Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones

I needed 45 hours of gameplay to finish the game with my first character, for me it was very difficult to understand the general logic and mechanics (what should I buy and what not, which skills should I upgrade etc.) but the game itself was so attractive that I kept grinding until I gained thorough knowledge of how to play. It's very good, very well made game overall. I don't like saving system, always remember the approx. time when you save before you quit, it will come in handy. The description of the game is true, based on what kind of character you create, your experience will be unique, youtube won't help you much even if you try to search something there and that for me was an additional bonus. To sum it up you'll need time to learn the game but you'll enjoy it, recommended.

The art is just gorgeous. I made myself to the end just to enjoy a little more of the world. The lovecraftian feel is precise and coherent with the original work. But the game didn't work well as a typical RPG. Combat is very simple and feel more like an obstacle than a feature. The char building isn't intricate and choices of weapon / playstyle didn't seem to make a difference. Maybe a point 'n click narrative adventure would make more sense.

This game has too many bugs (many of them game breaking) to recommend it. I love Lovecraft's stories and this game does a really good job at utilizing the source material. The atmosphere was spot on. The only problem is that i can't finish the story because the arkham stabber quest has a serious bug where two important NPCs don't spawn and make further progress impossible. There are many bugs of this caliber which result in quests that cannot be finished. The developers have clearly moved on to a new project (some cat game) and I would not assume that there will be any more patches fixing any of the many bugs i have encountered. I had much fun up until this point but in the end i am just disappointed that i cannot finish the game because of broken quests. The game is clearly unfinished and untested.

There's one thing that seems to be an universal truth when it comes to video games - adapting Lovecraft and his works to this format is hard and rarely seems to work. There are only a handful of titles across various platforms that truly deserve to be labelled Lovecraftian and are actually fun-to-play video games at the same time. Stygian...well, it has issues with the latter part of the sentence. As far as its story, setting, art style, music, atmosphere etc. go, Stygian is simply great, even if also simple at times. You create and play as a character in Arkham, a city which has been mysteriously torn away from this world of ours and cast into some unknown dimension of utter darkness and eldritch horrors. There's plenty to see and experience here, and it is truly pleasant to see just how much love and respect the developers have for HPL's work, as well as the time period his works take place in. Some of the details here are truly things that only hardcore fans of HPL's work will know. The story and the quests are filled with mystery, but also play fairly straightforwardly. There are sometimes multiple solutions for your tasks, but in general, the game progresses fairly linearly. It is not an issue, however, since it is so well done. So why the 3 stars? Well, Stygian has one crippling fault. Its combat. To put it simply, it is awful. This isn't a combat-focused game, and the developers warn you about that from the get-go. But whether you like it or not, there are combat instances here which are essentially unavoidable. And while you can have a character/party build that will make fighting through the game a breeze, the fact still remains that the combat is poorly designed. Playing it feels like a chore and takes the joy from an otherwise fun and unique game. If you are looking for a stylish Lovecraftian RPG and are willing to ignore and deal with the glaring flaws of one of its core features, go for it. If you're looking for anything else, probably avoid.

As a story adventure with lots of dialog and weirdness there's a lot to like from that start. The setting and art is great and the character creation offers a potential variety to progression and gameplay... BUT.... Where it fell down for me was the niggles that just kept appearing the more I played. - You cannot avoid combat and if you choose the non-physical/melee characters you are screwed. - Combat is not good and feels like I'm fighting the UI to see what's going on and what I can do, all the while ALWAYS taking stupid amounts of damage. - Your characters need food else they get exhausted - there's a constant depleting stat because of course there is - Your characters need rest else they loose sanity -, again, there's a constant depleting stat because of course there is (it just sucks the atmosphere out of the game to have to constantly bloody rest) - You are constantly rummaging through things to find cigarettes (the game's currency) and it's never enough. -I've not quite worked out why there's a stealth option in the game because it's not effective. -There's a crafting system because of course there is (I'm starting to think this game copied far too much from zombie survival games, to it's detriment)