Reka is by far a stand-out pagan/witchcraft game; the concept is utterly fantastic. I enjoy how in-depth the spellcrafting and magic system is, the environment is beautiful, it has all the desirables of a cozy crafting game and overall I'd recommend it. The statements I have about the game below are personal and, quite frankly, blunt; However, I do truly hope that they inspire creativity rather than discouragement. This is both for the devs and also anyone considering buying the game.
That being said, there are some pretty big issues with the game itself; additionally I have some comments about the gameplay mechanics, quality of life and content.
Regarding the game itself:
It's extremely buggy still. I've been playing for a little over two years now, almost 200 hours in. Some quests don't load, sometimes my cursor doesn't register that I'm selecting an item or it will over-select items I'm trying to pick up (which can be a problem later when trying to collect wood). Objects get stuck in the environment including the chicken hut and even npc collisions are an occasional nightmare.
I was really looking forward to building a house but the way building materials/objects interact is abysmal and does not function half of the time unless you're trying to make the house a simple square block; larger builds are doable given you have the patience of a saint or don't care about the bugs (I have tried larger builds numerously with mediocre success). The amount of times I've had to restart a game just to try and make any progress is likely in the 40's, which I would consider egregious at best.
Regarding gameplay (mechanics):
- I appreciate the evolution the controls have had over the past couple years, however it feels like they've become convoluted at this point; It's as though the devs have tried to reinvent a wheel for the sake of uniqueness when in reality they just need to be uniform, intuitive and functional. The multiple scroll wheels are clunky, have become over-complicated and are effectively visual clutter, not to mention the opposite of intuitive. There's almost too many options to choose from, I personally believe that either a V Rising item/sorting system, custom button mapping, or simply having things sorted by the numbers on the keyboard (think Stardew) would be more beneficial in terms of gameplay and visual polish than whatever the hell the wheels have going on right now.
- A better or more polished targeting system would be great for the crows. It's way too sensitive now with no definitive way to specify what you're trying to grab using them; I've been punished by Leshy more than enough times for accidentally picking wood when I was trying to get even a single raspberry. I'm still putting my thoughts together on what a good replacement would be for this system.
- Having world events would be such a major boon to this game. I want to see the NPCs having holidays and learning about more Slavic folklore through them as well as Baba Yaga. Also, it'd be fun to see Baba Yaga interacting with the hut in small ways instead of just sitting forever. If the character is supposed to learn from her, I'd like her to be a legitimate resource or a character that's fun to talk too in all her grumpy glory instead of the same 3 dialogue options all the time. There is little to no motivation to talk to her at all.
Regarding gameplay (quality of life-ish):
- These are more personal gripes. After the first trial, the NPCs are all the same. The world, while cosmetically beautiful, is near-devoid of life. There is little to no drive to explore the world, and I feel like such a visually rich environment should have more care taken to it, Slavic folklore has so many fun things that could be added (I'd love a quest about summoning a Domovyk to NPC houses!). It doesn't feel like there's a reason to interact with anything other than the quests and I'm dying to see more of what the environment and NPCs can offer. Also, having different biomes would be amazing, not just the occasional wetlands that can be hard to traverse and have their own unique bugs.
- I'd like there to be an over-arching, slightly more definitive storyline along with the quests Baba Yaga sets you on. Outside of quests, there's no motivation to talk to NPC villagers other than for basic fetch quests that get boring very quickly. Each new location is all the same, the villages are not unique and Id love to see some different layouts for that as well, everything is copy paste at the moment and it turns me off of playing after about an hour.
- A more developed character creator would be very fun. I do not see a reason for items to be locked.
I'd like to see the devs add more Salvic folklore based quests, flesh out the NPCs, put more time in on the controls, stop copy/pasting absolutely everything and most importantly, take their time with the game. The concept is so amazing and I can tell how much love has gone into it, but it's current state comes across as an unfinished idea with somewhat aimless direction, it feels rushed.
I do still recommend the game, though. To me, it is worth the $20 for a work-in-progress game that has a truly unique concept/story with so much room to grow.
