Archaelund, 4 Dimension Game’s Strategy RPG, is finally in Early Access! Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Archaelund Review Overview
Archaelund Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Has Enough Variety Hits All The Nostalgic Notes | Needs Quality of Life Changes Desperately Needs Voice Acting Visuals and Animations Are Dated Inconsistent Class Balancing |
Archaelund Overall
Archaelund is your portal back in time to visuals dating back to Oblivion with gameplay similar to Wasteland 2. The visuals and animations are VERY dated, but there’s a potential that could be explored here. As it stands the game is average in its gameplay, but has a ton of content to be done if you’re willing to play through the game.
Archaelund Story
You are a band of adventurers looking to strike it rich in Archaelund, a land known to be both of peril and wonder. The story is your basic create-a-party journey where everything is very open-ended. You can choose to do what you want to do for most of the experience with a ton of different things to do in Andoria.
Archaelund Gameplay
It’s an interesting mix of a first-person exploration and an isometric strategy RPG during combat. Exploration is simple and open, while combat is easy to understand and offers depth to its players willing to learn its systems. It’s also surprisingly challenging too, as I had to rethink my strategy a number of times while trying to balance my resources for the next battles.
Archaelund Visuals
The visuals are definitely not its strong suit, especially if you’re expecting it to look close to something like Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s something more akin to the likes of Fallout 3, Wasteland 2, and the like. The animations are also very dated as compared to older CRPGs which may be something that you have to endure and sit through.
Archaelund Audio
The music is pretty good for both the exploration and combat, as well as the voice acting for the intro scene after creating your party. Other than that though, everything else will be ambient music including the sound effects made by everything else.
Archaelund Value for Money
The game is currently marked as Early Access for $20 and it offers a lot at that price point. It’s a pretty sizable RPG with hours of content to explore. The developers already have a plan for the rest of the year for its development and it's only going to have more content from here on out.
Archaelund Review: A Modern RPG With A Classic Facade
Talk about a blast from the past. Archaelund definitely maxes out the nostalgia factor despite not knowing anything about the Exiled Kingdoms IP. The way the game just looks like Oblivion with the combat and progression of older CRPGs like Wasteland, it's definitely a wonderful fusion. As I’ve said earlier, the visuals are certainly dated. But real RPG lovers can look past the visuals and the graphics to appreciate a pretty good game.
Seeing that the game is still in early access, the game is definitely rough around the edges especially when it comes to its performance, animations, and limited (yet still numerous enough) amount of skills and classes. I encountered a couple of bugs and crashes here and there but not exactly to the point where the game was unplayable.
The game’s character creation is serviceable. It has enough options to keep you interested, and not a lot to overwhelm you with the options. Currently, you can’t customize your characters, so the game won’t get any brownie points for original creations. You get to pick a Career or a starting class, which will pretty much determine how your character will play moving forward. The game has a variety of different classes to choose from ranging from the Barbarian, Hunter, Apprentice, and many more.
The combat is fairly simple with a variety of different skills depending on the starting classes that you choose. Similar to other CRPGs, your accuracy and damage will be based on certain stats and talents. The enemies are pretty brutal even for the starting area, as some enemies have status debuffs that could pretty much eliminate one of your party members before you even get to attack.
All in all, the game is pretty decent. It has a number of options and content to keep you interested, but not much else to go on. There are several additions that an RPG like this should have, like actual inventory management, quest markers, knowing which NPC is interactable, and more, but I’ll defer to the game still being in early access before these things are implemented fully.
Pros of Archaelund
| Things Archaelund Got Right |
|---|
|
Has Enough Variety Hits All The Nostalgia Notes |
Has Enough Variety
As I explained earlier, the game offers multiple classes and different skills for you to round out your party. There are certainly more melee classes than ranged specialists, but there are enough different types of magic users to add more flavor to your playthroughs.
Hits All The Nostalgic Notes
While I already sound like a broken record with how the game looks and feels, the game does feel like a real blast from the past. Getting past the tutorial gives you that same feeling in Skyrim right after getting past the starting area. The game opens up for you to explore. It’s not a homerun when it comes to the full package, but it’s a respectable amount of content with the added nostalgic flair that reminds you of the older RPGs of the past.
Cons of Archaelund
| Things That Archaelund Can Improve |
|---|
|
Needs Quality of Life Changes Desperately Needs Voice Acting Visuals and Animations Are Dated Inconsistent Class Balancing |
Needs Quality of Life Changes
There are a lot of things that a game like this needs, especially since it wants to be an RPG of a pretty big scale. It needs an inventory management system, actual quest markers, and more. Judging from the size of the map, it may need a fast travel system, but that’s for the devs to decide.
Desperately Needs Voice Acting
The introductory cutscene is amazing. The voice acting and the build up at the start is pretty good. However, there is absolutely no voice acting for anything else. If it can capitalize on good voice acting, especially with the number of characters that they’re planning to add in the game, it may turn out to be something special.
Visuals and Animations Are Dated
The visuals obviously look pretty dated. The animations, the models, the textures, it may need a visual rework in the future. While I’m not big on graphics being a heavy player in my experience, it does beg the question if the game was made in 2024 with how it looks.
Inconsistent Class Balancing
In my different rerolls of my playthroughs, I was able to try out the different starting classes in the game. The Bodyguard class had a skill that was able to stun opponents every turn which turned the tide of battle instantly as you could spam this for multiple times in one battle. In comparison, the Barbarian has the charge ability which requires you to be at least 2 tiles away from the enemy, adds more damage to your attack, and is only limited once per battle.
Obviously, I would be taking the Bodyguard’s stun 10 out of 10 times for that sweet crowd control, but I do think that the developers may want to balance this a bit more especially with the amount of classes there in the game.
Is Archaelund Worth It?
Sure, If You’re Looking For A Cheap Experience With Future Updates
The game is still in early access and it’s obvious that it is. It’s not well optimized, there are bugs and crashes still out there, and balancing is still pretty questionable. However, the developers are committed to improving the game as they’re constantly updating and fixing bugs encountered by players in their active forum. It’s an early access game and it’s to be expected, but the potential is there to have a pretty good experience.
Archaelund Overview & Premise
Explore a vast open world and crawl through dungeons in first person, then fight tactical turn-based battles from a top-down perspective. Guide your adventuring party through Archaelund, mankind's last frontier, and uncover its many secrets.
Archaelund FAQ
Is Archaelund made by the developers of Exiled Kingdoms?
Yes. The game is being developed by 4 Dimension Games, the same developers who developed the action-RPG Exiled Kingdoms.
How long will Archaelund be in Early Access?
Currently, there’s no definite answer as to how long the game will be in early access. However, the developers have a tentative target year of Q2 2026 for a 1.0 release. You can find their development roadmap here.
Game8 Reviews
Archaelund Product Information
 |
|
| Title | ARCHAELUND |
|---|---|
| Release Date | January 9, 2024 |
| Developer | 4 Dimension Games |
| Publisher | 4 Dimension Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | CRPG, First-Person, Turn-Based RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Archaelund Website |
