The Bonfire: Forsaken Lands

Similar to Kingdom and A Dark Room, but not quite as good as either, but still VERY much worth a play if you’re into that kind of thing. I was totally looking for a game like this, so was very pleased when this landed on the store. It offers a hardcore mode for players that want a bit more of a challenge. Perhaps a little short, but for the price I think it’s reasonable. There were more than a couple bugs when I played within a week of release, one of which has already been patched. You can feel the love, care, and attention that’s been put into this, so I expect this to continue getting support until it reaches the level of polish it deserves.

I really enjoyed the game and was surprised at the quality. A quick tutorial would’ve been nice but it didn’t take long to figure out. I hope in the future the game will be made longer as I would’ve liked to play for longer and advance further. For example more fights with the Titan against tougher enemies to make upgrading more necessary as that mechanic was fun and being able to expand the village further and maybe challenge other settlements. I know not all of these ideas are plausible. Its just some things I would like to do within the game

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Description and price gave me the impression that this is a proper strategy game where you build your own settlement and expand with some role-play elements maybe. I was expecting a game that would keep me busy for days and days, maybe one I‘d even play repeatedly. It looks beautiful. Graphics and Sound are very relaxing, it‘s definitely beautiful. But within an hour or so you realise that you‘ve reached the end of the ladder. You can‘t grow, you can‘t improve, you can‘t build anymore. The only things left are gathering resources (most of them can‘t be collected by the player) and waiting for some quests which are basically repetitions and nothing exciting. All in all, the price is not in relation to the game length. Tbh, I would see it more as a free advertisement game and not as a full £3.99 game. There are much better games in the App Store for that price. There are also several bugs (quests) or redundant parts (meteor shards) in the game which disrupts the experience. In hope that I just missed something, I let the game run till day 50+ and nothing changed, so I finished the last quest. I‘m very disappointed.

The reason why it doesn’t get the full five stars, is it is a little limited. However the crafting loop and the need to protect your settlement at night from attack is really satisfying. Also the art design and music is also wonderfully evocative. It is at times a little simple and I wish your main character could do more. Also there is no tutorial so learning how to use some of the later items like the ancient texts takes awhile. Also it is fairer than Fallout Shelter. That was great/similar and more complex than this game but the problem was the constant attacks and the Insta kill death claws, there’s nothing like that in this game. However, once you awaken the Titan...that’s it. I’m sure I made the same mistake that everybody else did first time and woke him before I’d upgraded him. But putting aside the fact that you need to upgrade him once he’s up and fighting the game ends. It’s a really fun 10 to 12 hours but I can’t see the replay value.

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It’s starts beautifully, a fantastically polished game, slowly building up, drawing you in, engaging you and compelling you to play more. I loved it. Until I noticed a few things- the trade routes wanted you to exchange something very valuable (gems) for something not valuable at all, something you could easily create- leather, then food! Strange, clearly a bug; the items were supposed to be reversed, sell food & leather for gems, not the other way around. That was the first signal that the developers were rushing to finish. Then the cave quests became pointless. Finally, after upgrading and releasing the Titan it just ends, a quick easy battle with no story or point ends the game. HUGE ANTICLIMAX. The game needs a chapter 2 and 3, an expansion pack, more villages to run, something anything to justify the price and time commitment. Please developers, take another swing, your so close to creating one of the best games on the App Store it pains me to see it have its legs cut out with a weak ending and no potential ‘next chapter’.