Review of the build available in December 2024 (will revisit if the developer asks. The dev appears to actively be updating the game)

It's evil Battle Brothers. It's Battle Brothers, but you're evil 100% of the time.

For anyone with any play time of the aforementioned, a lot of the mechanics are incredibly similar but with a first person overland movement system.

The pros:
- The combat system is similar to Battle Brothers but with enough unique mechanics to make it stand out. You work for an evil God reminiscent of a Warhammer entity that wants you to clear the map of towns and cities. The God provides you with boons that can advance your warband or give you new recruits. It's satisfyingly complex enough without needing a large manual.
- I did some research, and the map is similar to a game called Doomdark's Revenge. It's incredibly retro and lofi, but in a relaxing way.
- Game is stable, bugs were only minor inconveniances.


The cons:
- I assume the dev is still working. In one build, hitting targets after a miss seemed overtuned. It was fixed between patches. Bows currently feel undertuned.
- The UI is busy and static looking. It can sometimes be hard to read.
- The engine is a little clunky, with your mouse pointer sometimes freezing. This seems to be an engine limitation if I had to guess, so I doubt that will be changed. It's workable.
- It's a one person dev team, so no expectations but the overland "groups" are probably not doing anything. I would often find militia or traders stuck on a coast just milling about. They're there to be smacked though, so this is fine.
- There are some UI glitches here and there. It's sometimes possible to bring up more than one tool tip, or have text over write each other. You can easily work around it. Again, I feel this is an engine limitation more than anything.

The odd:
- Some of the lore is fourth wall breaking but it's very minor. Not as much as Divine Divinity but there are easter egg references.
- The developer is transparent about artificial intelligence use. Some characters are crying blood (?!) I'm not sure why. It will be your personal preference, but personally I have no strong issues with a lone dev using AI to assist their work.
- Items tend to be labelled clearly. Maybe too clearly for some people. A "good" great axe is exactly that. A "common" knife is exactly that. I actually appreciate this approach, as it means I wasn't struggling with the AI.

Side recommendations: Press "M" for map when you start the game. Personally I think the map should be up all the time. Change the font in the menu to something else nicer. There are a few more options than most games would give you.

The game has a truly unique feel. Something very rare. While there are games like Wartales, Fernageddon is the closest Battle Brothers experience I've had since I finished the game for ninth time. It doesn't stay too far from the formula, and gets enough right that it's great alternative.

I helped out with some early play testing! Highly recommend Fernageddon to all RPG/Strategy gamers - if you like Battle Brothers, Leman or other similar releases, you will truly enjoy this game. It's especially satisfying burning everything - magic-users/spellcasters are a particular favourite :-) Have fun.