Tribes of Midgard is the latest fun survival/rogue-lite/RPG title to be released right now and the best part is that it comes in Norse mythology flavor. This smorgasbord of video game genres is generally well-received. The game's comical and light-hearted visuals balance out the rather grim survival aspects and make the game more accessible for anyone with lower-end hardware.
On top of that, it's somewhat novel compared to other survival games. So why are we here then? Because the game has plenty of things that it could have done better. For some, the general consensus is that it's almost fun or almost unique but falls short on many of its chosen video game inspirations. Here's where Tribes of Midgard could make some improvements.
10 A More Interactive Tutorial
Tribes of Midgard starts off rather fast with its tutorial dumping the players in front of two cats who keep telling them what to do— with no voice acting and only text-based UI prompts. The tutorial does well to cover the core gameplay but it poorly explains some of the game's controls.
The rune activation for fast traveling or teleportation is also poorly explained as the game didn't specify just how long its cooldown is or how to use it in the UI. Beyond that, explanations for base building and the other town denizens were also scarce. All in all, the tutorial needs to have more visual prompts or other explanations.
9 More Content
Initially, Tribes of Midgard looks like it's a game made for marathon sessions and endless grinds. Players try to stave off Ragnarok with their survival skills and measly gear— the concept is ripe for interesting mechanics. However, the game didn't have enough content to keep that up.
After one or two sessions in Tribes of Midgard, you've most likely seen all the game has on offer. The current content is usually good for around eight hours of gameplay. After that, the game becomes too repetitive with no new stuff getting introduced. In the near future, this might improve as the developers add new content.
8 Less Artificial Difficulty And Better Balancing
Those eight to ten hours of content would have been more intense and rewarding if it wasn't for the rather blunt approach the developers did for the enemy scaling. Most of the game's difficulty regarding enemies boils down to their health or damage. The boss or giant enemies are notorious for this as they're damage sponges that have one-hit-kill attacks.
Other enemies don't fare so well either. As the difficulty level increases, their damage and health also do and not much else. They don't get brighter AI or more dynamic mechanics that compel the players to come up with new tactics or strategies.
7 More Map Variety
Tribes of Midgard's maps are supposedly procedurally generated so each run feels unique. However, they could have done more for the map layouts. As it is, you can see at most, two or three map variations whose differences are mostly procedurally generated doodads and terrain texture.
The distance to the main tribal base is varied in each map but that's about it. Each village remains the same and there are not many interesting events going in each map variation that warrants repeated runs. That adds to the feeling of recycled content, making the game seem short and repetitive.
6 More Creative Building Aspect
Yet another thing that makes Tribes of Midgard feel like it needed more time in the oven is the rather bare base building mechanics. In fact, you might even be reluctant on calling it base building as you mostly upgrade bases and build satellite farms or outposts outside the walls.
Granted, it would seem that Tribes of Midgard backed itself into a corner here due to the MOBA or tower-defense-like structure of the core gameplay. You don't get much opportunity to build bases or upgrades but at the very least, they could have made it more interesting or modular. Anything that can change how each run proceeds would have been of good use here.
5 Making Fimbulwinter Optional Without The Bifrost
One big complaint about Tribes of Midgard's late-game or endgame is the notorious endless night or endless winter mode, skipped with Bitfrost. It's when Ragnarok finally descends down on Midgard and the Frost Giants try to stomp one measly Norse town. This is a nerve-wracking event in the game— one that forces players to prepare in the preceding days.
In total, players will need 14 in-game days to prepare for Fimbulwinter or the endless winter. After that, the enemy attacks will be relentless and cold damage will be constant. Exploration is thus next to impossible unless you're in co-op mode and even there, it can be a frustrating experience.
4 Combat Animation Canceling
Combat is one of the most satisfying aspects of Tribes of Midgard but it too has its own shortcoming. The attack and skill animations are needlessly long. It also locks you in the animation where you can't perform most other actions while it's paying out.
Such a combat drawback is highly disadvantageous since you won't be able to dodge enemy attacks and it makes combat slower. Other games have a fair solution to this which is animation canceling. That ought to be easy enough to implement at least when compared to shortening the animations.
3 More Satisfying Progression
Since there is a blatant lack of content once you've reached the late game of Tribes of Midgard, it also has some progression issues. Once you have your basic gear, progression slows down to nearly a plateau. You can level up your character and give them new abilities but even that's basic and sometimes can feel tacked on.
Gear progression is a thing but it's way too reliant on luck. The top weapons or best armors in the game require certain components. If these components don't spawn in your current map, then tough luck. To make matters worse, the village tree needs a steady supply of souls if you want to continue surviving; oftentimes, you'll have to choose between the tree or a bit of progression.
2 Countermeasures For Multiplayer Leechers
It's great that the game has co-op and accessible multiplayer since it's a survival title. Still, there is one glaring problem in that aspect of gameplay: AFK players. In some sessions, you might find a tribesman or two just standing there while you do all the work.
They also get to reap the rewards of your or other tribesmen's labor. Kicking them out only makes the game more difficult and calling them out should be the least of your worries. The game needs to implement a better reward system that will cater to active players and discourages AFK leechers.
1 Bug And Glitch Fixes
Since it's just a few weeks fresh from release at the time of writing, you can expect a certain lack of polish for Tribes of Midgard. The most common ones are multiplayer bugs, server crashes, and players getting stuck in the geometry.
All those issues can cause untimely and unfair deaths. Since the game is a rogue-lite that puts time pressure on its players, those game-breaking bugs need to be ironed out quickly. Otherwise, they will end up ruining the experience.