14 DAY TRIAL // Just like its pretentious title, Testament: The Order of High Human aims high with its combination of action, RPG and metroidvania elements. Set in a high-fantasy world where high humans have been elevated to the rank of immortal beings, Testament: The Order of High Human draws inspiration from many games and genres, but ultimately falls short of providing a silky-smooth gameplay experience.
Developed by Fairyship Games, Testament: The Order of High Human is slated for release on PC on July 13. The most obvious issues with the game that I noticed while playing the preview version is the writing and the voice-acting, but some gameplay elements are also straight up frustrating.
On the bright side, Testament’s premise feels original is quite interesting. In fact, it’s probably the only great thing about the upcoming game. You play as Aran, the immortal king of the High-Humans, in his search for retribution after his brother’s betrayal that led to the empire’s fall to the Darkness.
Stripped from his powers and immortality, Aran is now looking for answers as to why the Seeker, another mysterious race that helped the High-Humans evolve to godly beings, decided to abandon the empire just before it was conquered by the Darkness.
Given that the narrative is poorly structured, it takes a while to understand what’s happening and get invested in the story. As I’ve already mentioned, writing is one of the game’s weaknesses, and it’s not just the quality. The text is full of grammatical errors and typos, something that completely breaks the immersion.
Combat-wise, Testament plays from the first-person perspective, just like many other high-fantasy RPGs. Its resemblance to Skyrim is uncanny when it comes to combat, but this is where the similarities stop.
The folks at Fairyship Games wanted a combat system that stands out, and they probably achieved their goal. However, combat in Testament: The Order of High Human is frustrating rather than enjoyable. The core mechanic is the string of combos that you must pull off in order to keep the enemies locked and unable to attack.
Every second attack from your sword will interrupt the enemy from whatever it plans to do. Unfortunately, sometimes the AI doesn’t register the second hit and you get punished even though you did what you’re supposed to do. Not to mention that this tactic won’t work when you fight multiple enemies. And since the game lacks any defensive moves like block or parry, you’ll just have to bet everything on the offensive.
The only way to avoid an enemy’s attack is to dash in any direction, but this move has a cooldown, so you can really use it on a regular basis. The first few levels are the hardest since you don’t have many items that you can use to boost your attacks, nor abilities that enhance your damage.
The game has a pretty deep skill tree, although many of the abilities should have been available right from the get-go. You can also use various items to give your melee and ranged weapons various elemental properties. However, all usable items are put on a radial wheel that you can access during combat, which once again breaks the immersion.
Conclusion
It’s such a shame because Testament: The Order of High Human seemed very promising from all the marketing materials that I’ve seen. Even though many of the gameplay aspects are simply not enjoyable, I remain intrigued by the game’s premise, so I’ll probably give it another chance next month when it lands on Steam.
Preview key was provided by the developer.
