Pine

I thoroughly enjoyed Pine from beginning to end. It is incredibly well done, with an open world that actually feels alive and fleshed out. Not that there's that much to flesh, since all the various factions really do is trade and fight with each other (and you), but my point is that it is done very well and doesn't seem artificial. The artwork is beautiful and the audio is very good as well, with voice acting wisely limited to Simsish babbling. The musical score is (I hate this word, but it is justified here) truly amazing. I've never heard better. If you're a fan of such things, it's worth the price of admission all by itself. The gameplay is console-like, although I played on PC with a mouse/keyboard and they worked just fine. There are platform bits, along with your standard dodge-and-slash battle mechanics, and lots of running around collecting things to eat and to craft with. I normally despise crafting in games, but this one didn't bother me at all and I never felt overwhelmed by it all like I often do. One thing that really impressed me were the pet mechanics. There are four types of pets, each of which offer a different advantage when you train one (you can only have one at a time). If you get separated from your pet, his skill at traversing the landscape to get back to you is pretty impressive, and if you need him there in an instant you can whistle and he'll appear right next to you. There are just none of the usual issues you have with pets in games. As for the world building, it's beautiful and very well done. The map is just the right size. There are lots of rocks and mountains, but I only got stuck once in 45 hours of play and I had to work really hard to get that way. Likewise, I only saw an NPC stuck once, which is pretty incredible given the amount of running around they do. For the most part, the game runs like clockwork and was a total joy to play. I rarely finish games, but I finished Pine and just wish like hell there was more.

I played through the game under linux and had no great performance issues. The game itself is good so far. A few more optional quest would have been nice. Thanks for support linux.

I liked playing this game. It's still a little bit cookie-cutter open world RPG, but that's sort of like saying "This hundred dollar bill is almost exactly like the one in my other hand!" Cartoony, but in a good way. The relationships with different species, and the interaction between them is quite clever and fun. Befriend this group, and another group will lose respect for you, maybe start attacking you on sight. Combat is challenging. I like that. I died alot. lol The storyline is good, the writing not bad, and the game play worth playing. It's got some issues, like, it feels almost as if they didn't quite finish making it, not because it's glitchy, but because the graphics are a bit better than mediocre. At the end of the day, I liked it, and for being half the cost of Skyrim or its ilk, definitely worth the buy.

The story is unique and the game play reminds me a little bit of Breath of the Wild but with more life to the world. The NPC characters wander around, fight each other and gather resources. The world feels alive and moving and you are just a small time player. Combat is light but interesting with a few combos and NPCs prefer either either melee or ranged. All the NPCs can be opponents depending on your reputation. Exploration is fun with a variety of resources you can gather. There is a very light survival aspect as you need to occasionally eat to restore your health/energy. There's also light crafting with blueprints, called ideas, scattered around the world. The island is not Witcher sized but is not small either and has nicely varied biomes. You get around by foot or later, by fast travel. Flaws: So far are minor with the 3rd person camera being janky and stuttering from time to time along with the frame drops in certain areas. So far as I can see, at least one of the factions will always consider you an enemy so it's impossible to eliminate NPC conflict and have everyone get along. Might not be a flaw to some players. Wildlife is sparse with only four creatures I've seen. One hostile, three passive. Would have been nice to have more animals.

It's mostly an open world crafting/exploring/combat game with an interesting dynamic faction mechanic. Problem is everything in this feels so unpolished. I know it's an indie, probably from kickstarter...but the combat...oh boy...it's a disaster. I just cannot get over it. People are comparing this to zelda...idk if these people have ever played a good game in their life, coz this is not it chief. It's buggy, the camera is terrible, your character clips through enemies and if you target lock the enemy you're gonna get motion sick because of all of the above. The game is also pretty lifeless and exploring feels boring, the story is interesting tho and the enemies are cool, but from other reviews it sounds like variety is lacking. Maybe if they give it the Nomanssky treatment and keep patching it one day it will be good, but right now it's a hard pass.