I had looked at Melvor Idle on mobile a while back, and while finding the core ideas of the game interesting, I had been left disappointed by the mechanics locked behind in-app purchases and mostly by the game’s too open pacing, where the player was bombarded with things they could do with very little logical progression or path they could logically take to get stronger. The PC version, being a premium title, does away with the in-app purchases, but does not change the core of the game much, so it left me with the same overwhelming feeling than the mobile version. Needless to say, I dropped it quickly.
The start of the game is deceivingly smooth, because all mechanics are locked and you go through them one by one. You cut trees to get logs that you can use to start a fire or make arrows. You can mine for metals that you then smelt to craft equipment. You can fish and cook, you can create runes to cast spells, you can steal items from NPCs, do obstacle courses, summon creatures. There are multiple fighting styles that train various stats. All of this is pretty cool, in theory, because it makes the game feel like an MMO with a different style.
That being said, this is not what I enjoy in my idle games. Having a ton of various systems that all seem to feed into each other at the same level. Smithing, woodcutting, magic, all help craft various pieces of gear that you can’t use together, so it does not feed into one big objective to accomplish. In this kind of game, fighting tougher and tougher enemies and unlocking new mechanics is something I enjoy, but here, everything is on display and you just have to guess what you should do next. It’s overwhelming and it takes away from the “idle-ness” of the game.
After trying it twice, I can say for sure; Melvor Idle is fine, but it’s just not for me.
