Mistfall Hunter First Impressions: I like it, but I want to love it

After about five hours into Mistfall Hunter, I found myself liking the game but really trying to find an excuse to love it. It has a lot that works well, but the things that don't prevent me from fully enjoying it. These are my initial impressions of a genre of game that I am very familiar with...

World and Lore

Now this is where the game excels; if you are a fan of Elden Ring or anything dark fantasy, then you should feel right at home. From the moment you log in, the music and art style will immerse you. The voice acting is superb, and the world around you feels well constructed. The little details around the world are what builds the game in my opinion. From venturing off to a scenic corner and seeing what appears to be stone giants out in the distance to watching an enemy NPC pray to an altar of some sort. When you take the time to pay attention to your surroundings in this game, you find yourself more immersed in the world. The dialogue from the NPC's also feels well written and coincides with the world they are trying to build. The Lore is so far easy to follow along, and it seems to be mostly given to you through quests, as it is your job to complete them and unpack the story.

Gameplay and Social

Now this is the confusing part for me. When loading into your camp, you are greeted by the plethora of messages from other players in the chat box. Immediately, you have the sense that this game is alive and, for the most part, pretty social. It is the reason most people will play a game like this: to communicate with others, help each other, and trade. When loading into a "trio's" game, I found that the voice chat did not work for any of the games I played. Not even an indication showing that you are talking on the screen, and I checked my settings several times. When trying to communicate with team members via text chat, I received no response. After observing teammates' movements, it's my conclusion that this game, at least in the early game, is filled with Bots. My suspicions were further confirmed when fighting "player" enemies. These enemies who are supposed to be players, moved like bots and acted like bots. I could tell because I have extensive experience in games like this. It reminds me of Naraka:Bladepoint, where early in the game you are faced with a bunch of bots, and it's not until you progress that you are actually met with real players. This saddens me because it takes away from the social experience of feeling accomplished when you kill someone, and it takes away from the social aspect when trying to communicate with your team. I mean every game I encountered this so it really threw me off.

In terms of gameplay, it is solid. Movement, interacting, and traversing the map all feel intuitive and good. It plays like Naraka:Bladepoint mixed with Eldegarde and Elden Ring for those who have played it. I have encountered little to no lag or stuttering since playing. I have played both with a controller and keyboard and enjoy the layouts of both.

Combat

The combat in this game feels pretty fluid; it's much faster-paced than Elden Ring and more akin to Naraka:Bladepoint. This is one of those combat systems that feels easy to figure out but hard to master. Aside from the 3 skills you start out with and several basic attacks, there are certain styles of attacks that do different things, like crowd control, buffs, and debuffs. You can build your character around what kind of combat style you want to play: Tank/DPS. This is one of the highlights of this game, the creative freedom in how you want your character to play. The attacks seem to be pretty dialed in with action combat, so you will miss a lot if you are not exactly honed in on your enemy. Overall, I have been satisfied with the way the combat is handled. If you are a fan of action combat, then you are sure to like this.

Final Thoughts / What is Needed

The game has great bones, but I find that the bots for both teammates and enemies in the early game really detract from the sense of sociability and gameplay. I like to know that I am actually playing with real people and can actually communicate with them, not just via ping. The user interface, for the most part, is clean, but the constant pop-ups towards the store and various battlepasses and events detract from the gritty dark fantasy setting of the game. You already paid for the game; you don't want to be bombarded with more stuff to potentially pay for. For me, what works well is overshadowed by what doesn't. For the sake of trying to break down my hypothesis of everyone being a bot, I will pursue the game further into the mid-game to see if that changes. Hopefully, soon we get a voice chat fix patch as well, so we can know whether our mics are working in-game or not. The journey continues Gyldhunters!