Pine Review - Is it Worth Playing?

My review of Pine, done of course in the brief style of my "Would I Recommend..." series. Pine is a simple action/adventure game set in an open fantasy world. It mostly involves exploring, gathering and trading items with the different villages in order to gain their trust and favour. It reminds me a little of some of the Legends of Zelda games, but it is not nearly so big or ambitious. Would I Recommend Pine? Not really. It has too many flaws and not enough engagement. All points discussed in the video. I did receive this copy of Pine for free for the purposes of being able to review it.

#Pine

[them]

Atleast is gonna be free on epic games

[genekwagmyrsingh]

I guess the question for the time being is "Is it worth playing for free?"

[joshwilson]

I think the combat system is pretty good, considering immersion. Hue isn't an ancient hyrulean knight, proficient in all types of weaponry. He picks up a wooden sword at the beginning of the game, for the first time in his life. He's also never seen the other races before, so it'd be difficult for him to read their movements in a competent way. Combat isn't meant to be a focus of this game, so you are ridiculously underpowered when trying to use it as a main tool. It's much easier to use traps and other methods to take care of interaction needs, and run away from a fight if you feel you can't win outright

[RetroAmateur]

Just started this game. Lets just say that starting out with having to grind a bunch of resources in order to get a tribe to like me, as my first task, is far from ideal.

[justarcheo]

I looked forward to making friends with the tribes, helping them build villages and expand, but in the end, everyone will hate you no matter what. You will have to kill innocent tribe members to be friends with another only to back-stab them ten minutes later, after which you befriend them again....

[seraph]

I got it free on Epic. I basically had the same feeling as you about it after a few hours of gameplay. The idea is there. But it just seems like its missing something or a bunch of things.

[Kit-Talon]

It looks a bit like a poor mans rip-off of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

[cmoore]

Any improvements since this review? Just started it.

[origamichikn]

I can confirm, i don't get along with Crocodile and Frog people at all.

[xreooz]

I thought we could build our own tribe, kinda boring aftef 1-2hrs gameplay

[AdeebMissaghi]

I really really liked the concept of this game and for the most part the world is excellent. I also even really liked the crafting concepts as well as having to trade w/ and upgrade clans to acquire new ideas. However you covered all the issues I have too... Combat SUCKS, the rep grind triggers vanilla world of warcraft PTSD ... Inventory space is so damn awful ... bleh such a shame I really want to keep playing but at this point in the game I've run into too many game breaking BUGS on top of all the gameplay issues to even consider continuing.

[adrigl]

Just got the game free from epic and download it, after a boring tutorial, you have to drop stuff on a donation box for a village as your first quest, I go for it, but a croc person starts to chase me, then a fox person joins in, had to flee to the tutorial area and wait till they killed each other, then try again, but this time a frog person attacked and started to chase and another croc joined in... this is the first small little area after the tutorial and I can’t get to a freaking box 10 meters away from the tutorial without being chased by every being in the game.
Could you imagine if in Subnautica you could be attacked by a leviathan moments after jumping out of your pod?
I’m uninstalling :p

[._an_o]

I feel like the game got better, at least I don't have the same problems as the ones in the video. Yeah, combat sucks at first with low quality weapons, but the animals do have predictable moves and especially the crocodiles and deers are very easy to fight.
Also, in my opinion the inventory is big enough after the second upgrade. Even though it is limited, I had no problems finding space for the really important stuff, as there are enough slots. After some time you figure out which resources are needed and which are unnecessary to hoard.
Personally, I didn't mind the switching relationships with the different species. I think it's important that the main character has this unstable relationships with them, as the rivalry among the animals is often pointed out. It just wouldn't make sense, if they make an exception with humans, especially when you have the plot in mind.
There are still some bugs though, at least I got trapped sometimes in rocks or between stuff. But half of the time I could move myself out of it, otherwise safe and reload would do it. But other than that, I didn't notice any.
I think the point with the "empty" world can be seen from two different views. It may be boring, but it also isn't overloaded. I had the feeling I got to rest from the fights and stuff while traveling. But I guess that some people need more action than I do :D
It's just a pretty calm game. think people who play many high quality games, which are also action loaded, get disappointed, but for others who just want to enjoy the atmosphere (and play it for free) it's worth it.

[somnorila]

5:11 I kind of do, but only if it has sense in the world, if the game has enough world mechanics regarding diplomacy, politics, commerce and stuff. As it kind of resembles other games of reference in that regard. As in you can side with a faction as in becoming an ally or part of that faction, so of course that besides access to their resources, specific weapons and armors you also inherit the friends and foes of that faction. But if you're stuck with single choice or the process of changing allegiance is tedious and boring as that it's the same and feels like a grind rather than a game's flexibility trait permitting you to play with the influence forces within that world, well sure, i don't like it either.

[ThomasL.]

i was hoping to see the tribes go to all out war :( if the tribes interacted and had legitimate progression i would play it for that.

[Truthorfib]

Just wondering, what if you played this game like the main quest was just another option?

[chessstar]

Very Good review! 🙂🙂
I get it now on Epic Games Store

[abhijaat]

it is coming free on epic games store🙂🙂🙂

[mclaire]

I think one of my main issues with this game personally is the story. The entire story is extremely predictable and obvious within the first half hour or so of game play. I’m not saying that every part of a story needs to be some big-totally-out-of-left-field-twist, but if I can guess the Entire (rather cliche tbh) story within the tutorial of a game I’m supposed to spend at least several hours on; also, I think to this sort of game having only one storyline and ending defeats the purpose of supposedly having so much choice as to who you make your allies or enemies. Plus (to me at least) none of the characters are really all that interesting. Good characters can carry a bad plot, but bad characters will ruin a good plot. And of course it’s missing the necessary and most loved/hated part of open world games: side quests. I personally really love the unique way that good games tell a story. To me, this was kinda boring. After following the development for a couple years; I expected more. Sorry for the rant 😅 the video was really thoughtful, I liked it!

[ericzehner]

Hey Mark - it's probably asking a lot, but with pine showing up on epic for free next week, i'm curious whether you've revisited the game to see if anything has changed?