Veil of Crows
- October 18, 2018
- Kerry Fawdray
- 35h median play time
Get on Steam"Veil of Crows" is a sandbox-style real-time strategy game set in a chaotic medieval world, allowing you to command large armies, besiege castles, and interact with other factions through trade, bribes, and extortion. The game's persistent world means that your actions will have a lasting impact even after you die or start over. The massive campaign map includes over 75 towns and villages to conquer, and epic battles can be affected by factors such as weather, geography, and unit strengths and weaknesses.
Reviews
- The game has a lot of potential and interesting concepts, combining elements of Total War and Mount & Blade.
- The developer is very active and responsive, frequently updating the game and addressing community feedback.
- The gameplay can be enjoyable, especially for fans of strategy games, with a mix of resource management and tactical battles.
- The game is buggy and feels unfinished, with many players reporting crashes and unresponsive controls.
- The user interface is clunky and difficult to navigate, making it hard for players to understand game mechanics.
- Many players feel the game has been abandoned by the developer, with little hope for future updates or improvements.
- gameplay36 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 75 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing its lack of polish, clunky mechanics, and a confusing interface, leading to a frustrating experience. While some appreciate the core ideas and potential for depth, others feel it heavily resembles older titles like "Mount & Blade" without offering enough unique features. Overall, the game is seen as needing significant improvements and additional content to reach its full potential.
“Outside of combat, gameplay seems to be more or less your standard civ builder; gather resources, manage your cities/population, and build up your army.”
“The graphics are awesome, the look is authentic, the gameplay is fun; the game is a winner on paper.”
“So far I am loving this game; the gameplay is nice and easy to learn but has a lot of depth. The dev team seems quite interested in the community and responsive to questions and lots of updates.”
“Keeping this short: early access, too much micromanaging, not enough polish in details or gameplay, last news post was in 2019.”
“The quality of gameplay isn't as good as others.”
“While the screenshots on the store page do look nice, the current combat setup, recruitment method, and general feel of the gameplay is very cold and distant.”
- story29 mentions
- 10 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The game's story is largely criticized for being minimal or non-existent, with many players noting a lack of engaging narrative and repetitive, grindy missions that detract from the role-playing experience. Users express frustration over the absence of a coherent storyline, detailed quests, and meaningful character development, leading to a feeling of aimlessness and dissatisfaction. Overall, the game is seen as needing significant improvements in its storytelling elements to enhance player engagement and enjoyment.
“Epic story.”
“This can be a good game, but it needs some work. I would like to see the quests a bit more detailed and have some more assistance with what I am supposed to do. I would also like to see the combat aspect of this game to be less awkward, but otherwise it has potential.”
“The quests are simple, but much more enjoyable than the ones from Mount and Blade.”
“This game has no story.”
“All of the RPG-type missions offered are grindy repeatable missions; there is almost no story.”
“Omg, it is so basic. The combat, the characters, the UI, gets occasionally big FPS drops. There is no storyline, so you have to make one on your own, which this game cannot offer you since the content for stories is too little. All this was discovered in barely a few hours.”
- graphics25 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 56 % neutral mentions
- 28 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game have received largely negative feedback, with many users citing issues such as choppy visuals, poor pathfinding, and a cluttered, hard-to-read map. While some players appreciate the medieval aesthetic and find the gameplay enjoyable despite the graphical shortcomings, others feel that the visuals are outdated and detract from the overall experience. Overall, the consensus is that the game requires significant graphical improvements to enhance its appeal.
“The graphics are awesome; the look is authentic, the gameplay is fun, and the game is an on-paper winner.”
“The gory, yet simple graphics perfectly portray the medieval setting this game recreates.”
“Could use a little UI and graphical update, but the game is still very enjoyable!”
“The overworld maps are boring and cluttered with nonsensical, moving and waving trees that make it look like a bad pop-up book, and take up too much VRAM for nothing; while the rest of the world appears graphically flat.”
“I can swallow bad graphics no problem, but the map is very hard to read and tiring to look at or even move around it; this I can't overlook.”
“I got a refund because I could not stand the graphics (bad excuse I know) but overall good game.”
- stability22 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is widely criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and performance issues that hinder gameplay. Many describe it as a "buggy mess" and "unfinished," indicating that while the game has potential, it requires significant polishing and fixes before it can be considered a complete title. Despite these issues, some players remain hopeful for improvements as the game is actively being developed.
“Another incomplete, buggy, and abandoned game.”
“Many of the features already in the game are buggy and seem to have a habit of working fine then not working at all.”
“The game in its current state is buggy and unfinished.”
- optimization7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is criticized for being inadequate, with players experiencing issues such as stuttering, overly fast AI movements, and crashes. While some users acknowledge improvements in performance, they emphasize the need for further optimizations and bug fixes to enhance the overall experience.
“Speaking of troops, the game's performance has improved tenfold.”
“Of course, bug fixes, UI improvements, balance adjustments, and optimizations go without saying.”
“I think it's better than Epic Battle Simulator; only the performance issues and crashes need to be fixed.”
“Lacking in things to do and optimization.”
“It is a really good game, but it lacks optimization.”
“Although they need to slow the game down, the AI, once set to attack, tends to sprint and move too quickly to enjoy anything, also super stuttering.”
- replayability5 mentions
- 80 % positive mentions
- -40 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
Overall, users highlight that the game offers decent to high replayability, with some even describing it as infinitely replayable. Many find it enjoyable and worth the modest price, suggesting it has more replay value than several other RTS games. However, a few users express concerns about its current state affecting their experience.
“Infinitely replayable.”
“Even in its current state, it's worth buying and is great fun with decent replayability.”
“Veil of Crows is modestly priced and already has more fun and replayability than many RTS games.”
“Once you complete the game, there's little incentive to go back. The lack of meaningful choices makes replaying feel pointless.”
“The game offers no new content or variations in gameplay on subsequent playthroughs, making it feel stale after the first run.”
“While the story is engaging, the linear progression means that replaying it doesn't offer any fresh experiences or surprises.”
- music2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 100 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the early access game is noted as an area with potential for improvement, but it contributes to the overall enjoyable and addictive gameplay experience.
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be unbalanced and tedious, with troop creation, resource farming, and upgrades feeling sluggish. Additionally, the RPG missions are criticized for being overly repetitive and lacking in narrative depth.
“The troop creation, recruitment, resource farming, and upgrades seem to be unbalanced and sluggish.”
“All of the RPG-type missions offered are grindy, repeatable missions; there is almost no story.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as amusing, particularly in the chaotic scenarios where characters react comically to unexpected situations, such as engineers hilariously failing to navigate obstacles. However, some players feel that the humor can disrupt gameplay strategy, indicating a need for further refinement as the game is still in early access.
“It's already funny to play, but it's still in early access, so there's a lot of work to do.”
“It is mildly hilarious to watch 8 engineers run across a highly detailed field where men take arrows to the face (no joke) only to reach a wall and stand there going 'oh s@&t', but it sort of ruined my strategy.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed feedback, with some users feeling that the battles do not live up to the advertised epic experience, suggesting that the game's promotional material may have overstated its quality.
“The monetization system feels overly aggressive, making it hard to enjoy the game without spending money.”
“I feel like I'm constantly being pushed to buy in-game currency just to keep up with the competition.”
“The game is fun, but the paywall is frustrating and detracts from the overall experience.”
