The Age of Decadence

If you are thirsty for some old-school crpg, similar to original Fallout games or PS:T, this might be right game for you. Storywise game does resemble one is Fallout 1, with mix of Roman Empire era. PROS: -Huge replayability. -Different play styles. (You can complete game without any fight) -Intresting story. CONS: -Some choises railroads you into situations that aren't obvius or well hinted. -Some minor quests are unfinished. -Endings are bit lacklustre.

...once you get over the initial hurdle. Completed the game without a single fight.

I bought this and dove right in. It was disastrous, and I almost gave up. I researched a bit online and realized this game is very difficult. The problem is that it's very linear, and straying from the intended plotline makes it more difficult. I started again, playing an Assassin, focused on the Dodge skill rather than the Block skill (I strongly advise you choose one or the other). I quickly became dominant in combat unless severely outnumbered. Unfortunately, I got to the point where I could not advance the plot any further. I'd defeated all the human enemies, I was the Arena Champion, but I couldn't resolve the lore bits. I started playing again with a soft-skilled Praetor, but quickly lost interest because I'd already wandered all around the settings. Save often! You'll have to re-fight battles until you find a tactical advantage. You'll make a simple mistake that results in your death. You'll spend your xp and then suddenly realize you need a different skill to advance the plot. The tactical battles are what's interesting about this game. The replay-ability is limited. I wish it had a skirmish setting where you could face your character off against enemies in different settings.

It's a good game with a lot of different pathes and different endings. Your options throughout the game and the lore you gather while adventuring will vary greatly depending on whether you play a thief, a loremaster, a drifter, a mercenary or any of the other classes. The music and the story as well as the graphics are good, the writing is blantly funny, the setting very unique, blending genres from alternative history to classic fantasy, to steampunk and even cyberpunk. I also liked the combat system, which is turn-based and thus rather strategic, yet feels pretty fluent. The crafting system is one of the best I came accros in any game so far, the alchemy system lacks a bit variety but is still very useful. But sadly, there are whole areas which you will not be able to access with some builds and a lot of puzzles and quests which will be either very hard or downright unsolveable, forcing you to restart or reload or cheat. If you focus on your combat skills, you will be unable to finish some quests. If you focus on the skills that allow you to solve them, you will be unable to succeed in combat or in situations in which a skill is needed you did not specialise in. Thus, you get stuck again. If you try a balanced build, you will get to midgame and then get stuck, because you lack high-levels in certain skills. What you need to finish this game without restarting is a party of three or four characters. Sadly, this is not implemented, although you meet some npcs along the way that would make great companions. The developers instead published a very similar follow-up title called "Dungeon Rats" which features an adventuring party, but totally lacks all the different approaches and quests, even the whole skill-system. If these two titles features had been in one game, it would have been great. The way it is, it's a bit, well, unfinished.

Cool game, nice and hard combat system, I wish there were more games like it. I personally loved the atmosphere, a couple more nature sounds would have been perfect.