The Legend of Khiimori

I played this game for 17 hours on steam and for around 30 hours by other means (that I can't disclose here). When it was in the early stages I had SO much fun with it, even though there was no story implemented or anything. Just roaming, delivering, breeding horses and caring for them was enough for me. TLDR: If you're into a half-baked wannabe fantasy game with some horse and survival elements from a company that now uses Mongolian history only as an excuse simply because they grabbed the EA money and outside funding and just did whatever they want, this is the game for you. If you're looking for an actual fun horse-game to play? THIS IS NOT IT. Stay away from this as far as possible. I spent so many hours just doing that, happily so. It was my comfort game at the time, because life was mean to me. Then I got the steam version and I was really excited to finally gather achievements and start a new save. But then came the 'updates'. The game claimed, at the start, to be focused on Mongolian history and folklore. So I expected that when the story would be put in, it would be around our courier connecting the tribes, camps and villages and discovering the world and herself yadda yadda. Even with bringing foreign horse breeds in, I was still hopeful because it made at least from a gameplay standpoint somewhat sense???? But otherwise.. This is not what I got. After already putting so many hours into this game, the Devs entirely changed direction on it. Suddenly there were ghosts and a corruption feature that nobody wanted. 'But you can turn it off.' is btw a lie. It will be necessary for the upcoming full release otherwise you just play in a sandbox with no progress made. So while their community really just wants this horse-game they promised, they are now making a half-baked fantasy game that will never be able to compete. They set this game up for failure. Aside from that, the Devs are absolutely ignorant of their Community's feedback. I've been following this for a while and you can clearly see the point where constructive criticism (pardon my English, its my second language.) turned into frustration, anger and toxicity. People wanted to love this game but the company said: Nah, F*** you guys. Aside from scummy practises and the absolutely wrong choices they made for this game, Legend of Khiimori has SEVERE performance issues. My PC is not some mega-machine, but it runs even new games decently. This one? It brought my PC to it's knees. Optimisation is basically not existent here, not to mention the constant crashes or the game not even starting. 'But it's Early Access' I hear, nah. I played plenty of early access games with less funding or team size, even with comparable graphic level and their games ran smooth as butter. This is just either lack of technical knowledge or not bothering with fixing it. And let's not forget the endless amount of bugs. But instead of addressing the glaring issues, they ignore everything entirely. There is zero communication from the Devs aside from their delulu-ideas. Do not buy this game. Do not support companies like this. I wanted the original vision of this game and they were on a good path, but then botched it up entirely. Shame, that. I hope some other more capable company pics up on the concept.

What was supposed to be a realistic horse game has now become just another annoying fantasy game with recent updates, might as well just go play any other horse game.

I genuinely wanted to recommend this game, but in good conscience, I cannot. I would have loved it if it had stayed true to its original marketing as a grounded, historical survival and exploration game. Instead, the developers have pivoted heavily, turning it into what I would consider an action-adventure game centered around fighting fantasy enemies the corruption. While I understand that games evolve during Early Access, fundamentally changing the genre and misleading your core player base is unacceptable. The argument that "you can just turn the fantasy elements off" doesn't excuse the bait-and-switch. If the plan was always to make an action game, the marketing and store tags should have reflected that from day one. Do not buy this expecting the historical survival experience you were promised.

The weird corruption update that came out of left field has also made it so all the NPC's are constantly depressed or anxious about 'strange things', even if there's no corruption nearby. Totally changed the atmosphere of the game from hopeful and growing to dark and afraid.

Game is completely going into the wrong direction, please give us what was promised. Writing this review with the current state of the game being the corruption update. So at this time, do not recommend this update.

With the "corruption" update, this game isn’t what they promised anymore! This game was supposed to be a realistic adventure in 13th-century Mongolia, where the main antagonist was supposed to be the climate and the terrain. The whole horse-breeding system was meant to support that: breeding horses that could handle those obstacles so you could trade successfully. Now it turned into a fantasy game where you have to fight against supernatural stuff. In the game description, none of that is mentioned!! The "corruption" update doesn’t match the description stated here on Steam. I was expecting a game focused on the experience of being a Yam messenger, overcoming the challenges of the environment together with your horses... not a shooter where you’re battling supernatural creatures. Nowhere in their description do they mention that the game is focused on fighting “corruption” and possessed animals. I feel disappointed with the direction they’ve decided to take with this game. I don’t doubt that all those supernatural elements they added are based on local folklore and spirituality, but they’ve turned a unique beautiful game into a generic, fantasy mishmash.

I want to leave this review in good faith, the corruption update is utter nonsense, the rest of the game is wonderful, from the horses, to the missions to the world as a whole, i hope the many voices of the players that are unhappy with the update (which are many) will reach the devs. I get the idea of wanting to "spice things up" trying to add a threat and a sense of urgency to the game...but this game aint for it, especially since it is something so out of place and supernatural, this game is for mongolian culture, delivering cargo and admire the sceneries. So please devs, think about the direction you want to take for this game. My 2 cents suggestion is this, change the corruption into something more grounded like a rival clan or another population trying to take over the land

I want to post a counter review to all the people "not recommending" because of the new corruption mechanic, as I feel they are being disingenuous in their representation of the game. The new corruption mechanic, while challenging, can be fun and fits the narrative the developers were already establishing, as they already had spirits and magical "Oovoos" in the game; it did not SUDDENLY become a fantasy game without warning, those elements were already there. Secondly, the corruption mechanic CAN BE TURNED OFF! IF YOU DO NOT LIKE IT, YOU CAN TURN IT OFF! When the corruption mechanic was released in beta, many people (including me) gave feedback that it was too aggressive and tedious at the time and that we would like an option to turn it off. IN THE VERY NEXT BETA PATCH, THE DEVS GAVE US THIS OPTION. THEY ARE EXTREMELY PROACTIVE IN LISTENING TO THEIR COMMUNITY! In subsequent patches, they continued to listen to their players and reduced the difficulty of the corruption mechanic further. Lastly, this game is in EARLY ACCESS! There will be bugs, and there will be mechanics that aren't tuned correctly yet, and even things that you do not like. But you can rest assured that the developers of this game care about their players and their players' thoughts, and that they consistently listen to feedback. It is a great game with a great dev team. Thanks for reading.