A sharp crack of thunder pierced the thick, dark veil of clouds, reverberating through the sky as an arc of lightning followed. The lightning illuminated a lone airship, piloted by a fiery-haired dwarf. His gloved fingers tightened on the wheel, the leather squeaking in protest as he struggled to stay on course. In the dim light of the storm, small, black beady eyes peered at him from cages—messenger ravens bristling in protest at their temporary confinement, the supernatural storm permeating the air around them. Another crack of thunder split the sky, sending purple tendrils with white-hot centers crawling through the clouds while the ravens croaked in discontent. Gritting his teeth, he strengthened his grip on the wheel—this was not going according to plan. As the next crack rang out overhead, lightning licked the wing of the airship, singeing holes in its taut fabric. The vessel lurched unexpectedly, sending the dwarf sprawling back into a wall of secure cargo, the wheel spinning wildly out of control. A scaled tail snapped out, wrapping around the free-spinning wheel, temporarily steadying the compromised airship, the dwarf nodding curtly to his quick-thinking dragon friend. Another crack rang out—but this time, not from the storm: the wings of the airship gave way. Luckily for the dwarf, part of that secure cargo included his mech. Latching onto the cockpit for safety, he braced as the ground quickly approached, a sigh slipping through gritted teeth. Not at all according to plan... 

The building menu.

First Dwarf is a game by Star Drifters, ambitiously mixing action RPG elements with colony survival, base building, and defense. You take control of Rue, the First Dwarf – a scouting engineer who, armed with his trusty mech and loyal dragon companion Ragna, are sent out in search of inhabitable places to begin settlements. Explore lush, vibrant floating islands, as you gather resources to assist in settling various guilds that ultimately help you along on your adventures. There is a lot to do, and First Dwarf is highly ambitious in it’s scope. How does it hold up in practice, and in its current state of early access, however?

A well built-up and defended settlement.

While exploring and gathering resources, you will need to put your axe, and perhaps your hammer, to good use. Not only will you stockpile stone and wood, but you will inevitably find less savory creatures are keen to stop you, or destroy what you have built. Not to be confused with local wildlife, or even partially corrupted wildlife that you can heal with the use of various materials- some enemies will swarm you in droves, often found lurking in caves and within large trees. Overall, the density of the dark fiends are more of an issue, rather then them posing any real threat. Currently players will find they easily get hung up and snagged frequently on spawners themselves, or just a fences places in a certain way, creating enormous clusters of enemies. The AI is fairly poor, and the sheer volume of volatile creatures can cause quite a chunk of damage to your settlements, if not prepared.

Watch out for storms... you will find your self surrounded by enemies quickly.

As the First Dwarf, you are here to scout ahead, and pave the way for guilds who offer you skills and builds to help you advance your goals. Build Mana Wells, housing, lumber mills and mines- but don’t forget to craft some turrets to defend your Settlers new home. The building function is simple and straightforward, with little to hassle over. Navigation and building rotation is intuitive and easy to understand, though the in game crafting menus of buildings, as well as their uses, could use some streamlining. You may notices some small bugs here and there with building locations, but overwhelmingly this is easy to overlook, and will likely be sorted by then end of Early Access. There are a handful of other issues (simplicity of tearing down buildings, repairing structures, etc.) that could absolutely use fine tuning, but again, all in due time.

Meet Ragna, your eye in the sky.

Base building and exploration lie at the core of First Dwarf. How you Achieve this, however, can vary. You are not simply limited to Tru inside of his mech- in fact, in case of repairs, you’ll need to step outside of it. You’ll also find that there are places only Tru can go, just as much as you’ll also find there are places only Ragna can access as well. Creatively, the folks over at Star Drifters have allowed you to enter and exit your mech at will, as well as take to the skies as Ragna. While I personally found myself wishing Ragna felt more dynamic, I am thrilled at the sheer amount of game play elements we are given to work with as players- taking to the skies as this well-spoken reptile is fun, and a well needed break to the routine on occasion. There are various reasons you may need to change characters, or leave your mech. This could be interacting with other NPCs, or solving puzzles. Though, I did wish I had seen some puzzles that more thoroughly used all of the switchable character modes, as most seemed to lean mostly in one sole direction.

Help heal the local corrupted wild life.

Overall, First Dwarf shows a ton of promise, given it can stick to the promised road map, as well as deliver on the ambitious scope of the game. It boasts a rich, beautiful and vibrant visual style, and interesting story. While the world is rich, I did wish throughout my time in game that there were more to see as well as do/ It did feel severely lacking in solid points of interest outside of core quest locations. Much of the island areas seemed empty and devoid of much movement or life. Combat also, while at it’s core is fundamentally sound- has a very primitive combo system that I found myself wishing was more intuitive. Awkward and inconvenient island navigation that lacks fast travel (despite having way point-adjacent structures) really starts to become a burden- though the story points itself in a way to at least partially remedy this. A stopgap to ease some of the long distance running would be useful, however.  There is a solid smattering of bugs and glitches (especially when it comes to crafting menus and objective completion) still present in the Early Access current build, as well as some place holder dialogue and voice overwork that can be jarring at times- as well as some definitive pacing issues that maybe be temporary in trying to pace the players through available content.

Over when we've only just begun.

I think the biggest issue I found in my time spent with First Dwarf is just that- lack of real content. While there is a fair bit available, it is limited in scope, and if you know what to do, you can easily plow through what is on offer in under a few hours. Star Drifters has some huge and beautiful ambitions with this title, and I sincerely hope they have not bitten off more than they can chew. Ultimately, time will tell. The road map that SD has provided has no tentative dates, so there is more than enough time without any firm timelines in place. While I think First Dwarf could have used some additional time before leaving Early Access, what is available shows a lot of passion behind it- and I am hopeful for what is to come.

Currently, First Dwarf is available on Steam and GOG.