Thea: The Awakening

Thea was a game that I really wanted to like... It brought some memories of King of Dragon Pass (in GOG as well). To sum it up: In King of Dragon Pass, you learn to play by submerging into the Orlanthi culture: once you learn about it, the game systems become intuitive and worked together as a whole, with the goal of inmersing the player into the game world, telling stories and having lots of fun in the process. On the other hand, while Thea initially seems to offer a similar experience, based in the Slavic culture this time, in reality it is offering a buffet of mini-games that are complicated for the sake of complexity. Thus, Thea's appeal is for players who value precisely that. To elaborate a bit more: While King of Dragon Pass offers a timeless experience that profits from higly sinergic components, the original Thea felt (for me at least) made of disjointed parts. Plus, Thea did not make itself easy to start with at all. Also, the crafting system was complicated and essential to the game, and for those who do not care too much about crafting, that was hindering the gameplay. Then, the combat with a card game offered interesting features, such as not only representing physical combat, but also combat of wits, etcetera. But again, it was complicated and (for me) eventually repetitive (YMMV). If you feel that you can enjoy learning all the nuts and bolts of the different game systems, this game may well be for you.

I have played this game and lost my progress now on 3 different computers, it has held up well over time. This game is fun to play, it is challenging and you will lose, but the developers want you to have fun. The building resouces part of the game is fun, you can use different resouces to build every thing, and the resouces you use impacts the quality of building and how it impacts the game. You can build a wall our of wood, stone, bone or combinations of them. The story is compelling and you are rewarded for not taking the option of direct combat (although that is almost always an option).

A really lovely combination of Survival, RPG and Strategy! I think the moment my village had a marriage and the people there partied so hard, that a demon showed up the next day and simply wnated to stay, and with that became a playable character was the moment I fell in love with this gem. I admit, I had to get used to the wacky humor of the writing at first, but it quickly grew on me. I also appreciate how progressive the game is and the underlying views on how to live together and all are pretty good imo

I'll be short, the game is a really good one. Nice graphics, pleasant music and interesting story with strong variability of ways how you can play the game. Interesting crafting and battle system. I've spent many hours playing it with pleasure.

TL;DR: the game plays great even after Thea 2 release, and is worth of its money (especially when on sale). If you need a Russian translation for the Story Bundle (officially only English language is available) or proofread English version (original one has a bunch of mistakes), you can find it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/378720/discussions/0/4040355933300374115/ Thea: The Awakening is a curious mix of TBS and RPG with a procedurally generated world, extensive crafting and progression system and tons of events that can happen during the game, all of which ensure a great replayability. It have been said enough about main mechanics, so I would like to say about what captivated me besides the gameplay itself - the atmosphere. A great deal of the atmosphere comes from visuals: the main map view is simple but has its charm - sometimes you will want to zoom in and take a look at what happens on some hex, or how fireflies roam around another one. And the strongest part of visuals are the drawings of characters and gods you see in the inventory screen and in combat challenges: these are simply amazing. Another great part is the setting and writing: Slavic mythology is still quite an unexplored field despite Witcher games showcasing it to a degree, so if you're interested in folk tales the game will offer you a neat and immersive introduction into Slavic take on all things pagan. And the writing is done beautifully - the game features a great amount of events with lots of conditional outcomes, and you will hardly see 20% of them in a single lengthy playthrough. The voice acting for the narrator is also nice, invoking a sense of a tale being told to you - you will rarely want to skip it. And the music is simply beautiful. It never bores you, and you may want to listen to it even outside the game itself - so mellow is the atmosphere it creates. So, if you look for a good game to steal several dozens of hours from you (and your sleep schedule) - go get it!