Posted on: January 3, 2020

SangoProductions

Games: 29 Reviews: 1

A labor of love

From the moment I saw it in early access, I wanted it. Then years later, I forgot about it, and it was offered for free. So certainly can't complain about free stuff, but here's the review none the less. Pros: -A metric butt ton of content, rivaling the lengths of (non-'open world') AAA games. (Literally 2 straight days of play, and I was 1/3 of the way through.) -The level design and details on the environment is quite insane (especially for an indie game). -An interesting, bold, tactical squad-based combat system. -An initial feeling of choice of character progression. -A rich, lovingly detailed story with characters of some depth (although they occasionally break charcter for some reason) -Ignoring the combat, the story is reasonably well paced, with just enough to keep you intersted. Cons: -The "mechanics" of the game, as I'll explain below. -The combats get really, really repetitive, and slows the game down. By day 2, I turned it to story mode and fast forwarded the combats. They weren't really a challenge after unlocking the mage anyway....save for when your characters one shot themselves on reflect aura. -A shallow character progression. Each ability has 2 different alterations you can make to it...which while I can appreciate the development time, really doesn't offer any more than stat bumps for progression past that initial choice. -Gold-based progression. There's no XP. Instead, you collect gold, and spend that gold to upgrade buildings which allow you to spend gold to level up characters. The real way to obtain enough gold to level up your party is doing these "challenges," which the game never shows you how to access, so it'd have to be almost by accident to even see the little tab. I don't appreciate it. -The gear was mostly junk. You rarely got an upgrade. Or even a situational side grade. Unique items are rarely even powerful enough to be a side grade. -Story mode should have just made the combats a fade-to-black, and then fade back in.

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Posted on: January 18, 2020

GrandmaKilledU

Verified owner

Games: 2 Reviews: 1

Fun game!

Smart game design, complex features that are easy to understand and use yet add a lot of strategy to gameplay. The story arc is on par with anything I have found in gaming. Overall, my only complaint is the game needs a AAA level make over. Bring some elements up in quality and content additions and this title is a real contender compared to a lot of other games. As is, it is a wonderful smaller game made by Devs who put a lot into their game! I have it installed on my system and you should too!

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Posted on: January 28, 2020

Talonius

Verified owner

Games: 1523 Reviews: 5

Fun!

It's been a long time since I've been drawn into a game to the point I lose track of time. This is my first review on GOG, despite being a user for over ten years. Tower of Time has really impressed me. Tower of Time is an RPG that isn't so complex I have to write the attributes down and chart out how they affect each other, and the story is interesting enough that I want to know what happened. But again, not so complicated I need a listing of gods and domains to understand. Upgrading gear and skills is fun, with little punishment to resetting. The tactical combat is real time, but throws me back to playing the Gold Box SSI games. (Something I play, to this day. My wife recognizes the sounds of Pool of Radiance. Once she hears them she says "Oh God, not again." and wanders off to leave me to my memories.) That's not to say the game doesn't have tactical depth or a detailed story. Compare it to reading Brandon Sanderson vs Robert Jordan. Jordan told you in detail about the lace cuffs on a character while describing them. Sanderson will give you more of an impression and a few details. What you prefer is up to you. You can dip in and out of the game easily, meaning those of us with little free time can play, save, and return to where we were. The skills - so far - have been universally useful. I need more time to decide if my enchantments are valid or not -- I had been hoarding gems, afraid to use them, but have found them to be fairly plentiful. I'm impressed, and am awaiting the developer's next game eagerly.

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Posted on: February 3, 2020

Alucard20101

Verified owner

Games: 118 Reviews: 69

Effort was made

Got this during this past winter sale for free. I appreciate that there seems to be a lot of love put into this game with the scenario and the design assets - but the game is just really boring. I can't say I'm really inspired enough by the story to continue on past this first hour or so I've sunk into the game. Additionally, it's really weird to me that everyone is supposed to be in hard times and there's no sun or food or fun and DOOM! is upon everyone. But then, I look at my characters in my inventory screen and they have some fat, full faces. In contrast, I think of Summoner where a lot of the characters were in a ravaged world and they absolutely looked the part - gaunt, skeletal peasants scrambling against an empire. The combat system is interesting, but ultimately felt a bit lacking to me. The main fighter nearly singing all of his combat lines is both incredibly hilarious (unintentionally funny) and also super cringe inducing. I gave it a shot, was left wanting more. While I also wasn't that impressed with Pathfinder, it was a wee bit better than this game. The standard bearers for CRPGs will still be Fallout, the Infinity Engine games, and some of the early, 3D BioWare titles like KoToR.

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Posted on: February 24, 2020

junibegood

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 1

Average in everything

If you like RPGs for their stories, quests and dialog, this game does a decent job. It's not something you will never forget, it's not a ridiculous story that just serves as a filler between combats either. If you like RPGs for their combat, this game has interesting ideas but fails to use them properly. The promise of challenging combat that will force you to think out of the box and adapt your strategy to many encounters is unmet. Encounters favor DPS by design (mostly because new ennemies spawn regulary and you want to kill a wave before the next one spawns). It's challenging for whatever time you need to get used to its gameplay, understand the stats and know what your characters can do, but once you've reached this point, nothing survives long enough for any tactic to matter, even on highest difficulty. Besides, if the game was really challenging, a combat log would be necessary to really understand how things work. There is none. If you like RPGs for character customization and building, this game has no "roleplay" customization. You control pre-generated characters with their own appearance and personnality, so it's more an adventure game than a RPG on that part. It has a simple but effective stats system. Itemization, on the other hand, is a bit messy. The most important stats are on magical properties that are completely random, even on crafted items. If combat was really challenging, this would force you to reload to get the item you want. If you like RPGs for their graphics, sound and music, this game does a good job on that part. Overall, it's a good game, but with several big design flaws that make it repetitive and boring after the first few hours.

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Highlights

Featured

Close, but not an exact hit

Tower of Time

Engaging story of epic proportions

Deep tactical real-time combat with pause or slow-time

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