Medieval Crafter: Blacksmith by developer Compact Core Games and publishers GameDev.ist, Gamersky Games—PC (Steam) review written by Valerie with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Medieval Crafter: Blacksmith, to me, is a relaxing simulation game until you get to the time-management portion of it. I've had the pleasure of actually making a part for my sewing machine at a friend's forge which this game brought back some fond memories. The great part about this simulation game is that you're not actually standing in front of the forge like in real life and getting that 'red' tan!
When you start up this game it has hints on the bottom that had gone by too fast for me to fully read them, so, while I was waiting on the game to load, I did my best to read them as they scrolled through until the game started. There were only four of them, so it was easy to catch them all.
The tutorial starts out with you learning that a new castle is in need of a blacksmith. All during this short tutorial you'll see a yellow outline of where to go next. At the game start you go into the castle for your first meeting with King Aurelius. You're told to meet up with the now retired dwarven blacksmith, Thudgric Anvilbreaker, where you'll take over. In the next quest you'll have to fix up the forge, which he helps you with, to make sure everything is running smoothly for you. I really enjoyed some of the dialogue throughout Medieval Crafter: Blacksmith where "Let's see if you've got the fire for the forge" had me laughing.
In this little realm are the castle, the village, the mines, Heroes Hall, the arena, the forest, and the dock. The first four are unlocks through the tutorial and the others get unlocked as you progress through the leveling and questing systems. There's a fairly simple setup for every part of the game with accessible areas like you and your inventory with tabs for the hero, your talents, and achievements. When you pull up your inventory screen, the tabs listed above make it easier to drop equipment into your hero's inventory as well as keep track of how you're progressing.
Your quests are in the top left corner of the screen and they turn green when completed with an OK! after them. The passage of time is at the top center with a turning sky, night with stars and moon, daylight with the sun shining. Right under the time 'clock' you'll see when an adventure is completed, or a set of zee's to mark the time to rest. The top right corner of the game is your location map and the bottom is your hotbar. More on that later.
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A subtle ambiance is the whole of the game with music quietly playing in the setting of a medieval castle realm. The graphics are of the medieval setting with all the tools of the trades and bartering, the areas of interest relating to parts of the realm that quests take place in, and the lighting with fire and candles everywhere.
Getting around the castle realm is easy with a teleport stone that looks like a knight. When you activate the teleport stone, the map immediately shows up where you click on the location you need to go next. In the tutorial your next stop is the mines because you need copper and coal to fire up the forge.
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In the mines there is an elevator, but I chose to head straight ahead not realizing that when you use the elevator that goes to one of the four 'layers' available. The one you are on is the only one you can mine resources in. When you click on the elevator you realize the rest of the layers are locked, so leveling up and progressing through the talent tree will unlock them. When you're mining you are using the pickaxe that Thudgric gave you. As you are using the pickaxe there are green targets that you line up your cursor (which is just a pinpoint dot) for each hit. If you're successful in hitting all the targets you gain both experience and sometimes a gem or another such goodie.
You'll find that as you get your tools to work the forge, that they automatically slot into your hotbar, or action bar as it's called in this game. The first three slots are for your tools and the other six slots are for items picked up after crafting or finding them. You have an ample backpack of thirty-three slots which I found was enough for starting the game. After you bring back the coal and copper your next part of this quest is to smelt the copper ore. It’s a beautiful sight when you pour the slag into the ‘pot’ which should appropriately be a mold for the ingot, but since your ingot production can be as few as three to a lot more, a regular mold plate for the ingot was probably too cumbersome for the game action cycle where the bucket suffices.
During the tutorial you learn about the parts to the items you create. Even though you forge a lovely sword blade, you find you'll need more to make the actual weapon to present to the king. You're introduced to the anvil, sharpening stone, assembly table, and a storage crate. Later you find out that there is a recipe book that tells you all the parts you'll need to craft the Basics, Weapons, and Armor.
After getting approved by the king, Thudgric directs you to get some rest and that there is a cottage that's empty and ready for a new occupant. It’s also the place where your game progression gets saved - other than the escape and click to save button. During the tutorial itself, I found that a red warning text that you need rest pops up, but you cannot access your bed until that is opened up to you through the tutorial progression. I found that a little aggravating because I was engrossed in the forging process and the quests I needed to complete. Sure, I'm slow, but I am also thorough!
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The next part of the tutorial focuses on your hero: where you meet him or her, what you do to outfit your hero, and where to send your hero off to. Your hero is your resource collector of rare goods and resources. The village tavern is where you hire them from and the Heroes Hall is where you'll be sending your hero out on adventures. I so wished I could go with him, but you've settled into this realm as the blacksmith helping the people with equipment you make and by sending your hero off to gather supplies to make the equipment.
The last part of the tutorial is where that time management comes in. You'll be filling orders (how you make money) and selling your wares. You only have a weapons rack at first, but there is plenty of room for other racks as they unlock during your progression. You learn about haggling with your customers to sell them the piece you made when it’s not exactly what they had requested. Definitely a way to test my reflexes in clicking a button fast enough to get that haggle!
And that, my friends, is where you take over the reigns. Thudgric occasionally pops up as you progress, but I’ll leave you to find that out. I did leave out some parts of the tutorial to give you things to discover on your own. All in all, Compact Core Games did a fine job on this little simulation game for smithing in medieval times. Don’t forget to save, as with most of these types of games you do lose your progress if you haven’t done so!
Score: 9 / 10
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