I followed the development of this game for years before the official release. No one wants this game to be good more than me, but nearly 2 years after its EA release, I still can not wholeheartedly recommend this game.

This is the catalyst for my negative review. If this game is the Open World RPG experience that it presents itself to be, I would have shut my mouth and gave it a strong recommendation.

You will not get an open world experience. This game is a bunch of small maps awkwardly sewn together by an "Over-World" which is basically a Fallout 4 style fast travel page. When I brought this up on release date on the subreddit to the dev, he said that "open world doesn't mean you can seamlessly travel anywhere, it just means non-linear".

The "Overworld" is an empty, barren plain with the map entrances and points of interest scattered over them. Occasionally, you get random events spawn that makes you fight some bandit or goblins if collide with one. That is it. This is the most bare minimum to get a "Open World" tag on your game. From game design perspective, there is absolutely no reason why everything has to be so far apart from each other that travelling becomes an immersion breaking bore.

This is an extremely bizarre design choice, because the developers clearly made at least chunks of large maps, but only chose to limit the available exploration range within a small part of it. I would suspect it is because of the abysmal optimization would render this game unplayable if there are seamless travel, which brings me to my next point:

A game like this should not have an RX 6800XT as its MINIMUM required GPU. I have a RTX 4060 and Ryzen 7940HS, and this low-poly unity game could not get a consistent 60 FPS on 1080P in many places. It should be a crime to release a game in this state. Even for a solo dev, optimization for an "open world" game should be at the top of the priority list. I am not saying this game looks bad, its art style is why I followed and bought the game in the first place. I am saying this quality should not demand this level of hardware only to struggle.

Parkour is an essential core to this game, and it kind of sucks. The intro mission to get the hat should be the first red flag that the movement system is a mess. I would point to a myriad of indie games with insanely polished movements like the recent Blood Thieve or STRAFTAT.

My criticism of the movement in this game is that it is incredible inconsistent, and anything that requires wall climbing just becomes button mashing until something works. This would be tolerable, but the stamina system makes it incredible frustrating. Your stamina drains unreasonably fast, and recovers unreasonably slow. If you want to perform any complex movement to reach a certain location, prepare to pull your hair out. The grappling hook is a nice addition, but its uses are limited to trees and some parts of some buildings.


For an Open World RPG, the looting system in this game is perhaps the most disappointing of them all. Besides a few instances where you can find a new spell. most of your looting will be opening chests which are scattered around the buildings in the maps. I don't know if I have not progressed far enough to have some decent loot show up, but in my 12 hours of playing, all the chests are a combination of: Some weapon that is 100% outclassed by your current weapon because it is identical to what enemies in that region drop anyways, some food, some ammo, and some crafting material. Thats it.

You will not get visibly stronger from opening a chest, so why bother putting them everywhere? I personally think its a cheap way of filling out an empty map.

TLDR: Not an Open World, terribly optimized, baffling movement design, no real looting experience.

After 20 hours and levels in the game, I can confidently say this is a cool starting point for an RPG.
Highlights:
- crafting, as evidenced by the new redesign of weaponsmithing, is basically best in class. You build modularly, for a sword, for example, you need a pommel, a guard, a handle and a blade and you make them independently. Out of whatever materials you want and have, each with their own damage, attack speed and gold value, that then also determines the xp gained for crafting. Only thing I wish for there is the ability to filter or sort by type or material
- skill acquisition is basically Elder Scrolls like, you use it, you improve at it. But you also find skill books in the world that give you active skills
- world is big and mysterious, I'm finding that as I get older games like this, where guides don't exist, are actually more fun, because I can get surprised
- you can basically play as an adventurer travelling from town to town seeking renown, riches and progress, it's kind of like an anime in that sense

Notable cons:
- the game is still quite early, optimization is not there
- neither are quite a few skill trees, areas and questlines, notable in my list of interests being armorer!
- I think at least a few passive skills in the skilltrees would be welcome, so far I see only actives
- balance is a little annoying, I find that 1h swords are way more powerful than 2h swords because of the attack speed difference

Conclusion: I got it for 50% off and for that money, it was an absolute STEAL. Get it, support it, offer feedback, let's help this game become even better than it is!

This dev is COOKING but it needs more time in the oven. One to keep an eye on. I don't really recommend it in its current state but my impression is quite positive, thus the positive rating. If there was a "yes but not yet" button I'd click it. This is essentially an alpha version of a sandbox FP RPG. I'm typically very jaded about the whole "buy now and get a finished game later" model but small devs need support, and this game has good bones.

GOOD: I love the grappling hook and freeform class system. The classes that are in the game right now are really creative and fun. Magic especially feels like it's got some fresh ideas that we don't usually see. Ragdolling and the things that cause it being an important mechanic in combat isn't something you see every day. Being able to take your playthrough in any direction you want is ambitious, but could be really cool if seen through well.

OKAY: The gathering minigames are just interesting enough to make me want to participate. The fishing stands out as the most fun. The tedium of reaching higher tiers and the initial confusion about how to even find nodes to farm hold them back for now, as well as a distinct lack of meaningful milestones to work towards (WHY do I need to make silver bars? WHY do I want ash logs?) The player should be motivated to level skills because there's something they want from them, not just because number go up and maybe you get something nice. Not saying that those milestones don't exist, but I found myself leveling the skill and then finding them, rather than being drawn into the skill by them.

BAD: Melee combat is serviceable, but there is something off about it. Hits register before animations play, it's not clear when an animation is being cancelled, and certain weapons get to abuse this more than others. I feel like a lot of what makes the melee feel wack is a lack of clarity and feedback. (Am I swinging my sword right now? Does that prevent me from blocking? When can I swing again? Why can't I shove right now, when I could with a shortsword?) Given how early it still feels, this may get touched up in the future, but my experience tells me that often things that should be fixed in EA simply aren't by the time 1.0 drops, so I wouldn't hold my breath on a melee rework.

Also, content feels sparse (although there are a lot of things to do that you simply aren't pointed to) and glitches are to be expected. I got locked out of a vendor because I accepted his quest that relied on the old weaponsmithing system, but that's to be expected because the weaponsmithing rework had just released. Occasionally I got stuck in some tree branches but could unstuck pretty easily.

I'm aware some of these issues are just a me thing. "I didn't intuitively understand X" or "I didn't see a reason to Y" or "Z was not presented to me in a way I would have liked" so your mileage may vary. Most of this review is just a letter to the dev about my experience with the game.

Overall I feel like I still really want to play this game but I know that if I come back later it'll be a much better experience. Really looking forward to see where it ends up.

SO! it is still early days for this game. but i gotta say, that the CRAFTSMANSHIP of this game is simply unparalleled. there is one guy goin ham on the programming. while seemingly everyone who has played it waits with baited breath on his every coding drop. bugs galore. unfinished. unpolished. incomplete. and still oh so glorious.
IF you are interested in watching a truly beautiful and amazing game come together in real time built by one game building artist, well, you found THE title to do it with. seriously your not gonna find a better one out there.
go on. go buy it.(makes shooing motions) its not that expensive.
ps there is a small chance it could all come crashing down. its just one dude. one dude can make a mistake and flush an entire game. just you know be aware.

Hands Down the Sickest Game Around. Since this game is all made by one guy, I've watched how much this dudes put into it. I played it for a year ago, and decided recently to boot it up, and wow! There's definetly a difference. Game runs a lot better. Tons more area. Needs more dialog and more diverse npcs, but the fact only one guy made this, its insane. The amount of skilling and questing there is sick, and am excited for eventually higher level spells and abilities, but its fun af for right now to mix and match.

Def worth getting!

It feels kind of bad giving this game a negative review. It has a lot of interesting ideas, but just isn't done. It needs a ton of refinement to the core game loop and what exactly the player is supposed to be doing on loop. A lot of aspects, like the menus and UI aren't organized or concise enough to handle the breadth of stuff going on.

Seems like it could be a good game with a lot of work, and it's still being worked on, but I wouldn't buy it as-is.

The Bloodline feels like what you'd get if RuneScape stepped into a first-person world, open-ended, flexible, and full of promise. You’re free to shape your character however you like, whether through combat or non-combat skill progression, and there’s a rewarding sense of agency in deciding what kind of adventurer you want to become.

That said, the game’s freedom can sometimes become a double-edged sword. Quest tracking is minimal, which might appeal to exploration purists, but it also means simple objectives (like finding a bug in a tree) can become more frustrating than immersive. The pacing can feel uneven early on, and while there’s charm in carving your own path, the lack of structure or onboarding may push some players away before they hit their stride.

Still, there's something special here. The world has enough surprises to reward curiosity, and the foundation is strong. With a bit more refinement, particularly in quest clarity and tutorial design, The Bloodline could become a standout experience in the open-ended RPG space. This is worth keeping on your radar.

I dream of a game. My whole life i had been searching for a game that is my favorite. All games are good, but not good enough to put 100,000 hours into in my eyes. I dream of a medieval style rpg in which truly expands your ability to immerse yourself. I started discussing the mechanics with my friend last week, and we decided its a game that is EXACTLY LIKE THIS.
I LOVE YOU PEOPLE.

I know its a stretch but the only thing i could ever ask more of this masterpiece is spellcrafting/weaving

The graphics are somewhat charming, but it's immediately clear from the first few fights that this game simply won't be enjoyable. Combat is very jittery and buggy (enemies abruptly stop in front of you, archers shoot you facing the other way, etc.) and the controls are not intuitive at all

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