The horse gamers have spoken: This new horse sim has 'a beautiful sense of realism I haven't felt since RDR2'

Horse games have a reputation—a fairly earned one, I'm sad to say—for being bad. If they're horse-accurate, they're ugly. If they're pretty, they're boring. If they're highly anticipated, they're buggy and unsupported. Horse enthusiast gamers have been burned before and often left half-fulfilled by the latest horse games. Horse courier sim The Legend of Khiimori launched in early access this week and this might finally be the equine experience that horse gamers deserve.

Normally I'd go to developer and critic Alice Ruppert, known horse gamer spokesperson, for an expert opinion. She's done consulting on Khiimori though, so for a more neutral view I've instead called upon another equestrian correspondent: livestreamer, Red Dead Redemption 2 horse posse wrangler, and professional horse photographer Chelsea Farace.

Farace estimates that she's played upwards of 30 horse games over the years in search of the perfect one. She agrees that so many of them wind up being just "good enough" to sate the hunger of horse-lovers. "They scratch the itch but always leave something important missing, whether it’s depth, realism, or soul," she says.

The Legend of Khiimori looked like it had an answer to all three: beautiful, realistic horses, deep training and breeding systems, and a soulful depiction of historical Mongolia. Its demo was so popular last year that developer Aesir Interactive delayed the launch that had been planned for 2025. Now that it's actually launched, how are the horse gamers feeling about the first few days with Khiimori?

"Khiimori, right now, feels like it’s well above that 'good enough' line," Farace says. "There is a beautiful sense of realism I haven't felt since RDR2 and I adore it."

She praises all the visual horse accuracy like the "flehmen response" when they show their teeth, how they swim, and the little stretches and fidgets they do when not being ridden. These are the kinds of things players loved about RDR2 but wanted more actual horse things to do, which Khiimori's got too.

Khiimori makes you go through the different horse gaits like trotting and cantering instead of RDR2's 'horse slow' or 'horse sprint' speeds. It accounts for terrain while riding, weight distribution, and even horse genes when breeding. "As someone who loves real life horse genetics and has spent time studying it I love when people try to get it right," Farace says. "It can be complicated but when done correctly it can actually educate people on the subject!"

Khiimori's got its work cut out for it though. It's that old adage about how you can only pick two: fast, accurate, or cheap. For horse games it's: pretty, accurate, and not buggy. Khiimori is a bit buggy, I found in my own 15 hours so far, and big elements like taming wild horses and an actual main story are yet to be implemented. Acknowledging all of that, what's available represents a promising start.

"I’m genuinely optimistic because, for once, it feels like the foundation is strong enough that if they keep building on it, it could become something really special," Farace says.

That seems to be the mood of many other horse enthusiasts. The commentary I've seen in Farace's own horse gamer Discord is excitement about the realism tempered by those needed bug fixes. She says it's much the same in the horse video games Facebook group she follows and in the reactions of other content creators. "The overall mood feels cautiously positive," she says.

Over on Steam, user ratings reflect that, registering "mostly positive" at 79% of the current 545 reviews. People mention the bugs, for which Aesir Interactive has already released at least three patches this week. The other big complaint seems to be a lack of regional pricing, making the game overly expensive in certain countries.

Khiimori's had me excited that someone may have finally threaded the needle between survival game and horse girl sim. While it's got a ways to go to becoming the de facto horse community platform, the current Legend of Khiimori early access features are providing the realism that horse gamers have been begging for, with the open world exploration that more amateur horse appreciators like me can enjoy.