A few days ago I featured Gedonia in my A-Z of Steam Library Gaming. Unlike every other game I've featured so far, I actually continued to play this one!
The others didn't really hold my interest, or they just weren't what I was wanting at that moment in time. Gedonia, however, despite being a constantly-worked-on Early Access title, made me want to play and continue further.
Steam tells me that I've played for 13 hours so far. That's a bald-faced lie. A few of those hours were AFK whilst the game was running in the background. 😆 I'd guesstimate that it's closer to 7 hours. So, I've spent 7 hours active in the game... exploring, crafting, doing the small amount of quests the starting area offers, 2 world bosses, a few events...
...and I haven't even left the first zone yet. I progressed briefly to the next zone whilst completing the main mission, but then backtracked to the first zone to finish it off. I'm a completionist. Everything needs to be done.
This is the entire map of the game. I'm in that little top left corner, the Green Vales. And it's been 7 hours.
THAT IS SO AMAZING! I love games I can spend hours upon hours in.
I'm one of those people who is disappointed when a game only offers "30 hours of content!" and markets it like it's a great thing. No. It's not a great thing. I want 80+ hours. I want side missions, exploration, crafting, building, an alive and active world I can disappear into. I don't want it to end after 30 measly hours.
I'm sure that other people could probably just get everything done in the first zone in half the time I did. But I'm a slowpoke, stopping to take screenshots all the time. 😅 And I'm constantly distracted by little things like alt-tabbing to check Hive and Rising Star...
Since my first post on this game, I have discovered a few nifty things.
One of my first discoveries was that I could actually rename my companion. So I changed his name from Stray Dog to Xander. And I also noticed that as I fed him more and more meat, his friendship metre grew which, in turn, levelled him up! So I gave him 2 abilities and a couple of passives.
Now he's much better in combat situations! 😁
There are also obelisks hidden around the world that will give you a free skill point and a substantial buff for an hour!
I also didn't realise that a ring of stones I wandered past when I first started the game was actually a Waypoint you could teleport to from other Waypoints. So that's good, having a fast travel system!
Too bad you can't just travel to the Waypoints from anywhere though. Apparently you used to be able to, but it was changed in a recent update to just be Waypoint-to-Waypoint.
There was this one irritating bit when I summoned a great tower of cranky water elementals out of the ocean, and it turned out that some structures are currently bugged.
I mean, that's to be expected in early access. But still. I swam through the water, climbed up into the tower, and my trusty dog didn't come with me.
In the companion window is a handy little "teleport to player" button, so I summoned my dog to fight by my side! But he just fell through the structure. And so, dog-less, I had to fight through the angry water elemental tower all by my lonesome. Luckily I had food and health potions with me. When you've gotten into the habit of sending your companion in first to take the threat while you shoot arrows further back, going it alone is a bit dangerous.
That's the only bug I've found so far, though.
Because I have high charisma, I can have an extra companion! Yet, I wasn't expecting this guy to become one.
Naturally, I talk to every NPC. Most of them just have generic lines, or just say 'hello' to you. But others will have a continuing dialogue. One person with continuing dialogue, I ended up influencing a choice for them. And this person with continuing dialogue, my player character randomly invited him to come adventuring with her.
It was a pretty strange interaction. My lady walks up to him and starts off with a, "You're not happy here are you?" and next minute, Brother Jordan is my friend and follower. I'm not complaining -- he's a healer! But the method of acquiring him... it was just out of the blue, haha.
Instead of feeding him meat to gain his friendship like I would with my dog, he wants money! And so, I threw enough money at him to level him up to get a couple of abilities and passives, and we continued on our adventure.
The game advertises having quests you can complete by various methods. So far I've discovered that that is indeed the case.
This one above amused me.
Drawn to the plight of a shackled man upon a mountain, getting zapped by regular bolts of lightning, I approach the man and enquire as to what caused this strange form of punishment.
Turns out he robbed a wizard. If I have high magic ability, I can free him myself. But I don't. So I can either just kill him or go speak to the wizard. I choose to go speak to the wizard.
And so, I go and speak to the wizard. And I can attack the wizard!! Or ask for further information about this whole scenario.
The wizard informs me that the bandit did more than just steal simple foods from him and I soon discover that the bandit indeed earned his fate. However, we can still opt to help the bandit by finding the stolen goods. So, I find the stolen goods, retrieve them, and hand them back to the wizard...
...the wizard said that he would now free the bandit...
...by exploding him in a shower of blood and gore!!
It was unexpected. I was impressed!
Now that this zone is complete -- I think -- my lady is going to visit her home village once more, stock up on some supplies, craft a multitude of arrows, and head off to the next zone.
Although, out of curiosity... I just looked at the Gedonia wiki, and there is still a Bandit Lair I haven't found yet, with a Bandit Leader inside. I'm not sure if I can go pillage that though since it's apparently where you go if you want to side with the Bandit faction. I'll need to investigate! 👀⚔️
Anywho, if this first area took me around 7 hours, I'm expecting the same of the next zone: the Golden Forest. It looks about the same size on the map, and also has a lot more quests available by the looks of things! And I'm looking forward to it! 😁
Until next time! 🙃✨
I can see myself temporarily abandoning Skyrim ,The Witcher 1 and Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance to start playing this pretty soon.
Haha! It is pretty good for an early access game. 🙂 As long as you're fine with the game updating every week or two (the developer is very, very consistent with his updates) and can deal with a few whacky animations, glitches and possible bugs, I definitely recommend giving this a go!!
I was gonna ask how long its been in early access but steam answered my questions, it released in June 2020 and...
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“Gedonia is planned to be in early access approximately for 2-3 years”
So maybe its out of early access this summer but then again maybe next summer? Its probably a good time to jump in.
The only steam early access game I have experience with is Baldur's Gate 3 and it left me with mixed feelings about early acess in general.
On the one hand BG3 is hands down the best rpg and probably one of the best games I've ever played...like easily one of the best...
On the other hand I played like 40+ hours only to get to a point where its like....to be continued...in like more than a year....maybe...
I decided for a game like that its best to wait until full release but this looks a lot more light hearted and easy to jump into and back out of.
I personally have a bad track record when it comes to Early Access games. I've been burnt quite a few times, spending money on these things only to have them flat out never release, get to the point where they just stop updating, or they get released but it's nothing like what they've promised.
So when it comes to Early Access games now... I ignore them for the most part.
The main reason I got Gedonia was because the developer is extremely active. I've never seen an early access game get updated this frequently before. It gave me hope. 😅 And I checked out his developer page too and he's actually made games that have been properly released. It was a breath of fresh air!
I haven't tried BG3 yet, because of it being in Early Access. I have faith that it'll be an amazing game!! But I have no interest in just getting into one measly chapter of the game and then waiting and waiting forevermore. I'll wait til it's released and then salivate all over it. xD
I miss BG3 alot....my highest hive gaming payouts were for that game.
My mind was kinda blown at the set design and storytelling on the Sunlight wetlands/Putrid Bog/ Old Aunt Ethel storyline ...I spent like 10 hours getting footage, editing it and typing up this post...
(Part 1)
https://hive.blog/hive-140217/@celticheartbeat/baldur-s-gate-3-the-putrid-bog-astarion-the-vampire-rouge-and-auntie-ethel-the-old-hag-part-1
(Part 2....I tried to make it all one post but it was to big for the blockchain and I couldn't post it in 1 post!)
https://hive.blog/hive-140217/@celticheartbeat/baldur-s-gate-3-the-putrid-bog-and-auntie-ethel-the-old-hag-part-2-boss-fight
That post ended up paying out at $157.99 when HIVEs value was around $0.30.....I guess that would be a $500+ post now.... wow....that's crazy to think about...
Back then the hardest enemy in the game was the Phase Spider Matriarch, again great storytelling , like pure D&D Magick which ill never forget....the fight was hard as nails, I don't even remember how many times I tried to beat it but my party wiped ALOT...
I remember the fight with Aunt Ethels possessed Druid Guards seeming impossible ,like so hard if you beat it ,it should be at the top of your CV its so difficult. The Phase spider was tougher but had a cool mechanic where if she lands on a web and you take out the web she take massive falling damage meaning some luck comes into play, I think that's how I beat it in the end.
https://hive.blog/hive-140217/@celticheartbeat/baldur-s-gate-3-phase-spider-matriarch-boss-fight-if-you-have-arachnophobia-this-ones-not-for-you
I haven't watched any of these vids in 9 months or so, Ill leave them here so I remember to take a brief sojourn down memory lane soon....
Of all the many, many rpg memories I have from games like Final Fantasy 7-10, the early days of WoW and Everquest 2 , Skyrim on day 1 of release and all The Witcher 3 had to offer these Baldur's Gate 3 memories outshine them all.
Its a hell of an achievement in game design and storytelling, Id say its likely game of the year when it release's in late 2023...
That's very high praise!! 🙂 I look forward to the day I actually get to experience it... in late 2023... 😩 sigh.
I made myself miss it so much by watching the phase spider video I just cleared out 70 gigs of hard drive space to re install the now 90 gig version of it...
If Act 1 is 90 gigs Im going to need a new hard drive just for the full release...
Low standards! 😎
😛
Not saying that you should but just wondering, have you played Runescape before?
80+ hours in a single player game is perfect!! 😄 In saying that though, I've spent hundreds of hours in other single player games like Dragon Age... so if something new could come out that could live up to that, that'd be great. 😅
As for Runescape... I have not. I've played other MMOs, and I'm waiting very impatiently for a new one to be released in 3 weeks!!!! 😁!!!!! But Runescape never really caught my eye.
Sooo I finally installed and got around to checking out Patch 6 of Baldurs Gate 3 today. I have some footage to edit and post tomorrow which will cover my thoughts on the latest version.
Long story short I think at this point there is plenty of content to justify the full price tag.ALOT of work has been done since I last logged in 10+ months ago.Theres a whole new area to explore called Grymforge and 2 new classes Druids and Sorcerors.
That takes the roster up to 8 classes some of which have sub classes right at the start. All class pick a branch to specialise in at lv 5.
Id say for an initial play through seeing everything there is on offer right now is going to be around the 40-50 hour mark.
The thing is every decision effects the outcome of events, you can choose to play as a truly evil character and have a totally different experience than if you were making morally right choices.
Add to this the fact that alot of possible outcomes require a successful dice roll like tabletop D&D does and the replayabilty is already pretty insane.
Id say in its current incarnation you could get 80+ hours entertainment out of it.
Your game save is still useable when they patch to newer versions so at this point its going to be like playing an episodic game or having new campaign's release for your party much like the tabletop version of D&D.
Im hyped to jump back into it, I was as giddy as a schoolboy running around the opening mission this afternoon finding out what's new.
Stay tuned for the post which I will hopefully get out tomorrow.
Well that sounds absolutely fantastic! 😄 Makes me look forward even more to the eventual full release!! I would love to play right now, but I think I'd rather experience the magic of the full game... it is taking a lot of willpower to ignore it though, haha!
You've always been able to play as a truly evil character in these games, but I struggle doing so 😬 I always feel bad for hurting the NPCs feelings 🤣. The only game I've managed to actually complete as an evil person is Neverwinter Nights 2... and that was simply because I liked the chaotic evil companion, Bishop, and couldn't stand the other companions and revelled in making them dislike me. 😈
There's a scenario where you need to roll an 18+ on the D20 to stop a Tiefling child from being killed by a poisonous snake...fail and you need to tell her parents she died...
I couldn't do it, I think it took 6 or 7 reloads until the dice eventually hit 19...at the point I happily ran of to tell her parents the good news.
I planned to hold out until full release but read the patch 6 notes and cracked :)
I never played Dragon Age. The longest I played in single player was in Fallout by Bethesda. and Skyrim I think. Oh and an old game called Thief. 😁
Yeah, all old stuff 😋
Runescape though, it's endless lol. I did max all skills and then couldn't stand it anymore.
Not a good idea to start it now, so don't.
Old? What's this about old? 😅 I still play Fallout and Skyrim sometimes xD Though I never tried Thief.... 👀🐱👤 sounds intriguing. I'm also waiting very impatiently for Bethesda to release the next Elder Scrolls, and the next Fallout, and their new Starfield game. Need all the things!!!
I don't plan on it 😉 I'm about to do all that skill maxing and levelling and gearing up and the endless grind in Lost Ark instead!!!! 🤣 (same grind, different game -- I'm a glutton for punishment.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief:_The_Dark_Project
It's ancient. 😅
I'd definitely play Lost Ark if I could, yeah it seems pretty interesting to get tortured by its grind. 😂
Loving how you describe your adventure! The part where some dude just randomly joins your party and demands money is pretty funny though, imagine if this was just all part of his ploy to siphon your cash 😂
That would be just my luck! 😅
Thankfully he only wanted 10g each time I tried to
bribe--er, increase friendship with him. So if he is a charlatan, no real harm! xDYour content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
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