The Indie Informer

I will admit to not always following the path placed before me. However, in Mirthwood‘s case, it’s almost the point. A wild blend of genres, open-world action-adventure, RPG, and life sim brought to life with Medieval manuscript flair, this deep and ranging game leaves the player room to do it all. So if, in my seventeen hours of adventuring, I haven’t gone terribly far in the main quest, I don’t think we can fully call that my fault.

I have a house to upgrade and decorate. There’s a field full of demanding crops to maintain. My flirtations with the local herbalist are beginning to ripen. And roaming the vast landscape, exploring biomes from lush meadows to swampy lowlands, to snowy mountain peaks — each with resources and secrets to discover — leave me precious little time to unravel the mystery at the heart of this brave new world.

As much fun as I am having in the game, there is a, perhaps understandable, snag to this hugely ambitious indie project: Jank. Most things I run into are strange but ultimately harmless. Like on occasion the world will just pause for a second and then continue on as normal. Or sometimes, if I scroll over too far in the workbench menu, recipes that shouldn’t be associated with it pop up. Maneuvering through combat and the menus can also feel pretty clunky.

Just to pull the curtain back for a moment as well, I’ve noticed a substantial amount of updates to the game, increasing in scope and frequency as the days to the release date grow short. These tackled some of my largest gripes and give me hope that many more issues will be addressed.

I would prefer my hard-earned furniture didn’t turn invisible until I interact with them when I start a new session. With such a complex game, I remain wary that these small initial hiccups may develop into game-breaking problems.

Still, nothing dampens my enjoyment for long as I build up a new life out of the ashes of my past. Every action I take increases my skills. I take the better part of a day tilling the soil and planting seeds? My farming stats rise. Go out hunting a local baddie? Melee becomes more powerful. Ranking these stats up to a certain level grants me Skill Cards, which I can equipt to help me get more resources or up my health.

Even walking around in the landscape aimlessly leads to some adventure or other. It’s nearly impossible to set out somewhere without stumbling over the scene of a crime of passion that tests (and adjusts) my morality. Or to wander headfirst into a bandit camp promising some kind of loot. Thankfully, the game employs a useful fast-travel system which means I can wander to my heart’s content without worrying about being to far from home and starving to death.

Mirthwood is a game just to get lost in, and so I am. Hopefully, the main path — when I do decide to tread farther down it — continues to offer an enjoyable trek.