The following is a personal anecdote taken from my experiences playing on Role-Play Life is Feudal Community (RPCLIF) server. In this community heavy RP is enforced and any event done otherwise is punishable.

Day 1: I have finally made my way into the realm from a nearby beach, it has been a while since I have visited the Isle of Maldath. I gather berries and herbs and begin to train myself in the ways of the gatherer.

Day 2: I have located a nearby settlement surrounded by tall oaks and green grasses known to the natives as Woodhurst. Upon signaling the guardsman at the towering iron front gate, to my surprise, I am greeted by an old friend of mine, Arnaas of Valencia. We reminisce for a moment and I am soon offered a position among their people as an herbalist in training. Of course I accept, and then am put in trial period to prove my loyalty.

Day 3: Whilst gathering in the nearby cattle-fields of Woodhurst I notice two men approaching the front gate of the town, one in what seemed to be a religious robe and the other in sturdy plate armour. I am urgent about greeting them, in hopes that I can make a few friends. The two outsiders reveal themselves to be "Solith" a priest of the Blood God and "Korn," a fellow mercenary. They are spreading word that the southern faction known as Dominion has fallen and is being rebuilt by their cult. One again, I am offered a position. Strucken by promises of gold and power... I am torn.

Day 8: After days of training, I have begun to mix potions for Woodhurst as they have accepted me as their full time alchemist. I covertly keep in touch with Solith as I am still partially swayed by his tempting offers. I am introduced to the town bank as I am now added to the pay roll.

Day 12: A raid has taken place on the nearby settlement of Mercia in which the pope of Woodhurst was slain by no other than Korn and Solith's Cult. General Felipo of the Woodhurst army immediately drafts me into their military as a recruit and I undergo extreme combat training. My specialty being Pole-Axes and Scale Armour.

Day 20: Serving for Woodhurst has now become grueling work with little pay. One night at my post, I decide to leave the town in search of Solith's lair, hoping that his offer still stands. I am greeted by their cult and am offered training and safe haven if I leave Woodhurst forever. I state that I must go back to fetch my items. As I am leaving, a squadron of Woodhurst soldiers stops and sees me conversing with the cult. I am immediately interrogated and claim to be seeking revenge for our pope. General Felipo decides to take matters into his own hands and challenges Solith's mercenary, Korn to a duel. Korn is decapitated. I make an effort to ride back to Woodhurst.

Day 30: My quarters have been under lockdown and I have been suspended for suspicion of treason. One night I successfully subdue my guard and make my way into the inner town square. I make my way for the bank. The blackmith's, the queen's, carpenter's, everyones payroll now mine. I have stolen a horse and made my way back to Solith's lair. I am now wanted.

Day 31: The combined forces of Woodhurst and her allies have surrounded Solith's Lair and are demanding that I be handed over for execution. We wait them out after exchanging some volleys of spears etc.

Day 34: The heat has cooled off and I leave the lair in search of a plot of land to buy for my own, one that is away from all this conflict. As I make my way to a nearby village, I make my way into the town inn and have a long conversation with the bartender. A long enough conversation in order for their messenger to send word to Woodhurst of my location. I hear a farmiliar voice call my name. As I turn, I immediately draw my weapon. Then as I see all the other farmiliar faces start appearing, I dash for my life. I make it just in time to grab my horse and ride all the way across the island evading every single horse archer and lanceman they sent after me. I am now forever an outcast among these lands.

Conclusion:

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret about this game. Like many others of its kind, this game and its famous hard-core RPG elements, are very closely tied to the servers you play on. This is because to be a "Grandmaster Hunter" or even a "Famous Axe-Man" means nothing unless you have a community that depends on you. So what I'm trying to say is, don't jump into this game by yourself or even with a few friends on a private server because most of you will not get your money's worth. You don't want yourself to end up like everyone else in the negative reviews section who got sick of digging holes and grinding for levels. Instead, find a meaningful server. One that cherishes heavy RP, constant PVP, or even both. That being said, I highly recommend RPCLIF as your server of choice for the adventures to come.

I have played this game a lot. I know almost everything about it, currently. I have built everything that there is to build, been a king, a farmer, a warrior... so when I write a review, know that it is quite balanced. I am no fan boi, and will let you know all the pro's and cons of this game.

Pros.
1. You can tailor your characters skills to match what you wish to do in the game. Depending on the server skill cap, it can mean you can ONLY be a farmer and a bowman, or a smith and a swordsman, to being able to do everything. Pick the server that best represents what you want. RP, pvp, rp/pvp, high skill cap (recommended for new players) or low skill cap.

2. crafting system requires a lot of steps. You want to build a small house? Alright the you either have to have a supply of trees nearby, or have forestry to plant saplings and wait half a week in real life for trees to grow enough to harvest. Then once you get the timber, you or a friend better have herbalism to get enough flux to make steel for the locks and mortar needed for doors. Then you better know enough materials prep to make glass for windows... which requires carpentry as do the doors. Oh, and smithing to make the locks... while you make clay tiles. So, you need 1. forestry. 2. logging. 3 carpentry. 4. smithing. 5. materials prep. 6 gathering. 7 herbalism... just to make the smallest house in game. On a low skill cap server, this will take the combined efforts of 3-4 people. Now imagine what a castle takes.

3. harvesting is indepth. Need leather? Go hunt, make coops to harvest hares, and barns for animals... oh you need to actually trap those animals, or tame them. Food is grown, and harvested... then a cook is needed ot make it into actual food. All raw resources need to be manufactured into goods.

4. giant battles. I have participated in a 64 man judgement day battle. Took hours of non stop fighting, with trebuchets flinging rocks, bombs and arrows everywhere, people murdering eachother and sometimes friends on accident.

5. Small battles. Nothing is more intense than a 2-3 man vs 2-3 man fight, where every person is needed to hold their own to win. Takes hours and hours of training to get decent, and I mean just decent, at pvp

6. You literally create your own town from nothing. You scoop every bit of dirt, plant every tree, move the world to create a settlement that you can be proud of. You can make a hovel in a swamp, or a giant fortress in the mountains, it all depends on the time you invest.

7. community and roleplaying can be a blast. Politics, intrigue, back biting... all fun.

Cons.

1. server wipes. put 200 hours into your place, and its gone, instantly, start from scratch.

2. lazy or no gms. LEaves you at the mercy of the griefers if the server you choose doesnt have active gms.

3. SLOW DEVELOPMENT. And I mean SLOW. I have played for quite some time now... the ONLY thing added to the game since I have played (I played in beta) was advanced weather. That's it. Most people dont even use it as it can lag you. Oh and the dx11 graphic upgrade... which didnt actually add anything to the game. They have been promising horse drawn carts for MONTHS.

4. broken features/bugs will drive you crazy. Wait till you die 20 times in a row, losing a ton of skill points that takes hours to get because of a bug.

You can't play the game by yourself and expect to win. The fun is in groups. Dont buy this game if you dont want to join a group.

As of writing this one week after its "commercial release" I would say that this game is not currently worth the full price they are asking for it simply because it should never have been "released" as it is. I waited until they announced it was being released as I want to be able to play the game rather than constantly reporting bugs, however this game is nowhere near in a releasable state. Frankly it is still an Alpha game and every single play session I have entered into leads to yet more bugs and issues that quite frankly leave me frsutrated and enfuriated. Saxxon, the companies modrator on the steam forums, replies to complaints in snarkiness and with sarcasm and constantly compares this "release" to that of Fallout 4 because "that game has bugs too!" when the fact is that Fallout 4 does have bugs but is still more than playable with minimal stress or concerns whereas I am unable to get through 20 mins of Life is feudal without finding something else which is either broken or was simply half ♥♥♥♥♥ in development. This game's "release" in no way compare's to Fallout 4, and for that matter I wouldn't compare it to Arkham Knight either which in istelf had a nightmare launch. Frankly, the release of this game is by far the worse PC release I have ever been a part of and what really pains me about that is that the concept of the game in itself is a very good one.

Frankly I am disgusted that the company went straight from Alpha state into "release" completely bypassing the bug detecting beta phase and that they then have the ignorance to have someone like Saxxon treat new players concerns with derision because "well it's not that bad". They made a business decision to say that this game was finished and releasable and so with that there comes higher expectations as to the actual standard of the game and quality of the gameplay. At the moment this game fails on both fronts simply due to constantly encountering game-breaking bugs when trying to do the most basic of tasks. Do not be fooled into thinking that this game is as polished as other games as it really is not, and even now you are paying to participate in an Alpha even if they have removed that from the description. Be prepared to encounter lots of graphical and gameplay issues and also be prepared to submit a lot of bug reports.

The real sad thing is that most of the bugs I (and my girlfriend) have encountered are things that should have been fixed in early alpha stages and so it disheartens me a lot to think that the developer now believes the game is adequate for release. It points to the fact that either the Developer is not actually taking note of issues and fixing them, or that the majority of players who particpated in the original Alpha didnt actually start over from scratch and build things for themselves and instead joined ready built servers. I have read a lot of forum posts from players who quite clearly just joined a pre-existing server where things were already built and so they skipped the majority of the grass routes "find this and build this" content early on. There really isn't any other explanation for why some of these bugs are still in the game at release.

There is also a hell of a lot of mis-information on the internet about the actual workings of the game. The Life is Feudal Wiki being one of the main sources as it seems to be rediculously out of date when you try and look things up. This leads you to look for things that it says you need only to later find that you actually don't and that the process has now changed or become more complicated in some fashion. This is very concenring too considering that the company believes that the game was releaseable and yet they can't even be bothered to update their online information source when they make major changes to the game.

I am extremely frustrated and dissapointed by this game simply because the concept in itself is great. I WANT to like this game and I have been forcing myself to play it and to fight through bug after bug to submit the reports to hopefully get them eventually fixed. The problem is that I simply can not morally support a company who force out a turd and then try and tell you that it is chocolate and that it tastes good because someone else's tastes worse. I have read a lot of forum posts in the last week and Saxxon's demeanor has led me to write this honest review. When a company charges people to play an Alpha version of a game, they damn sure need to listen to the feedback they are given and they need to listen to it with a smile as far as I am concerned. We are playing it more to help at this point than for any real enjoyment of our own and so when you read someone dismissing legitimate concerns simply because they can't be bothered to face the reality, it really frustrates me.

Right now in it's current state I do not recommend this game at it's full listing price. If you see it at 50-60% off again (as it was on its launch week) then by all means buy it but do not expect to play it every day unless you are mentally prepared to encounter a lot of bugs. This game is not worth the full price which is a real shame.

I do have hope that eventually they will get the game in a good and playable condition but I am not expecting that to be anytime sooner than 6 months or so from now, maybe even longer. This leaves me very dissapointed that they have considered "releasing" the game as they have. I will edit this review as and when issues become fixed and the game becomes playable and enjoyable but for now I would say save your money and wait for a sale. I still have hope that this game has a good future, but right now that future seems far off and my hope is not as high as it once was.

EDIT 1:- Well my initial review was written at approx the 40 hours of game time mark, and now since I have doubled that and am at approx 85 hours, I figured i'd update my review to show if anything has changed. Sadly, It hasn't. The more I play the more I see issues which should have been fixed months ago. The in game systems such as Herbalism or Animal Taming are rediculously bloated and make the game a tedious grind more so than any other game I have played, and to make matters worse because the developers have relied heavily on Random Number Generators for everything in game it actually leads players to argue at how easy/hard things are to complete. What people forget is that because the game randomly assigns all recipes to you in something like Herbology, what works for you will not work for anyone else and so if you find it easy it is because the game has made it so the most common herbs are the important ones where as for everyone else the important herbs are the most rare. There is no definitive "the game is easy or hard because" simply because the RNG decides that every time you click create character. The RNG's seem to be everywhere too, such as in taming an animal. I have had one boar that would tame after 5 apples, but then another takes over 50. When you are playing the game as a single or co-op player that is a ton of resources to lose just for a single animal, but the problem is that you have no idea how many you will use until you have used them. Animal taming has many other flaws too such as the idea that you have to chase the animal until it tires itself out which again seems to rely on an RNG as to how long you will have to chase it for. Just today myself and my girlfriend had to chase a horse from dusk one day until the following morning in game and at no point did the horse tire out. It just ran and ran and never stopped. Another major issue is the fact that the animals can run straight through anything that would stop you, so they will literally pass through a tree trunk, stone wall or garden fence whilst you have to run around them. For a game that is supposed to be realistic, more and more I see issues that are simply unrealistic.

More notes can be found in comments section

The early access version went through a lot of ups and downs, but it was pretty solid. Obvious issues like infinity piles/tunneling and some getting stuck on terrain/etc but generally speaking it was a 'good' game.

Then something odd happened I've never seen an EA game do before... They released a different game than what we have been testing/playing these last few years. I don't get it, you have us test this game for early access so you can work out the bugs/etc. But on launch day you change dozens and dozens of things that basically no one has tested. Why would you do this... The current version is so incredibly broken with bugs and glitches dedicated servers won't even run in a stable fashion.

For whatever reason the devs had a 2nd version of the game they were developing on the side and released that instead of the game we've all been playing this entire time. What happened??

I began my life as a simple peasant with no particular skill. I woke up on the shore of an island and soon found my place in the world with a small tribe that will one day be called the Southern Veil. We become allies with the neighboring town of the Sweetcottons before we are even able to erect a palisade wall. Soon after we gain these close allies we are rode upon by members of a place called Killian's Keep. They tell us that we must pay them a tax of straw. We refuse and militarize ourselves.

Not soon after the taxes are imposed we erect a wall around our small settlement. I become the town blacksmith and I am known as one of the most skilled blacksmiths of the land. We then begin construction of a wooden keep surrounded by stone walls. Once these walls are complete we are invaded by the Huns. They used our wooden walls as cover from the arrows fired from our stone walls and soon created a ladder over our wall and slaughtered us. This was not the end.

We grew larger, gained another close ally known as Ciderwood, and began to raid them back. We first struck Killian's Keep, coming in through a weak point in their wall and killing masses of them, then we come back again and again and we successfully slaughter them every time. Every time we raid the Huns they are never home so we wait and slaughter them every time they attack us or one of our allies.

Now we are a huge militarized force with all of our allies only a moment's notice away from aiding us in combat, and we are the same for them. . . I began as a peasant and am now a warrior. Life is Feudal

10/10 would blacksmith again