Shall keep this short.
Some nice ideas but feels like a group of friends have thrown a canvas together for testing purposes, not much more as it stands. When you boot the game it does state "this version is a pre-alpha prototype" which pretty much hits the nail on the head but doesn't sound nearly as charming as 'early access' now does it. :)

Fingers crossed this project doesn't get abandoned like lots of other 'early access' releases.
Will definitely be kept installed to see how it progress but for now I would suggest holding off. Unless you have the spare cash and don't mind supporting 'ideas' and not expecting a complete or close-to complete product.

@devs Keep listening to the community and pumping out the patches and content, because it could well turn into something lovely. Got a very risen/gothic vibe about it and I say this in the nicest possible way.

edit: This review was made with the inital version of the game. I have not had the time to go back and see whats been changed yet. afaik progress so far has been more behind the scenes work for future content. I would still advise to wait and see what the team produces in the future.

Don't mind the amount of time I have played on this game, it only shows how long I've kept the launcher open, and changes my status back to Online when I click the play button. I'm assuming when the launcher process closes, steam thinks I closed the game.

This game is pretty sweet, actually. I heard about it a while ago, but haven't looked into it until now. The graphics are very well done for an early alpha game, and are actually quite intensive. Make sure your computer can handle games such as Skyrim before looking into this one. I play Skyrim on High quality with no lag and this game I have to play on Normal quality. I realize that it is still early alpha and that the FPS drops (such as in towns) will most likely be tweaked in the future.

My computer has an NVIDIA GeForce 750M graphics card and an Intel Core i7-3630QM CPU. It runs things smoothly most of the time on High quality. This is just for comparing purposes.

Alright, so into the game. When you run the game, a launcher opens up with your settings, a link to the forums, and (obviously) the Play option. The settings menu allows you to change your resolution, video quality, etc. PLEASE note that you cannot re-map your controls at this time, so if you're left-handed and don't use WASD, you have an issue. I would wait to get the game if you are left-handed.

When you click play, it throws you directly into the game, stating it as early access. You start out as a peasant with just a sword and shield and villager clothing. Your character starts in a town with probably around 10 NPCs in it. You can talk to only one of them as far as I can tell. The rest of them just stand idly around and don't do anything. NPCs are pretty basic.

Combat in this game feels like a cross between your typical MMO first person hack-and-slash combat and your open-world RPG type combat. Unfortunately, it's a little bit too "hacky-and-slashy" at the moment, but one of the main devs just recently posted on the forum that they have a new animator, so hopefully things go forward from there. There's no stealth system or anything yet, and the NPCs that you attack will just come at you from anywhere if they happen to see you.

Animations are average, but that's to be expected for such an early game. The combat animations are pretty interesting, but they could be worked on. The team does need to work on walking sideways, and diagonally, since as of right now they use the animation for walking forward. Hopefully, the new animator will work on these small details soon.

The models are really good for the trees, rocks, and all of the world objects I've seen so far. The textures are absolutely wonderful; I love them. Even on low quality the textures are very clear.

My favorite part of this game besides its features is the lighting quality. The developers of TMOE use a game engine known as CryEngine. CryEngine and Unreal (and also known as Unity) are rival engines that many studios and teams use for their games. CryEngine has very nice bloom qualities. If you don't know what bloom is, it is the way the light filters through the game entities, and bounces off of entities and surfaces. The lighting is very advanced for this stage in alpha. It adds a nice friendly effect to the game that most fantasy simulation RPGs (such as Skyrim) do not have.

The sound effects are not very high quality, but that's also expected since game teams don't have as much money as normal studios.

Overall, if I had to rate this as an EARLY access game, I would rate it an 8 out of 10. Right now the developers need to get the forums going and work on animations.

Obviously in an early alpha state, but lots of promise here. Looking forward to seeing further development, and hopefully increased focus on 1st person mode.

An Early Access Pre Alpha Game!!!

That being said if you love Elder Scrolls especially Skyrim and can't wait for an Elder Scrolls VI (not ESOnline, and actual ES6) and if you have the time and patience to help these guys develop a really nice game with a huge amount of potential then defenitely get this game. I've only been playing a little bit, and have already noticed a bug or 2 and had a crash, but I do really like this game and the potential it has. As I said before, this game can be truly awesome. Please, if you have the time and patience help this game to reach it's true potential buy buying and playing it.

In understanding that this game is very early alpha, it could result in a worthwhile game. I do support their effort and encourage financially supporting the title. The skill progression based system where even stamina is increased upon running is akin to morrowind/ultima online. There are a few exploitable NPCs right now that give amazing gear immediately upon login. I've found one boulder throwing boss in a cave that was tough for a bit. Lots to explore. Let it be known that I can't find a way off the first island, as I think there is no additional content yet.