4Game

I love this game. I've played close to 600 hours. Pre-Mistlands. After that update I really disliked the game-play. At least for me, The Mistlands destroyed the one aspect of the game I was truly in love with. The sense of exploration and discovery. Followed by a sense of conquest and overcoming obstacles.

The entire biome is claustrophobic mess that never improves. Each trip to the area feels like a worse version of the swamp. With none of the pay off or Enviromental themes. Swamp is a wet mess for sure, but it felt like a trip into a dark and foreboding place of rot and death. That you happily emerge from with a prize captured from within. The Mistlands is just a cloud of abstract nothing whose enemies are just an annoyance meant to trip you up on the way to your goals. Obstacles that you never truly overcome. They're just hall monitors with a chip on their shoulders. I found my time there is little more than a requirement to put another head on a rock and never come back.

With the plains I wondered the hillsides overlooking golden vistas, always excited to see the next village or tower on the horizon. Alwasy vigilant for the tell-tale sound of a Death-skito, or the giggles of a Fuling. I hope, they add an item that clears the fog of the Mistlands, as consoling the environment away reveals an alien and intimidating biome that is ruined by the coking fog. I understand what the goal was in its design. But it failed to do that. It's just an idol hindrance. That covers up their work and hides it behind a boring roadblock. That sadly destroys the wonder and excitement the game originally held.

Lastly, I just hope the learn for the choices of that DLC and step away from the "Make it hard and take longer!" philosophy that obviously impacted Mistlands, and aim to create and experience grounded in the journey and not the destination.