The Age of Decadence

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.

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.

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.

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.

Score: 4/10 Mediocrity Score: Mediocre at Best. The Age of Decadence is a strangely unbalanced turn-based CRPG. It rather uniquely takes combat out from being the main focus and pits the player into a scenario where you can take different approaches. Touted for being a game where "choices matter", the game somehow feels so linear - locking the player into a path chosen early on. Choices in the game will keep you on your toes, that is until you realize the pattern of don't trust anyone. My advice - play the demo first. Tags: mediocre, unbalanced, dialogue-heavy, cheap Play the demo first. Both very difficult and very easy. Unique in its approach, in The Age of Decadence you can 100% avoid all combat in the game by taking a more charismatic-stacked approach in your character build. The game becomes incredibly simple when you choose this non-combat route. It turns into a dialogue-heavy, point-and-click game where if you make the wrong choice you likely will be thrown into a combat situation where you will surely, and cheaply, die. Go with the combat route, and you are faced with a stacked-against-you RNG-based combat which is difficult to the point of coming off as both brutal and cheap. The one thing both routes have in common is the smoke-and-mirrors masking the cheap game-ending situations it constantly throws your way. In complete fairness reading reviews, playing the demo, or even the reading developer's own disclaimers - potential players have been warned that "there is a good chance that you won’t like it, precisely because we took too many liberties with the established design". I can't help but feel like this is akin to being told "Here's the really over-cooked steak you ordered. There is a good chance you won't like it, but since this is all intentional - we've taken an extra heavy-handed approach with its blackened design." Yet here I am, disappointed that I paid for a really over-cooked steak that has an impressive char-broiled aesthetic.