Of Ash and Steel Review

RPGs like the original Gothic were mocked for their lack of technological polish and appreciated for their ambition back then.  At times, the errors and flaws were charming, even exploitable.  The games were frequently just plain awful. "Euro-jank" started to refer to video games that resembled Of Ash and Steel, a Gothic-style game that drew inspiration from The Witcher. 

For both good and primarily ill, Of Ash and Steel is a game that feels like it came out in 2002, but without the charm that makes some old-school RPGs worth the trouble. Developer Fire & Frost clearly attempted to create a throwback RPG merged with more modern survival systems—an experience that doesn't hold your hand and sends you out into a harsh world from the jump. 

But almost nothing in the final product suggests they were equipped to pull off this vision. The result is a project that feels overscoped, underdeveloped, and technically unstable in a way that makes even the most notorious early 2000s RPGs look polished by comparison. 

Of Ash and Steel puts you in the worn shoes of Tristan, a cartographer who finds himself unexpectedly on the island of Greyshaft. This island is supposedly under the same kingdom as Tristan's homeland, yet it is framed as a place of lawlessness, grit, and misery.  

The opening cutscenes attempt to establish this, but they're so long and divided by loading screens that whatever momentum the narrative hopes to build immediately collapses. The introduction isn't helped by a deeply generic setting that feels like an overambitious Dungeon Master explaining their new campaign.  

What starts as a simple arrival with a band of knights swiftly turns into a chain of fetch quests, meaningless busywork, and narrative beats that lack urgency, emotion, and direction. 

Tristan is eventually knocked out and left for dead, not once but twice, washed up metaphorically and literally, and then nursed back to health by a local farmer who promptly gives you more tedious chores on his small plot of land.  

Genre-wise, this disempowerment is supposed to give way to an eventual rise, but because the pacing is glacial and the writing shallow, the journey doesn't feel like it starts until you've already been stuck doing menial tasks for over an hour.  

Even worse, Tristan himself has the personality of a wet loaf of bread, with one of the most bland protagonist designs imaginable. Dialogue is technically plentiful thanks to a surprising amount of voice acting, yet most conversations meander endlessly, repeat themselves, and drag on without focus. Nearly every character delivers lines in a similar style, and because the writing tries to lean into humor, everything ends up feeling toothless and unfocused. 

Even once you escape the farm and reach the wider world, the main quest provides almost no direction. Early on, your supposed task is simply "go to the docks and make a deal." Where? With whom? And why? 

Directions given by NPCs are vague to the point of parody, pushing you into a world that isn't remotely interesting enough to reward the wandering. Eventually, the narrative picks up when you reach the main city and align with one of three factions, but this doesn't happen until several hours into Of Ash and Steel, and most quests before that are broken, confusing, or ruined by glitches. 

It never feels like you're progressing because the story wants you to—it feels like progress only occurs because you brute-forced your way through the jank. 

The moment you start interacting with Of Ash and Steel, the core problem becomes obvious: basic functionality is unreliable. Of Ash and Steel is riddled with minor bugs, game-breaking ones, and everything in between.  

The framerate regularly dips below 20 FPS on a high-end PC, and constant hitching during autosaves makes even simple movement feel miserable. Sometimes the aspect ratio breaks and traps your mouse to two-thirds of the screen, making most menus inaccessible. Restarting Of Ash and Steel doesn't fix it. Restarting your PC doesn't fix it. This is just the state of Of Ash and Steel. 

When systems do function, they're usually slow, awkward, and needlessly convoluted. Tristan starts with almost nothing in terms of skills, stats, and equipment. He can't swing a basic axe, can't fire a crossbow, and progression to get anywhere remotely competent takes forever.  

You need to find trainers scattered across the world to unlock even basic abilities, but locating them requires wandering through environments with no signposting, no markers, and no map for hours. There is technically an appeal in the idea of no hand-holding, but the world design is so inconsistent and devoid of clear visual landmarks that navigation feels less like exploration and more like being lost in a poorly laid-out maze. 

Almost every system—from crafting to leveling to survival mechanics—feels unfinished or improperly tuned. XP gives you skill points, but you have to pay gold to use those points. Trainers commonly ask for quests. Crafting needs certain stations. 

A lot of enemies drop stuff, but most of the time, it's just junk that takes up space in your inventory. Even when systems are operating, they don't always seem to fit together. It becomes a chain of hoops inside of hoops, all for very little reward. 

Combat in Of Ash and Steel is one of the most painful parts of the entire experience. Tristan is slow, lethargic, and drains his stamina almost instantly, drastically reducing an already sluggish attack speed. When you finally connect a hit, it deals pitiful damage, no matter what weapon you're using.  

Enemies take forever to kill, and because most weapons require stats that Tristan doesn't have early on, you're stuck with the weakest options for hours. Of Ash and Steel attempts to justify this by framing the combat as something a cartographer wouldn't be naturally good at, but logical isn't the same as enjoyable. This isn't an interesting struggle—it's a chore. 

If you want better combat abilities, you need to find NPC trainers, but finding them is its own ordeal. Early on, when an NPC hunter accompanies you on the road, his walking speed is so slow that you're forced to walk alongside him.  

When enemies attack, he kills them instantly with arrows before you can get a hit in. Since XP is awarded primarily for landing the killing blow, you receive only a fraction of the experience he gets, further slowing your progression. Trying to avoid him causes him to stop moving entirely. Sticking with him means gaining almost nothing. No matter what you do, you lose. 

Once you eventually level up enough to wield better gear or unlock more advanced moves, combat never becomes good. At best, it becomes slightly less terrible. There is a selection of melee and ranged weapons, and magic exists, but it is locked behind an extremely long skill line that takes forever to open.  

Combat feedback is poor across the board, making every engagement feel flimsy or awkward. Enemies sometimes clip through objects. Animations don't sync with sound effects. NPCs freeze, stutter, or attack out of rhythm. Lines of combat dialogue overlap or trigger incorrectly. 

System-wise, XP grinding is hampered by the inconsistent world design and the fact that almost everything is dangerous early on. Combined with the hunter issue, the confusing quest structure, and enemies that often spawn in strange patterns, the XP curve feels broken. 

The environments are one of the few areas that show potential. While bland and lacking identity, some scenes look attractive thanks to decent lighting and the day-night cycle.

Leveling up isn't satisfying—it's a sigh of relief that you survived long enough to make Of Ash and Steel marginally less hostile. Visually, Of Ash and Steel looks both overscoped and underproduced. Characters appear as waxy figurines with glossy eyes and bizarre expressions.

Textures remain fuzzy no matter how high you crank the settings, and hair is distractingly thin. Animations often run at low framerates that suddenly speed up as you approach NPCs, making everything feel uncanny. Loading screens take minutes, and stutters are constant.

Fields of flowers and forests have their moments, though nothing ever feels distinct or memorable. Still, compared to the character designs—which can be truly horrendous—the environments fare slightly better.

Sound-wise, environmental audio is competent, but the music quickly becomes repetitive and grating. Voice acting is surprisingly well delivered overall, but plagued by repeating lines, overlapping dialogue, and bizarre substitutions where a character uses a completely different voice during combat. Lip syncing is awful across the board and often distractingly out of rhythm with spoken lines.

There is an ambitious fantasy RPG somewhere beneath the layers of bugs, broken systems, and misguided design choices in Of Ash and Steel. The problem is that you rarely get to see it, and when you do, it's never rewarding enough to justify the frustration.  

The world attempts to encourage wandering and organic discovery, but the spaces aren't enjoyable to exist in. The story strives to feel open, responsive, and full of choices that matter, yet it's hard to follow because of bad writing and broken mission logic. Combat should feel real, planned, and based on talent, yet it ends up being one of the worst parts of Of Ash and Steel.