Legacy: Steel & Sorcery Review Summary

Last updated: 2025-02-22
  • Visually appealing and immersive experience.
  • Skill-based and engaging combat.
  • WoW-like PvPvE, fun with friends.
  • Harsh death penalty, gear loss.
  • Numerous bugs and technical issues.
  • Class imbalance, Rogues overpowered.
Legacy: Steel & Sorcery header

What players like:

Common complaints:

Gameplay feedback:

Performance notes:

Recommendations:

Other player notes:

Review evidence

Why players say this

What players like

Visually appealing and immersive experience: The game is visually appealing, with a vibrant art style, detailed environments, and smooth animations. The dark fantasy aesthetic, combined with well-executed sound design and music, creates an immersive and engaging atmosphere. Many reviewers highlight the game's potential and fun factor, especially for an Early Access title.

Skill-based and engaging combat: The combat system is engaging and skill-based, requiring strategic thinking and quick reflexes. Classes feel unique, with different weapons providing alternate movesets and weapon-specific active skills. The game offers thrilling PvP encounters and challenging PvE content, with a good balance between skill and gear.

Responsive and communicative developers: The developers are highly responsive and communicative, actively addressing bugs and incorporating community feedback. They release frequent hotfixes and updates, demonstrating their commitment to improving the game and creating a positive player experience. This responsiveness has led to improved stability and playability.

WoW-like PvPvE, fun with friends: The game offers a unique blend of PvP and PvE elements, reminiscent of classic MMOs like World of Warcraft and extraction games like Dark and Darker. Playing with friends enhances the experience, with challenging PvE encounters and chaotic PvP battles. The game provides a high-risk, high-reward dungeon crawling experience in a persistent world.

Engaging mechanics and rewarding gameplay: The game features a solid foundation with engaging mechanics, including a simple yet deep crafting system, rewarding PvP, and enjoyable PvE. The world is fun to explore, with plenty of activities and content to engage with. The game's mechanics are challenging and fun, offering a mix of deep RPG elements, satisfying combat, and an engaging world.

Common complaints

Numerous bugs and technical issues: The game suffers from numerous technical issues, including clunky combat, audio bugs, performance problems, and instability. Many reviewers mention that the game feels unpolished, especially for an Early Access title, and some experienced crashes and disconnects. The initial launch was particularly rough, leading to negative reviews and even review bombing.

Class imbalance, Rogues overpowered: Several reviewers highlight balance issues, particularly the strength of the Rogue class. Rogues are often perceived as overpowered due to their stealth, crowd control, and high damage output, leading to frustrating encounters, especially for new players. This imbalance makes it difficult to play other classes effectively and creates an uneven playing field.

Poor balance and grindy gameplay: Reviewers express concerns about the game's balance, difficulty, and lack of meaningful progression. The game can feel grindy and repetitive, with limited content and a steep learning curve. Some find the PvP unbalanced and the PvE unrewarding, leading to a lack of motivation to engage with the game.

Harsh death penalty, gear loss: The game's death penalty, which involves losing all gear, is considered overly punishing by many reviewers. This mechanic can negate the value of time spent collecting resources and crafting, leading to frustration and discouraging players from using better gear. The difficulty in obtaining decent gear further exacerbates this issue.

Needs QOL and UI improvements: Reviewers note the need for quality-of-life improvements, such as better UI, matchmaking, and server stability. Long loading screens and cumbersome inventory management also detract from the overall experience. These issues contribute to a feeling that the game is not yet ready for release.

Gameplay and performance

Fantasy extraction RPG (PvPvE): The game is a third-person, fantasy-themed, PvPvE extraction RPG, drawing comparisons to games like Tarkov and Dark and Darker, but without guns. Players enter a zone, kill enemies, loot gear and materials, and attempt to extract, either solo or in teams.

RPG classes with varied combat: The game features standard RPG classes, each with different weapon options and abilities that modify gameplay. Combat is weighty and impactful, but can feel clunky. Some reviewers find the combat great for certain classes.

Optional PvP, challenging PvE: The game features both PvE and PvP elements, with the ability to largely avoid PvP if desired. PvE is tuned for trios, but solo play is possible. Some reviewers find the PVE mobs tougher than PVP enemies and PVP difficult.

Permanent character progression system: The game features a permanent character upgrade system based on experience gained, including a trait system and unlockable spells. Progression involves utilizing trait, loot, and vendor systems to tackle bosses. Some reviewers feel progression is a bit slow.

Meaningful crafting and upgrades: The game features a crafting system where gathered materials can be used for crafting upgrades, gear, and consumables. Players can also upgrade vendors in the main hub and unlock functionality in their Lodge, providing additional benefits during gameplay.

FPS capped at 60: Some players are experiencing the game's FPS being capped at 60, even on high-end PCs. Some players are also experiencing frame rate drops below 30 FPS despite using an RTX 4070 Super.

Frequent audio glitches and crashes: Numerous players have encountered audio glitches, crackling, and sound crashes. Some audio bugs required a complete game restart to resolve, and some sound driver crashes were experienced.

Incorrect controller support info: Steam indicates no controller support, but the game does have controller support. This is a minor issue, but it can be confusing for players.

Recommendations

Early Access: Potential vs. Issues: The game is in early access, leading to both excitement about its potential and frustration with its current state. Many reviewers suggest waiting for further development, while others recommend it to those who enjoy supporting actively developed games and can tolerate bugs and incomplete features. Some reviewers caution about the high-risk, high-reward nature of the game, where progress can be lost.

Price Worth: Divided Opinions: Reviewers are divided on whether the game is worth its current price, with some strongly recommending it and others suggesting it's overpriced for its current state. Many suggest trying the game and utilizing refund options if unsatisfied, while others recommend waiting for sales or price drops. Some negative reviews appear to be from users who cannot run the game.

High Hopes for the Future: Many reviewers express excitement about the game's future and potential, anticipating new content, features, and overall improvement. They believe the game has a solid foundation and could become a standout title in its genre. This positive outlook is tempered by concerns about the game's current state and the need for further development.

Extraction Genre: Comparisons Abound: The game is frequently compared to other extraction games like Dark and Darker, with some reviewers finding it a promising alternative. It's recommended for fans of the extraction genre, but some suggest that it still needs to innovate further to truly stand out. Some reviewers who prefer Dark and Darker recommend sticking with that title for now.

Wait and See Approach: Some reviewers are giving the game a chance based on the expectation that the developers will improve it, while others strongly advise against playing it due to its poor state. Some reviewers recommend waiting for technical issues to be resolved, especially for players on lower-end hardware. A few reviewers express strong negative sentiment, calling the game 'garbage'.

Other review notes

Active development, early access.: The game is in early access, with the developers actively communicating updates, addressing bugs, and providing a roadmap for future content. However, some reviews may be negatively impacted by the game's early access state.

Game shows strong potential.: Reviewers see potential in the game's core ideas and the developer's vision, with ambitious long-term goals. They are looking forward to future development and content updates.

Compared to similar extraction games.: The game is frequently compared to other PvPvE extraction shooters like Tarkov and Dark and Darker, with some reviewers noting similarities in art style to World of Warcraft. The involvement of ex-WoW developers is also noted.

Added Oceanic servers.: Players requested and received Oceanic servers, addressing concerns about server stability in Australia. This shows the developers are responsive to community needs.

Solid crafting and world design.: The game features a crafting system, quests, merchants, a personal base, and a large, well-designed area. These features contribute to the game's depth and engagement.