After putting around 23 hours into this game, it’s become clear to me why a lot of people wouldn’t want to pick this game up.
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Optimization: This is the biggest problem and cannot be overstated. I run a 3060, and the Steam page recommends a 2060. This game is practically unplayable at times for me due to combat almost always running under 20 frames. The main thing causing this slowdown is characters and enemies. I can get 40 frames when there are no enemies on the screen, but it immediately drops the second an enemy appears. The more enemies on screen and characters, the worse it becomes. The Crucible’s high enemy density compared to the rest of the game makes some floors practically unplayable, and all the cutscenes at the beginning of the game, with all the characters, consistently run at a cool 4 to 5 frames a second. Some basic things that could help are a render distance. Areas with a lot going on in the background cause a lot of slowdown, and adding a render distance would be extremely helpful (especially in lowland meadows). Having any kind of low graphics setting would be amazing, and maybe turn down the character and enemy detail more when not in a cutscene or in the background of a cutscene.
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Repairing. The repairing mechanic is just not providing any kind of meaningful interaction. This mechanic scares off new players, and at the beginning of the game is just another thing keeping your money down. However, the moment you start doing bounties and have excess gear to sell, the repair cost immediately becomes inconsequential. Oh, I’m stuck at a boss, and my gear is getting weak? Let me just teleport back to Sacrament and pay the 28 copper cost with my 10 silver, then teleport back. That is the most this mechanic has ever had any effect. At least that’s what I would say if repair kits weren’t a thing. If you want to keep it on tools as a limit to the amount you can grind, that would be a good idea, but it’s completely meaningless on gear.
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Cooking. This mechanic is extremely punishing, but mainly for new players. When you first start the game, you can’t really cook anything, and when you can, you always have a low amount of food. This keeps new players from challenging harder enemies and serves as a limit to what they can accomplish, even when they have the gear and skill to be the enemy. Not wanting to fight means fewer enemy drops and fewer going to areas for resources, which is just another meaningless barrier to entry until you can move comfortably through an area and start stockpiling food. After I could start going through the first area without much risk, I never had to worry about food again, and I now probably have upwards of 80 meals on me. Cooking only works as another barrier to new players, with players who are past the early game not having to care anymore. If you really want to keep cooking, here are some things that could make it better. Have a basic recipe for each tier of herbs learned by default, and make some meals, at least in the early game, that don’t need herbs so that new players aren’t harshly limited.
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Early Game Character Building. This game’s loot design doesn’t go well with the stat attribute system, but it isn’t that bad once you get out of the early game. That being said, it’s terrible in the early game. The main reason for this is that players going into the game are likely to already have a build or playstyle in mind, only to start with no weapon. The player is at the mercy of the random loot system to get something they want. This resulted in me fighting my way through the first area with a wand and shield when I wanted to be a dex character. This meant that my stat distribution had no meaning until I finally got a dex weapon. Simply letting players pick at least a starter weapon would be massively helpful.
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Construction. Upgrading buildings is just weird in this game. Some upgrades are really important, and others don’t do much. At first, the timer on buildings bothered me, but as I kept playing, I stopped caring because the upgrades feel so useless. The only four people that mattered to me were the blacksmith, the woodworker, the chef, and Eleanor. Everyone else was largely useless, and even then, these characters didn’t do much. Outside of repairs, the blacksmith is only good for better tools. The chef is the only reason I got recipes for the tier three herb. Eleanor was nice for a couple of pieces of gear. The woodworker was nice for the house, though. everyone else kind of sucks and upgrading feels pretty meaningless. I didn’t care about how long the upgrade took because I realised they were never going to be good enough to get me excited. I would suggest turning down the timer or getting rid of it because it’s just one of those things that’s easy to hate and doesn’t have any meaningful effect on gameplay. Maybe make the upgrades do more, and don’t be so stingy about crafting recipes.
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Storage. There is not much to say here. Please get rid of the resource storage cap or make the community chest big enough to fit every resource in the game. Storage management is just another chore I have to do when I get back to Sacrament, and keeping players from being able to grab every resource they see is a bad way to stunt player growth when resources are so important in this game.
I believe these are the main reasons new people don’t try this game or end up leaving, and why some of these systems don’t feel good or don’t have a meaningful effect on gameplay. The new player experience is so rough that in my 23-hour experience, those first couple of hours were easily the hardest. I cannot stress enough that Optimization is the biggest problem here. The other systems were annoying at their worst, but optimization is the biggest reason I have wanted to quit this game several times, and the main reason others won’t even be able to give this game a chance.