Tribes of Midgard: Still playing even though it's repetitive as hell

I don't have a huge group of online friends in my network. I only have 3 in fact and 2 of those guys are almost never online and couldn't play anyway since they stopped paying for their PS Plus account. Therefore, I only play this game on solo mode, which could probably be a big part of the reason why I am feeling as though this game is extremely repetitive.

Repetitive doesn't always mean bad though and ToM is a good example of how repetition can actually be ok.

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ToM is a game that I got for free and honestly, there is a better-than-average chance that if it hadn't been the monthly free game, I probably wouldn't have ever played it or even known about it. It was never a full-priced release and the maximum I have ever heard it costing was around $20 or 15 pounds (don't now where that symbol is on the ol' keyboard) which isn't unreasonable because it actually is a pretty solid game even though I wish there were at least the option of being able to play it in other ways.

The main "problem" that I see with this game is the frantic pace in which the game must be played. Since your village is going to get attacked by demons every night you need to get back to town in order to make certain that your tree of life isn't overwhelmed. This doesn't seem like much of a chore at first, but as time goes on it just becomes a pain in the ass.

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I understand this is a critical part of the game because it creates an urgency to upgrade village defenses and also requires you to return. It would be nice if it was at least optional in some sort of exploration mode though. They technically do have a survival mode that is kind of like this and has a ton of options as far as customization is concerned but the rewards are so minimal from playing like this that it is basically a waste of time.

Exploration can be fun but since all the maps are procedurally generated my experience has been that you really should just stick to the roads unless a quest dictates that you go off of them. The terrain can end up being seriously convoluted and then just ends at a dead end cliff or a peninsula. I made this mistake a lot early on because the tutorial is rubbish in this game and doesn't really tell you a great deal about what you are meant to be doing.

Perhaps some people enjoy this but for me I don't really want to watch 20 YouTube videos to simply be able to figure out how a game is supposed to work. I guess this is the actual dynamic they were looking for by making this a unique rogue-like game but a good rule is to just stick to the roads. Very rarely have I ever found anything of consequence by straying too far from the roads in the game and even then, it was normally something that was too powerful for me to be able to take on anyway.

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Something absolutely critical that again, isn't explained at all in the tutorial, is this little gozmer that is floating up in the top right of the screen all the time. Beyond day 1 and 2 you really need to be back in your village to help with defense because the NPC's can't really handle it on their own. You really need to pay attention to when night is coming because that is the time that the Helthings always attack except for immediately following a Blood Moon. Unless you watched some YT videos or really pay attention, this tiny thing doesn't even seem relevant as far as gameplay is concerned even though it is probably one of the most important thing on your HUD.

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One thing I REALLY like about this game is how the store is designed. Normally, whenever I see that a game that I am playing even has a store I immediately tuck tail and run away from the game. I am not at all interested in any game that has microtransactions built in. I realize that this is the way the money-making gaming industry is heading and that in itself is extremely tragic, but at least in ToM the store is based around purely cosmetic upgrades that can be purchased for real-world money. I don't understand why anyone would pay for this sort of thing but I guess there is a market out there.

All the things that give you an actual in-game advantage can ONLY be purchased by things you acquire by actually playing the game. Take that Blizzard!

I've probably sunk about 15 hours into this game and the only thing that really annoys me about it are things that are completely happenstance. You don't know where the resources are going to be nor do you have any idea what the map layout is going to be since it changes every single playthrough. Therefore, you will frequently find yourself aimlessly wandering at the start of a session only to get marauded by wolves when you don't even have a weapon yet. Thankfully, the game is pretty informative about whether or not you are capable of handling the enemies in an area by a "power meter" that is displayed in the top left corner. Once again this is something that would have been very helpful to have indicated in the tutorial. Maybe I am just too old and want too much hand-holding as far as a game is concerned.

The good news about this game is that the devs have 4 seasons planned and they keep making improvements based on community feedback. We are currently on season 2 and season 3 is released in the middle of August. All of these seasons are completely free if you already have the base game.

I may actually delve into randomly selected multi-player at some point in the near future and can only hope that it isn't as toxic as most other MP games I have ever played online. I'm not holding my breath on that one.