Age of Reforging: The Freelands – Review

Age of Reforging: The Freelands is a Role-Playing Adventure Strategy game developed and published by PersonaeGame Studio. This Chinese game studio has done its best to create a game that gives a close resemblance to Bladur’s Gate 3 but several mechanics of the game might feel off. The game plays like a classic Sandbox RPG taking place in a medieval fantasy world named “The Freelands” where the humans are still slaves and it is your job to free the slaves to become the breaker of chains.

The story takes place in the world of Freelands where you take the role of Reforger who is chosen by the Goddess of Fate. Your job is to build a rebellion against the royalties of the Freelands World who hold slaves. The game is heavily inspired by Spartacus and his Gladiator Rebellion against the Roman Empire. As your character is a reforger, he is also the next Gladiator and you will get to form up a party of various companions with their unique abilities which you lead to change things once and for all.

It is a decent plotline for the game and it surely made it more interesting with the Magic. There are four different Races each with their unique skills and attributes. You must select a Race and a desired role for your character such as a Fighter to get started. The customization options are another plus point as you can create your character the way you like. As you set off to the adventure in the Freelands World, you will get hit by a barrage of quests. Yes, there are many quests in the game and I spent my first couple of hours completing the quests for a small town.

However, the quests do help in the progression as you will get to find various companion options to hire in your party. There are only 9 companions allowed in your little Rebellion party so, it heavily relies on the choices you make when you add a companion to the party and select their role. Not only do you have to look out for your character but you also have to set roles for the companions for both combat and survival.

The combat of the game is in real-time so there will be a lot of things happening at once. My early encounters were easy but as I got to learn more spells and leveled up my skills, the enemies also got tougher which gave me some sort of a difficult time. The main thing you need to focus on in the combat is that your companions also have good stats in the combat otherwise, it will be difficult for you to take on enemies all at once.

I enjoyed the survival aspect of the game despite the fact it does add another layer of difficulty to the game. However, managing your companions plays a crucial role in the game and it is best to learn it quickly because it took me some time to figure out all the menus and how they work. The complexity in Age of Reforging is certainly higher than other classic Sandbox RPGs but it can be overcome by spending some time on each aspect one by one.

The size of the Freelands World is pretty big covering several royalty cities and mini-towns to discover along the adventure. The aesthetic of the world is both charming at day and horrifying at night as you can get brutally looted by other survivors during your rest time leaving you with nothing but a cloth.

Verdict – Score 7/10

Age of Reforging: The Freelands is a good Sandbox RPG with various aspects to keep in mind while covering grounds on the world of Freelands. The combat of the game is decent but it felt incomplete while fighting other mages with more powerful spells that almost one hit your companions leaving your character alone. There is surely something else needed in combat as it is one of the crucial aspects of the game to make the areas more accessible. However, other aspects of the game like survival and exploration do justice in providing a well RPG experience.

Age of Reforging: The Freelands is now available on PC.