If you’re the type of person who spends a lot of time getting lost just wandering around and exploring in open-world games like Skyrim, then boy do I have a treat for you. Nimian Legends: BrightRidge HD ($3.99) is a game that’s almost exclusively about exploring a big open world, and it’s gone free for the first time ever. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because the original Nimian Legends: BrightRidge (Free) launched all the way back in July of 2014. We reviewed it around that time and found it to be a nifty game for exploring and creating your own adventures, but kind of missed the structure and story found in most other action RPGs. For what it was though, and especially for a dollar or two, it was really cool.
Well, in March of last year, a brand new version of BrightRidge was released which took full advantage of the latest iOS devices. The older version went permanently free at that time and remained available for people with older devices and to act as a sort of trial version, but if you owned a newer device and wanted a prettier game with all the bells and whistles, that’s where BrightRidge HD came in. Besides the extra eye candy, solo developer Protopop also worked hard on creating more story and structure for the game, making it more like a traditional RPG rather than just an exploration sandbox. The first major story update came this past September, and another major story expansion landed earlier this month.
It should also be noted that along with these major content updates there have been numerous tweaks and fixes thrown in as well, and there’s more options than you can shake a stick at for whatever you plan on doing in BrightRidge HD. Making this all the more impressive is that the entire game is a passion project of a solo developer, and if you follow along in the game’s forum thread you’ll see that he has quite a bit already mapped out for the wider universe that BrightRidge HD takes place in. It’s one of the most ambitious projects I’ve seen from a solo dev, and it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. So if you enjoyed the original BrightRidge but never upgraded to the HD version, or if you’ve just missed out on this one entirely thus far, definitely check out Nimian Legends: BrightRidge HD while it’s free for the next few days. There is a lot of adventuring waiting for you.
