The Age of Decadence

This game will change the way you think real fast.

I have tried this game after reading many things about it, both good and bad. What I found is a really great game, with truly satisfying choice and consequences, which matter and change the game completely, to the point than in a single playthrough you just see a small portion of the game. The plot is well written and different than the usual quest to save the world. The combat system is tactic and full of options, if unforgiving. What's important to get is that you can't do everything in a single playthrough. Specializing is key, particularly for beginners, who should focus on a limited number of skills and play styles.

GAMEPLAY Illogical, inconsistent, railroaded. Ever heard of Rule of Three in RPGs? There's Rule of No Choice instead. You either pass a railroaded skillcheck, or don't and enter a railroad to hell. For the majority of the game, there is a single option to complete your endeavour. DIFFICULTY You can't succed in the game without a guide. Anyone who tells you the contrary is a liar. COMBAT Requires skill min-maxing and luck. Otherwise, you die. NON-COMBAT Requires skill min-maxing and luck. Otherwise, you die. STORY Would be great for a game of 80-90s, but definitely boring in 2010s at the time of release, and simply out novelty and freshness of in 2020s. DIALOGUES Prepared by authorlings working for peanuts. Neither engaging, nor masterly written. CONCLUSION The devs spent 10 or so years to build a game where a player doesn't matter, and they succeded. You, as a player, don't matter. I'm totally fine with this approach, people are/were playing ADOM or Wizardry or Darkest Dungeon or Darks Souls or BG1/2-LoB difficulty. The only thing that they were distinguishing themselves from "meer power RPG developers" and promised to present multilayer branching. However, at the end they turned out to be long-nosed Pinocchios, not even nearly fulfiling their promises.

Age Of Decadence is one of the greatest turn-based RPGs I've ever enjoyed! I'm a huge ancient history nerd and particularly like Ancient Rome as a setting, so this game's low-fantasy take on that period was the first thing that intruiged me. I knew I'd instantly like this game from the start due to the varied classes and character customization possibilities. It's all clearly well thought out, with an exquisite attention to detail. From stats, to dialogue options, to branching questlines with real consequences that actually give you agency and impact. The music is enchanting. The atmosphere is mysterious and compelling, with every major city unique and changing as you progress through the game. I adore the rich lore. It's presented entirely text-based, which means engaged and thoughtful reading. My current playthrough is for an Assassin. The way this game handles the guilds and the approach for this parcitular class is refreshing. You have plenty of oppurtunity to strengthen your loyalty or to change sides dynamically. It's an amazing feeling! Combat is definitely punishing...if you're not strategic and misspend your skill/combat points. I actually had to restart the game completely once to get the hang of it. Then the game opened up to the point that my reputation actually deterred further needless combat, offering different dialogue options based on my body count. This is an example of how eery single aspect of this game is interconnected, building up until it pays off beautifully. The writing is just top knotch. A focused narrative with plenty of twists that demand multiple playthroughs with different characters to undertand the full extent. Addictive gameplay that's fun precisely because it's challenging. This game is unique not only for it's old-school mechanics in an age where everyhting is dumbed down, but because it truly has soul and passion. I'm so happy I took a chance on Age of Decadence!! I'll be enjoying it for a long time to come.

The reviews saying that this game is great are BS reviews. The combat system is just unfair, the game keeps saying that the combat is supposed to be hard, but it's not "Challenging" Hard, it's usually "Impossible" hard! I got stuck multiple times not being able to complete certain combat sequences, but also not being to use any other option. The roleplaying is limited , there's a good chance you could ruin you campaign, by saving before a combat sequence which you can't complete,but not having any other roleplaying options, thus you have to reload a previous save(Or start over completely, they said it themselves they don't expect you to do that well throughout your first playthrough!) The game punishes you like this all the time! I don't recommend this game, the "Post-apocalyptic, isometric, roman rpg" theme is cool, but the game is, in my opinion, horribly made.