Equinox: Homecoming is for those of us who like to wander around and pick up every single item we see on the ground.
A lot of horse games are made in a way that is inappropriate for kids, but Equinox: Homecoming makes a big promise: to give adult horse gamers a mature, story-driven experience. This MMO/RPG hybrid was made by the independent studio Blue Scarab, and it sprinted into Early Access with high hopes and even higher expectations.
Before getting into the Equinox: Homecoming Review, I would like to remind everyone reading this that this game is still in Early Access and the review is based on that. The developers have clearly stated that they want to change the horse game genre. They want to mix relaxing exploration with story tension and MMO elements. There it is, a horse game that doesn’t mind being dark and gives grown-ups a reason to saddle up.
It’s hard to tell the difference between ambition and reality in Early Access games like Equinox, so it often loses its balance. Still, it’s a welcome attempt to fill a gap in the market that isn’t always met, making new space for horse lovers who haven’t had much access to it before. You play as Alex Evans. Yes, even if you change your name to something else, people will still call you Alex, and the voice actors will still be women.
It breaks the flow of the game, especially in an MMO where customization is supposed to be important. The game starts with mystery and tragedy, but they’re not shown on the screen. Jenny’s murder, which is a key event, happens behind your back and is only briefly mentioned by NPCs like Misty in the fishing village or Jenny’s sad father.
The structure of the story is strange. There’s no dream sequence or dramatic loss to draw you in like other movies do. In the game, Kendra yells at you instead, and your character then runs away from home for no clear reason. The world is deep and interesting, but it feels like the first few pages of a good book were torn out, and the rest was given to you.
There are times when the dialogue is too long or doesn’t make sense. For example, characters will go from deep sadness to small talk in the same conversation. It’s surprising how well thought-out NPCs are. Each one seems to have something to do with the story and hints at future features like crafting, gathering resources, and more. But once more, it’s all just a promise.
Most of it feels like filler content that is just waiting for its time to shine right now. Deep down, the game has strong themes of family, identity, and nature, but it doesn’t have the right pace or delivery to make them really hit home yet. The story would flow much better with more cinematic cutscenes or visual storytelling elements to connect the emotional beats.
At its core, Equinox: Homecoming lets you explore a huge world with your horse. You do races, search for resources, go on quests, and try to improve your reputation. At first, you can change how your character and horse look.
This sounds good in theory, but there are only three colors for the horse’s coat, most of the markings look like they were done in MS Paint, and the lighting in the customization screen isn’t what it seems. Even worse, once you start the game, you can’t change how you look. This means that your Frankenstein horse will be with you for a long time.
Even so, riding through Alderwood can be very immersive from moment to moment. It’s fun to ride trails, and the environment feels alive. The map has a real sense of scale, and while fast travel is limited, the barn teleportation system works well and looks great. But getting around is hard. Unless you’re in a race, your horse can’t jump, and the terrain can stop you for no reason—small drops or rocks are treated like the Grand Canyon.
Aside from the fun of exploring, there is also a lot of free time. After Chapter 1, the only things left are weekly races and quests that you have to do again and again. There are four weekly quests at a time, and they reset as soon as you finish them. Most of them are fetch quests or timed events. This makes a loop in the game that feels more like a grind treadmill than a satisfying way to move forward.
There are hints of a crafting and farming system, but it’s not quite there yet. You can’t even get to some parts of the map, which could mean that there will be more content or story chapters in the future. It’s clear that the systems are being built with long-term goals in mind, but they don’t really do anything or reward anyone right now.
Although Equinox doesn’t have any combat, races are pretty much the same thing. You have to be able to move quickly and easily through jump courses and trails in these timed events. Strangely, you can’t make your horse jump in the open world, but you can in races. You can really feel how fast you’re going when you sprint, but sometimes weird hitboxes or uncooperative terrain will throw you off.
Designing obstacles can be easy to understand or very frustrating. For example, some jumps are placed at strange angles that require perfect turning. It’s hard to get a good sense of distances because you can’t change how the camera controls work, especially on timed routes.
The mini-map, on the other hand, seems to have its plans. There are a lot of shades of orange and yellow in quest indicators, making them hard to spot even with the sharpest eyes. Lots of the time, you’ll circle the area and squint like you lost your contact lenses in a field of hay.
The racing system could be good once it’s been worked on. You can enjoy shaving seconds off your time and getting good at the course. But not being able to jump into free roam makes the open world feel frustrating for no reason. The inconsistent terrain and bad collision detection make it less immersive. These problems can be fixed, but they keep showing up to remind you that you’re still in Early Access.
During races, checkpoint placement can be finicky, and they may not register even if you go right through them, which is even more frustrating. Also, some races have broken countdown timers that start before the race even starts, which adds to the confusion.
The game does a good job of not punishing failure too harshly, which lets you try again and again without much consequence. Your reputation is the main way you move forward. When you finish weekly quests and races, you gain reputation, which you can then use to buy skins. But the rate at which your reputation goes up is very slow, making grinding feel more like a chore than a reward.
This could be better if there were more types of quests or if reputation levels rose faster. Right now, it feels like a grind loop that’s meant to keep you busy and not fun. As you level up, you can access new areas and get cosmetic items, but for now, it doesn’t feel like progression has much of an effect.
There doesn’t seem to be any stat growth for your horse, and there’s no RPG-like progression beyond repetition. Even a simple skill tree or small upgrades could give character progression a lot more depth. Equinox: Homecoming has a mixed bag of looks. The world of Alderwood is truly beautiful. The lighting is moody, and the environments—forests, trails, and misty lakes—feel full.
It’s not breaking any graphic design rules, but it looks solid and, more importantly, like it goes together. On the other hand, the character and horse models aren’t very good. The hair physics are laughably floaty, there aren’t many ways to customize the horse, and some animations feel stiff or glitchy. When there are cutscenes, they are usually just blank text slides, and even the ones that are important to the story are full of bugs.
At the moment, there are no facial animations, which detracts from emotionally charged scenes. The lighting engine also has trouble inside, often washing out textures or making rooms look too bright. It would be a lot better if the quality of the characters and textures were as good as the quality of the environments.
Of course, it’s early access, but the character creator and models are what make you feel bad at first. This is where Equinox really shines. The music is beautiful, with soft, ambient melodies that fit the mood of trail riding, which is to think and reflect. Birds chirping and horses’ hooves clopping on dirt paths are just a few of the sounds that make up an environment.
It might not seem important, but the sound design is a big part of making the experience believable and relaxing. The voice acting currently in place is good, but not quite finished. Many of the scenes don’t have voices, but the ones that do have solid ones.
We hope that full voice acting is on the way. Different biomes have different background sounds, and you’ll notice small changes as you move around. For example, waterfalls, forest wind, and animals all add to the immersion.
Some horse whinnies and galloping sounds loop too often or overlap in strange ways during cutscenes, which is the only major problem with the sound. In later updates, the experience might get better by adding more dynamic sound effects related to quests and emotional beats.
Equinox: Homecoming is a game full of clashing ideas. It looks great, is ambitious, and was clearly made with a lot of love, but it’s also full of mistakes, bad design choices, and unfinished systems. Its move from a single-player story to an MMO structure seems like an afterthought rather than a plan, and it hurts what could have been a tightly focused, story-driven experience.
Under the surface, there’s a deep story that should be the focus instead of being buried by vague dialogue and events that don’t happen on screen. The MMO parts don’t seem to belong, and if they aren’t better integrated, they could take away from the game’s potential.
Still, there’s something interesting about this. It’s common for horse games not to respect their players, but Equinox does the opposite, even if it makes mistakes now and then. It’s trying to make something important, and if the developers keep at it with future updates, it could become a classic in its field.
The base is strong, but you can still see the scaffolding. Equinox: Homecoming could become something truly special if Blue Scarab decides to focus on improving what it already has instead of adding too much too quickly. Feedback from the community is very important, especially for how future updates handle storylines, customization, and progress that makes sense.
Equinox: Homecoming isn’t a finished portrait yet, but it’s a promising sketch that you should monitor as it develops. If you’re ready to deal with some early-access bugs and keep your hopes low, Equinox: Homecoming gives you a taste of something truly special.
