Island of Misfortune
The game world is divided into seven large islands, which are united under the rule of the crown. Attention is focused on the fifth island – Greyshaft, which in the past flourished thanks to numerous mines. However, a plague called Morok caused the closure of the adits and complicated contact with the outside world.
The tragedy caused a deterioration in life on the island. Because of this, local residents began to exist according to the principle of "man is wolf to man" – just like the criminals from "Gothic". Here, everyone is trying to deceive, rob, or kill you. The game positions itself as "Domestic Gothic", and it has managed to convey this element perfectly.
However, in essence, the game has more in common with the "Witcher" universe. Gothic is so down-to-earth that you involuntarily forget about its fantasy – magic and enchanted items are much more common in the game. In Of Ash and Steel, like The Witcher, there are far fewer such elements.
The game begins with an expedition of knights arriving on the fifth island with a secret mission. Among those who arrived is a cartographer named Tristan, who was supposed to help with navigation, after which he was promised to be returned to the capital. However, an attack by mysterious villains led to the death of the crew. Tristan survived, and now he will have to adapt to the new place and find an important letter taken from him.
First Steps
Tristan is talented, and over time he will learn to fight, survive, extract resources, create equipment and consumables. However, the cartographer starts as a clumsy person who can be defeated even by a weak rat. The start will be helped by a hidden system of perks, which rewards characteristics for repeating certain actions – beating a mannequin, praying at altars, or even stumbling over snags.
You get the necessary skills too late. In "Gothic", the opportunity to skin animals appears early – after blacksmithing, hunting is the most profitable profession there. In Of Ash and Steel, you will have to upgrade the characteristics in a specific way in order to be able to skin animals, or chitin from insects and lizards. The situation is complicated by the fact that levels in the game rise slowly and rarely, which in turn limits the scope for experimentation.
For a similar reason, there is no desire to study lockpicking or theft. The game has a very specific idea of what is theft and what is not. For example, some houses can be brazenly cleaned out, while others cannot. There are no indicators or explanations for such restrictions, which is confusing.
However, money can also be earned by searching for treasures. The problem is that the desired place is not always highlighted by a unique biome, eye-catching landscape, or other signs. One of the tasks is to dig up a treasure in the ruins that are located near the lumberjack camp. But the chest being dug up is not a quest item – the one you need is located slightly further away, and nothing hints at its location. Two chests, in one place, are located nearby, and one of them is not a quest item. The cherry on top is that the shovel breaks after each use!
They also pay for winning in the local fighting club. At the beginning of the duel, Tristan is teleported to a dark arena, where he needs to beat the selected opponent. You need to choose the areas of the enemy's body to attack, and your own to defend. After that, the fighters automatically attack and defend until their health runs out. It's somewhat reminiscent of the game Punch Club. In theory, it should become easier over time – Tristan learns new techniques that synergize with different stances. But the enemies acquire horse health and dashing strength, which turns thinking through tactics into a mini-game of "load until you win".
Tristan has indicators of hunger, fatigue, and thirst – their level determines how he will perform in battle. Food, water, and alcohol are scattered in abundance throughout the island – you can eat and drink as much as you want. Sometimes they let you sleep in beds, but in most cases you will have to pay for the service in taverns. Alcohol is needed to strengthen the immune system – you can find it or borrow it forever so much that you won't get sick!
In special places, you can set up a camp of two different types, which consume one type of resource:
- You can spend camp supplies to activate a ready-made fire, cook food, or dry clothes. After use, the fire goes out.
- You can activate the base for the camp, which is less common. In such a camp, you can cook food and sleep until dawn. And if you develop survival skills, you can also do alchemy.
One way to get food is fishing. This is a simple mini-game that consumes bait for each attempt. It takes about a minute to cast, and it takes half of Lake Baikal's resources to prepare a decent fish soup – the effort is clearly disproportionate to the reward.
Cartographer Without a Map
In both the English and Russian versions, the dialogues are executed at the highest level. In English, the characters skillfully use wordplay, and in the domestic voice acting, it seems that the characters have clearly "learned life". Tristan himself starts as a naive idealist, but Greyshaft slowly changes him. Upgraded characteristics allow you to skillfully intimidate or outwit the interlocutor. And sometimes the dialogue breaks off, although at such moments it is clear that not everything has been said.
But that's if you're lucky! In most cases, you won't be able to start a conversation with named characters – they will just look at you with cow eyes until you take a quest related to them in the plot or on a faction assignment. A large number of clone NPCs, who have one set of phrases for everyone, are also striking. It's very bad when the NPC is just standing there for beauty – it's impossible to interact with them in any way.
The tasks issued are reduced to "go there, I don't know where". The search area is massive, and the compass helps a little in orientation. The directions given by the quest givers have little in common with reality – "the target is somewhere in the forest", when the base of the island is the forest. One character is offered to be searched for in the suburbs, while he was in the city.
A glaring example is a low-level task to find a hunter's camp. I managed to break through a crowd of high-level enemies and find myself in a location that should be available towards the end of the game. Subsequently, it turned out that there was no obvious road to the camp, and the necessary segment was blocked by a local mrakoris, a high-level wolf, and a couple of bandits – enemies that should not be encountered on low-level tasks! If you try to go to a high-level location in Gothic, the first orc you meet will popularly explain the need for preliminary pumping!
Important clarification: mrakoris is a fierce beast from "Gothic", which is rarely found, and each such meeting is remembered. The version of such an opponent in Of Ash and Steel is very dangerous and grazes in herds, but they are much easier to outwit.
The most offensive thing in the situation with orientation is that Tristan is a cartographer by profession. It will not be possible to purchase a ready-made map or tools for creating one from merchants. And when the game finally deigns to give you a fillable map base in the plot – you will learn to navigate on your own.
The Art of One-Button Combat
The game boasts a variety of opponents:
- Rats throw diggable garbage;
- Goblins provoke by slapping themselves on the butt;
- Beetles generate a homing swarm;
- People use a variety of techniques, shoot from a bow, and can stumble on a puddle or a snag.
Tristan starts as a very weak fighter who runs out of breath after a few hits. Over time, his skills will be honed and it will be possible to learn new techniques. But with all this, on normal difficulty, you will have to poke at the enemies for a long time. Unlike Tristan, the enemies' stamina is not spent on most actions, which allows them to attack much more often.
The situation changes after equipping a two-handed weapon. A strong blow with a two-handed weapon has a high chance of stunning the target, and this works with most opponents – you can spam a strong attack until the opponent's health runs out. Moreover, such an attack hits several opponents at once. After that, problems arise only with wolves, who move according to the principle "if I don't know what I'm doing, then you definitely don't know"!
A City Where Nothing Happens
In the Gothic or The Witcher series of games, the design aims to make orientation more convenient. A great example is cities, where it is not difficult to find a blacksmith, hunter, alchemist, or an important story character. In the more hardcore "Gothic", you can easily remember the structure of the New, Old, or even Swamp camps, after which you can find the story characters almost with your eyes closed.
The basis of players' complaints about Of Ash and Steel is the city. Because of its excessive massiveness and strange design, it is difficult not only to navigate, but also to simply complete tasks. The situation is complicated by the lack of signs, the ability to ask directions from guards, or to call a guide who showed the way on the first visit. In Skyrim, it's easier to find a skooma dealer in cities than to go for bread here!
In the city, it is simply impossible to interact with most of the inhabitants. The priest will give a task to distribute alms, and you will have to guess: which of the local beggars will deign to take your gold? Trying to talk to the butcher is considered a crime – the butcher attacks for entering his shop in the middle of the working day. If "Gothic 2" showed one famous video with a courtesan, then trying to use a brothel in Of Ash and Steel ends with the loss of 150 gold – the amount is not critical, but still offensive!
The main task is connected with the city to buy a place on the ship for a fabulous sum. I saved and saved gold for a long time – running around in rags instead of normal armor. When the amount was accumulated, it simply could not be given away. And the game did not bother to explain the reason.
The headquarters of the knights of the order, which you need to join to advance through the plot, is located in the city. To join the knights, you need to find and return the scattered members of the order. The alternative is to join the Free Hunters, but by the time you get to them, you will have managed to return almost all the knights, which discourages any desire to mess with their tasks.
In "Gothic", joining one of the factions is accompanied by the issuance of a recruit's armor, which significantly increases the chances of survival. In Of Ash and Steel, joining the Order of Knights is not accompanied by anything. I didn't even find a character who would agree to sell a set of the corresponding armor. The last straw was a homeless man who criticized me for wearing knightly armor. After such a swinish act, I finished the playthrough.
Technical Problems
It seems that the performance of the game is related to the current phase of the moon or the reaction of the groundhog to its shadow. In one game session, downloads can be fast, while in another you have to wait a long time and watch a slideshow – regardless of the settings. The worst situation is with the city, when loading which optimization suffers much more often.
There are enough problems with bugs and flaws that poison the experience of passing. Then quest items disappear, then items are duplicated. The upgrade menu may bug out, which makes it impossible to exit it. Or the description of items instead of disappearing block the screen – it is treated by loading, unlike many other problems, when only exiting the game or even restarting the system will help.
Diagnosis
Of Ash and Steel has a great foundation. During the passage, you encounter charismatic characters, conversations with whom feel alive; interesting mechanics; a fascinating story; an unusual world. In theory, everything is fine, and if the developers do not abandon the project, then sooner or later the game will turn out great.
Now it's a raw product at the alpha version level. The game is poorly optimized, many necessary elements are missing, quests cannot be completed due to bugs. Well, if you bear the title of "Domestic Gothic", then take an example from the balance and design of the locations of "Gothic" – everything there is at a much more decent level. Especially it is worth taking an example from cities, where it is much easier to navigate!
The saddest thing is that the game does not realize the main element of the story through design. According to the plot, Greyshaft is in distress because of the ash. The ash caused the destruction of mines and houses, the death of crops, people and horses. However, during 30 hours of passing, I did not see either ash or the clothes mentioned in the book that protect against it. And this is despite the fact that "ash" is in the name of the game – Of ASH and Steel!