So to start things off, Life is Feudal is easily one of the best ideas i've seen come out of the steam early access. I absolutely loved the idea of a medieval life simulator with M&B style combat, there really isn't I could ask for more once the MMO comes out. I've met some really awesome people and some not so awesome people but for the most part its a great community of gamers and medieval enthusiasts which has really given me hope for the MMO and it having a well rounded player base that will create an enthralling experience. I've recently decided to stop play testing the game and can say im very excited for the MMO!
now on to the chunky bits,
Basic gameplay impressions
First off is my feedback on the game itself and general gameplay.
So far I've done a handful of jobs from blacksmithing to herbalism and i have to admit each job has been fun and engaging in its own way, i wouldn't change it at all. Same with combat. I tried a handful of weapons and for the most part i really enjoyed combat when glitches weren't being abused or the lag would interfere with the fight. I'm not really going to talk to much about the armor and weapons unbalance currently in game (aka glaive/war scythe meta) tho i will admit the combat when the armor was working correctly was great, i really enjoyed running around as a full plate knight with a zweihander
Graphics/options/audio
I have never really been one to praise a game for its graphics but LiF is definitely a game that has a good mix between good graphics and fluid gameplay. I really liked the new character models they added as well. As far as an option menu its fine, i really have nothing to say bad about it, its just a basic menu with all the graphic sliders and what not you need to tailor you graphical experience to your liking. With the audio, i can't say its good, its probably the worst audio i've heard in a early access game, the sounds are very low quality and some sounds like the tanning tubs are way too loud, as well as the sound for getting hit, these two sounds are particularly over leveled, tho something tells me a lot of these sounds are place holder sounds (i hope).
Combat/crafting/death mechanics
so far the combat I've experienced has been so-so. Unfortunately I've had too many laggy connections or glitch abusers to really give the combat fair feedback. I like the M&B style of course and the different combos and abilities are very cool. One thing i will mention is that combat can be fun but a lot of the time its heavily geared attackers griefing new players bases which if your the one doing it or the one receiving imho is very boring and not fun. One major glitch that has ruined a lot of encounters for me is the print screen bug that causes your opponent to teleport around, if this doesn't get fix then I cannot recommend this game to anyone and will have a negative review from me day one of the MMO. Crafting is well rounded and theres something for everyone. I ran into a major bug with the crafting UI where i could not see the crafting screen when going to do carpentry and construction (which effectively ruined that character for me) I did find a fix for it but not until a week later and i had no urge to test anymore at that time ( i will be detailing this bug later on in another post). WIth the mining and infinite piles its understandable but complete immersion breaking. With the mechanic of losing skills and losing even more skills if your a criminal is genius to me, and you would think other people would show this mechanic a little more respect, recently my friend engaged a man with a red name who was going to lose to my buddy so he used the print screen glitch to avoid death and killed my friend, so its obvious he was going to lose but broke the game so he wouldn't lose any skill points. I've noticed the community is nearly obsessed with raiding and griefing right now, its basically like medieval rust from what i've seen, I feel like a mechanic that encouraged alliances would be cool, i would really like to see multiple guilds making up a community that would war with the other community of guilds on the server but right now its just a every man for himself grief fest and its splitting up the community.
Final thoughts: One of the most anticipated titles to leave early access for me, this game has so much going for it and I really hope that the devs can pull it together and fix the major bugs the game has, but for now im done play testing and will be waiting for the MMO. Please devs work on the armor balancing, the print screen glitch and the mining/infinite pile, I really hope yall can nail down these bugs because they are ruining the game for a lot of your tester base right now making them not even want to test the rest of the game out. if anyone has any questions or needs more information please feel free to ask me here and remember... LIFE IS FEUDAL!!!
