Posted on: November 30, 2017

wizzphiz

Games: Reviews: 2

It was okay, but this is NOT BG/fallout

I really wanted to like this game, I have to admit I found the initial reviews deceptive, they seemed to suggest this game might have been a new baldur's gate, fallout (1 or 2) or planescape but it really wasn't. What started out really cool began to feel gradually more and more of a grind and chore until finally after who knows how many hours (days?) I eventually realised that I was no longer enjoying it; it wasn't fun any more, I was just trying to finish. I must have been hoping to once again connect with the initial spark I felt in character creation and with the first few lines of dialogue. It was so promising, you can invest in these non-combat skills (linguistics, philosophy, nobility, etc.) but I almost never got any use out of them at all. I think linguistics came up exactly once. Why can't I use linguistics to I don't know, do a poetry slam or argue with someone on the correct use of tense (correct someone on their native language when my character has it as their tenth). The story started off promising but it didn't hold my interest, I can honestly say, me trying my best to roleplay my character and I struggled to care about what occasionally happening (you spend ages wandering near empty terrain to bash up spiders) the NPCs are really just quest/store bots and the companions only occasionally say generic things about areas, they're just scenery, not characters. I felt the whole world was lacking and lacked depth, the spells were interesting but unnecessary, I basically just ended up healing and just waiting for the monsters to fall (and they basically just hit things, I only once saw an enemy use magic and I wasn't impressed). It makes me feel the whole thing was a rushed attempt and is still unfinished. at least I only paid $7 so did I get $7 worth? I guess. tldr. This is not the story driven narrative that is different for any player, it's okay for a bit of fun within the first few hours but an engaging story that feels real? No.

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Posted on: April 11, 2023

chriskonstantine

Verified owner

Games: 105 Reviews: 14

This pains me

I’ve got a lot of respect for indy devs and small studios, (I’ve supported some directly, and others through articles I’ve written at SSC and eXplorminate)…so this below is with a heavy heart. If you’ve ever read a good book/novel, one thing you’ll notice is that you don’t have to read the same page, (or passage), twice in order to understand what’s going on and keep up with the story. In one sense, a good game should be like that as well, fluid and intuitive. Serpent in the Staglands is anything but. While I’ve always favored content over graphics, this game is hideous. Yes, hideous, and that’s an understatement. When I have to set my cursor over an animal to see what species it is, or look at my inventory and try to decipher what it is I’m looking at, it goes beyond “old school” and becomes downright atrocious. It kills the flow of the game. Then there’s the UI, wtf? I like to be challenged by the game itself, not the interface. And I dislike complexity for complexity’s sake. It isn’t fun or original, it’s counterproductive. Throw in some poor balancing and you get a title that is best left alone. (In this respect BG 1 did a great job of throwing credible threats at a first level character but still allowing a path to victory, this game…) First time I’ve regretted a purchase here, not for the money mind you, but the time I spent. Two stars, it’s exactly what it deserves.

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Posted on: October 19, 2020

Lookda

Verified owner

Games: 413 Reviews: 53

I wish I knew what I was watching for

SitS earns 4 stars for its uniqueness, amazing east European medieval setting, exploration over handholding, pen-and-paper roleplaying, and an astounding effort from the two-person development team. Even so, SitS hides many limitations behind a curtain of confusion. The first tip to play SitS is to use a journal and write down everything of notice. You only don’t know what is of notice? An ingame character puts it simply: I wish I knew what I was watching for. The initial quest to forward the main story is to find a scholar. The scholar tells you interesting stuff about the Staglands, but no pointers on what to do next? It turns out that the quest-giver tells more, about a look in the scholar’s library. This context info is what you been watching for. Great world immersion, sadly, I wasn't immersed for too long, before realizing how the game communicates. There is great roleplaying, yet limited. Conversations turn out the same, regardless of the dialog you pick. At best you decide who gets killed. You cannot loot someone’s house without having to kill the owner. You can talk and then pickpocket to get two quest items, but you might not find any on a dead corpse, as I found out after randomly killing an herb witch. Merchants don’t restock, but take any item from your inventory unless it is a stacked item in which case you need a full stack before you can sell. Halfway through the game, the inventory is overloaded with partial item stacks, keys, biscuits and scrolls, items of which you are not sure you can drop. You find an useful incantation book, but find the most interesting incantations in an out-of-game .pdf manual. You can steal stat points from companions without them caring. SitS offers a unique experience and can provide satisfaction after understanding something initially confusing. On the other hand, SitS is often more of a textbook investigation with symbols than an actual computer game. It is sad, because the setting is something really special.

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Posted on: December 19, 2021

Kismet1980

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 13

Clunky, but appealing for right gamer

So, this was not a success with me, but I think the right RPG afficinado will appreciate it. I came looking for an atypical RPG, and it succeeds with the theme, but I was alienated by the interface and how slow it was. It came across clunky to me, but others could really appreciate how different and creative this is. If you haven't played many RPGs, this is not for you. Baldurs Gate / Icewind Dale should come first. If you are looking for an atypical RPG, Age of Decadence is vastly more digestible and satisfying. This is for a specialist taste, who can appreciate the theming.

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Posted on: December 18, 2017

roy.kossen

Verified owner

Games: 258 Reviews: 3

Problems and Extremely Difficult

TLDR: Nostalgic feel however extremely difficult to play. Character creation, check. Old school pixel sprites, check. Atmospheric music, check. Logical gameplay.... nope. Slow loading.... check. Where Baldur's Gate throws you into the story pretty fast, Serpent in the Staglands throws you into a complete mystery, immediately. There is zero tutorial, and within a few steps outside of the starting building you can have your party be severely hurt by just a single fox or wolf. Because there is no tutorial you have no clue how combat is supposed to work. Cast a fear spell on an enemy? Sure... however it is firing on the spot where the enemy was when you started casting, but by now the enemy has since moved and your caster keeps firing the beam onto the ground. Okay well lets just have the whole team bash that weak fox. The fox is dead, along with one of your party members and another severely hurt. I really wanted to give this game a chance, but it is simply to difficult. Think of Baldur's Gate at maximum difficulty and then double that. A simple introduction to the game mechanics via a tutorial could maybe have made this game a lot more playable. The story sounds intriguing however the big walls of text are a burden to read through. The text doesn't flow nicely like in other classical rpg's. There are also a number of grammatical errors in the first few minutes of the game. This makes it difficult to let yourself be immersed into the story. Finally, the game has extremely long loading times. I have it installed on an SSD. When you move from one map to the next, expect loading times of 20 seconds. This is weird since the full game install is 2,9GB. So it almost feels like each loading screen reads the full game to memory. I give this game 2 stars for effort.

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