I was a little late, but I finally got into Death Stranding earlier this year. Reader, it seized me and wouldn't let go. Not because I had any idea what was going on (I didn't), but because I discovered that, deep in the recesses of my heart, I yearn for nothing more than to be a postman.
Well, I can feel the old Yearn To Deliver a-calling again, friends. I've been playing a bit of the Steam Next Fest demo for The Legend of Khiimori, which is a lot like Death Stranding, but with a non-Sony budget and you control a beautiful steed (Mongolian horses, about which the game goes into literally medical detail) instead of a beautiful steed (Norman Reedus).
You're a Yam courier, in essence a kind of hardy, 13th-century Mongolian postwoman/scout whose community role is 'has horse, will travel'. You're a traveller-by-trade that communities dotted about the map (no strangers to long journeys on horseback themselves: this is literally medieval-era Mongolia) enlist to carry goods and messages, find missing things, or just go roaming after their absconded family members, who really ought to be back from hunting by now.
But really, pay attention to that horse. In the time I've spent with it, The Legend of Khiimori demands a level of attention for your horse that I normally associate with hardcore sim racers and cars—the 'horse' section of your menu is broken down into four distinct submenus:
- Your mount's stats, stuff like turning speed in degrees per second and max speed to three decimal places.
- Breed
- Genetics
- Perk progression
It's fantastic. This is a game clearly made by absolute horse sickos, and indeed Alice Ruppert—of The Mane Quest fame and to whom we at PCG have chatted before—was formerly creative producer on the game and now serves as a consultant. It makes me wonder that, for all the videogame horses out there, I've never seen games really model all this detail before, even ones that emphasise their historical realism like Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Anyway, it turns out that horses are really bloody sensitive. Carrying a heavy load? Make sure to distribute it evenly between your two saddlebags so you don't make your poor steed more prone to stumbling and injury. Make sure to keep their health up, their bellies full, and to lead them every so often to water. Where you can, it turns out, make them drink. Avoid mud, and if you absolutely must trudge through it then try not to go any faster than a trot—you don't want your steed to trip and hurt themselves.
Again, the Death Stranding parallels are strangely remarkable. It's just that instead of caring about the precise placement of Norman Reedus' legs and the weight amassed on his back, you're transferring that obsessive attention to detail onto your horse.
Although I guess you couldn't flip to a menu that showed you the exact makeup of Reedus' genetics in order to breed newer, more perfect Reedi like you can with your mount in Khiimori. I don't know what any of these genetic markers mean but I do know I'm going to make it my life's goal to breed Les Enfants Terribles of 13th-century Mongolian horses.
It's a refreshing thing, especially given the total absence of any combat in what I've tried of the game so far (though there are wolves and bears about, and I do have a bow) and I could easily see myself getting sucked into The Legend of Khiimori's really quite lovely Mongolian steppe when the full game hits on November 4. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor—well, actually, snow would be really bad for my horse's grip. Your delivery's been delayed by a week.
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