Open-world RPGs seem to be taking over more and more as of late, especially with giants likeKingdom Come: Deliverance 2now on the scene. But backing up those giants are plenty of other titles, some of which really do have what it takes to make a name for themselves. Fire & Frost’sOf Ash and Steelis the latestopen-world RPGto throw its hat into the ring, with a more classic take on the formula that has breached modern gaming. Game Rant recently went hands-on withOf Ash and Steel, and while we only had a short time with the game, it was enough to make a fairly educated guess about where everything is headed.
Of Ash and Steelis a hard game not to be critical of in its current state. In essence, it is best described as aKingdom Come: Deliveranceprototype — a very early in-development build of Warhorse Studios' open-world RPG franchise — as it is almost identical in its world-building, gameplay, and even some of its story beats. What that ultimately means, though, is thatOf Ash and Steelis exceedingly rough around the edges right now and has a long road ahead of it despite targeting a 2025 release date. There is certainly passion baked into its development, but that passion largely manifests in ambition rather than execution at the moment.
Of Ash and Steel Has Trouble Gaining Momentum
The first hour of my time previewingOf Ash and Steeldidn’t leave a great impression for a number of reasons, and it took me that long just to get through the very small starting zone. Firstly, I found the controls and movement to be a bit clunky and stiff. In many ways, it feels and behaves like aPS2 gamewith PS3 graphics, and that’s almost immediately noticeable. Secondly, the main reason I spent so long just trying to get through the starting zone is becauseOf Ash and Steelprefers not to hold your hand, and there isn’t much clever design to help bring balance to that.
In many games that all but let you loose with minimal instruction and no quest markers, the world is at least designed in such a way that you can still figure things out without wandering around aimlessly. That’s largely not the case inOf Ash and Steel. In similargames likeKingdom Come: Deliverance 2, the quests at least provide clues that can help lead players in the right direction, and if the quests don’t do it, the environment offers subtle clues that will. InOf Ash and Steel, not only are there minimal clues in the environment and the quest log, but the NPCs aren’t much of a help either. I even tried asking a Knight to help me find someone and his directions were simply, “Over there,” but he didn’t point or look in any direction to give me a clue.
The directions “over there” continued to be used inOf Ash and Steelin later parts of the game, offering no explicit guidance.
This made my first hour withOf Ash and Steela bit of a slog to get through, especially since it wouldn’t let me move forward with the main quest until I completed every side quest in the area. Theside questsweren’t all that interesting either. One involved squashing a few bugs on the island, not by attacking them, but by simply walking over them. A few others were fetch quests, but these were the most painful for the reasons I have already stated. All in all, it just helped kill any momentumOf Ash and Steelcould have built during its introduction.
There are a surprising number of choices players can make inOf Ash and Steelthat seem to actually mean something initially, but they often prove to give nothing more than the illusion of choice. At one point, a wounded character asked me to retrieve a potion for him, and I was given the option of drinking it myself rather than giving it to him. I chose to give it to him, thinking that would save him, but he ended up dying anyway. That being said, some early dialogue choices do directly affect which attributes you prioritize — aprogression system many RPGsare implementing these days in exchange for stat allocation during character creation.
Of Ash and Steelcurrently struggles from a visual standpoint as well, with character animations appearing very stiff and robotic, to the point that they generally aren’t believable and break any immersion the game might have maintained otherwise. This was really brought to light when I had a conversation with another NPC who was on the ground, and my character’s eyes appeared to be looking straight ahead even though he was standing up. The camera is just as stiff, with regular pans during cutscenes that end abruptly and make the game feel more like anRPG from the early 2000s.
Of Ash and Steel’s dialogue also has a habit of over-explaining during times when some allowance for inference would probably be more effective, but especially in cases where I already knew certain things the characters were explaining. For example, one character asked me if I remembered the physician we had traveled with immediately after the game’s prologue, which was ironic considering the prologue revolved almost entirely around the physician. On a positive note, however, thevoice acting is actually pretty well done. It’s just a shame that the dialogue doesn’t rise to the occasion.
Of Ash and Steel’s Gameplay Feels Like an Afterthought
Heading Out Into the Forgotten Reach
What followed the game’s introduction felt a lot likeKingdom Come: Deliverance’s story, which saw the player character wounded and then rescued by a grumpy ne’er-do-well named Nerest. The world beyond his home awaited me, but to repay him for saving my life, I had to complete some chores for him. Once again, with very little direction, I ran around his house several times trying to find the barrels he asked me to move for him. Then, he wanted me to clean his house of all the broken liquor bottles he left strewed about. Even after all that, he still seemed to despise me for some reason in what felt like a bit of forced reluctance to help.
Some of the confusion surrounding where to find certain quest items has to do with the game’s third-person perspective and a lack of crosshairs to go with it, making targeting items a pain at times.
It was here that I learned you may cook, craft weapons, armor, and items, and even fish inOf Ash and Steel, though I only got a small glimpse into each of these systems during the preview. Cooking is simple and straightforward, and it’s useful for making food that can quench hunger, thirst, and health. Fishing, on the other hand, is strangely unintuitive. During my first round of fishing, I used every piece of bait I had just trying to figure out the system, and I never caught one fish. As for the othercrafting systemsin the game, I never really got to experiment with them due to lacking the necessary materials and having almost no way to obtain them.
After leaving the home of my rescuer, I attempted to complete a side quest, only for the NPC I was meant to return to upon completing it to disappear. Andwithout a map, a compass, or quest markers of any kind, there was no way to find him, so I just went on my way. Exploring beyond the confines of Nerest’s home, the Forgotten Reach, largely proved to be a bad idea. Before I left, he had warned me not to stray from the path, although he wasn’t explicit about why, but I quickly discovered why.
Most of the enemies out in the wild were already tough to defeat due toOf Ash and Steel’s less-than-stellarcombat design, but I encountered plenty more that were almost impossible to overcome, and at no point during the preview did I become strong enough to take them on. I understand that the game’s protagonist isn’t meant to be a hero by default and that those skills need to be sharpened over time, but the unfortunate reality is that there is an open world out there begging me to explore it, and yet it feels like the game is also asking me not to by making its enemies far too challenging so early in the game.
Of Ash and Steel’s Combat
Speaking of combat, whileOf Ash and Steelintroduces its combat early on during one of its first side quests, it isn’t until this point in the game that it shows its true colors. By and large, the battles inOf Ash and Steelare sluggish, clunky, and, in all reality, generally not worth the effort. Everything moves so slowly that it almost feels like trying tofight underwater, and inputs feel unresponsive as a result. Actions are limited to parry, dodge, and a couple of different attacks, and the preview didn’t last long enough for me to see the full extent of whatOf Ash and Steel’s combat might actually be capable of in the long run.
Additionally, defeated enemies would drop irrelevant items almost 100% of the time. Killing giant rats wouldn’t net me rat meat that I could then cook, but instead I’d find cups and forks on their corpses. To make matters a bit worse, almost every enemy I defeated only dropped one item, and that item was typically useless.
As you gain experience inOf Ash and Steel’s combat, you eventually unlock stances that add a little moreplaystyle varietyto the game. Quick Stance speeds up your attacks but simultaneously decreases your damage output. Power Stance slows down those attacks but makes them hit harder. Finally, Balanced Stance lands somewhere in the middle. I generally preferred using Quick Stance, simply because it made combat feel a bit more exciting, but it still felt clunky and slow.
In pursuit of the main quest, I eventually came across a group of loggers, with one of them demanding that I make a meal for the others who were working. However, I was once again told to retrieve something from “over there,” and at that point, I had almost lost the will to try and find it. Instead, I headed toward what I assumed was the next objective in the main quest, and the preview came to an end.
Of Ash and Steel Hands-On Preview: Final Thoughts
Of Ash and Steelhas the beginning of some good ideas, but it’s hard to praise it for those ideas with it being in the state that it’s in. There’s definitely a passion project here, but almost everything about it still feels early. The movement is clunky, the combat doesn’t feel great, and the lack of direction makes it more confusing than it probably should be. I don’t mindwhen games don’t hold your hand, but the problem here is that the world isn’t really designed to help you figure things out on your own either. It’s a game that wants you to explore, but it seems to work against you at every turn.
A part of me wants to believe there’s still time for things to come together before its planned 2025 release, and I really hope Fire & Frost is able to build on the potential that’s buried underneath all the rough edges. Smoother controls, tighter combat, better rewards, and clearerenvironmental clueswould go a long way toward making the game’s ambition land. Right now, though,Of Ash and Steelfeels more like a rough draft than something ready to stand alongside the games it’s trying to follow. Whether it gets there will depend on how much work is put in from here.
