Life is Feudal Review: Life is Feudal Was and Still is a Terrible MMO

Three years ago, MMO YouTuber Josh Strife Hayes featured “Life is Feudal MMO” in his series titled “Worst MMO Ever,” highlighting its numerous flaws and persistent bugs. Fast forward to today, the game has been re-released on Steam in a “grand” relaunch, yet it disappointingly still harbors all the same issues that were previously pointed out by Hayes.

“Life is Feudal” ended its operations in January 2021. Recently, LongTailGames has relaunched this medieval MMO on Steam. This time all pay-to-win features have been removed and the game monetizes through a subscription model.

Gameplay

The game begins with an animated intro voiced by Sean Bean, which sets an atmospheric tone for the game. However, the rest of the game does not maintain this level of presentation.

The character creation process is limited, offering only a few customization options, and the user interface during this stage presents challenges with awkward controls that persist throughout the game.

Camera and control issues are prominent from the outset. The camera is prone to erratic movements, with no options available to adjust the view or zoom level, which can be disorienting as the camera suddenly spins out of control. This happens quite frequently.

The interface and controls also pose difficulties during gameplay. During the first few moments of logging in and not knowing anything about the controls, I managed to unknowingly interact with an object dropped by another player, which turned out to be a giant log, there was no intuitive way of putting it down, and I was stuck with the log on my characters bag, moving at a snail’s pace for a good minute before I figured out how to put it down. Several times I encountered unnecessarily complicated movement and gameplay due to unclear mechanics on how to manage actions.

Half a minute later I was stuck in combat mode without clear instructions on how to exit. This issue extends to general interactions with the environment, where the response times are slow and often inaccurate, making simple tasks more cumbersome than necessary.

After learning the basics, the gameplay feels mostly like you’re just clicking on objects to interact with them while watching the small loading bar progress for a second for each action. It very much feels like busywork and a time-gate that is meant to drag out time spent in the game, because there is so little to do.

The tutorial is hard to follow due to the uninspired dialog and boring tasks. But after cleaning a chicken coop and gathering a few eggs, you learn the basics and how to craft some primitive tools.

After the tutorial, you can begin on the core gameplay loop which involves clicking on things, picking them up, and crafting. This is standard survival game fare, which countless of titles from Minecraft to New World have done in excellent and engaging ways in the past, but Life is Feudal somehow manages to fail completely at making it fun due to a few big flaws.

The biggest problem is just how wonky the controls are. Several times when trying to interact with objects lying on the ground, I couldn’t, or it took me several tries, as my character instead interacted with other objects close to the object I was trying to click, or with the ground itself.

After managing to click the item you want to click, you then have to manage menus and options to select what to do, which takes any momentum out of the gameplay and makes it feel slow and unintuitive.

Even after all that, you do not automatically gather the materials you are after. Another object then appears in the vicinity of your character that you then need to click to gather, making gathering and crafting even simple objects take way too much time.

At this point, you will start using what might be the worst of all these bad features, the mess that is the inventory system in Life is Feudal. The inventory has no grid and instead opts for just placing all your items in a random mess.

After crafting some basic items it was time to go explore the world.

The game world appears underpopulated, with a noticeable lack of both mobs and players. You can run for hours and hours without meeting anyone. You might meet the occasional deer or wolf, or if you are really lucky another player comes along and kills you.

If you don’t enjoy the busywork of clicking objects and menus to craft items, there is literally nothing to do in Life is Feudal.

Graphics

The graphics of “Life is Feudal” are commendable, with a gritty and dark aesthetic that initially draws players into its medieval setting. After moving past the tutorial village, everything feels the same. The scenery begins to feel monotonous, with repetitive landscapes that lack distinctiveness.

The only thing to break the monotony is the player-made structures, such as houses, forts, and castles, which stand out for their impressive designs and scale. These creations could have significantly contributed to a vibrant world, but the lack of player presence turns these potentially bustling areas into ghost towns. This absence of activity diminishes the sense of immersion and interaction, leaving the visually appealing structures to stand as mere reminders of what might have been a lively community.

Conclusion

“Life is Feudal” offers an experience that might not fully meet the expectations of players seeking either a casual or a hardcore survival MMO.

Beyond the intro animation, there is not much positive to say about Life is Feudal, and I cant imagine many players actually paying a monthly fee to play this game, even with the pay-to-win elements being removed.

“Life is Feudal” might remind some players of a hardcore“New World,” but imagine it stripped of any engaging, fun, or intuitive gameplay elements.

If you want a more casual but fun survival MMO alternative, go play New World. Meanwhile, players seeking a more intense, hardcore experience might find “Mortal Online 2” to be a worthy choice.