Vagrus - The Riven Realms

... but for a few days the game officially has release-status ... matter of factly it is still a bug-riddled work in progress ... obviously there's quite some content missing - i.e. character backgrounds ... combat system is adopted from Darkest Dungeon but the implementation for Vagrus still feels very ramshackle ... game concept still needs a lot of polishing and suffers from balacing issues - especially food requirements on journeys and probabilities in combat Game concept, ideas and stories are really great nonetheless and the game has much potential if brought to a decent state of development. Currently the game suffers from a lot of glitches and bugs, severe balance issues, and many important missing features.

Thank you for an interesting game. Sadly, this game has dynamics that mean you can be randomly attacked every 3-4 nodes when not escorting someone too much of the time. The ghouls are the most boring part of the game. They have 2 attacks per turn, making them impossible in quantities of 4 or more, and they have a very high dodge skills. They leapfrog to the front doing some brutal attack to boot, causing consistent targeting by your party of a single ghoul to be VERY difficult. The game freezes randomly (4 time now in 100 hours - re-installing doesn't help) in the Rest UI, causing me to have to kill the game in the task manager, because the books can be opened, but not even the menu to load, save, or quit will not work. Some merc tasks do not clearly show you where to turn them in. There needs to be two settings: one for people just playing, and one for the power-gamers. This looks like a role-play game, because you can construct a character. It plays like a power-gamer game, in that you need certain builds to get through certain portions. Having already equipped my companions to the gills, the ghouls shouldn't be impossible, but you have one fight after the other, after the other with no chance to just stop for a moment in a chamber and heal. Obviously, that should be possible. This happens with some quests, too. You defeated the group, and BOOM you have another without pause, with text asking if you really finished what you were supposed to. A not-clever ploy to overwhelm the non-power-gamer. It is challenging enough to get to some of these remote places and back because - food. It took a while to learn to overcome the discontent of the slaves and caravan in tough spots, and now I just re-load my game when I am attacked over and over and over without escorting anyone. There is so much here to explore! It is a very cool game world. You pick a trader for a reason, or an explorer. If a player desires more fights, they can always pick a merc.

If you like books(especially fantasy) and RPG games, then this is must have. Im glad i found this(well hidden) gem.

Vargus is a great game as long as you like to read which I do. It has been a while since I have immersed myself in an amazing fantasy book and this is scratching that itch with the added benefit that I am making the story. Coupled with stunning artwork Vargus is an immersive masterpeice that paints a better picture than many rpg's that use modern graphics. Be prepared for lots of reading though and if reading isn't your thing I can't imagine you enjoying this game.

"Get Sunless Sea/Skies formula and crank lore, word count, trading, exploration and companion complexity to 11." Above would be still an inaccurate definition for Vagrus. This is by no means an easy game and that is why the game developers provided a demo. First and foremost you play as a Vagrus which can be a mercenary, a shrewd trader or an explorer...and a real successful Vagrus will be all of them. There are several questlines for factions, companions and some of them are independent contractors which may lead to quite unexpected outcomes. The world itself resembles the old Dark Sun games but with somewhat of Roman Empire and post-apocalyptic twist. Of course trading is the bread and butter for a Vagrus and the economy of the game is important to your survival. At first figuring out the proper routes can be intimidating but to ease that you can start building capital via doing delivery jobs for established factions. If you feel up to it, you can fight at arenas of large settlements and if you get beefy enough you can undertake dangerous quests that require a small army. If you are bored with the usual gameplay, you can always follow through detailed companion and faction quests that will take you all around the playable area. Note that also there is lots of reading involved in the game because the game has its roots on a homebrew tabletop game which developers played for decades. So it is painstakingly detailed in descriptions at times and to be honest apparently a labor of love. This game is a true oasis hidden in the depths of gameworld desert.