Vagrus - The Riven Realms

early access = alpha "full" release = beta 1+ year after release = Gold It has potential but is far away from being ready. Glitches and bugs, unbalanced and many many important missing features. Personally I would be ashamed to release a game in this state and asking money but it seems some people have no shame.

Make it quick, traveller! I have to get back on the road, or what is left of it in this forsaken world. So you thought about getting into the vagrus business eh? Tired of this dirty hole you call your home you want to feel the wind around your nose and the grindy sand beneath your feet and all that romantic nonsense? Let me tell you a story and then you tell me again if you want to lead a life like that. Margins are thin these days. Befriending one of the great houses is certainly a good idea for a freelancer like me, but getting there is quite a grind and takes determination. Sure we can sell this pottery over to the towns near the crytal forest for a revenue of a few silver coins, but it is a week long trip and the wages of my crew are already at 6 silver, not even including the supply cost to keep everyone fed and happy. I also want to get back to that old rich lady in the big city up north and help her with her problem, but right now it is just not profitable enough to go there just for that reason. If I go to the mines first and get some marble to haul into the big city it might just do the cut, but then we are in for the long run and a week long journey through the bone fields filled with undead and bandits... Ultimately, it is all about planing ahead.

Overview: This is an excellent game containing the exploration, branching choices and easy threat of dissolution that reminds one of sunless sea or skies. The worldbuilding is top notch, dialogue is usually quite good, though as it is in early access there are still grammatical and spelling errors, here and there. Development team is quite active and attentive, which gives hope about the future development of the game. Setting: The game itself is set in a dystopian world where you may begin to question your own participation in this land. Kindness and compassion are costly choices and survival itself is not assured. That said, more could be done around exploring the morality and ethics of participation in this land. Trade: The economic aspects of this game, which align to a trading simulator, still need to be refined. Trading goods themselves is not particularly lucrative, you're much better off acting as the pack mule for larger trading housing and carrying their goods. Exploration which is richly rewarded with dialogue, secrets, and fascinating lore about the world tends to be punished economically. A better balance still needs to be achieved between cost of travel and profit. Combat: Finally, combat is not the strength of this game currently which makes the frequency of encounters a chore at times. Should you want to invest in a more combat oriented 'vagrus' you will be consistently punished for it as combat is fickle, the calculations impenetrable, and the options around strategy and tactics, limited in scope and efficacy. I generally chose to simply buy off or lure away the vast majority of threats. Currently, should one try and play the game without reloading, combat is a sure way to develop anger issues. That said, game is in early access and shows immense promise. Enjoyment of and capacity to read is a must, but if you appreciate excellent worldbuilding and a great story, this game is worth it, despite its rough edges.

The game is difficult and there is a lot of reading. You can also royally screw yourself by not taking the right actions at the right time. However, it is totally beatable if you stick with it and learn the nuances of the various mechanics. The main complaint is that the game world map is much larger than the playable area of the game. The developers have addressed this and given a rationale for it. I am hoping that the game world will expand if the developers have enough success with the game to justify expansions/DLC. If you like games like Battle Brothers and text-based RPGs, this game should tickle both itches. It is definitely worth a buy.

The world, its cities, regions and its people are well thought out and richly designed and described. The trading system works well, and is a challenging but fun aspect of the game to master, and complemented well by various other tasks and mechanisms. The (current) lack of a central, over-arching questline, and the fact that there is no way to play the game perfectly (choosing one thing generally puts the second option beyond your reach), means that you, as a player, are both free to do as you want and that choices are meaningful. Truly meaningful, not some small changes to a reward or dialogue. I'm interested to see how the game will be further developed.