Gedonia is an early access title that I picked up thanks to a Facebook ad. That does not happen often at all. Most of the games advertised using the Facebook marketing service are pretty dodgy looking, but this one... there was something about it. I actually clicked on the ad and had a look.
First of all, there were many positive reviews. The discussions page was active. And even better, it looked as though the developer was literally updating the game every week or two. And he still is! It's fantastic. But at the same time that's the downside. It's in early access and while the game really intrigued me, I didn't want to click the Play Button knowing that there'd be new content every couple of weeks.
Finally, today, after months of staring at this seeming masterpiece growing right before my eyes, I clicked the button. It'll probably be updated again tomorrow. But for today, I prepared to enjoy myself.
Gedonia markets itself as a classic open-world RPG that offers the player complete freedom over their character. It offers adventure and dungeons, quests that have various methods of completion instead of just one, factions to join and your very own home to build!
My initial impressions from other people's screenshots was that this game is literally a single-player version of your standard MMO, and that tempts me so much. I absolutely love that idea.
Having played it for a few hours now, I feel like this could be the next Indie Elder Scrolls. Or Indie Skyrim, for those who don't know the brilliance of Morrowind and Oblivion. I also actually want to keep playing, which is an enormous feat!!
The character creator looks better than the Valheim one -- that's a good start! 🤣
You can choose between male or female, there are two body types available per gender, and there are several faces, skin tones, and hair styles to choose between. Once you've created your character, you are allocated 4 stat points to put in Strength, Intellect, Agility, or Charisma. I ended up putting 2 into Agility and 2 into Charisma.
I was taken aback, however, when I started the game and a cutscene appeared with two male voices talking. One of the voices belonged to my very female character.
I really hope that's a placeholder voice. 🤣
My character has just turned 18 years of age and is on a quest to discover where she actually came from. Her beginnings are a true unknown and now she wants to know the truth. Apparently that truth will be revealed by exploring a cave atop a great mountain above her village.
This is where the game begins.
The first thing I notice is that the keybind locations seem completely out of whack, and 'F' is the interaction key instead of 'E'. So I go straight into the keybindings and try to set things up a bit better.
The keybinding settings aren't exactly obvious, I need to set them up with a bit of trial and error to see which number corresponds with which UI button, but soon I get it all sorted out and I'm ready to begin searching through this cave.
I'm given 2 skill points straight off the bat -- a reward, I guess, for my characters 18th birthday. And I'm immediately pleased to see so many options! Both crafting-related and combat-related! And inside each of these options are separate skill trees!
Fantastic.
I pop a skill point into Archery, then increase my ranged damage by 3%, and continue onwards through the cave.
I am soon greeted by some giant beetles that deserve to feel my fresh 18yr-old angst, and let my arrows fly!
My initial impressions with the combat is that it's fairly smooth and not as janky as some reviews were stating it was. Perhaps there was an update after those reviews were written... it does get updated an incredible amount.
I continue through the cave and am soon greeted by a magic circle that allows my lady a small vision, and then I hurry out of the cave to head back to town.
Out of the cave there is a gatherable copper node that doesn't require an equipped pickaxe to use -- your character seems to have a pickaxe and woodchopping axe both just sitting in her pocket. And then! A deer attacked me.
The deer actually had combat abilities where it would charge at you and you had to dodge out of the way, but my lady's movements still felt smooth as she dodged out of the way, notched another arrow, and killed the deer.
Back in town, my lady headed for her "uncle" and told him what she had found in the cave. And I was relieved to hear that her voice was now a woman's voice and no longer a man's.
I guess they still need to edit that initial cutscene for the ladies.
In town are also several merchants and crafting areas, and a dog that I give some meat to and is now my companion and friend. I can also enter all the buildings!! And loot various things inside them.
Thanks to looting the villagers houses, I now have some new gloves, pants, and shoes! Muahaha! And thanks to finding some sugar in a villager's house, I managed to convince a horse that I was its friend and liberated it from an old man.
I now had a mount if I ever wanted to use it.
The game also has a day and night and weather cycle!! Considering I've played a couple of games in recent times where it was just static day or night, I am grateful that Gedonia has a living world.
With my trusty dog beside me, I left the village and quickly stumbled into a bandit camp.
This is where I had my first proper combat encounter. The combat, in my opinion, still feels smooth. I was able to dodge out of harm's way and sprint away as enemies enclosed on my position, their archers stayed in the camp and fired while the brutes came at me, my dog was happy to help fight and quickly fell, but then got back up again so not 'dead' forever.
I did get struck once and damn, you do not want to get hit in this game. The one strike took off half my health and I very hastily drank a health potion to continue my fight.
Combat does not pause while you're rifling through your inventory either, so I soon popped my available potions onto the ability bar where they belonged. Q for health restore and R for stamina restore!
The map is well designed and shows you where quests are located and where "world events" are located too. Intrigued by two swords clashed together that stated that a fight between Bandits and Warriors was happening, I hopped on my horse and went to have a look.
And indeed! There was a great battle happening. And as soon as I ran in, an icon appeared on screen encouraging me to side with one of these two factions.
Since I had already single-handedly wiped out a bandit camp, I figured that I would support the Warriors instead of the Bandits... and hoped that I was shooting at the correct ones.
One faction wore capes and chainmail, and the others had standard leather. So I shot the ones wearing standard leather. 😂 Evidently I picked correctly, and soon wiped the Bandits out of the battle!
It appears that I chose the correct faction to try and get points with as well.
The Warriors Guild, according to the info panel, offers benefits for Ranged "warriors" as well as the typical Melee warrior! The Bandits would have offered me "assassin" armour which also sounds cool, but I think I chose rightly with the Warriors.
All in all, so far I am really enjoying this!
I think I've found the next thing I'm going to live in for a little bit whilst awaiting the day Lost Ark opens its servers.
Expect a few more posts on this game as I progress further! I don't even care that it's early access. I'll play my fill, then play some more later on when more content is added/it's actually released. 😅
You can find it on the Steam Store here!
Until next time! ⚔️🧙
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 