Posted on: October 19, 2015

maramot

Games: 114 Reviews: 2

AoD sets a new RPG watermak

Age of Decadence, by Iron Tower Studios is an RPG which sets the standard against which RPG connoisseurs will measure future role-playing games for years to come. The game has a number of features which set it apart from most RPG releases in recent years. To name a few such traits, I must refer to the realistic attitudes, motivations and interactions shown by its character cast and in its worldbuilding, the turn-based combat system with a heavy emphasis on tactics, which yet remains surprisingly intuitive, or to the mind-boggling variety of outcomes of its main story and secondary quests. AoD is truly an exceptional occurrence in the recent history of role-playing games. This may seem like it goes without mention, but really, in this game "think before you act" is your guiding principle, along with "save your game often". Whether it's about an ingame decision - like fighting a group of six armed-to-the-teeth thugs - or about your long term strategy in character-building - like spreading his character's skillpoints too thin over too many unrelated skills, being realistic about your character's capabilities is what will keep you alive. Putting yourself in your character's shoes, circumventing his limitations instead of playing superman - isn't this what role-playing is fundamentally about? Age of Decadence is unlike any other RPG you've played in that it will play out differently every time you replay it, depending on your character's background and skills distribution. The developers at Iron Tower Studios have spent a stupefying 10 years in mostly filling up the game with branches of the main and secondary quests, and with branches of the branches. Reactivity in an RPG can never be too much, and in AoD it reaches a point where the world begins to feel more real and alive than you are used to, especially if you have an affinity for its down-to-earth hardboiled novel-like writing style.

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Posted on: June 12, 2018

Ixoliptis

Verified owner

Games: 456 Reviews: 32

Great game marred by horrible combat.

Firstly, this game is a unique cRPG entry with a great theme (post-collapse Roman Empire), it's essentially fallout in the early dark ages. Your choices truly matter, and it's one of the few games where you have an insane number of plot advancement choices that thoroughly alter the course of the plot. But that's pretty much where the praise ends for me. The game never explains itself which is a problem as you can get stuck with no idea what to do next, this problem is evident as early as arriving in Maadoran (the second city you visit in this game). And since there's barely any info online about this game, you are stuck "trial and error"-ing new playthroughs or saves (some of which might lead to dead-ends) until (and if) you find a breakthrough. And now about the main problem: combat. I went into this game expecting a truly difficult combat that requires extreme planning ahead before each move (as is the case with good turn-based titles). What I found is that although the basic combat mechanics are good, it's extremely RNG-reliant, to the point where even with great planning,preparation and an 100% combat oriented build you can either just barely make it through or finish the encounter without even losing a single HP (honestly, hit chances always seemed to me to be purely random to me) . Which means that when you notice this, you will just keep reloading the game save until you get lucky enough to fnish the encounters ...which ultimately takes all the fun out of it. Having said that, you can make pure non-combat builds and focus on pacifist runs, but again.. the fact that you don't have a direction in this game means that choices that unknowingly lead to combat will lead to forced reloads or even new games. SYNOPSIS: - If you focus on pacifist playthroughs: 3.5 stars. -if you focus on combat playthroughs: 2.5 stars.

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Posted on: October 21, 2015

Afrogermanic

Verified owner

Games: 74 Reviews: 3

Give me my axe!

This RPG does what it does *extremely* well! I haven't enjoyed a game quite this much in a while. The Age of Decadence really does the trick and I'm much looking forward to Iron Tower's next game.

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Posted on: January 22, 2016

vaultcity

Verified owner

Games: 44 Reviews: 1

Best CRPG of 2015

Deconstructions are a hip thing nowadays, but few games really deconstruct the genres they belong to. The Age of Decadence manages to deconstruct the CRPG genre from some of its most dubious characteristics while incorporating game mechanics similar to those of "Choose Your Own Adventure" games for much of its plentiful of options, real choices and real consequences together with great combat. No filler combat. Every battle is hard, challenging and significant, twice so for a hybrid with both diplomatic and combat skills. There are many strategic options and some tactical ones as well. Another good thing is that there are no hours to waste watching your character hiking. You can "teleport" anywhere, although you will miss some content if only you do so. This isn't a game that reacts to the limitations of characters better than most in the genre, whether Action or pure, and factional grudges matter. Not all is perfect, but the developer still is actively improving the game. In the last version I played, for example, the 40 Thieves is a somewhat disappointing faction because their quests have way too much killing and way too little stealth and thievery. Narrative "teleports" sometimes go too far. The engine is old, the graphics OK except for combat animations which outdo many AAA games. The number of choices thins. They are very significant in the beginning, where characters have completely different game starts, entire areas of the game will be accessible only if you created a character with the right skills and stats and joined the right faction to get through them. Once you join a faction, while there will be opportunities for betraying those later, doors will always close, and a reputation for disloyalty also matters. The Lore and Crafting skills overshadow all others when it comes to opening opportunities and crafting also helps a lot with combat. Despite that, few games outside of text-based ones can compare in the number of choices and consequences.

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Posted on: February 26, 2017

chest

Verified owner

Games: 107 Reviews: 5

My Path to Frustration

There is an opportunity to play this game without fights, let me show you how I failed mine. I chose a loremaster and spent most of stats in intelligence, perception and charisma. But I wasn't sure if it was possible to complete the game with no fighting at all. So several points were spent in spears and dodging and the majority in Lore, Persuasion, Streatwise and Crafting. I completed only a few missions in starting village Teron and proceeded to Outpost, where I naturally as a loremaster fixed some kind of mechanism and agreed to be escorted to another city. This event suddenly initiated Act II and without a second thought, I explored new city and made lots of saves. Finally I realized that I cannot simply return to the first city and that all quests and opportunities were gone. Problems started to snowball immediately, because I lacked precious skills to pass checks and complete quests. With despair and help of official game wiki, I however managed to make some progress, but stuck in the Act III. There are 2 specific locations which I need to pass. The first one is Dead River, but I lack required lore and craft skills to resolve things peacefully and unable to kill even a single scorpion. The second one is Hellgate: here I lack streetwise and persuasion as well as combat skills to deal with constructs. There are also no side quests left which I'm able to finish. Although the game looks interesting and realistic in some ways, its design flaws ruin the whole enjoyment. It's possible to notify a player, that he'll lose the ability to return and finish his business. And it's possible to provide more solutions keeping in mind lots and lots of character builds (at least for main story line). The game leaves me with a feeling that the weekend was lost.

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