Vagrus - The Riven Realms

i felt vagrus was worth a review. as a gamer growing up in d&d ; i fell in love with baldurs gate. yea diablo was fun. but what about planescape torment? remember when fallout was a top view isometric...yea man before the graphics confused a good game. i only really play turn based. this is so rich. so much to learn and read. i wish disciples could spin a tail like this.......... But why am i playing? ... where do i want to go? who cares if i just avoid fights? why do i want resources? why do i keep reaching a far town; only to say nah! to much resources . then load a save from a while ago. i often buy games come shoulder /fall season. and end up not finishing come spring. (divine , POI , pathfinder.) but i finish just as many. so im ok leaving at a fun point . but where was the fun? if you have bought a good book lately; buy this game. if its on sale buy this game. its rich , i just can't find a good reason to keep playing after 2 months and 40 + hours.

One of the best things about the game is its balance. If your party size reaches a certain point you get Moral penalty etc. Quite atmospheric music and art. Nice battle system. Detailed enough, but no annoying micromanagement. The game is tough, but for its an advantage. A harsh world that is!

A well written narrative adventure with an incredible sense of place and history; will leave you wanting to explore more into the setting.

Though it's not one for your typical casual. Unless they are looking to broaden their horizons and immerse themselves into something a bit deeper. The game is text heavy but there are a lot of interesting systems going on, such as the trade, resource and risk management. And i am enjoying the combat (which is tactical) and exploration. It can be frustratingly difficult at times though the easier difficulty level mitigates this a bit. I was tempted to score it higher, but i reserve top rating for my favourite genre of RPGs, which are isometric (Baldurs Gate, Pillars of Eternity etc). But nontheless, i consider Vagrus to be among the best of it's sub genre. Which is the narrative focused, resource management focused adventures (this includes titles like Kingdom of Dragon Pass and Sunless Sea).

I like the Dark Sun esque setting and the story so far. The interface isn't smooth, esp. in tutorial when frequently text blocks things I need to click. There is a lot of resource management and with the interface issues (buttons don't always click when pressed and I have to hover a lot until they activate) I've "oopsed" a lot. An "Undo" function would be helpful, or , failing that, a way to save, even in the tutorial so you can back out of a choice that went wrong. It's gritty, so rather unforgiving of a wrong purchase or small differences in resources, so some way to back up just a little and try again would go a long way. For the same reason better tools to understand where resources are going. It's minor but given the granularity of attention to resources used, the limitations on cargo being so coarse is frustrating sometimes. Despite that I'm having a good time exploring and figuring things out.