Bellwright Hands-Off Preview

Bellwright by Donkey Crew

The other day I had the privilege to sit in on an early look at developer Donkey Crew’s upcoming project, Bellwright. This is the same developer that created Last Oasis back in 2020, a game players have had some issues with lately. Fortunately, the developers addressed concerns about their debut game and pleasantly surprised me with a look at Bellwright which will be launching in early access on April 23rd.

Bellwright is a medieval open-world strategy RPG where players build a rebellion against a monarchy that holds sway over the land. The player starts with nothing but eventually gathers enough resources to build villages, towns, farms, and, ideally, an army. The devs quickly pointed out that while the narrative is a strong motivator, players aren’t always forced to engage. Players can enjoy the game’s core mechanics without diving deep into the narrative. At its heart, Bellwright will mostly be about building up a formidable presence in this vast open world and fighting to keep it by managing resources, recruiting allies, and fighting off enemy attacks.

My first glimpses before this preview led me to believe this was another run-of-the-mill survival game that involved me punching a tree or a rock and playing for over a hundred hours to get the full experience. But Bellwright does seem to be more than that, thankfully. Of course, these impressions are not from playing the game myself, though hopefully, I get the opportunity to try it out sometime soon. Bellwright catches my attention with the dynamic narrative elements and the dedication to simulation.

Attacks on player’s camps from bandits, or presumably elsewhere but bandits were all that appeared during the preview, are determined by dynamic factors such as how aggressive the player has been in attacking other settlements and how many valuable resources or items the player has collected. Player characters can die, but Donkey Crew explained that based on internal testing they felt the game experience was better if players could respawn at camp rather than die permanently. This extends to recruited NPCs as well, with a key difference. When NPCs are killed in battle they return to camp with a wound that needs time to recover. Should an NPC die again while wounded in this way, they will die permanently.

Donkey Crew also put special emphasis on making sure the villages felt alive. Every NPC will have a unique name and a history, as each individual needs to be recruited to join the cause. Even without a command from a player, NPCs will have routine tasks that keep them busy throughout the day.

Various villages can be recruited to the rebel cause, though their trust must be earned first. It’s not yet clear how that trust earning will play out. Once a village or town is swayed to join the cause, a bell tower is built and used to signal the militia to gather for an attack. Hence the name Bellwright.

Bellwright does have cooperative multiplayer as well. Players can team up to take on the rebellion in any way they choose, whether that’s a chaotic conquest or a more organized division of labor. Some players will prefer to play on their own, but it is nice to have the option to bring a few friends along as well.

Regarding Donkey Crew’s previous game, Last Oasis, the developers explained that with Bellwright finally entering early access, the team will be able to divide themselves between the two titles more evenly. This could be promising to fans of the original game, but ultimately we will have to wait and see what happens and if it’s not too little too late. Looking around online, many fans of Last Oasis feel that the developer has forgotten the game, with minimal updates added since 2022. Considering that Last Oasis has been in early access for four years, the lack of updates is painful for fans who invested time and money into the game.

Donkey Crew did explain that they expect this new game, Bellwright, to also be in early access for at least three or four years. Early Access on Steam is a mixed bag of choices. Some players argue that it’s risky to purchase a game that has yet to be completed, while developers see early access as a way to crowdfund their game to the point of full release. Ultimately, the decision is up to you.

What are your thoughts on Bellwright? Does this look like something that could be interesting to you? Do you play Early Access games or wait until the game is complete? I’d love to have some conversations going on in the comments!

In the past, I have not been much for games like this, where you explore a vast open world and manage resources, slowly build towns, and raise armies. I’m not saying that Bellwright has convinced me to change my ways yet, but I am at least keeping an open mind after seeing it in action in this preview.