The Last Oricru is a game I was blissfully unaware of until I came to this review and sometimes it’s better that way as everything about the game is begging to be discovered. It’s been a long while since I got stuck into an action RPG, so I was more than ready to become consumed by hours of a new world to explore. This is an adventure that can be played entirely alone or with the assistance of a friend in cooperative mode. It’s a game where choices have different outcomes and branch off the story into different narratives, you must choose your path carefully. There is a fantastic story here in the fictional world of Wardenia where multiple playthroughs will be encouraged, will you side with the good or bad guys? The flexibility of your choices is what makes this game so intriguing in this vast medieval sci-fi environment.

Introduction

I love it when a new development team come onto the scene and tries something completely new. Prague-based Goldknights Studio has jumped in headfirst with a full-blown ambitious RPG. In The Last Oricru, you take the lead of human player Silver who finds himself stranded on an alien planet. If being lost in a new atmosphere wasn’t enough for Silver, then the brutal bloody war between various factions will be even more of a worry. What is unique here is the story can be taken in different directions based on how you interact with NPCs. I enjoyed that it wasn’t completely linear in its approach, and I genuinely stopped to think twice about the actions I was going to take.

Gameplay

The game sets you off as Silver, awakened and confused after a bit of a bad dream. Turns out that you are now on an alien planet where rats have become slaves and are being held captive by the faction Naboru. The Ratkins faction has had enough of being treated like shit basically and has decided to do something about it. Very early on you’ll be deciding which faction to side with or whether you want to sit on the fence. Later on in the game, you will come across The Broken Army, a mysterious clan who keep their cards very close to their chest.

The Last Oricru is labelled as a soulslike style title, which I have to admit was a little off-putting at first as I am not a fan of that particular type of game. I didn’t find it to be anywhere near as difficult as I thought though. You learn early on in the game that you and a few others are immortal from death, and everyone wants to be your mate. It is down to you to learn who to trust and tread carefully. The first hour or so is the stepping stone to the rest of the storyline and you’ll be passing from pillar to post being introduced to new characters with a short tutorial on combat.

Clunky Combat

Combat is a little bit of a letdown, to be honest, it felt rigid and clunky with some extremely awkward camera angles at times. There never felt like much weight was behind your attacks and most of the time it was a bit unsatisfying. You can perform light and heavy attacks with block and dodge defence moves, pretty standard for a game of this nature but the execution was a little under par. You will progress your character strength and attributes as you move through the story, but it didn’t change the clunkiness overall.

After each fight, you will gain essence which essentially is experience to level up your character. You can print gold at terminals in order to be able to purchase better equipment. You can also upgrade your gear to craft stronger armour, gear and more. Everything here was so simple to understand and navigate, with no confusing skill trees and endless potions to master. The game doesn’t feature a save function and autosaves as you go along, hence the reason you must act on what you do next wisely.

Co-Op

To my surprise, there is co-op available in The Last Oricru which can be accessed through terminals in-game. Whilst I did play the majority of the game on my lonesome, I did manage to spend a couple of hours with a friend testing out this aspect of the game. The way it is constructed is that the host takes the lead in making choices and triggering narrative-based scenarios. Whilst the secondary player can observe these portions of the adventure, they can’t act on any of these bits.

What makes it interesting is that I and my mate were in a party chat discussing our options and what we should do.  He acted as my hologram and could engage in combat, collect loot and traverse the world with me. Experience points are echoed through the hosts’ character, so you’ll both be on an even playing field, it won’t be just you slaying everyone whilst the second player stands in your shadow. Local split screen co-op is available for those who want to game with family and friends from the comfort of your sofa.

Graphics & Audio

There are some glaring issues when it comes to the visual presentation, but it isn’t all bad. The lip-syncing when conversing with characters is instantly noticeable and becomes something you just have to get used to since there are some lengthy discussions with people across the game world. That said, I’d rather have voice acting in an RPG than have to endure reading lines and lines of dialogue. Character design is a little up and down with some having excellent detail, especially the rats and others looking a bit like a scarecrow. Landscapes in the distance are well illustrated to blend into your immediate vicinity but textures are a little blurry in some areas.

Cutscenes are great for the most part, bringing the aura and drama of the intensity of warfare to your screen. The audio design is pretty decent when it comes to sound effects and conflict scenarios, but voice acting can be a little ropey. The voice of Silver whilst well-acted, didn’t really suit the character and sounded more like an enthusiastic college student rather than a bloke with a big physique on a war-torn planet. That said though, some of the voice work is exceptional and believable, more so on the Rat side of the fence.

In Conclusion

The Last Oricru has a great storyline to back up the experience in an atmosphere that echoes the impact of the choices you make. For my playthrough, I decided to join the rats and the rat-volution. The most enjoyable aspect for me was pondering on some of the choices I made, and I was always left wondering what would have happened if I did the alternative option. This makes for great replayability to see if two or three runs of the game would have any significant changes. Visually it is a little rough around the edges with a mixed bag in the voice-acting department, but you have to remember this isn’t a triple-A production.

If you’re after an RPG that won’t break the bank and brings soulslike combat that isn’t as brutally difficult as Dark Souls or Elden Ring with plenty of hours of gameplay in return for your investment, then The Last Oricru is worth your time. For someone who strays away from this genre if skill trees become too complicated or the game is extremely lengthy, the fact I stuck it out through one playthrough is enough for me to give it the nod to fans of this type of game.