Blacksmith Legends is a production in which we play the role of a young blacksmith running a business inherited from his father. Our task is to develop a small workshop into a dynamic supplier of various products, conquering new markets in the medieval world. On the way to the top, we will have to carry out dozens of various orders, run our own stall and engage in many other activities. Over time, new employees and mercenaries will support us in our task.
Pimp my workshop
We start playing Blacksmith Legends with a very simple editor that allows you to build a building that is the foundation of our blacksmith’s empire. There is no big philosophy here, just put the floor, walls, basic fittings and some decorations, including windows and doors. Unfortunately, apart from the visual refinement, the arrangement of individual elements does not affect the functionality of the workshop in any way. Ba! We can even skip putting in doors and windows, and the employees will somehow come out of their workplace for the night and go to rest anyway.
Initially, the game seems to be a fairly simple blacksmith simulator. We have several diagrams and raw materials, the employee automatically carries out the set queue of tasks, and from the notice board we receive new orders, which allow us to expand our offer with new products. However, it soon turns out that under this quilt of trivialism there is a number of more precise mechanics. Each scheme is based on three statistics: design, usability and materials, and it is up to us how carefully they will be taken into account in production. How do we know how to set them? It must be remembered that the greater the care for each of them, the longer the production of a given item is, and more often it can end up with quite an irritating failure and a loss of resources. What if the ratios are too low? It will not affect the orders, but when selling goods at our stall, we cannot count on high wages, and customers will overwhelm us with negative opinions. The latter indicate which stat should be increased, so we know what to improve. What to do with the money you earn? They can be spent at the marketplace, buying decorative elements and boxes that increase our storage capacity and financing the supply of raw materials from the mine and sawmill.
An important element is also taking care of employees. The possibility of increasing the number of working hours is quite tempting, but it causes fatigue of employees and threatens an accident at work. It is true that manufacturers gain new levels over time and the opportunity to buy skills that significantly reduce these inconveniences, but a well-rested worker is a more productive worker.
Ah, there’s nothing like happy customers!
Remember, respect is everything!
Money and new patterns are not the only things we get when executing orders. In addition, our reputation grows with each completed task, allowing us to hire new employees over time, but also increasing the interest of thieves. Fortunately, for the latter, a few safes are enough to prevent them from stealing a single gold coin. Over time, we also get access to an inn where we can get mercenaries. However, these are not just another hands to work on the anvil, but armed men that we can send out into the world. Their hiring activates completely new mechanics, because we can give them tasks from the world map view, allowing them to explore (necessary to discover rare minerals), clear dungeons and fight bandits that can rob supplies of raw materials. Unfortunately, fighting is by far the worst part of the game; they are almost automatic, incredibly boring, and very sporadically interrupted by trivial quicktime events. Completing orders also affects our morality, which determines what tasks we will receive and from whom, but it does not translate much into the gameplay.
Another element of the game, which is very different from the ones described earlier, is the arena of gladiators. Here we can hire our warrior, clot him in hand-made equipment and fight with it, this time non-automatic, fully three-dimensional and animated. How does it work in practice? Well, it doesn’t work. Similarly, it is possible to buy a plot of land in a larger city. Everything seems to be in its place, the price is clearly defined, the eyes of the imagination are already moving to conquer new markets, and here, after spending cash, nothing happens. Well, Early Access charms.
He went out of his way
Seemingly new, but kind of old
Visually, the game looks very uneven. The two-dimensional elements look pretty good, the characters that give us tasks are drawn nicely, clearly and it’s nice to look at, it is completely different when we go into the third dimension. The models of characters and items, although quite detailed, are unpleasantly angular, suggesting that we are dealing with a game that is at least twenty years old, and not created before our eyes. In addition, sometimes lame Polish translations are offended, although they do not look like taken from an automatic translator, but sometimes reach for unfortunate words. It is a bit better with the accompanying music. Calm, tasteful, adapted to the presented realities and what is happening on the screen. It does not captivate, but it is definitely correct.
There are some shortcomings in the localization, but you have to admit that the game does not look too bad at times
Is Blacksmith Legendsis this a game worth waiting for? It is definitely not a production for everyone, it will be more appealing to people who like a more relaxed gameplay with a slow reaching of goals. However, it is difficult to clearly assess how successful this product is at the moment. The current problems with the gladiatorial arena and the purchase of lots in larger cities cut us off from a large part of the mechanics that could make the production much more attractive, and some of the still inactive tabs suggest that more than one may appear in the game. On the one hand, we have an interesting management of workers and schemas, on the other – an extremely boring fight of poorly exploited mercenaries. There is still a lot of work ahead of the devs, and what we can see now may be optimistic and does not allow the game to be crossed out yet. We can only wait and count on
