Monomyth

Monomyth is a spiritual successor to Arkane Studios' 2002 game 'Arx Fatalis'. If you didn't play that game, then let me explain.
Monomyth (and Arx) are immersive sims, but not just any kind. They loosely follow the lineage of the 'Shock' branch of im-sims, meaning that you'll find plenty of lore, interconnected zones with shortcuts galore, secrets and RPG elements. I'm going to take this one step further and coin a new term too. Monomyth and Arx Fatalis are 'Adventure Immersive Sims'.
In this game, you'll find yourself gathering resources not only for combat and trading, but also to solve puzzles. Much like an old Sierra adventure game, you'll find a broken switch and your job is now to find the lever to fix it. You'll also find NPCs who ask for special items or tasks, oftentimes with multiple solutions. For example, you might find a bandit camp where it seems like your options are to pay or fight, but this is an immersive sim. If you want, you can stack 5 barrels and jump over the wall, or you use a special item to jump higher to climb up.
Resources in this game are special. Enemies don't respawn and neither do items. This means that you're going to be careful. You can repair your weapons, but you'll need to find a hammer and a forge. Armor might be a different story though. Make sure that you block or dodge, because getting hit will damage your armor. Of course, you could quick save and quick load, but the game actually provides you with another option. It has 'bonfires' from Dark Souls, but enemies don't respawn when you die. Instead, the punishment is the resources you lost and you'll find that a little bit of your XP is waiting for you where you died at.
Everything in this game is tangible. If you want food, then you're going to have to either find it, buy it, or fish/kill for it. You can fish in the stream and eat the fish raw, or you can find a fire, drop it and watch it cook in real time. You can even mix water with flour to make dough, then take it to an oven and bake it. If you want to repair your weapons, you'll also have to heat them up at a forge and literally mend them with a hammer.
Your inventory is limited too. If you run out of space, then you'll discover one of my favorite aspects of Monomyth and Arx. Items never despawn so you can effectively setup a base wherever you want. If you have some extra weapons, armor, healing items or anything, then you can find a nice spot and drop them in the game world. They'll be waiting for you. (Or you can sell them to a merchant).
This game is the ultimate immersive sim. You'll even find that most lights can turned on and off, including Thief style with water and fire arrows, or good old magic like in Arx. You have so many choices in this game. Even the quests have multiple solutions, some peaceful and some not so much.
This game is early access, however, the present content is well thought out but definitely needs some polishing. Occasionally, you'll find some empty chests or NPCs without dialogue. Despite that, you'll probably get plenty of play time out of it. I've played about 7 hours so far and I haven't hit a single section from any of the game's demos, of which there have been several. I'd recommend trying out the latest demo if you're on the fence.
For me, performance is great, but keep in mind that I have a 5800X3D and a 7800 XT. I can get a locked 144fps on high settings. The game has no irritating graphical effects and it has a FOV slider which thankfully goes up to 120 degrees. However, I'll say that the weapon viewmodels are a bit too close (but they scale with FOV). I'd love to see a viewmodel FOV slider added in the future.
The game runs on Unreal Engine 4, meaning that some light modding should be possible, albeit with community tools.
In terms of critique, I have very little. The game's two biggest problems are its lack of a gamma setting (you can use Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker's 'gamma x.x' command to change it for now) and its poor animation quality. The game looks a little janky, but it generally feels really good. Everything in this game is really well thought out. I'd highly recommend it, especially if you're a fan of Arx Fatalis and King's Field. First person RPGs are incredibly rare and this is one of the best available.

When looking up/ researching this game, you will see a lot of references to Ultima Underworld.

I don't know about Ultima Underworld, but if you played Heroes of Might and Magic: Dark Messiah, this game gives me those vibes. Finished the early access and I felt genuinely saddened by not being able to continue my Battlemage playthrough. Really enjoyed it.

This is it.
Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, Thief and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic stand behind this amazing one-man project and nod respectfully in it's general direction. Finally a worthy successor to the 'solo dungeon crawler with dark atmosphere' genre.

Really incredible old school RPG with a lot of im-sim blood in it's veins! So many cool features allowing for a lot of ways to think around a problem and deal with it in your own way. Great world and setting, lots of atmosphere. Feels really solid for a game in this price range and absolutely insane that it's made by a solo dev!
If you are a fan of Thief, Dark Messiah, Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, King's Field or early Bethesda RPGs then this one really is a great choice to pick up.

Has a lot of potential, I can see the vision. Can't wait to play more. The map design challenges you, the simulationist approach to things gives you opportunities on emergent gameplay. The atmosphere of the maps are great, just make sure you only use torches when you actually need them.
The stats are a bit nebulous sometimes though, requiring trial and error with builds. Search skill seems pretty underutilized, I wish it would also be used for "perception checks" for hidden switches, fake walls, destructible walls, buried chests etc.
Combat feels pretty punchy with solid animations and SFX, but I wish there was a real purpose to the directional attacks.
A couple ideas to add to combat, the first being easier to implement, the other is an unlikely wish:
Add a knock down effect to the player character if they are kicked while out of stamina. Makes running out of stamina more of a detriment to a players defense rather than just their offense (from weaker outgoing attacks).
Locational damage with armor factoring into damage received and deflect chance. This would work well with the directional attacks already in the game. Say the enemy had a helmet, overhead strikes on their head would be greatly nullified. If they had a shield in their left hand, and you swung from the right, you'd circumvent their shield, dealing more damage. Stuff like this would go a long way into improving the melee combat while still retaining the more calculating and thoughtful gameplay I believe the developer is going for.
Keep an eye on this one for sure.

Alright. Let's chat about Monomyth. The main influence people cite while describing this game is Arx Fatalis, which you will see in pretty much every review, lol. And while it's clearly one of this game's primary influence, I question how many people in this day and age have actually played Arx Fatalis, and if they have, how many years has it been? For me, it's been like twenty-two years. So, while I do remember some of it, I feel like we're better served holding this up to a more modern standard that people can really identify with. Or simply doing away with all that altogether and allowing it to stand on its own.
The story set-up itself is laid out on the product page, so I'm not going to rehash that. But, in typical fashion, once the set-up has played, you end up being captured by some unnamed faction and have to escape from prison. We've certainly seen this before, but as things go, it works fine to get you into the lengthy tutorial which will teach you how to play this game. And as far as tutorials go, it's a pretty good one. With a few deficiencies.
For example, the game assumes you default already know how to block, how to charge up an attack, and other similar things, and so it doesn't really go into any detail regarding combat other than telling you how to lock on to an enemy. Which, I really couldn't tell if that system worked or not. But you are probably better served not using it anyway. It's pretty convenient to be able to move freely in combat, IMO. Anyway, combat is what you would expect from an Elder Scrolls, Arx Fatalis, or whatever. Simple attack, block, and dodge.
Attacks can be charged by holding down the attack button (left mouse) or spammed with simple L mouse clicking (until your stamina depletes). Blocking is right mouse. Kicking is done by pressing the scroll wheel. Movement is WASD. You can lean with Q/E. You have two loadout slots, which you can cycle between using R. One different control is interact being F instead of E. Combat feels pretty good overall. Rats are the first thing you will face of course. Then "Wastelander", which seem sort of like this game's version of an orc. I ran into a slime crab thingy. As all tough guys are wont to do, I was like "I'm gonna kill your dumb@$$" as I was running away, lol.
A system that really isn't explained adequately at all, but which is actually really cool, is the spell system. How it works is, you find a spell and echo stones. Echo Stones are more or less runes, and by connecting runes in your spellbook, you can unlock spells found. Which you will need to do. In order to actually cast a spell, you will need an Arcane Tome in one of your loadout slots. Once you have met those conditions, you can begin casting spells. There are three schools of spells: Divine, Aura, and Cosmic. So far, I've only found an Aura spell, but it looks like the well runs deep with spellcasting, should you choose to take that route with your character. I'm playing as a warrior, so it's more a curiosity for me at the moment.
You will eventually find a map(s), but you will need to remember your paths for the most part. Fortunately, there is a high degree of interconnectivity that brings you back to certain areas via a lot of different paths you will unlock as you explore. But this game does expect you to have a pretty good memory for detail. And there is no mini map that I'm aware of. But so far as I've played, the level design works pretty well, and I have yet to feel lost.
There is a small degree of character customization, but this does seem like a min/max type of game to me. Although none of your abilities can dip below a certain threshold, guaranteeing that you will at the very least be able to try out a wide variety of gameplay styles before you really home in on one. There are a fair number of skills to go along with your ability standards. No character classes, but as mentioned, you really just need to decide how you want to play and keep pumping points into the relevant abilities and skills.
The actual pacing in this game is surprisingly ponderous. You are without question the fastest thing in the game. Everything else is kind of on its own clock and nothing seems like it's in any particular hurry. Enemies attack, but whether that is straight lining it to you or trying to maneuver a bit, they don't really seem to have a sense of urgency. So, while the atmosphere does a good job of creating a sense of tension, at this point in time (as of the writing of this review), it's a bit of an illusion.
The graphics look great. Not that it's a world filled with vibrant colors (because it's definitely not, at least as far as I've played), but the level of detail is comparable to something like Exanima. Gritty, lived in, falling apart, ancient and decrepit, but with shocking interludes such as magic gates that really stand out. And the interplay of different types of lighting in the environment are pretty stellar. The sounds of combat, movement, and so on in this game are also spot on and actually factor heavily if you are playing a stealthy character. There is a weird resonant droning sound that is always happening in the game best I can tell, and it creates a sense of tension well beyond what's actually happening in the game. I think it works pretty well.
There are people to interact with as well, and you will often be given a pair of dialogue choices when there might be branching decisions. Additionally, NPCs will share what they know with you, and you will be given a fair amount of dialogue choices to explore all that as well. Which I really appreciate. What's an RPG without a bit of discourse?
Btw, you can fish in this game, which is a surprisingly soothing activity. And you will need to do things like cook food, which then serves as a means of healing. Healing is also accomplished with bandages and herbs, and probably spells as well, although I haven't found a healing spell yet.
One thing that definitely needs work is the UI. Specifically, the way in which menu options blend into the background way too often. All the menu related stuff needs its brightness/gamma dialed up separate from the rest of the game. It's just straight up hard to see when items are in your inventory, when they're equipped, and so on. Additionally, tutorials/hints need their own page that shows each thing in a list. You currently have to scroll through all the tips until you find the one you were looking for. These two things are actually pretty important and need to be addressed.
Also, I would like to see controller support implemented properly. I played k/m, and gamepad is an option in the menu, but currently it is greyed out. And me personally, I'd rather play this using a gamepad. So hopefully it's dialed in sooner than later.
Anyway, as far as early access titles go, and especially ones from solo devs, this game already has a high degree of polish. Obviously, there are some things to work on still, but it is already a completely playable game with a lot of depth. The content already available is definitely worth the $19.99 asking price though, and you can feel good being an early adopter with Monomyth. If you're looking for a grittier and less forgiving world than most real time dungeon crawlers, this is a game to look at without question.
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Been following since the beginning! I am a massive fan of the first-person dungeon crawler genre (which is criminally underrepresented these days). Monomyth wears its inspiration from games like Arx Fatalis and Kings Field on its sleeve, but adds its own unique ideas and modernizations.
Monomyth is not afraid to ask you to slow down and be immersed in the world around you. Is your shield starting to break? You'll need to find a forge to heat it, an anvil to place it on, and a hammer to get rid of the imperfections. You want to make that flour into bread? You'll need to find water to wet the flour, then cook it by a fire. Most games hide these actions by having you click around in a menu, but it is details like this that make Monomyth so immersive.
Some pros:
+ Great atmosphere
+ Immersive gameplay systems
+ Highly-interactive world
+ Multiple options for approaching combat and exploration
+ Intricate and deliberate level-design
+ Interesting story
+ Elements behave as they should (fire is hot, it can cook food and ignite fuses)
+ Smart UI system allows you to drag/drop items from the environment in real-time
Some gripes (Day 1 early access):
- Attribute points are vague. Until I had 5 points in lockpicking, I was unable to open any locks past the tutorial, which made it seem like my points weren't changing anything.
- Breakable objects should receive more damage from unarmed attacks. Sometimes barrels/boxes take more than 10 kicks/throws to break.
- Need a clear way to distinguish friendly/hostile NPCs. I nearly killed the first merchant because he was standing in the corner of a room with a thief mask over his face.
- Merchants should have unlimited money. The reset time on merchant inventory is very short, so I can typically sell all of my items by running back and forth between two merchants anyway, so the limit on their money seems unnecessary and frustrating.
- Desperate need for optimization, specifically for lighting. I am not on cutting-edge hardware, but I am running a 30-series which is by no means ancient technology. To keep the game running at a stable FPS I needed to turn lighting down to 1 and set my FPS cap to 60.
- No way to repair clothing items? Maybe I missed this, but it seems only metal equipment can be repaired.
- Water from the river cannot be interacted with like other water sources (E.g., wash bandages, fill empty flasks, etc.).
Suggestions:
* Further expand on interactable items (E.g., Higher tier food that requires additional preparation steps, ability to smelt metal objects to craft weapons, repair clothing at a spinning wheel, upgrade gear at a grindstone, etc.).
* Add a detailed description for what each point added to an attribute changes. (E.g., If you need 5 points in lockpicking to open simple locks, telling this to the player would increase their ability to plan how they want to allocate their hard-earned points).
* Lack of dual wielding seems like a missed opportunity. Would love to see this included in the future!
* Ability to pick up and place all lootable objects (similar to how you can pick up pots and boxes). This will make actions like moving a heated weapon from a forge to an anvil easier, or move and place a broken lever without needing to worry about inventory space.
* Ability to drop/throw lit torches. This would allow players to maintain a light source in combat without needing to keep a torch in their hand.
* Sleeping in a bed should autosave and restore HP and Mana. To balance this, there should be a cooldown time on resting.
* Ability to disable combat music and slow-mo on finishers.
* Additional character portrait options (including additional genders and ethnicities), or even the option to upload a custom image.
Absolutely love this game, even in its early access form. Monomyth is a fantastic addition to the first-person dungeon crawler genre!