Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones

As a Kickstarter backer, I was very excited about this game. It had the promise of weird exploration rather than just a demon hunt. While the game's artistic style is good, the actual sense of exploration is rather bland. There is little in the way of payoff when you discover something, other than the character's sanity taking a hit. Many times you're thrust into unavoidable combat and the characters are in no way designed to be warriors, so you end up battered constantly. Even stealth doesn't always get you through unscathed. I'm also not a fan of games that require you to rest after a certain amount of time has passed, or to keep a supply of rations on hand because your characters regularly get hungry. Not resting or eating causes you to incur penalties. This just makes you burn through funds to stay stocked. Finally, there is a common, game-killing bug right near the end that has yet to be fixed and no workarounds have been offered. I recommend trying the demo. If this game seems like the one for you, wait until the next major patch comes out before buying.

I stumbled upon the 2019’s Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones. A full blown RPG with character creation, skillchecks in dialogue and companions, set in a classic lovecraftian setting? Count me in! It starts promising, if a little cliche – a character creation full of lovecraftian archetypes, a scholar, an occulist, an aristocrat, a private detective... You get to asign points to various skills, and some of them seemed pretty interesting and while you get some that are of obvious use in an action scene, like firearms or melee or medicine, some others are strangely out-of-combat specific, like psychology or science. Now, when the first combat concluded I discovered probably my favourite system in the game – ANGST. Every encounter you survive, regardless of whether you win or run away, levels up your ANGST. Every time you gain an ANGST level, you gain a special perk. They are nothing but an obligatory drawback, to represent your character slowly falling apart mentally as the strain mounts. Some of the negative perks affect dialogue, changing some of your options into deranged, bloody script, making it harder to communicate with some npcs or to finish some quests. What about the story? I’ll admit, it’s pretty formulaic – a small town, dark cults, Cthulhu himself... I wouldn’t say it’s great, but it’s servicable and okay. There’s also some cool 2D visuals in the game, befitting the tone and the lovecraftian theme. BUT. There’s one big problem with the game. When it really picks up speed and you’re like “heh, that was actually a quite cool first half of the game”, the game just... ends. No conclusion, no resolution, no solving the plot threads set up earlier. Just... ends. It’s kinda like the devs ran out of money or time?

Great game. The story is amazing. Character creation by itself makes the game unique. Combat is great. I love how the game combines many of Lovecraft's stories together. Recommend the game to any fan of H.P's work

Would very wish for more games of this high calibre, with so much love poured into detailed worldbuilding. - Captivating story which wants you to go on - Estetically pleasing in sound, visual design, macabre realities - Easily flowing gameplay thanks to UI - Nice turn based combat system - Captures the spirits of the Lovecraftian stories it references, builds up on it and lets you experience the bizzare otherworldly incomprehensiveness governing the games reality I havent had the bugs that are being referenced in other revievs. Seems like it was fixed in a big patch in the end of 2019.

Great and rare setting. Non-linear plot. Good and unique RPG system.