I will be honest here. I have not spent my entire life playing RPGs like hardcore gamers of this genre have. RPGs tend to take hours to complete, and for this very reason, hardcore RPG players are seldom found in any other type of title. Old-school RPGs like the Gothic series set a new standard for open-world exploration with their massive worlds and minimal handholding. These titles gave you a general direction and left the rest to you to figure out. Modern RPGs have spoiled us with detailed maps, navigation markers, and quest trackers, making it very easy to explore massive maps. Developer Fire and Frost’s Of Ash and Steel is trying to bring back the early 2000s by incorporating mechanics that are long forgotten now. This is our review of the PC Steam version of ‘Of Ash and Steel’, in which we try to kill some rats and end up getting stuck in the ground.
In Of Ash and Steel, you step into the shoes of a cartographer called Tristan, who ends up on Grayshaft after a shipwreck. Alone and injured, he must prepare himself and survive an unforgiving world of unguided quests and bugs around every corner. Of Ash and Steel brings back the 2000s with its no-handholding way of giving you quests that you must complete based on your exploration skills and curiosity. You have no map for a decent chunk of the early game, and even after acquiring it, you still need to find your own way around. There are no markers or guides to tell you how to complete even the basic quests in the game.
While this sounds like something that a hardcore RPG lover would enjoy in the game, Of Ash and Steel takes it to another level because when it says there is no guidance, there is literally no guidance for anything in the game. After picking up a quest, you are on your own to complete it. Explore the surroundings and figure out what needs to be done. I would normally find this a decent challenge, especially when the initial instructions are clear, but this is where the game falls short and starts to become frustrating rather than fun. For example, a quest would ask you to visit a certain place and would not tell you how to find this place or where you can find this place. Sometimes I managed to find a quest item by random exploration, and while I was able to complete the quest eventually, it was not enjoyable.
While I did not play the original Gothic release, I reviewed its recent re-release, and it was on another level. Of Ash and Steel tries to embody the same concept with modern mechanics and an even harder progression system with tons of grinding. The game kicks off with basic quests that give you a short idea of what you can expect from the later game, but as soon as combat comes into play, it is a whole other story. Since Tristan is a Cartographer, combat is not his strong suit, and you are the one who has to pay the price. There are three distinct Skill Trees to master, but the levelling up system requires a lot of grinding, and even then, combat is far from enjoyable. While any other RPG would make you a killing machine after investing around 70 hours into it, Of Ash and Steel makes you able to handle your sword in a way that you would not cut yourself.
Combat requires a lot of patience, skills, stamina management, and deaths. Learning skills is a chore on its own because you first need to earn XP to level up and gain XP points. To use these points, you need to spend gold and find a teacher who can teach you the skills. This makes learning new skills and getting better a lot harder than most RPGs. Combat is crucial to survival in the game, and you cannot survive long without getting better at it, so your best bet is to make do with what you have and use them to their fullest to gain the advantage over your enemies. For me, combat was a mixed bag of frustration and disappointment, and I cannot think many players will find it enjoyable.
Crafting, on the other hand, is deep and offers a lot on the table. If you manage to find the right resources and a crafting table, you can sell what you craft. Learn a few skills, master the craft, and you can create a permanent source of income for yourself, but naturally, this requires time and some grinding because you need to acquire said resources first, and that is not easy. Similarly, you can fish and sell your catch for some gold as well. Each activity has a small minigame attached to it that you will need to complete to complete the task. You can also cook meals for the road or instant consumption. Hunting down recipes or crafting diagrams is a task on its own. If you want to take a break from main quests, there are tons to do in the game.
Character design is yet another problem with the game at this moment, and it is evident from the very first scene of the game. Whether it’s enemies, monsters, or NPCs, the character design of the game is not that good, and it is made worse by unmatched lip syncing during dialogue. The characters look okay, but their animations feel unnatural, especially when they speak. You spend a lot of time interacting with other characters and NPCs, and when they open their mouths to speak, it all just goes down. On the other hand, the world looks and feels great. The variety of different areas to explore and the day and night cycle, everything feels and looks great. There are some stutters during the nighttime in high-density areas, but in the open lands, the game looks great.
Probably the strongest aspect of the game is its audio design. The dialogue delivery is solid, despite the horrible facial expressions and a lip-syncing system that never matches. There is also plenty of dialogue in the game. If you love interacting with NPCs, learning more about the world around yourself, and digging deep into the game’s lore, you will not be disappointed. There is dialogue after dialogue, and there were some gaming sessions in which I actually spent more time talking with NPCs and other characters rather than exploring the world or killing enemies. You can listen around and actually gain some useful information about a particular quest. While it is not perfect, it is the best aspect of the game out of the many others, like character design, crafting, combat, and anything else in the mix. Certain audio mechanics do tend to get a little repetitive after some time, like in-game music, but overall, I have the lowest complaints from the game’s audio design.
Of Ash and Steel is filled with quest-breaking bugs, and it runs like an ungreased axle on a 5080 setup with a Core i9 Ultra processor. If the low frames don’t kill you, some annoying bug that causes your character to get stuck in environments will. I have a habit of saving the game again and again out of habit, and this is the only thing that allowed me to spend over 70 hours in the game, but I still couldn’t finish the main story. There is a lot to do in Of Ash and Steel, and the exploration is decent because the world design is not bad at all, and this often distracted me from the main story, but everything is filled with bugs and glitches that really hinder progress one way or the other. Apart from this, Of Ash and Steel overly complicates certain mechanics that other RPGs do not, like leveling up or learning new skills.
I still think that Of Ash and Steel has great potential, even with all of its frustrating bits and broken quests. Performance optimization must come first, followed by a careful balance of different systems. I understand that Fire and Frost wants to deliver an old-school RPG experience where the players figure out everything on their own, but the game must have some clear instructions on what needs to be done to progress. It has to feel rewarding rather than frustrating. Combat needs balancing with enemies toning down a bit, and the skill trees should make a clear difference in gameplay rather than just feeling like a chore with very few rewards at the end. The inventory system could be made a little better with enemies dropping better loot rather than just junk. It all boils down to its future updates and optimization because the game has a lot of potential hidden behind all the mess.
Related News:
- tinyBuild and Fire & Frost Studios Reveal Of Ash and Steel, Launching in 2025
- tinyBuild Connect 2025 Recap – All Trailers, Announcements, and Updates
Final Verdict:
Apart from the frustrating nature of ‘Of Ash and Steel’s no handholding, the game is filled with bugs, and some of them are game-breaking. At the time of this review’s publication, the game is already over a month old, and it is still filled with different bugs, and the optimization is still very poor. While Of Ash and Steel could have been a great hit back in the early 2000s, sadly, for today’s gamers, it lacks the right amount of fun and difficulty. In its current state, the no-handholding sits way back because the game needs optimization and bug-fixing. It is a shame because the game, on the other hand, has a great world and a lot of different things to do that can keep you busy for hours. I recommend that you sit this one out for the time being and try some other RPG for your fill.
Final Score: 5.5/10
