Age of Reforging: Blackthorn

About

"Age of Reforging: Blackthorn" is a strategy role-playing game set in a fantasy world. Players must build and manage their own kingdom, while also recruiting and training units to fight in tactical battles. The game features a variety of units, skills, and equipment to customize your playstyle. Explore the world, complete quests, and make decisions that affect the story and outcome of your journey.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

63%

Audience ScoreBased on 88 reviews

story4 positive mentions

optimization6 negative mentions

The character creation and skill tree options are well done, allowing for diverse builds and playstyles.
The crafting system is straightforward and offers plenty of options, enhancing gameplay depth.
The game has a unique blend of sandbox and tactical RPG elements, providing a fresh experience reminiscent of classic titles.

The game suffers from significant bugs and performance issues, including long loading times and erratic quest markers.
Combat lacks engagement and challenge, often resulting in players feeling disconnected from the action due to AI control.
The user interface is clunky and poorly designed, making navigation and management frustrating.

story
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
65%
15%
The story in the game is described as having moments of richness and ambition, but it suffers from inconsistent quest markers that disrupt immersion and gameplay. Players often find themselves confused about quest objectives due to erratic markers and bugs, which detracts from the overall experience. While there are elements of character building and guild quests that appeal to some, the execution leaves much to be desired.
- “For so long I have been looking for a game that is character building with guild quests and nothing has scratched that itch until I tried Reforging.”
- “It can be seen that the production team has great ambition, rich storylines, and diverse professions.”
- “The story is sometimes good, sometimes meh.”
- “That really wrecks immersion, and occasionally wrecks gameplay as you can't work out what a quest is asking you to do.”
- “Couple that with the random lack of quest markers and you can end up with quests where you have no idea what you're trying to achieve, or where, or how!”
- “Long loading times (even with an SSD), a plethora of reagents and materials to craft but no way to craft yet, random crashes when loading, maps like the bandit camp where it gets bugged and you can't get out, the doctor in Green Town that runs to hide in a house you can't enter, characters blocking paths gets annoying, the only city with a magic shop being the initial city, no way to learn a class for your characters, etc. The number of party members could be higher, especially when quests impose your characters into the party.”
gameplay
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
67%
17%
Gameplay is characterized by a real-time with pause RPG system set in an open-world sandbox, reminiscent of titles like Battle Brothers and Mount & Blade. However, players report a lack of clear explanations for mechanics, which hampers immersion and can lead to confusion during quests. While some mechanics are engaging and familiar to those who have played similar games, issues such as slow optimization and a small, unchangeable UI detract from the overall experience.
- “Real-time with pause RPG gameplay in a sandbox similar to Battle Brothers or Mount & Blade.”
- “The game is an open world CRPG mixed with real-time with pause RPG gameplay in a sandbox during encounters/events/cities.”
- “The gameplay is beyond excellent and they have just started.”
- “There's very little explanation of mechanics or help for the player.”
- “That really wrecks immersion, and occasionally wrecks gameplay as you can't work out what a quest is asking you to do.”
- “The mechanics alone just don't respond, listen, or follow through and stick.”
optimization
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, resulting in sluggish movement and poor performance, particularly during combat where character actions feel excessively slow. Players report numerous bugs and stuttering, even on high-end PCs, indicating a pressing need for extensive optimization. While the game shows potential, its current state hampers the overall experience.
- “The game needs optimization, a lot of it.”
- “There are bugs aplenty and no small amount of jank; additionally, there is clearly very little optimization as the game stutters even on my high-end PC.”
- “Has potential but right now it has very poor performance with sluggish movement where moving characters around feels like I'm watching a movie in slow motion, especially during combat. Even using the tactical pause to give commands, once I leave tactical pause, it is still as slow as a snail. Not to mention a mess as both good and bad guys just bunch up into a mass of unidentifiable bodies.”
- “There are bugs aplenty and no small amount of jank. Additionally, there is clearly very little optimization as the game stutters even on my high-end PC.”
- “It's not optimized yet and very slow. Other than that, the UI is very small and can't be changed. The game mechanics are different, almost reminiscent of KOTOR back on Xbox, without being able to pause, so it's kind of cool.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
50%
30%
The graphics in the game have received significant criticism, with many users noting that they resemble outdated visuals from the early 2000s, leading to a disappointing experience. Despite a detailed character creator, the overall character graphics are described as ugly and unsettling, and issues with saving graphic settings contribute to a warped visual experience. Even at maximum settings, players find the graphics to be subpar and unstable.
- “Character creator is very detailed and gives a nice amount of options, but graphically it all looks like stuff from the early 2000s, which is very disappointing and painful to look at.”
- “The graphics are no better than old school Dungeon Siege, which I can deal with, except it's not stable at all!”
- “Graphics set to max, and the game still looks bad.”
- “Character graphics are incredibly ugly, accompanied by creepy portraits.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has received overwhelmingly negative feedback regarding its stability, with multiple users describing it as extremely buggy and unreliable.
- “The game is a buggy piece of crap.”
- “The game is buggy af.”
- “The game is a buggy piece of crap.”