Recent reviews by Lihvar

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I hate Unreal Engine so much it's UNREAL

An amazing hidden gem, its bit rough around the edges, but overall this game is a solid 7.5/10 for its time.
An okay-ish story, that does seem a bit rushed in the last chapter(Palace) but very fun gameplay with a mix of melee and magic combat, though keep in mind some spells are useless and dont really work. The melee combat is great though, swords and hammers being the most fun weapons to use. The game overall is short, and I did take my time with it, did majority, if not all the side quests and it was a great experience that took me 16 hours to beat.
I did see some people mention that it has a slow start but I couldn't disagree more, you are pretty much instantly thrown into combat with a very short intro and then you are set off onto the main quest and it managed to hold my attention to the very end which is a massive plus, since with 99% of newer games I lose interest very quickly especially if the game has a slow start, but with Venetica, it held my attention from start to finish, its an easy story to follow and it is quite predictable but still fun. It would've benefited from a bit more dev time and maybe one more chapter, plus it would've been great if you could continue playing it after you completed it.

Now there are bugs, its an old game and most bugs I've encountered are combat related, like for example if you are not on the same elevation as the enemies spells dont hit, sometimes even if you are on the same elevation it can happen that spells don't hit/do damage. It can be annoying but since the game isn't that hard anyways it doesn't really matter too much.

Graphics are holding up well, it's not a game that tried to go for a realistic look, but it's more of a cartoony look similar to Fable and because of that it's still very pleasant to look at. I've played it on Linux via Proton with no issues at all. If the game went for a more realistic look it would've looked far worse today, so its great that they went with more stylized graphics.

Overall a 7.5/10, its a fun and short RPG and you can get its often on sale for 0.99 so for that price its well worth it

Would love to see a remake of it in sort of a Witcher 3 style, making the story more serious, fleshing out characters and gameplay, but while still keeping that old rpg(even mmorpg-ish) style of gameplay

This review is more of a love letter to the developers than a typical review. So, why is it negative? Read on.

I absolutely love this game, and it has the potential to become an all-time favourite for me. But as it stands right now, I’m really on the fence about recommending it. I wish there were a neutral option, because it’s still in Early Access, and I want this to serve as encouragement for the developers. This game is truly a hidden gem, and I hope it doesn’t stay that way—people really need to try it once it gets more polished! I was introduced to it by a roommate and spent over 40 hours playing on his PC before getting it myself, so my actual playtime is around 50 hours.

TL;DR:
Bellwright is a mix of Medieval Dynasty, Valheim, Palworld, a bit of Outward, and Kingdom Come. It’s very addictive and fun, but as it is right now, it feels a bit rough around the edges. One of the most annoying aspects for me at first were the player animations. I’ve seen others mention it too, but after 50+ hours, I don’t really notice it as much. That said, some animations still feel stiff and rough at times, which is odd because some animations are excellent while others are lacking. For instance, when running and turning the mouse quickly, the player character looks like they’re “drifting,” and the “jump over object” animation and camera feel a bit janky. If I could offer any advice to the devs, it would be to look at something like Assassin’s Creed Unity for smoother movement animations. There are bugs, of course, but nothing too major or game-breaking for me so far. The most common bugs I’ve encountered are villagers getting stuck on building Dirt Roads because they don’t have shovels in their inventory and village guards getting stuck standing in place.

The game is still missing some features and options I’d love to see, which I’ll dive into below. But as it’s still in Early Access, I’m hopeful that these features will be added with future updates. With some love and care, like the kind No Man’s Sky received, this game could really soar and become one of the best out there.

Features I’d love to see implemented:

Hardcore mode (permadeath)
Casual/Creative mode
Fishing
Swimming
Procedural map generation
Map markers
Photo mode
Customizable weather
AI improvements
First-person camera


Very in-depth and varied gameplay: It is extremely fun, offering a variety of activities like crafting, building, questing, bandit hunting, and animal hunting. There’s always something to do, and it never feels like you’re just repeating the same tasks.

Skill-based combat: At first, I was terrible at combat and didn’t enjoy it much, but as I improved, it became much more enjoyable. If you’re struggling at first, I recommend using a bow, and then transitioning to melee combat once you’re more comfortable.

Great crafting system and base-building mechanics: The evolution of crafting is well thought out. It starts with quick, rough buildings, but as you progress, you require better tools and more time to construct. While this is common in survival crafting games, this one does it right.

Great visuals: The game is visually beautiful, and it's relatively well-optimized. It also supports the latest graphical enhancements like FSR3, DLSS, and frame-gen, although these aren’t substitutes for good optimization.

Excellent sound design and music: The music and sound design are top-notch. The game uses temporary AI voices for villagers (which you can disable), but I didn’t even notice at first that they were AI-generated.


Hardcore/Permadeath mode: This would be a fun addition for those who want an extra layer of danger in the game. It would add a lot of excitement once you master combat.

Casual/Creative mode: For players who prefer crafting and building over combat (though combat is quite fun), a creative mode would be a great option.

AI Improvements: Both humans and animals could use better AI. Bandits can be very dumb and if you climb a rock or building they just get stuck letting you hit them, this needs to be improved. Villagers and Companions can also be difficult to command and are also prone to getting stuck.

Customizable snow/weather mechanics (duration, harshness, etc.): The winter/weather system feels rough and unfinished. I hope the current implementation is just the foundation, and that it will be developed further. The snow buildup is fantastic visually, but the overall winter mechanic isn’t very punishing yet. I’d love to see all four seasons and more complex weather, like mud buildup, harsher rains, and snow. Customization options like adjusting season durations or their harshness (e.g., extreme winter temperatures) would add an extra layer of depth.

Game speed/Day length customization: It would be nice to have a time multiplier to adjust game speed. Some players may prefer slower, longer days, while others may prefer faster ones. A general option to change this would be appreciated.

Better animations: The character drifting while running and stiff animations could use some polish. There’s definitely room for improvement here.

Procedural generation: While this might be a stretch, I believe the game would benefit from procedural map generation, similar to Valheim. I understand this game is very different in terms of settlements, villagers, and story, but a "Story Mode" and "Free Mode" with procedurally generated maps could work well. I hope the devs put as much love into this game as Hello Games did with No Man’s Sky.

Build Camera (like No Man’s Sky): This is a quality of life feature that would be a great addition. Looking at something like No Man's Sky’s build camera could be a good model to follow.

Map markers: Currently, there’s only a waypoint marker, which is great, but regular map markers are a must. It would be helpful to mark locations where you found resources, animals, etc. This feature would be especially important if the game gets procedural maps in the future.

First-person camera: It would be really cool to have a first-person view. I’ve seen this feature being worked on and had it in-game with a custom keybind, but it doesn’t seem to work anymore.

Photo mode: The game is visually stunning, and having a photo mode would let players take better screenshots. (For those who want to take screenshots without the UI, use Shift+U.)

Character customization: The options for character customization are currently very limited. While it’s not a major issue, I’d love to see more choices available.

Fishing/Swimming: There’s no fishing in the game yet, but it seems like it will be added later, and I’m hopeful that the implementation will be satisfying.

UI improvements: The UI is functional, but it could use some quality of life features, such as filtering, sorting, item search (within bags), and minimap icons that indicate current weather and season. The most annoying thing is that newly collected loot goes into your bag first, rather than your character’s inventory.

Big trees not giving wood: I have some issues with how trees work in the game, particularly how resources are gathered. Branches and sticks are both called "Wood" (and even the icon for wood looks like a bundle of branches), while actual "Wood" is called a "Log" (which is fine). It would make sense that cutting down a tree would give you a log and couple of branches(wood) but it doesn't.

Horses/Mounts: I would love to see horses, taming them, stabling them and using them as mounts and maybe even some mounted combat.

I hope the developers continue to improve this game, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds! It’s a fantastic foundation, and with some more polish, it could become something really special.

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Its sad to see how low blizzard has fallen
Release Diablo 2/D2R on Steam instead of this

It's bad

Crack in video game form

Currently the game is riddled with bugs and optimization issues and in my opinion should've been delayed a lot longer.

NOTE: Current actual playtime as of writing is 16hrs, steam playtime is 74min since I've refunded the game here and gotten it on GOG
All the problems aside, this is a pretty mediocre game set in a beautifully crafted world. The story is in a way unique but nothing special, it feels unfinished which can be seen in the very intro of the game with how lackluster and weak the lifepath options really are.
The "RPG" elements and dialog choices really feel unfinished and are just "slapped on" so that it can be called an RPG. Combat/gunplay/melee feels okay but compared to something like Destiny 2 or Borderlands 3 it doesn't come even CLOSE! Melee was the most fun I've had in combat.
Crafting in general feels very useless since the guns you find/buy can and usually are better.
Driving feels unresponsive and clunky, which I assume can and hope get fixed.
NOW ONE THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS FOR ME which I found to be very immersion breaking is the AI. Combat AI, driving AI, pedestrian AI...just AI in this game in general is so BAD
Pedestrians feel like braindead zombies just walking around and barley reacting to the environment, the only thing I noticed they do is that they all just crouch down in the same "scared" animation when someone starts shooting. IT DOESN'T EVEN COME CLOSE to games like GTA and RDR2 in that regard. I'm not kidding when I say that GTA San Andreas had better AI than this game.

It's a real damn shame...this game world has so much potential since the environment itself has been built incredibly well and the most fun I've got out of this game was from exploration which was in a way diminished by an incredibly dumb AI that took all the immersion out of it.

...given more time to polish the game it would've been easily an 8/10

In CDPR Launcher right next to Play button change from DirectX 12 to DirectX 11 you'll be getting the same framerates as you did before the update

OR

If you wish to revert to previous gen (NOTE THAT 4.0 SAVES WILL NOT WORK):
Right click Witcher 3 in your Steam Library > Go to Properties > Betas > Choose "Classic - Patch 1.32"

Hope this helps

I was unsure if I'd recommend this game before the very ending. All I can say is it's really an amazing game, a bit flawed, but the visuals, the animations and the sounds are truly a work of art. Story wise I'm not sure it will blow anyone away but it has a solid story if you follow it and pay attention to it, which you should even though it can be hard at times to do so. Gameplay wise it's not revolutionary, the combat can be frustrating at times because of the actual tab targeting, but it can also be enjoyable at times. Most of the gameplay consists of puzzle solving and walking around and every now and then some combat. But as mentioned the visuals in this game are top notch and Senua herself is extremely well animated. In general don't go into this game expecting some spectacular gameplay, but enjoy it for the work of art it is.