FRONTIERS

FRONTIERS
N/A
Metacritic
36
Steam
22.102
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$14.99
Release date
1 January 2020
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
36 (107 votes)

FRONTIERS blends the feel of first-person RPG classics like Daggerfall with the relaxing tempo and simplicity of a point-and-click adventure.

Show detailed description

FRONTIERS system requirements

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows XP+
  • Processor: 1.66 GHz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: DX11 (shader model 3.0) capabilities
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 3 GB available space
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
293480
Platforms
Windows PC
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Reviews
Write a new review
Ger Bib
Ger Bib

Too bad, could've been good...

6 of 5 must play.
5 of 5 great story great game-play.
4 of 5 great story average game-play.
3 of 5 average story average game-play.
2 of 5 play only if it's your favourite genre.
1 of 5 play if you have nothing better to do.
0 of 5 play if you're a masochist.
-1 of 5 avoid.

Frontiers score is -1 of 5.

PwnHawX1337
PwnHawX1337

As an Oculus Rift user, having bought the game based on the mostly positive reviews, I feel cheated. I was so surprised at the lack of function and the ps1 era character models and the massive bugs that I at first thought that all these positive reviews are bloody fake! that's the only way I can explain why anyone would give a positive review at this point. The game needs tons of work, and is absolutely horrible to experience on the Oculus Developer Kit 2. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME IF YOU ARE EXPECTING IT TO BE PLAYABLE AS PER BEING IN THE VR SUPPORT SECTION. 5 minutes for the rest of the level to load while you can walk through the walls that haven't pooped in yet, HORRIBLE frame rates in seemingly lackluster environments, etc etc etc. I wanted this to be what steam seems to think it is, but steam this time turned out to be full of shit. I tried to get a refund, exchange, etc etc, I excplicitly told steam it's FALSE ADVERTISING as in the "VR SUPPORT" category, and also asked them to remove it from their VR section, no go.

Hotmelt
Hotmelt

Awful mess.graphics are pitiful.decided to give it another look after the first update in 2 years and as soon as i got into the game i turned it off and uninstalled.and thats the way i will leave it.as the dev says , never play it again, touch wood!

Shopa
Shopa

The biggest disappointment of the beginning of 2020

I really liked the Frontiers game when it was with shadows,high-quality textures, and a beautiful environment. However, now the game is more like a laughingstock and does not cause the attraction that caused before.
- Pixelating everything you can
- Sometimes terribly crooked and stupid control, which also can not be changed
- No possibility to change the settings (at least to turn on the shadows or something like that)
- Change items to eye-popping sprites
- Even more incomprehensible simplification of inventory
- And a lot of things that just got worse...
Games as well as the person should evolve, and on this example I understand that the author decided to ruin the project, and made degradation of game. Previously, I wanted to dig into the settings and find the best option, so that nothing lagged and play at least a little bit (or complete the game completely), and now I do not even want to run it.

It is a pity that I bought this game a year ago and now I will not get a refund.

reha
reha

Cannot recommend a game that i cant even play, have done the prolouge three times now only to get stuck on a loading screen when leaving the starting area.....Everything was fine just until that specific part i don't understand what the problem is buy hopefully it gets resolved.

*******
Edit after the fifth retry the game is now working correctly and i'm able to play it through, explore etc.... This is game is built for people who enjoy exploration, building/crafting items from scratch with a minecraft type system. I didn't reccommend this game at first becasue i simply could not play it but as of now i have changed my mind and i DO recommend this game, there is a lot of content for a 15$ price tag hopefully this review helps you figure out your deciosion of purchasing this title.

ApeShot
ApeShot

Aside from not being able to get past the "six months later" area in the school (crashes), I really have enjoyed the first 40 minutes of play so far. The graphics are well done, character movement is smooth, and the music is flat out fantasy awsomeness. I'll give it a few more tries getting past the area that has been constantly crashing, and hopefully will succeed - I want to explore!

So far I'd say 7/10.

Edit*

I have finnally gotten past the school. It seems it was the graphics settings that lagged the game to crash - was running everything maxed on desktop gtx 760, quad core i5, 8gb ram. Strange becasue I thought my computer would easily handle this game... Must need to be optimized better. Other than that I have been able to explore more so that is a good thing.

PsychoticTeddy
PsychoticTeddy

This game was a bit confusing at first, but after 30 mins of gametime i learned most of the mechanics and i must say i was immersed into the game's enviroment almost immediately. That said, this is still a early access game and thus is obviously prone to bugs and glitches, but surprisingly i didn't notice that many. This game has alot of potential and it will definatly go far if the developer sticks to it and updates it regularly, but before you consider buying the game, look up reviews and gameplay vids to see if you think it is worth a buy in its current state.

v1o
v1o

Might be worth something one day but it's too buggy to recommend right away, sadly. This is still too early in early access.
Here's some gameplay footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P89b1fX76IA

Bloodyhell2
Bloodyhell2

First the positive. This game captures that wonderful essence of games from days gone by - it has that sense of wonder and really makes you want to explore the world and see what is out there. The graphics fall somewhere between Morrowind and Skyrim - certainly serviceable. I read another review that said the game is unplayable on mid-level machines. My PC is the embodiment of mid-level and it ran fine, although the frame rates need to be improved a bit - other wise I had no problems.

Now for the downside. I know that this is a survival game but if I eat a loaf of bread, a sausage and a banana, should I really be starting to get hungry less than five minutes later? Honestly, I don't mind foraging for food but in all these types of games, your character must be an insatiable, gluttonous hog-demon for all the food and water that they need. Also, by all appearances it seemed to be mild weather outside with people milling about, yet I am freezing to death in a matter of minutes and need to run to the fireplace to get warm again. There isn't a backpack or wheelbarrow big enough to get you a mile down the road for all of your "needs". I hope that this gets tweaked - I'd like to see a survival game that actually let you explore for five minutes without your dashboard flashing red for some trivial thing that you took care of three minutes previously.

That said, I am enjoying exploring the initial town and hope to be able to get outfitted to explore further. I'd recommend this game highly to anyone who misses that good old fashioned game that doesn't hold you by the hand and doesn't feel the need to knock you over the head with contant tutorial style gameplay. I really hope this game succeeds and wish there were more like it.

LucusCubensis
LucusCubensis

I got a list with stuff to do.
- Reallifesimulator 2014
11/10

walkmandosch
walkmandosch

At the time of this review, I had not put a SINGLE minute into playing Frontiers. (A minimum of 5 minutes is required to write a review) However, I am giving it a thumbs up simply on the basis of pure honesty. You may be thinking I am crazy to do such a thing, but try to hear me out. I have been following the progress of this game for awhile now, so I can assure you that I have been sincerely interested in it since it was announced on Greenlight. But when I read a recent article about it, I was sold right then and there. The developer of Frontiers has publicly announced:

"A lot of folks have told me: I'm buying this game for my kid/friend/spouse for Christmas, they love exploration games! And I say the same thing every time: DON'T!"
"The only people who will love it are players who seek it out for themselves, because it's NOT FINISHED. Your kid/friend/spouse will just be annoyed with you. I'm proud of this game, and with everyone's help I believe it's going to be great - but it's not great yet, so in the meantime get your kid/friend/spouse Dragon Age or The Binding of Isaac or something, trust me."

I must say.... How REFRESHING. I am speaking from a position of having a very bitter taste of early access nightmares on my palate. Now you may be thinking that it's a genious marketing ploy using reverse psychology, but I find this to be doubtful considering this is major revenue the developer very well may be losing, especially during the Holiday Steam sale...a very opportune time to make some excellent dough. This takes guts. The game may have a long ways to go, but I believe this incredibly responsible attitude needs to be encouraged in a selfish new era of gaming where the end product is a often a deliberate farcry from an honest game players can enjoy. Here is the original article that sold me on this:

http://kotaku.com/dev-on-steam-warns-do-not-buy-this-game-as-a-christma…

Allen
Allen

This game is great even at start, the base of the content is ALL there. BUT this game isn't playable currently, i'd say wait at least a month before buy. I'd give this game a 10/10 when it's completed most likely. But at the moment 6/10, obviously you shouldn't mind my current rating because its still in Beta. The base of the game is all there and its pretty good. This game will be amazing when its completed. But again, I do not recommend currently buying it. But I am not going to give this game a thumbs down, I will give it a thumbs up for now even though I do no recommend to buy it currently.

Capt.Nico
Capt.Nico

Beutiful game, great soundtrack, a few bugs. overall 8/8 m8

Maskar
Maskar

I'll try to make this as brief and accurate as possible. I will try and highlight what little the game has to offer if anything and the seemingly insurmountable amount of work that will need to go into this game before being a legitmate title worth money.

Pros:
-Landscape is massive.
-Fast traveling is useful to go back and forth.
-As of now death is impossible.

Cons:
-Death is impossible to achieve.
-Npc's will not attack you no matter how hard you try or how many people you murder in front of them.
-Bought every item in the game for under 20 gold. (I seemingly started with over 150 gold.)
-Upon reaching one of the six wonders of the world I was delighted to see that absolutely nothing was there and that the whole are in general was not even complete as most of the enviroment was floating in mid air.
-The game's formatting is among the worst in recent time. Your computer will not be able to run this game properly no matter what GPU you have. i.e. NVIDIA, AMD.
-Aimless exploration that offers no satisfaction or reward.
-You have the ability to equip over 15 items on your person however no items have any stats or weight or for that matter any characterisics what so ever.
-No customization or ability to see your character from third person.
-Almost every interaction is bugged.

I'm going to cut myself short on this con list of mine because there is no limit to the problems this game has at this time.. All I can say is that I am very disappointed in what I thought would be a promising game, and I feel mislead by the advertisment around this game. All the features you see in the trailer are either yet to be put in game or just not realized. This game has a lot of potential I will give it that, but until you can run the game at 30 fps this game literally has nothing to offer. Slow choppy animation, horrible graphics, consistant game crashes and I would be hard pressed to honestly tell you any actual piece of content this game has to offer. STAY AWAY FOR AT LEAST A YEAR. The developers have a lot of work ahead of them if they actually want to complete this project, but in my opinion based off most early access games this will be another incomplete garbage cash grab.

Xanz
Xanz

Fun game, but it's still really buggy. I'm on a part where you have to go to you "home" and there's no house there. So, I can't move forward with the story. This one is probably going to get shelved for the time being.

setonix26
setonix26

The introduction text of this game seemed very interesting. A game like Daggerfall, which I played on DOS box, but after playing 2 hours, there are just soo many bugs in this game: items disappearing in the inventory, Books that you steal or barter don't even end up in the inventory. The world doesn't load all places and you simply sink through into nothingness. That part is very much like minecraft when digging through the bottom of the world.
One of the houses has an elevator and 9 out of 10 times, it lifts right through the player and it doesn't take you up. NPC's don't fight back they simply die and when you want to take their stuff, you can somehow magically still barter with them. Be careful to follow the paths or you might end up in the part of the world that doesn't yet contain any trees or cities, which makes the game look empty.

Ok I've revised my review. I will recommend it, since the game as a lot of potential, but just be aware that at the moment there are lots and lots of bugs. It will take them at least half a year to fix those before they should add new functionality. Hopefully the new programmer will do a lot of good.

Serkas
Serkas

Edit: I followed this game since the start of development because I loved the concept of exploration and survival. After all thats happened in the development and the final state of the product its clear that this has turned into a stillborn project. All the cuts in features as well as the changes in existing game funtions have turned this into an empty husk of the game that was promised.

The rest of "game" that is left is barely more than a walking simulator:
- barely any interactions with the enviroment
- basic game functions like bartering, fast traveling and RUNNING! are skills that have to be learned (this makes traveling a chore in a game thats all about exploration)
- barely any items or crafting reciepes left
- the graphics have been downgraded to pixelated 3D, this wouldn't be so bad if it was done consequently since I even love pixelated artstyles, but this has turned into an algamation of 3D and 2D elements so characters look like graphic bugs and the terrain makes you wanna throw up
- tons of gameplay systems have been removed, because the developer couldn't handle balancing and integrating them into the final reworked version, this includes skills, ressource gathering, equipment, interfaces, etc. etc.

In the end I can only recommend to stay away from "Frontiers". There is nothing left of the promising versions and game concepts of the early acces.

The Bad Man
The Bad Man

(I will update this review from time to time, as I make it further though the game.)

Ever since I booted up Morrowind for the first time over a decade ago, I've been looking for a game to help me recapture that since of wonder and fulfillment I felt while exploring the island of Vvardenfell. I bought Frontiers hoping that it finally might be that game.

I crashed shortly after finishing the Prologue.

Well, that was mightily disappointing!

But I'm still plugging away at the game, optimizing and prodding game settings until I can finally manage struggle past the post-prologue. Until then, I'll leave off by saying that this is one of the few games I've purchased since last year that has given me hope for another classic experience akin to the early Elder Scrolls games. cannot give the development team enough of my support and wish them the best in making this extremely ambitiously promising game!

UPDATE!

So I made it out the area immediately after the prologue! Hooray!!!

Without spoiling the post-prologue region too much, I can tell you that already I am pleased with what I see. The environments of the game, even on lower graphics settings, still manage to inspire a tingle of excitement. You'll be treated to sweeping grasslands and sparkling seas, foreboding mountains and quaint, if slightly static, villages. Whenever I begin to wander, I am immediately reminded of when you first clambered out of that prison drainpipe in Oblivion. You are bluntly presented with the game world, which is both tantalizingly open and slightly intimidating. You are given a rough direction and a license to travel, but if you want to go off rails, you have complete freedom!

Mechanically, the game rides comfortably in the ruts of previous survival crafting sim trailblazers like Minecraft, but with some very pleasing additions. You can move and interact with most objects in the game with the right mouse button or by pressing the 'use' button. Some objects and even NPC's have descriptions attached to them that either give some insight into your objectives or are just a morsel of humorous fluff that fleshes out the game and gives its sometimes worlds some additional character. While that itself is probably not too amazing, I was impressed by the amount of objects with which you can interact right at the start (Note: picking up entire cabinets/tables/crates of baked bread is possible, though not advised).

You also have your basic survival meters of health, hunger, thirst, etc. Rather then plain bars that decrease over time, these needs are represent by icons that grow larger as your character's desire for them increases. Fulfilling these needs currently gives you a boost to certain stats and encourages you to make yourself as comfortable/prepared as possible before starting an arduous journey to parts unknown. I haven't investigated crafting very much, and will do so later on.

Stylistically, the game actually reminds me a bit of the Thief series, albeit brighter, cheerier, and significantly less claustrophobic. Yes, that is a strange comparison, and I will do my best to elaborate. The NPCs, for one, remind me so strongly of the old character models from Thief that I have began mentally referring to anyone in the game wearing face paint as a 'woodsy one'. Mind you, this isn't a criticism! I loved the look of those angular puppet people back in the day, and the character models in Frontiers much more detailed than the taffers in Thief 2 ever were. The models in Arx Fatalis might also make for a good comparison. The game also toys around with the same pseudo-medieval/early modern vibe that Thief perfected. You carry around an oil lantern, but many rooms are also lit with torches or candles. Character wear sometimes robes and tunics. while they also don long-cuffed gloves and knee boots while no doubt searching around for their heavy, leather greatcoats. While there isn't yet quite as much world building as Thief yet, no doubt it isn't far in coming.

To end this next installment succinctly, I'll just say that I still have shaken my strong sense of excitement for this game. I can't wait to dive back in as the builds get more stable and I can explore further!

gshinks
gshinks

A game like Frontiers is the reason Early Access exists--to give independant game developers the time, money, and resources to develop great tailored games at an affordable price without having to rely on compromising with the big name developers. Unfortunately Early Access is riddled with so many games whose developers do not honor the implied code of the privelage they have been granted with infrequent updates, total lack of communication, and their own closed vision of a game that is not open to input from the community who paid to develop it. Frontiers is not one of those games.

This is an outstanding example of how an early access game should be. The game, although buggy, is still enjoyable and playable. This alone does not make this a great Early Access game; what does is that the developer is in CONSTANT contact with the community regarding what he is doing and asking for input with what he should do and he is fixing problems as fast as they are being discovered all-the-while continuing the development of the game. This does not give due credit to a scripted story of great quality uncommon to not only independant developers, but the "big-guys" alike. What also makes this a great game is a currently small active community of players who were excited about this game since it's Greenlight on Steam. The majority recognize that this is a work in progress with a great foundation and a committed developer and are regularly submitting their bug reports in a helpful and professional manner--not bitching and moaning about how this game is nothing like Call of Duty.

Though the balancing isn't quite there yet but I'm sure will be very soon (as the Developer has stated so and let nobody down yet), this is a unique game and the first of its very specific type to the genre--a successful hybrid adventure-survival game. As this game develops into what it's potential dictates, it will wake the sleeping point-and-click adventure enthusiasts and reel in the survivalists. Whatsmore, if the player is only interested in one of those aspects or even if they simply want to explore without the dangers of a true survival game, they are invited and able to do so.

Whatever your interests are, Frontiers has something for you. Well, actually, it's not like Candy Crush... F!@# that game.

Alya
Alya

This game appears to have a lot of potential. However it still needs a lot of work especially with the controls. I would recomend waiting for it to get out of early access as I suspect once they fix up some of the early issues this will be a fun game.

Smith7778
Smith7778

The game seems to be abandonded with no future. Creator shows no intentions of finishing this game or even caring about the people that supported him from the beginning. I honestly can't beleive that steam still allows this game to be published and they are even offering a sale price for a game that has not seen any improvements for this long. If you care about money or good use of it, do not spend it here!!!!

SirNiloc
SirNiloc

Went throught the first camp/tutorial. Ended up in a University. Talked to my professor bought a magic light. Made a bench float, sat on said bench, lit it on fire proceeded to run at lightspeed around the world eventually dying.

10/10

bud598
bud598

I just started playing this game and it really reminds me of minecraft (without being another clone, dont take it that way) with the elder scrolls series. There is so much detail put into this game and a great customization and crafting system. There is also a huge map to explore with lots of lore.

Willy McBride
Willy McBride

They have made adjustments to the game which now make it playable. The negative is that all of the trees look the same (The trees were what was causing the FPS drop.) But it really does not matter. The game is lovely and fun, and i'm suprised that the developers have accomplished what they have with Unity!! A few things need some work: like the animations for weapons, adding in some arms to make it look like the items arn't just floating in front of you, saves not working, ect.

All together as it stands i would give the game a 6.5/10

I would still recommend waiting for it to be fully optomized and hold all the features it should!

belaviaair
belaviaair

Very good game of you like questing like World of warcraft this is kind of the same, but it a whole different look graphics wise, so far its been an adventure game with quests. Some fps issues but that should be fixed in the future. Worth the money for sure....

Morhaugn
Morhaugn

1. Set falling damage to 'Realistic' during setup
2. Logged in, started in a tent
3. Pressed 'spacebar' to jump 1 foot in the air and broke both legs when I landed
4. Started over and set falling damage to 'Forgiving'
5. Logged in, started in same tent
6. Pressed 'spacebar' to jump - successful.

10/10

Axon
Axon

I'm a friend of Lars Simkins (The Dev) and he is an awesome dev, he constantly puts out new patches and hotfixes he is an amazing developer please support him he has put years of work and hundreds of hours creating this amazing game.

joakof
joakof

Nothing works, for real.

WAIT A YEAR AT LEAST.

Almost everything it's buggy or incomplete, got potential, but it's wayyyyy to early.

The first task is going to your home, but there is no way to get there unless you see it on the youtube gameplays of others. I really try to put some love into this, but there is no way.

Feonix Fyre
Feonix Fyre

I will not recomend this game till you fix the boundries and colisions. If I can walk through the walls of ruins and when It takes some serious patients to get the game just to load then you have much greater issues then Bartending and trapping mechanices. Get it right guys, you can't play a game even if its early access without there being something of a basics to game play finished.

tworules
tworules

A game that gets my enthusiasm juices running again.
Fantastic what I have played so far (I walked out of the university building thingy lecturehall after the intro and fell into the unrendered village and got a bit...lost) Felt a pang of emotion having to tell characters they weren't cut out for the expedition, which instantly made me think that this game has huuuuuge potential.

I love the RPG feel of the game without the spending numbers to invest in your anti-flame death to get screwed over by the pointy-spear death monster 2/3 of the way in and feel like you just wasted your life -_-. It captures the feeling of exploration in a kind of Jules-Verne Journey to the Centre of the Earth (or Atlantis' frankenstein amalgomation of the above and 20'000 leagues) kind of way and is very relaxing to wander the world and see what mysteries contront you.

It's like the perfect blend of Morrowind meets Myst without the tedium of either.

It is also refreshing to show off that games don't always have to be about maiming and slaughter. That is not to say there is no element of conflict or danger in the game, but it takes a very much backseat to emphesise the scope of the world and the people around you. It is a very vast project and I do have some reservations when it comes to early-access titles, that some devs bite off more than they can chew and end up releasing the game unfinished because of time, money or sheer boredom and begin working on a 4x Strategy instead.

I can see there is a passion for the genre they are trying to encapsulate here and I am feeling enthusiastic about the project. As Darth Vader would say... it's a feeling I've not felt since....

Keep up the phenominal work guys and I cannot wait for as many people to play this that it becomes a household name to go down along with games like The Elder Scrolls, Myst, Baulder's Gate and Minecraft.

mentalkase
mentalkase

Considering the (very) small team working on this game it's a mighty achievement. Soon as the majority of bugs are ironed out I plan on delving into it for a long time.

Bo Chorno
Bo Chorno

It has been a lot since I bought this game, and I feel like it is going to take a lot of time to get finished. But I decided to support the developer in this project. Keep working and make this a good game.

Zeph Grey
Zeph Grey

I want to love this game, I really do. The concept is great, the dev is passionate and invested in making it...

...but it's a hot mess.

It's loaded with game breaking bugs, AI pathfinding issues, the controls feel swimmy and loose, the menus are confusing and hard to navigate, combat is servicable at best.

It really feels like the dev should have started with a smalled area, gotten the engine hammered out and functional, then worried about story and content after. As it stands, it's pretty unplayable, and despite several updates, not much ever really changes.

Getting the world working should be the priority before deciding how players should buy things.

All in all, worth a follow, and maybe a causious purchase to support the dev as he really does seem dedicated to making his game happen, but if you're looking for something to play, you may want to hold off. Can't recommend it for now, but will keep checking back on it.

OFTHEMIND
OFTHEMIND

Too many Load screens, too much reading, too much waiting.buying a game for what it could potentially become is a marketing ploy , i buy a game for what is at the moment.

Vinnie Mack
Vinnie Mack

i am not going to do a full review of this game. My 14 minutes of game play wouldn't warrent such. However, i will give you my impressions of the game. Thankfully, it looks like i will get a refund. If you want to try it, keep the refund policy in mind (14 days after purchase, less than 2 hours of play). And this is early access. I knew that buying it, but didn't want to take a $15 hit for a game that did not live up to its bold vision.

3 good
2 average
1 bad

genre: 2

open world sandbox. My actual game play time was almost 2 hours, so i did see some of the world. It is open. You can wander off in any direction you want. That is good.

character, customization: 1 and 1/2

you have very limited choice in what your character looks like, and it wouldn't matter anyways since it is in first person view. There really aren't classes. Not bad. Means you can play and develop your character as you want. Can play as male or female. i believe there are skills or a perk system you can choose from. This part was passable.

story, mission, relevance: ?

gameworld: 1

It claimed to be a throwback to Morrowwind, but the game reminded me of Morrowwind in no way, shape, or form. didn't see much of it. There are towns with npcs you can interact with, in a very limited way. Doesn't seem to be any wildlife in the world. At least not in the first portion of it. Nothing spectacular stood out to me, other than how incredibly ugly and distorted the npcs looked, and how generic the village environment looked. Generic at best. The reviews said it was a big and wonderful world to explore. Didn't get much of a chance to do that. What i saw was not wonderful.

innovation: 2

it has some good ideas that it has borrowed from other games. Nothing wrong with that. It wants to be a survival game and has stats for hunger, thirst, and rest. It wants to be a mining game. I never got to that part. It wants to be a crafting game. Didn't get to that either. And it wants to be an exploration game. It failed miserably in this respect. The game talks big and dreams big. I applaud that. It just isn't there yet.

mechanics, combat, saves: 1/2

for me, the only thing that would have made this game worse in this category is if it did not load at all. It loads, but it takes longer to load than my Skyrim game on the PS3 console. Once it loads, you get to the character development screen, and this was pleasant and kind of inspiring. It gives you hope that maybe it was worth the wait. Not so. As i said, the game world looks generic.

I am not one of those gamers that needs a game world to look pretty as long as plays pretty, but it plays ugly. The controls are upside down. To interact with the world, you have to have things positioned perfectly. The NPCs don't seem real. And when you go out to explore, you are moving at a mind-numbing 5 to 10 fps. And that lag is the reason i requested a refund. I can not play a laggy game. I have read full pages of books and turned them faster than my first person blob moved. As for combat, the game doesn't want to be a COD stepchild, so it isn't in the front end of the game. That means i do not know anything about the combat.

Not all was negative, though. The game lets you save anywhere, just as long as you have the time to wait for it to finish. The user interface that stretches out at the bottom of the screen looks nice. And it seems to give a lot of useful survival information. I think it is useful. I don't think hovering the mouse over the interface tells you what the symbols represent.

replayability: ?

uniqueness: 2

it is true to its claims: it is an open world exploration game with survival elements add in. I wanted a game like this and knew this was what i was getting.

graphics: 1

the wilderness doesn't look bad. The village is mediocre. The npcs are horrible. Worse than unmodded Morrowwind. Meaning, this game would have looked bad even back when Morrowwind came out. But i have no issue with this. I played and loved Daggerfall, which had god-aweful graphics. I am currently playing Darklands, which makes Daggerfall look like Witcher 3. No one would have bought this game based on the graphics, including myself.

10 out of 27 or 37%. If we rate the game minus the two sections i was unable to explore, it gets a little better rating: 10 out of 21 or 47%.

i guess i lied. I did do a full review. Before doing this review, i went to the game's forum and looked at some of the posts. One of the gamers had a lag problem that he was able to fix by doing some sort of fix to some sort of file. Didn't understand how he did it. So there might be a fix for the lag. As for the developer, he seems to do regular updates and is very responsive to feedback. Which makes me kind of sad that i can't approve his game at this time. If he gets everything figured out, or gets an understandable fix to the lag problem, he will have a fun but ugly exploration, crafting, survival game. When it is fun, i will not care about the graphics. And maybe i will buy it again at that time. For now, i have to get my refund so i can try out another exploration game that i passed up to play this one.

Conclusion: has potential, has lag. If you try it, make sure to not mess up your refund.

Lunala
Lunala

Games fun! looking not to bad so far, i really love the ideas and theme of it, found a bug with the cache under the tree it glitches and doesnt let you complete the quest.
Found some other minor ones but those dont really matter all to much right now. I like the game so far, keep it up!

Vertinove
Vertinove

Dev pretty much owned up to abandoning it, there is no point in getting this game, it is now just a terrible optimized left-for-dead game

Retro
Retro

The game is really good as far as concept and being really fun and interesting. The bad stuff currently outweighs the good. So am I saying that you should not buy this? No thats not my verdict at this time. I say if you are a patient person and dont mind waiting a while for a polished experience and want to support the games development then buy now. The game is packed full of content and lots of areas to explore and systems to learn. Only problem with that is that half the time you have no idea where you are going or even why you are going there. This is mainly because of the map being bugged, buildings and towns dissappearing, yes thats right! locations gone and nothing there but good ol terrain. If you are lucky and the buildings are there then the quest item or person is missing. I have been playing this game for what feels like forever. I backed the game and been with it since the very first build was released. The game has improved over time but honestly I really dont think a game of this magnitude with only one person working on it can be finished without dropping some things in the game that are really not needed or just boring. I will give it to the developer, he has stuck with it and never once have I felt this guy is going to burn us and abandon the game.

LittleCookie
LittleCookie

PLEASE DO NOT SPEND MONEY ON THIS GAME!!! IT WILL NEVER BE FINISHED AND SUCKS THE WAY IT IS NOW. THE DEVS ARE GONE. THEY WERE TOO SLOW ANYWAY. TOO BAD WE THAT HELPED PAY FOR IT CAN'T GET OUR MONEY BACK. OH WELL...SCREWED AGAIN :/

Merlin
Merlin

My First Impressions and 53minutes of Gameplay:

Game looks like it can be fun, if you do the whole Role Playing and just let yourself merge into the game and take your time, reading everything, looking and exploring all items in the room before you leave to the next room. The Skills that you have to aquire and level of detail makes this a great game.

Suggestions to the Creator of the game.

I would definitely add in these to make this a top notch game probably even better than skyrim if it's done right:

1.Voices to every Dialogue/interaction with people (there is lots of reading)/ although it does not deter me away from the game, this might be a major turn off for other gamers who don't have big screens or enough patience or good readin skills, it would be wise to add voices, not even necessarily moving lips to it, but good RP games have good voice overs. Heck im sure people you know would even be willing to do it for free.

2.NPC movement (not just circling around) or at least add line of sight, so you are not always being spotted during a murder or theft, the constant "don't bother me now" dialogue is a bit excessive.
3.NPC features: they go to sleep when it's late, shift rotations, (this allows for thievery to be more exciting and even just exploring)
4.Shadow Meter: it would be nice to have a visibility system and noise to give it that real world i can choose my own path effect.
5.Lockpicking Skills
6.Music: needs to be more medieval/villagy feel at times
7.Graphics: this is always the hardest part and time consuming and takes lot of resources ($$) to run it, but going little more into the detail of faces and character creation would be nice.

While i understand the early access idea is to generate the income necessary to make it all work, there are several things that you have in this game that can be optimized already, especially the list i made above. I believe this could be the ultimate game, but waiting too long can also thwart any plans of it.

I am looking forward to more gameplay and I hope you consider these mechanics into the game.

Kerbox
Kerbox

Progress is down to a standstill, I might change my review in the future if there is significant progress made for the better.

Jov
Jov

Update: 1/22/2020 "The Final Update". This should still not be for sale on Steam. I have been trying to give it a fair go and experience the world the dev crafted over 6 years, but this version of the game seems to actually be WORSE than the version I played 3+ years ago. It looks bad, plays bad, runs bad, and is riddled with bugs. I've restarted the game from the beginning three times trying to get past bugs but it's becoming too much of a pain to be worth it. I really want to like this game and I am really sad how this all turned out. I think the dev entered the project with the best intentions but they clearly weren't up for the task. They should have passed the project to someone else. Giving up, stopping support, and still offering this "game" for sale at $15 is extremely poor taste. I'd give this two thumbs down if I could.

Original 11/16/2016 review follows:

This should not still be for sale on Steam. It's essentially a dead Early Access product.

The dev is still working on it half-heartedly, seemingly just out of obligation, but at this rate it will never be finished. The idea for this game is so great, and the dev seems like a nice guy. It's a tragic situation, really.

Buy if you want to vote with your dollar, but don't expect something playable or expect it to be completed.

Pops
Pops

Lars. Lars.....Lars....LARS! Frontiers is dead....DEAD. Stop talking like there's ever going to be a functional game...because there isn't. Stop with the business plan and charts and graphs and lawyer goobledy-gook. When I see you writing about VR and see you in pictures with a VR set on your head....I know this game is dead. You've moved on already in your heart.

I recommend you let the game go and remove it from Steam. It's actually been almost a year and you've done nothing major on it. It languishes. The game, and the excuses, make you look bad...even if your explanations are honestly given. The absolute right thing to do is take it down so that noone else spends any of their money on it.

Chalk this one up to a learning experience, Amigo, and let it go at that. Now go forth and make better games!

Ranja123
Ranja123

Dead game, no updates and lots of flowery promises with no action. There is potential but competing projects make this an impossible task yet dev asks for more money...

Don't buy into the promises, the results arent there to prove Lars is trustwothy of any further fundinggg

Kisses4Grandpa
Kisses4Grandpa

fuck this game id rather eat a handfull of rusty nails then to ever install this piece of shit on my harddrive again.

Sempras
Sempras

I was an original Kickstarter backer and recently found this game on Steam again after a long period of time. I'm absolutely in love with the game and hope that the development continues to make it even more awesome.

Torso With Eyes
Torso With Eyes

I bought this game years ago, and its been utterly unplayable since the day I bought it, completely broken with no way to really progress. So why am I recommending it?

Essentially, I just really respect what the developer was trying to do here. He made the sort of ambitious game that, in an age of nostalgia-bait 2D platformers and terrible Unity FPS games, is utterly refreshing. Its the sort of game every developer wants to make, but none have the drive to do. Its big, its beautiful even despite the game breaking glitches, and while I'll never be able to experience any of this game, somehow or another I can't bear to uninstall it, and am wishing to try again as I type this. It reminds me of the days of the days of games like Braid, Fez and Dust, games made by a small team with a lot of ambition.

TL;DR this game is a broken, unplayable mess, but it makes me nostalgic and somehow or another I have faith in the developer.

Rating: if you have 15 bucks its worth a look, I think

Theneoseraphim
Theneoseraphim

This is a broken hot mess that will never be fixed or finished, avoid like the plague.

Lyndari
Lyndari

I've been following this game for years and love the main dev on it as he is trying to make an outstanding game mainly by himself. I give him serious props for that. Yes, the game is probably in too early of stages to be on Steam (like how I strugged to figure out how my inventory worked), but it still works just as well. At the moment, it is mainly a walking simulator, but has awesome graphics (aside from the character models) and has so much potential. I will be continuing to support this game and am super excited to see what the dev comes up with next. Just give it a chance. If you expect a polished game, then put it on your wishlist and buy later, otherwise, I strongly recommend it.

TheStifmeister
TheStifmeister

Will probably never be released as a "finished" game. NOT approved by the Stifmeister.

Nectaria
Nectaria

I really loved this game. I really did. I followed the progress, and looked forward to the result. But now the developer has decided to completely change this beautiful game into a pixly minecraft-esque game. Shame on you. I wish i could get a refund. This is the last time i'll ever buy an early access game.

808AimlessBrainFart
808AimlessBrainFart

This game is the most stupid purchase I’ve ever purchased on steam. They won’t refund me because I tried to play this piece of crap for 5 hours and it kept crashing my computer. Don’t buy a damn thing from this developer it’s a waste of time money and your life.

T-Cypher
T-Cypher

IF you clearly understand this is a beta, and IF you are willing to "go along for the ride" as an indie developer takes a shot at developing an 'Elder Scrolls-esque" game, you will probably enjoy Frontiers. I bought this 3 years ago and have dropped in every few months just to run around the world and quickly check what's been developed. At this point it's more about enjoying the progress of the game and watching it grow than immersion in the game play. But that's what one should be expecting from a Beta game, so I'm pretty happy with it.

P373R
P373R

It could be a goog game, but not yet. Too buggy. But in time it will be good :D

marjaal
marjaal

Looks like another early access game shot to hell, don't bother even looking at this game, run away FAST.

OverPrivilegedWhiteCracker
OverPrivileged…

This game is dead. Steam needs to do something about devs like this who up and leave their shitty game, waste of money and time. No news in a year, the last news given was his son but to leave a game after 4 years in a complete mess is ridiculous. Devs like this ruin the early access community but with no regulation stuff like this happens all the time, a game with a good idea and a ton of promises abandoned when the money stops or the devs simply lose interest. Just a other example of a early access failure. AAD Productions what a joke.

Nomadic
Nomadic

This is just one massive, incompetent mess of a development road concerning Frontiers. I'd rather trust Fallout 76 than take Lars seriously.

I get that refactoring the source code will take time, and I was even stoked to see the new look of the game he was going for, but really? Dude disappears, comes back ever-so-briefly, then falls off the face of the world again. I get that he had a kid, too, but you made a committment. Kid or no, there's nothing preventing 5-10 minutes of an update to let people know what's going on, especially after you've stiffed them for so long already. You'd think that given the distaste people have given your track record that you'd at least establish better communication. Sorry, I'm less worried about your child and more worried about your word to people who gave you money. Absolutely pathetic.

Action Bastard!
Action Bastard!

Development is dead. Game is incomplete and not particularly playable. Don't waste your time or money.

Blatherbeard
Blatherbeard

Bought this game on advice from a friend. Ive talked to the dev before and followed his posts. Last i remember he gave up on this game. Just posting this now to warn anyone who wants to buy it.

Its has a great concept behind it imho, and was fun to play til it bugs out on you.

Long story short, dead game, no longer being developed, overambitious for a one man dev team.

Leikjarinn
Leikjarinn

Been playing Daggerfall for YEARS now, time to play this game for weeks

Cutterjohn
Cutterjohn

Had potential, but it's dead dead now, last depot update:

8 Apr, 2016 (1124 days ago)

Lux Custodis
Lux Custodis

Game is dead ladies and gentlemen. Game is laggy as balls. Move on. Don't waste your money.

trent_marine
trent_marine

after giving the "update" a go im gonna have to put this very firmly in the no bin. i can understand that this game had alot of problems and the lone dev was very much done with it,but calling this finished is both a joke and a lie. it might be playable sure, but you cant look at the screen for more than 6 seconds without developing a headache and in NOT talking about the graphics quality. stay away.

JcoB2K
JcoB2K

I feel sorry for myself from 2014 who thought that this game would be wonderful

bartmoss
bartmoss

Another failed and abandoned Early Access indie title. While the dev seemed to have really tried, and just overestimated his abilities, you should not spend money on a game that will never, ever, get finished. You're better off modding Skyrim to do what you want it to do.

magna
magna

After five years (2014-2019) I doubt this will ever leave early access. Not recommended.

Pand Lantis
Pand Lantis

Seemingly abandoned game with a good concept and interesting execution. Really does bring back classic CRPGs into the 3D realm like Morrowind or Daggerfall.

In a semi-playable state but it is still in the middle of development, so I can't recommend picking it up.

ssfsx17
ssfsx17

The main quest has some fragile parts that are very easy to break - softlocking the game. The game itself has some bugs that require closing & restarting it.

JokersWild
JokersWild

I remember when I first got this game on Early Access, was not quite done, but it had good graphics and controls just lacked content. The guy seemed to go back and forth between doing it and not with minimal care in completing as he was going to just move onto his next project.
I just saw the update, seems not much has changed with this. I loaded up the game to see what is new and it looks like it has taken 100 steps back. The controls are not working very well, the graphics looks like it was pulled off an Atari 2600 and that's about as far as I got. It could just be my laptop as it is not AS beefy as my actual PC, but it is a pretty beefy i7 Dell.

Anyway, am pretty disappointed in this. I will update if it is just my laptop, but pretty sure it is not.

TimePointFive
TimePointFive

It's a great, chill, indie rpg focused on archaeology and exploration. It has a scholastic setting and a mature non-handholdy approach to quests. It is wholly unique in its genre and reminiscent of games from the early to mid 90's, most noticeably Elder Scrolls 2: The Big One. The recent release of 1.0 has a half-pixelly/half-3D look that looks okay most of the time, but the pixels can seem blown-up(?), so your cool new sword looks a little too chunky to feel immersive. The story does a decent job of motivating you to hit the road, which is what most of this game is about -- pathfinding and navigating. This is really the first Strand type game. Make sure you spend the $300 ingame to master sprinting before you leave school as a member of the guild!

It has the audacity to be made by one person who did his best to hit goals and benchmarks set by an incredibly small Kickstarter goal ($50k goal, he made $157k) a few years ago.

Most of the negative reviews are from backers. Ignore them and read about gameplay from the release version.

RealChynnaDoll
RealChynnaDoll

This is not the game I paid for when it first came out. I'm pretty sure if you make a game..and change it from the ground up with WORST graphics than original its falsifying your product. Don't spend any money on this. Infact it should be a free game for the amount of effort that was taken out of the game.

Dresmont
Dresmont

It's too buggy to play. Sometimes the interface stops being interactable (buttons won't push, mouse click won't register), so you have to restart the game. I often get hung on terrain walking along a path or through the woods, and getting stuck on an invisible rock results in taking lethal damage. The word for this game is 'unpolished'. The graphics aren't great, the gameplay is clunky, and the plot is difficult to find because it is so difficult to interact with the world. I have a woodcutting axe and a stone hammer, but haven't found a way to use either on wood or stone. It's just not worth fighting this game to wring any fun out of it, go play a game that was actually finished before it was released.

Basically A Cat
Basically A Cat

Looks like shit, buggy as shit, gameplay is shit. Completely under delivered.

Daeminos
Daeminos

I have waited many years for this game to be done. It had so much potential. Unfortunately it fell very very short. I cheer for the single game developer seeing this project through to the end. He could have given up and turned this game into vaporware but he didn't. But this game is very raw and has alot of problems. I think it would be best to be bought out by another company and a major overhaul be done to it.

XenonFG
XenonFG

Started early access, and had some promise. Got re-hauled with a completely different look and gameplay (really just a major cut of gameplay/graphics so the dev could actually roll out something finished). Never really finished.

Aminra TTT
Aminra TTT

The earlier version was better in my opinion only because you could set fire to furniture.

The Wordsmith Wannabe
The Wordsmith …

Its feels clunky and unfinsished. It's just not a good game.

Shrimperator
Shrimperator

I backed the Kickstarter way back in the day. The finished product is unfortunately just a shell of what was promised and previewed back then. Somewhere along the line, the entire concept, gameplay and graphics style were changed and downgraded until the original vision was completely lost.

It has basically nothing to do with the product promised through Kickstarter. Now that would be okay, if the result was good in its own right, but no such luck:

It's now a weird mash of graphics styles that all clash. The gameplay is slow and mostly a walking simulator minus the storytelling and atmosphere you'd expect from one of those.

This is a travesty: the Kickstarter showed such promise. If only the developer had followed through.