “horse” games you can do this in (it is sometimes a side feature in some games from other genres). The system is not overly complicated, but finding the wild horses is a little trickier, as there are no marks on the map as to where they are.
Pets: The pets are very well animated, and not your normal household pets! I love the variety in them and that they can find/collect resources for you!
Cons of this game:
Horse care system: Not really a con in my case but, the horse care system is not very interactive. You simply buy the items and click on your horse to use them, there are no mini games for this.
Menu options: Unfortunately, there is no way to choose a 1) name for your character and 2) to have more than one profile. Not really a problem for me either.
Graphics: Yes, the world graphics are beautiful, but you do have to have a pretty beefy computer to run this game. I could only play on low graphics.
I definitely recommend this game. 9/10
