Recent reviews by JesterSuave

Some of the negative comments are from people who don't understand how EA games work. They also don't edit their reviews with major patches usually. There have been plenty of changes with the latest major update that have fixed certain annoyances, and even before that, the development team had a healthy amount of bug fixing and gameplay tweaks that they put out.

Since this game is in EA, I won't put too much emphasis on content and mechanics since they're subject to change, but some highlights can let you know what's in the game in general.

Crafting: Nightingale has a very robust crafting system, where each resource you use has different buffs and improvements it makes to the item you crafted, even so far as to change its colour depending on if you use Gold or Silver ores, etc. Recently, crafting from nearby chests was introduced and well-received. Additional structures (specific items) placed near your crafting station reduce the time it takes to craft and gives benefits and new recipes to your station. It's an interesting mechanic, but I don't pay too much attention to it unless I'm trying to make something specific and need the recipe.

Melee Combat: The combat system is fairly straight-forward and simple. Each enemy has vulnerabilities/resistances to particular weapon types, so it behooves the player to carry them all. There are a few moves in combat, but it's mostly a system of dodge dip dive duck and dodge to not be hit by things.

Magic Combat: At the moment fairly limited, with most spells being duration AoEs or self-buffs like flaming weapon. There are heals, though, which is good. It has potential to be more useful but I think they're going for a more low-magic approach as opposed to high-fantasy.

Building: The structure pieces are very cool looking and there is a small variety of building themes. You place the "ghost" of the structure pieces before building it, so you can see how it will look prior to investing materials. Removing the built piece gives 100% resource return. You can move chests and crafting stations by picking them up, and yes, even chests full of stuff. I'm not sure what the range is on moving, but it's far enough in my endeavors.

Story: There is some story to follow, and it seems interesting in bits and pieces, but it didn't pull me in and I ended up hitting skip a lot to go through my quests. In comparison to other survival games I've played, I definitely was more interested in this one, but just not enough to truly dive in for me.

Developers: This is an important item imo, as plenty of good games die due to bad dev teams. Nightingale has a pretty responsive dev team who fequently put out bug updates and generally seem to take player opinions into account when introducing Quality of Life improvements. I have been pleased with their update speed and prioritisation of bugs/issues. While the game isn't bug free, they seem to focus on those more than others who tend to try pumping out as much content as possible and not addressing major issues.

There's a good amount to do, even in EA. Towards the end of level progression, the xp can get a bit grindy, but if you know the tricks to gaining it quickly you can mitigate some of that. The breeding system is a welcome addition from standard practices, allowing you to get more types of Pals earlier without having to manually catch them (if you get lazy like me and sometimes just want to hang around base for the automation setup). Building could be better, or come with more variety, but it has a good foundation. I'd like to see more settings for dedicated servers to include turning off structure collision, but we'll see how they handle that going forward. There's also a lot of QoL improvements from normal survivor games, which make it more rewarding to play. The developers seems very quick with patches, having made a couple already in their first month of being live. Looking forward to the content that comes out in future updates.

I'd say 99% of the game is fully voiced, which is always a nice touch to really immerse you in the game. However, in addition to that it is extremely flexible for an MMO when choosing classes and skills. While there is a "best" combination like all things, that isn't to say that almost any way you set yourself up isn't a viable option, not to mention every class can fill every role, giving you the truly open opportunity to play the class whose lore or "feel" you like best.

I really enjoyed playing through this game the first time around. I picked it up right before it launched, so I can't comment on where it came from.
I played from 0-60 on an unofficial server that was 1x rates. Reason our group chose unofficial was because we came from Ark and had our fair share of sour tastes from trying to deal with non-admin servers lol.

The great things:
1.) Combat - The combat system is a breath of fresh air from other survival games I've played. Soon they'll be introducing even more combinations with shields and some fresh content for bows.
2.) Climbing - It's such a simple mechanic and yet so nice to have. Climb anything!
3.) Difficulty - I found this game very rewarding when it came to the level of difficulty with boss content and world bosses in general. I can't say I've figured out how to defeat Spider world boss yet, but I'm typically heavy armour and have a hard time escaping, so it's probably my own fault. The NPC purge system is a lot of fun. Typically my clan of 5 rolls a purge because we prepare hardcore in our builds and have several tier 4 thralls, but I found the increasing difficulty very exciting and even didn't mind when we had missed actively defending against a purge one day and lost an entire side of our base.
4.) Server Administration - Having played the game through once, I know host my own to take advantage of the great mods out there and some increased rates. Modding is always a plus for me as it gives games new life. Get yourself on a server with the Pippi mod if you haven't already. Search Supreme Exiles if you're looking for some fun.

The bad things:
1) Bugs - Like pretty much every other survival game I've ever played, there are bugs. Thralls falling through floors, pieces of your build disappearing, flying bodies etc. I don't know what it is about survival games, but I've never played one that didn't have bugs in it.
2) End-game - Well, here's the thing; In my personal opinion, there ISN'T any end-game. You can even defeat all of the dungeon bosses before hitting max level. For a survival game I didn't find myself taking advantage of many alternative aspects of the game when I finished my first run to 60. The DLC gave me interesting new things to build with, but once you're in full Silent Legion wielding Telith's Lament, there isn't even a legendary I particularly want that is any better lol.

Overall this game has been very enjoyable to play and has great potential. I look forward to the updates and new content.

This has been an extremely entertaining game to play. Through the DLCs and the workshop there is plenty to play and civilizations to fit everyone's play style. I only wish there was a little more to the diplomacy side of the game.