Astaryn: RPG Idler

[h3]// DATA_LOG: Astaryn[/h3][hr][/hr] [i]"My head aches and I can't remember my own name let alone why I woke up face down in this patch of gravel. The dirt in my mouth tastes like old iron and I'm coughing up grit that sparkles under the dull purple sky. Every breath I take feels heavy. Some god or broken thing up in the peaks is bleeding its poison down the slopes and the whole continent is cracking open like a dried out skull. I've got to climb that ridge and find out where I am and how I got here before some wandering wildlife tries to take me out for its lunch!"[/i] [hr][/hr] Jam packed full of features, I really don't see the World of Warcraft "inspiration". Maybe I need to look harder? Has a very confusing menu layout and figuring out where to click next feels like a chore. The terms used might be a localization issue, but I didn't feel like the game ever spoke to me, almost like it didn't care if I had understood or not. Patiently reading through the descriptions had me wondering what it all meant. I see there is a story to follow, but it failed to pull me in. And being a writer myself, I've never been known to be overly needy in that area. It just left me feeling empty …

It's a Melvor idle-like RPG game and there are a lot of competitors to it in that (Visseron idle, Idle Crown, Idle Realms, Glenwich idle, Eldara). Still this one is quite good while somewhat easy. I play as Aether warrior and I have to worry only about food because the equipment comes from the battle loot. There is some construction here, several skills, player auctions (not very active) and a story that guides you through the content with easy tasks. No action queues so far (alas) and no prestige so far (that is good).

I'm very torn on this review, the game is only $3.99 which puts it on par with a mobile game cost - but it also went from Early Access to 1.0 launch recently. The game itself is a UI driven skilling idle game, unfortunately it is also incredibly buggy and incomplete. It's a late alpha or early beta at best and the most recent patches are incredibly small tweaks - feels like abandonware summer project that used AI to put together and move. The result is something that's hard to complete and maintain. What's broken: "I can do this all day" -Captain America - Elements in the UI do not update, this includes skills that go up a level, quest objectives marking complete etc. The only way to force a refresh is by navigating to a different submenu and toggling back. Now imagine doing this constantly with everything you do on nearly tab over and over and over again - The UI has a lot of placeholders for missing content. Want a mount? Nope, no trace of it. Want to skill up certain professions ? Have fun grinding the initial profession level 1 task while you are much higher in level (yes some professions hide higher level tasks you can force to show up properly if you click through sub me…

I think this game is a wonderful combination Melvor Idle and Rocky Idle. It combines all the best of both but adds more content , story , art ....etc. I actually took Melvor Idle 2 off my wishlist because i honestly believe this is delivering what I hoped from Melvor Idle 2. AI or no AI I LOVE it. As an aside for all you AI haters remember your great grandparents hated computers. All new tech has its haters just be thankful past generations were not successful in preventing all the tech they did not like. I am 48 years old and love new tech. Oddly enough I also understand it better than all of my children. LOL Can't wait to see the final touches on this one.

The hard refreshing alone when anything happens make the game unreadable and unplayable. No descriptions on what things do now or later into the game.

At first I was a bit overwhelmed by the information in the UI in this game but as I followed the tutorial and went along with it, it made more and more sense. I chose to be a Thornkeeper and the pace, balance and activities got me hooked burning quickly through the first act quests. Other events like Dungeons get unlocked as you progress adding an extra layer of challenges, but also high rewards. After playing for a few hours I can say it's an awesome idle game that you can spend good time with.