Do you like fantasy RPGs? Are you looking for a game with an in-depth skill tree that helps supplement interesting combat? Or quality voice acting and an interesting plot? Well, keep on searching because Testament The Order of High Human has none of those things.
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Is it a good effort by a team of 15 developers? Sure, but also in this game’s six-year development window, it appears that Testament The Order of High Human has been left in the dark ages. With bare-bones combat and graphics that would give Skyrim a run for its money, it feels unfinished with basic gameplay mechanics and a confusing-to-follow story.
The King is Dead, Long Live the King: What is Testament The Order of High Human All About?
The main protagonist of Testament The Order of High Human is Aran, the former king of the land of Tessara and a High Human. I’ll be honest other than being an immortal-looking Nord from Skyrim the lore of the High Humans is not all that interesting. This isn’t to say there isn’t a genuine effort to build lore for the world with journals and information you can find with exploration, but it all just feels a bit… off.
I think for me this mainly boils down to the fact that the not-so-great voice acting and terrible spelling errors took me out of any enjoyment I was having. There were several inconsistencies in spelling throughout the in-game encyclopaedia, with grammar and syntax issues galore. Even the term “High Human” would sometimes have a hyphen or would be split into two separate words. The clear lack of care and editing presents a sloppiness that can’t even be tolerated in an indie game.
The story overall is meh, with Aran having to rebuild his power after losing his immortality. Although this narrative could be interesting, being told through interactions with other characters and by the journals that form the in-game encyclopaedia, the plot is instead delivered through heavy exposition.
Aran spends most of the game monologuing to himself about stuff he already knew, attempting to fill in the gaps missed from cutscenes. I feel that these large pieces of dialogue take away from the overall pace of the game and result in a less-than-cohesive story.
Honestly, the one place I would say the game thrives is its in-engine cutscenes that run smoothly even on the highest graphic setting. Aside from the not great voice acting the cutscenes look pretty good and help flesh out the world of Testament The Order of High Human.
Swords and Sorcery: How Does Testament The Order of High Human Feel to Play?
Like most skill tree-heavy RPGs, you help Aran rebuild his abilities by learning magic and upgrading his sword and archery skills to slaughter hordes of enemies for XP. The skill tree in-game allows the player to funnel their points into any of the three combat trees. But again, the options are very surface level, but I’ll hand it to Fairyship Games that the physics-based magic at play does have a nice crunch to it. To be honest they did nail the feeling of a classic RPG that is a bit esoteric at times.
In my opinion, I feel that the Magic based combat and archery are where this game shines, with the sword combat reminding me of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, (and not in a good way). So, if you are playing through Testament The Order of High Human I’d recommend leaning into the spellcasting element as it gives you the best bang for your buck. The game also claims to have a combo system that honestly is more about wildly swinging at enemies rather than precision.
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Weirdly for me, the sections I enjoyed the most were the ones focused on puzzles and platforming. Testament The Order of High Human has jumping puzzle platforming combined with some really unique uses of established puzzle mechanics. For example, using Aran’s magic to power gems that change the orientation of a floating maze that allows you to navigate to the middle.
Overall Testament The Order of High Human, is far from a perfect game, in my opinion, it doesn’t even succeed at being the “first person Metroidvania ” it claims to be in its marketing. However, from the small development team of Fairyship Games, this game is still a valiant effort. Although the gameplay got repetitive quite quickly, the offbeat story at points dragged me back into enjoying myself. I feel that while Testament The Order of High Human attempts to rejuvenate old-school retro RPGs by cutting modern features and going back to basics, Fairyship Games’ ambition is trumped by the game’s total mediocrity.
5/10
Testament The Order of High Human was played on PC and reviewed on a code supplied by Renaissance PR
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