Testament: The Order of High Human [PC] | REVIEW

Testament: The Order of High Human’s early trailers shown off what could have been an epic fantasy adventure, but it’s hard not to feel disappointed by the end product. It’s not the worst game I’ve played by any means and its commendable that it came from such a small team, but the tiresome combat and drawn-out puzzling make this meaty escapade feel like a dull slog by the time you reach the ending.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Testament: The Order of High Human takes place in a fantasy world, with players taking on the role of Aran, who sees his place at the king of the High Humans taken away when his brother betrays him. Siblings, right? It’s up to you to take him down, all whilst re-gaining your powers and dealing with the other vicious threats that are lurking across the realm – including the Groot-like baddie who you might recognise from some of the early game footage.

The game really tries to build up some meaningful lore that’ll see players invested in Aran’s plight, but in doing so, it ends up becoming a bit messy. There’s a lot going on and a lot of it isn’t fully explained (even the opening cuts out a lot of detail as to what’s going on), so it’s hard to really find yourself caring about Aran’s journey. And when you do start to figure things out? It’s full of predictable cliches you’d have seen in hundreds of other fantasy adventures.

At its core, Testament: The Order of High Human feels like an action-RPG, though it does have a heavy emphasis on puzzling that does add a bit of brain-teasing to the experience. It has also got a Metroidvania-style flair with its progression, with players opening up more of the world as their skillset expands throughout the game.

“Some of Testament: The Order of High Human’s more repetitive aspects might have been more forgivable if it was a shorter game, but it’s a meaty experience that sees you doing a lot of the same boring things over and over again.”

However, whilst it does have a lot going on, it doesn’t really do anything that helps make the game feel particularly interesting. Yes, it has a lot of puzzles, but with each one dragging on a little longer than it needs to and featuring ideas you’d have seen plenty of times before, it’s hard to get too excited when a conundrum comes your way. The same goes for the action of the game, with Testament: The Order of High Human competent with its blend of close-ranged action, magic-blasting, and stealth, but lacking that excitement to make it feel like it stands out in what is already a pretty crowded genre. The game does offer a deep upgrade system that lets you fine-tune your combat style and cater your skillset to your playstyle, but it’s hard to feel too invested in it when the combat itself doesn’t exactly offer too many thrills – more so than not, it felt like I just button-mashed the same attacks against traditional enemies (who are REALLY dumb and make themselves easy targets), whilst boss battles went on WAY longer than they needed to.

The game just lacked that oomph to make me really want to get stuck in, which is something that felt especially noticeable when I started to hit the double-digits in my playtime. In fairness, some of Testament: The Order of High Human’s more repetitive aspects might have been more forgivable if it was a shorter game, but it’s a meaty experience that sees you doing a lot of the same boring things over and over again. I was done by the time the ten-hour mark came around, but it took more than double that to actually reach the ending.

Maybe I’m being a little harsh, because I wouldn’t say everything is bad in Testament: The Order of High Human. There were some combat encounters that could be exciting, some of the puzzles could be intriguing, the platforming elements add a nice little twist to exploration, and I was a big fan of the fantasy world design. It doesn’t do anything that felt outright awful, whilst it’s not a completely broken mess either (though there were some bugs that I will mention in a moment). It just doesn’t do anything that makes it easy to recommend when compared to the other first-person fantasy titles out there that offer much more enjoyable adventures.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Those bugs I mentioned can see the game crashing out and the frame rate coming to a halt on occasions, but they weren’t frequent enough to feel like a REAL issue. Don’t get me wrong, it was annoying when the game crashed or if I got stuck in the environment for no reason, but they weren’t common enough issues to make the game feel unplayable. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t in need of a few patches to iron out some of the problems, but it’s not as unplayable as I’ve seen some comments suggest.

Developer: Fairyship Games
Publisher: Fairyship Games Games
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed)
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2176430/Testament_The_Order_of_High_Human/