Of Ash and Steel

I think this game has enormous potential but even still after the 1.08 patch I can barely qualify this as beta. The quests are misleading or outright lie to you. They say one NPC is in this area but in fact he's completely somewhere else, or you need these ingredients for that type of stew and it turns out the actual item you need is not on the list. I needed to google to figure this out! This isn't the worst part about quests though. I can understand devs wanted to imitate the Gothic series game design by not giving a map from the start, which is god, but the quest directions are atrocious. It's not about hand-holding the player, at this point I think it's a deflection from the plain fact that the directions given to the player are obtuse and vague to a point of frustration. In none of the Gothics I ever was confused as where to go. The directions were clear enough and locations designed in such a way getting lost was on the player not on the game. In Of Ash and Steel directions are ridiculously vague to the detriment of the game. It's like "Go south-east till you pass this rock or this landmark", once you venture out there's like 20 different pathways and dead ends you get tur…

Of Ash and Steel hits like a time machine straight back to when games were actually good. No hand‑holding, no glowing markers, no “follow the arrow” nonsense. You listen, you pay attention, you remember places, paths, names. The game trusts you, and that alone already puts it above most modern releases. The atmosphere is spot‑on, the pacing is perfect, and the quests are written in a way that actually pulls you in instead of dragging you around. If you want notes, grab a real notebook. This game deserves analog effort. My only real complaint is the skill‑tree UI. It hides information, behaves unpredictably, and doesn’t tell you what’s universal or weapon‑specific. You’d assume combat skills sit in the War tree.. but.. they don’t always. You’d assume a rapier is a one‑handed weapon, except the game treats it differently. Synergies aren’t shown. Future skills stay behind a symbol until they unlock. Early on, when every point matters, that’s annoying. You want clarity in that matter, not guesswork. Bugs? Yes, you’ll stomp plenty 😁 At this point most issues are minor, and honestly, we used to rely on community patches back then.. so what.. 🤔🤣 The only real thing I’d love to s…

When you got used to the game its super fun. Its just that it makes it a bit hard to get used to it.

I played this game on highest difficulty(and still am) and basically: It's HARD hard(especially at the very start where everything can nuke you in 1-2 hits). You start off with NO map, VERY weak(you can barely run and 2-3 attacks drain your stamina). Quest tracking is...POOR. Gotta figure stuff on your own or via a video guide because some of these quests make NO sense. Combat is REALLY hard but gets rewarding once you get the hang of it( I use rapier + medium armor for now and its great). Slower weapons need to always knockdown though. You are sacrificing entire CHUNKS of your life to do certain attacks and the enemies only get slightly...staggered. Story is interesting but confusing as heck. Gameplay IS fun, especially once food and thirst and sleep are no longer an issue(they dont drain super fast like other survival games, even on hardest difficulty). You can own a house that gives you passive stats which is cool. Still in chapter 3 but so far? Love the game. It's a clunky mess sometimes but somehow feels good once you get the hang of it. I haven't died to an enemy in over 40 hours. Even super hard bosses. Dodging, parrying, hitting just when you have to, you can basi…

Been out for ages and is still full of bugs and poor mechanics.

Without bugs the game would be great. Basically to beat it you have install the nexus mod debugger and force quest steps to complete. I just got through the buggiest mine quest and i am stuck on the very next quest. My game is soft locked. This is not an optional quest but the main quest. its broken. The game has been out for almost a year. Do not waste your money. There other games in the same genre that are just as good and do not cause so much frustration.