sigh
Deepwoken is a game designed by the same people who made Rogue Lineage (a notoriously unforgiving and difficult game with permadeath and an awful community). I was more than willing to give Deepwoken a pass for this reason alone.
But I got curious.
Now, I’ve shared my opinions on this game before, but I haven’t really given any comprehensive reasons for my views. Thus giving birth to this unholy amalgamation of a topic written on a forum for a completely different game.
I will be splitting this review into separate sections based on certain aspects of the game; these sections will outline each feature’s strengths and flaws. I should also probably mention that I haven’t seen everything there is to see in the game. In fact, I’ve likely missed loads of things, so this review isn’t a review of the entire game. Rather, it’s an outline of what most people experience when they first test the waters (heh) of Deepwoken.
The early game
Pain.
What? You want more? Fine.
Deepwoken’s early game makes WoM’s early game seem like the pinnacle of game design. At least with WoM you had a variety of fetch quests that usually took a maximum of five minutes to complete. With Deepwoken, you have one wood gathering quest that gives you FIVE WHOLE DOLLARS in exchange for chopping down 3-5 slowly respawning trees. For context, most of the items that you need in this stage of the game cost 25-30 shillings.
There is another early game quest you can do in Vigils. You just need to take a box up the mountain and you get paid fifteen rubles for your troubles. I like this quest, but you can only do it once. The only other quest that you can reasonably complete in this stage is Kelsius’ errand, and that entails sailing to Etris on your rustic dinghy. This quest takes awhile, but it also gives you a free level.
All of this doesn’t matter after you become strong enough to take on the bandits on Erisia, but you’ll need to grind for a couple of levels at least before you’re strong enough for that.
The early game’s terrible pacing wouldn’t be so bad if you only had to do it once, but remember, Deepwoken is a permadeath game. Meaning that you have to go back to the early game whenever you make a mistake in the depths (like breaking down a barrier and getting eaten by a giant ocean spider).
Permadeath
I’m okay with this. It’s a gameplay mechanic that could be done better, but it only becomes an issue when it’s combined with other annoying mechanics.
The main problem I have with permadeath is the fact that you’re forced to go through the early game grind every time you get reset. This kills the pacing of the game significantly IMO. There are a few other gripes that I have with permadeath, but we’ll get to those later.
Tutorials
I’m okay with a game having little in the way of tutorials…
…BUT WOULD IT REALLY KILL THEM TO EXPLAIN HOW SOME SHIT WORKS???
The game has a built-in tutorial as an icon on the top left of the screen. When clicked, this tutorials explains features like resting, leveling up, and boats. It also shows you basic controls. Aside from this tutorial and a few hints from friendly NPCs, the game doesn’t tell you shit.
It took me AGES to figure out how to cook. I didn’t know what a crafting station looked like or how it worked. I still have no idea what the mantra table does, and I have no idea how experience works. That last one is probably just because I’m a dumbass, but you get my point.
Now this would be fine on its own, but when you’re forced to reset if you make one too many mistakes, it starts to become a real problem when you aren’t given a fighting chance due to the game’s inability to give you a decent explanation of basic features.
Combat
Combat is fun. I like it. You have blocks, parries, basic attacks, and heavy attack that rewards you for careful timing and positioning. What’s not to like? Aside from the steep learning process, of course (COUGH COUGH tutorial COUGH COUGH!).
Oh, and mantras exist too, I guess.
The ocean
The ocean is about as interesting as the insides of the community’s collective skulls; which is to say that it is completely and utterly devoid of anything worthwhile. You sail for a few minutes to get to an island. Then sail for a few more minutes to go back because you forgot to accept the quest from Kelsius on this life. FUCK. It gets more tolerable as you get better ships, but I wish there were more islands dotted around the sea; just to give the sea a bit more life aside from rock and dihydrogen monoxide.
TL;DR/Conclusion
In conclusion, Deepwoken is okay. I think it has a few features that hold it back, but I also think that it’s incredibly well done for a roblox game. Hats off to the developers for making a decent combat system on roblox, and minus points for the slow early game.
I could probably talk about the community and the lack of direction… But really, who cares? The community is pretty well-known here anyways, and direction isn’t a huge priority for this game.
