X
- E10+
- Twirlbound
- E10+
- Twirlbound
- E10+
- Twirlbound
- E10+
- Twirlbound
Pine
Released On: Nov 26, 2019
48
5.8
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
48
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
29% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 7 Critic Reviews
48
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
57% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
29% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Pine has a lot of interesting systems and mechanics, but those individual pieces do not add up to a completely satisfying whole. While there is fun to be had with Pine's interesting exploration, many of the mechanics feel disjointed, with too much reliance on the game's collection-based economy. While Pine was clearly made with a lot of love, every good feature in is balanced by a mechanic that doesn't feel so great.
The execution is as boring as everything else Pine has to offer. It’s a shame that the finished (or, given the technical issues, maybe that should read “mostly finished”) product doesn’t come anywhere close to living up to the incredible potential displayed by the trailer, because that game could have been great. This game, however, is in dire need of improvements, and until it gets those you can skip it pretty safely.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 22 User Ratings
5.8
45% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
23% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
32% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 22 User Ratings
5.8
45% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
23% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
32% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
Switch Version 2.01.
Pine is addicting. The world of Pine is beautiful with varied biomes, plenty of items for crafting, and secrets to find everywhere. It is quite impressive that this 6 person team was capable of creating such a lived in world despite working with a limited engine.
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Story
The main plot of the game is that you are a human that is part of a village on top of a small mountain that is slowly falling apart. The village elders refuse to leave, believing the outside world is too dangerous for them. With a tragic event unfolding, you takes the matter into your own hands and proceeds to leave the village and look for a new home for the people to live. A solid premise that gives the player drive.
You then must go to any of the animal races and ask for help. They will be hesitant to do so, as they have their own villages to take care of. They will only help you as long as you help them. Thus the game is essentially you donating, trading, or teaming up with various factions to find your people a land of their own.
This leads to you trying to learn the history of the island, and how ancient humans must have survived in order to save humanity. It is enough to keep me invested, and makes the in game lore intriguing in its own right.
Overall its compelling in the way classic adventure games have been, making me give it an 8/10
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Gameplay
The core gameplay loop is pretty much that of a living breathing world. Each race has its own desires and needs, and will send out traders, gatherers, and warriors to ensure they can expand their control of the island to the best of their ability. This makes the world quite dynamic, as you will see different races interacting with each other in the fields and terrain outside of villages. You will also find them taking over different settlements throughout the game.
You will have to work with multiple factions to help your own people. I have noticed many people criticizing this system in that you cannot stick with a single faction, and must constantly switch who you are allied with. I personally think this was a logical choice, on the dev's part, as it encourages you to learn each race's perspective in the world and do more than the generic grind of leveling up a single village until you finish the game.
I would have definitely liked if there was more variations in NPC dialogue however. It would have been nice to see more side quests that provide materials or perhaps even some added lore. Outside from a few island stories I have played through, you will mostly be playing through multiple main story quests that you can do in any order you wish.
Outside of that however, you will also go through 3 Zelda like dungeons called "Vaults" and solve puzzles in the overworld. These dungeons have been mixed, with the first time you entering a vault not really explaining what to do. Once you figure out the first puzzle though, the remainder of the dungeon become solid challenges.
Combat can be improved, but is still good enough.
Just fix the crashing. 7/10.
8/10 with fixes.
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Visuals
The graphical art style of this game is beautiful, and very reminiscent of Fable. Sunsets, and shadows from the moonlight give the world a serene look. Character designs amongst the factions is also well done, with plenty of detail. 9/10
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Sound
I cannot stress just how amazing the soundtrack of Pine is. It is a perfect 10 in my book, and deserves the utmost praise. Sound effects are also surprisingly high quality. 10/10
Replay Ability
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The world is interesting to experiment with, but aside from that the world could have a few more side quests. 7/10
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Verdict
Overall Pine is fantastic despite some flaws in the code. 8/10
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Nintendo Switch
Alot Better Game now Then at Release. If you tried it before you should try it again
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Nintendo Switch
Pine is a game that we recommend with caution. Even after the 2.0 update, the loading times are still long. Overall performance has improved but needs more updates on Nintendo Switch.
Pine feels like an early proof of concept that misses the mark in all the key components that should otherwise keep players engaged.
Pine could have been a lot better. There are genuinely impressive systems at play here – for example, the other creatures inhabiting this world are gathering resources in much the same way as the player, and will even snatch up crops and objects that you were making for. But its smarter touches are totally obfuscated by the shadow of absolute technical unsuitability to the Switch hardware. When you look at ports like Doom and the recent Alien: Isolation, you'll wonder what exactly went wrong for Pine to be so disastrously sub-par in purely technical terms. We can only imagine how cool it looked on the design document; it's just such a shame about almost literally every single aspect of the execution.
Pine’s interesting diplomacy system can’t save it from its dull combat, repetitive quests, and severe technical problems.
Pine is a brilliant idea backed by some truly wonderful systems. Other elements of its gameplay fall short but would ultimately be forgivable if it would just run reliably. No matter how much I wanted to enjoy Pine, I always found myself ending my play session in frustration as a stared down another loading screen, found a key character glitched into an inactive state, or an entire village simply blipping out of existence. Pine feels like a very promising alpha, not a game that should be sold as finished. The presence of Pine on the eShop is baffling. While I earnestly hope it improves, I simply can’t recommend it in its current form.
Pine has come a long way from its release late last year. Originally heralded as a wonderful open-world RPG, the game was not well-received upon release. The game's quality left something to be desired in many areas, whether it was poor graphics, incredibly long load times, or a plethora of frame rate and rendering issues.
The game has since been patched and not only is it playable, it's fairly enjoyable as well. The graphics, while still feeling a bit outdated are much more clear and vibrant, and really add to the exploration aspect. Other aspects, including combat and load times, have also been improved, making Pine more of a fun pick up and play kind of experience
There are still a handful of issues that begin to take their toll on the overall experience of Pine. Loading screens, while much shorter than before, can still last nearly two minutes at times. While your immediate surroundings may look pretty, looking more than a few feet ahead can get pretty dull. Lastly, there are some bugs that could randomly cause you to start floating or temporarily get stuck somewhere.
None of the remaining issues are inherently game-breaking and there's another patch expected out soon, so if you can get past these minor annoyances, you may find the game to be pretty enjoyable, especially if you are a fan of games like Breath of the Wild of Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles.
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Nintendo Switch
I actually really like what they have done with the game since it got out. It was a real deception when I started playing it in 2019. The gazillion bugs and long loading times just made it unplayable, even though I enjoyed the ambiance. I took it up again after a couple of months, not expecting too much because the initial loading time is still a drag. But overall it got so much better! Once you get past the somewhat clunky gameplay it is a really immersive story. I love how your interactions with the different tribes affect the game. Yes, it is still way too buggy and therefore not the best value for money. But if you like the genre and you have some hours to spare I would really recommend Pine for its originality, the big open world, and the way the team has been working on the game ever since it got out. But bear in mind: if you are expecting Breath-of the-wild-like quality than you will be disappointed for sure.
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Nintendo Switch
Was really hyped for this game because I knew it was coming to Switch and figured it would be a Breath of the Wild - lite.
There is a lot to like about this game with it being a resource-based trading game and your job is to smooth over relations between factions based on finding the items that that need. You travel finding items each faction needs and based on what you get, can open up other items and quests for each faction for yourself. Not a bad premise honestly. However, the execution is paltry at best.
First, the world is open and full of life, but kinda boring at the same time. 90% of what you come across are hostiles and the other half is just sort of background foder. Also, it doesn't help that every objective is like 50 miles from the nearest objective and given that this is the switch version, texture pop-ins and getting stuck in glitches isn't out of the question.
Speaking of glitches, the first time I played the game, I got stuck on a quest because it wasn't letting me complete the task. When I next booted up the game, it had completed the quest and put me in the middle of a cutscene???? How that happened I don't know.
Combat I was really looking forward to, but alas, that broke my heart the most. There is difficult and then there is Pine. Enemies are much stronger than you for the most part. Many attacks cannot be blocked. There is no parry. Projectiles only work on certain enemies (despite saying every enemy has a critical spot), enemies can attack through your attacks sometimes and worst of all, enemy attacks can send you reeling while your attacks may as well be throwing wet sand at a brick wall. Not to mention, enemies chase you throughout the map so the only real way to get away from them is to defeat them or to run into a dungeon or whatever. Oh, and despite the factions being at war with each other, they seem to have a common enemy in your so don't be surprised if you become the center of the battle.
The ideas of this game are better than the sum which is sad because the foundation for this game is really something that could be built off of. It was just poorly executed. I may give them this some more time because I really do want to like it, but the performance and the way they went about this game just really is sad because it could have been so much better.
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Nintendo Switch
After patch 1.0.4 this game is playable, but performance is awful.
Hope they will finish, seems to be a good game.
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Nintendo Switch
THE most unintuitive and clunky combat system I have ever encountered. It makes the game unplayable for me. I have about 10-15 hours in it, and I’m not going to go farther. Other that that game ruining mechanic, the visuals are better than I expected which brought my rating up one point. I honestly felt rather let down that I spent $25 on it. If you are expecting ‘botw’ type of game play, look elsewhere. This isn’t it.
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Nintendo Switch
Summary Pine is an open-world action adventure simulation game. Take on the role of Hue, a brave young adult who belongs to the last remaining tribe of humans on the island of Albamare. Find your way through an ever-changing world in which all creatures have lives, goals and quests of their own. Albamare’s factions trade and fight with each othe...
Rated E +10
for Everyone +10
Platforms:
- Nintendo Switch
- PC
- PlayStation 4
Initial Release Date: Nov 26, 2019
Developer:
- Twirlbound
Publisher: Twirlbound
Genres:
