Judgement: Recommended
View review on Steam
Solid game. I played on Easy since I'm not the biggest in to resource management. Seeing 8 people with 16 yellow to orange status bars was too much so after surviving on Normal to day 14 I swapped it to Easy. Which was the right decision.
The most interesting part of the game is the discussions but they only happen at the end of the day. It's similar to the story progression after a run in Hades. After your day of survival, all 8 (or less if some are aliven't) either shoot the breeze with each other or have a story event happen. Now, I stuck the game out to 100+ days just milking the calendar to get more of the plot exposed. And I still feel like it would take another 20-40 days at the pace things are going. Or, it does not take that long and there are unknown requirements that I'm not fulfilling to get certain events.
Most of my gripes with the game are fixed by just playing it on Easy instead of Normal. There are some small mechanical issues, typos, and ambiguity about skill checks but nothing major. For instance, there are some large clams you can try to pry open with a Strength check. But, does succeeding with 100 strength versus lucking out with 40 strength yield better/worse results? All your characters also have Scavenge and Gathering skills. If your buff Giant Clam destroying guy has a garbage scavenge/gathering skill does that play in to what you receive? I'm assuming it's just bigger number on a skill just makes it easier to pass the check and there is nothing else to read in to. But, once I had the thought I did save opening some chests and things until I had better stats just in case.
Strangely, there appeared to be some items with just no purpose? Like I found skulls, bamboo, and rotten food to name a few but they can't be used for anything besides taking up inventory space. At least as far as I could tell.
If you read this far the TL;DR is game worth it for 15 bucks even if resource management isn't your jam. I hear the sequel Dead In Vinland improved on stuff but I haven't played it yet so I can't say. No reason to skip out on this one though. Game is enjoyable enough that I'll probably end up doing a second playthrough where nobody works together. Since my 1st playthrough everybody held hands and sang Kumbaya around the campfire like it was summer camp.
The most interesting part of the game is the discussions but they only happen at the end of the day. It's similar to the story progression after a run in Hades. After your day of survival, all 8 (or less if some are aliven't) either shoot the breeze with each other or have a story event happen. Now, I stuck the game out to 100+ days just milking the calendar to get more of the plot exposed. And I still feel like it would take another 20-40 days at the pace things are going. Or, it does not take that long and there are unknown requirements that I'm not fulfilling to get certain events.
Most of my gripes with the game are fixed by just playing it on Easy instead of Normal. There are some small mechanical issues, typos, and ambiguity about skill checks but nothing major. For instance, there are some large clams you can try to pry open with a Strength check. But, does succeeding with 100 strength versus lucking out with 40 strength yield better/worse results? All your characters also have Scavenge and Gathering skills. If your buff Giant Clam destroying guy has a garbage scavenge/gathering skill does that play in to what you receive? I'm assuming it's just bigger number on a skill just makes it easier to pass the check and there is nothing else to read in to. But, once I had the thought I did save opening some chests and things until I had better stats just in case.
Strangely, there appeared to be some items with just no purpose? Like I found skulls, bamboo, and rotten food to name a few but they can't be used for anything besides taking up inventory space. At least as far as I could tell.
If you read this far the TL;DR is game worth it for 15 bucks even if resource management isn't your jam. I hear the sequel Dead In Vinland improved on stuff but I haven't played it yet so I can't say. No reason to skip out on this one though. Game is enjoyable enough that I'll probably end up doing a second playthrough where nobody works together. Since my 1st playthrough everybody held hands and sang Kumbaya around the campfire like it was summer camp.
Review posted on 09/11/2021, 02:13:00.