The Hermit Chronicles

Before I proceed with my review, I want to preface that I recommend this game because I think it has great potential. As long as the developer continues to work the game and pushes bug-fixes; this game could become a great time passer. What I like: The sounds of nature, the birds, the breeze, the moving of the trees provides the environment I know as the PNW. It truly feels like I'm in the pine forest of Oregon with the ferns while flowers and grasses. I like the fact you start off with an area you can sleep, cook, and safe place to run to if needed. Given this game assumes you've already established yourself and explored the area, you have trails to follow and a full map to show you where the POIs are. This game wasn't marketed as, you got dropped off some place and you have to gather and build before dark sets. While I like those types of games as well, this one was marketed as you are a hermit living in the woods away from the city, enjoying your solitude. Items that you can pick up appear to be easily spotted, though the only thing I could find to pick up so far, were sticks. I like when you press tab you see a compass to see what direction you're traveling to situate yourself on the map or to where you're going. Though, I haven't tried going off the trails much yet, if you can, in some areas you need to jump and I haven't figured out if you're able to jump yet to see if you can go off the trails yet. Discovered Bugs: 1. The most obvious one would be the menu and the fact it's a challenge to move my mouse around to click on a menu item. This includes when you bring up the calendar to save your game and when you try and cook something on the stove. I wasn't able to exit out of the cooking menu because the mouse pointer didn't show up and couldn't figure out what hotkey to press to cancel out. I had to exit and reload the game. 2. About 5 - 10 minutes in, the FPS drops considerably and for about 30 seconds I can't move or I just bounce all over the place. Then every 2 - 5 minutes there's this 30 second FPS drop... I'm assuming it could be the games autosaving? Just a thought. My computer may also play a role in that, though other steam games have not shown this much FPS issues as of yet. Things That Need Work Again, this could simply be the fact I haven't had enough game time in do to the bugs I mentioned above has discouraged me from playing longer. I've not been able to figure out how to bring up the crafting menu. I noticed my inventory pops when I press and hold the tab, but I'm not able to select anything. I do see it's possible to have an axe, but either crafting is currently unavailable at this time and I need to find an axe, or, I just haven't found the right hotkeys yet. I've tried all the common keys, F, I, C, B, M, etc. The only thing I've found so far is MAP and COMPASS/INVENTORY. I also was going to say not a whole lot to gather, but it's probably because I haven't gone too far from the cabin do to the issue with FPS and the fact I fear my computer will crash at any moment losing the game time/stats/items I've gathered thus far. I will follow the news on this and try again after more updates come through. Overview? Great start! Looking forward to seeing where this goes.