The Kingdom of the Seven may not be the most welcoming place, but even from a brief look Of Ash and Steel suggests it will find its fans.

Fire & Frost Studios’s Of Ash and Steel is more than happy to bask in its inspirations from 2000s RPGs like Gothic and The Witcher. The game takes players to the low-fantasy Kingdom of the Seven, where they must navigate its hostile world and competing factions. RPGamer was given the opportunity to try out a preview build of the game, covering around a couple of hours of content.

Of Ash and Steel puts players in the role of a young man from the capital named Tristan. He is hired by the Order of the Seven — the realm’s knights — as a cartographer for a secret mission to deliver a letter to a figure on the island of Greyshaft. The build begins at a cove where players get accustomed to the controls while dealing with Tristan’s seasickness and interacting with a few members of the crew. However, this secret mission is evidently compromised and the crew is attacked at night by a mysterious group, with Tristan left as the only survivor. He is rescued by a local who, after tasking him with some small jobs as recompense, packs Tristan off with making his own way back to civilisation.

Of Ash and Steel’s world is a hostile one.

Experienced players should be readily familiar with the keyboard-and-mouse controls, using the WASD keys for movement, the mouse for aiming and camera movement, the left-mouse button to attack, and so forth. There was a limited amount of it in the build, but combat appears to be quite straightforward, with players using their equipped weapon while being able to dodge or defend depending on if their stamina bar allows. However, the build is effectively demonstrative of the hostile nature of the setting and Trsitan unfamiliarity with it. On the standard difficulty (the middle of three), Tristan will very easily die if players are not careful. It’s not just from hard-hitting enemies, which reflect Tristan’s comparatively sheltered past; there are also many other ways to come a cropper, such as falling or drowning. Survival elements ensure that players will need to keep on top of their food supplies, as well as trying to deal with any wounds they pick up.

The game features regular experience points from defeating enemies, completing quests, and so forth. Levelling up grants players attribute and skill points, with a few early attribute bonuses provided by some conversation choices at the start where players can indicate Tristan’s past and character. Attributes can be assigned willingly, but skills — which are divided into three branches — require finding both a relevant trainer and enough gold to pay them, as well as meeting the attribute requirements. The preview build’s quests are all quite basic, but they show that players will have smaller choices within quests that affect their progression or outcome in addition to the major choices about which factions they might side with down the line. It also gives glimpses at substantial systems for cooking, crafting, and more.

The full game will let players explore a number of different biomes.

The game’s visuals do their job well enough, with the woodland environments standing out quite impressively, packed with plant life and interesting sights. There are a few quirks, like some of the facial expressions being a bit overblown and prone to excessive snarling. It’s not shooting for photorealism with the character models, but there’s enough to give them some character. Audio is solid at this point as well, with full voice acting, although the music does sometimes make it a bit difficult as to judge as whether it’s simply trying to be atmospheric or Tristan is in active danger of attack from nearby.

The Kingdom of the Seven may not be the most welcoming place, but even from a brief look Of Ash and Steel suggests it will find its fans. While it remains to be seen how well the full package holds up, based on the short time in the preview build, fans of those 2000s RPGs it draws inspiration from should find themselves very well catered for here. The game is currently planned to release on PC via Steam.

Disclosure: This article is based on a build of the game provided by the publisher.

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