Tales of Maj'Eyal

The game I've bought (and not got for free -- to support the developer) asks in the middle for donations. Really? Otherwise, it's a decent roguelike.

I've around 260 GoG games. I see a game on sale and imagine playing it and its addictive to own. I play as often as I can, but many Titles sit. Maj'Eyal is taking all my playing time. I'll start another game, but quickly come back to this one. It is great. You can opt to play with endless lives, but I've never done that. I have played Adventure mode that gives you a few lives and more as you level up. So you don't have to play true Roguelike if you don't want too. That is a plus. There are various classes and races. I've never completed the game... yet. I haven't even tried many of the class/race options. I want to "win" using my class/race first. The replayability of this game is great. If you grew up around or got introduced and loved the NETHACK type games, then your sure to love this. I know this isn't much of a review, but once you get into the style of game this is, it is very addictive and fun. It speaks a lot that I find myself playing this soo much with so many other choices available to play. There are many great games out there, but when I play them, I have been finding myself wishing I was playing Maj'Eyal instead.

But the game was made in 2012? Why say Old School? Because it LOOKS Old School! This game does everything I have wanted so many new games to do: skip the souped up graphics that my computer may or may not handle well... Skip super original mechanics that are sometimes frustrating and take away from the story I'm trying to enjoy... Skip all the crap. Just use a trusted, simple format and beef it up! Plug in a ton of content, keep the story line fun. Make it enjoyable! Things I love about this game- -Your character is a flat 2D image moving on a flat surface. No walking animations, but you DO see when your character puts on a cloak or hat, or equips a staff or a sword. -It's turn base... So you're enemies will wait until you move to move. Take you're time and plan ahead, if you can. -Lots of races and classes to choose from to perfect your preferred playing style. -Lots of items and spells to equip and play with. -Great, if not simple, storytelling that keeps you engaged. -Lots of different types of areas to explore. -OPTIONS! You don't like Perma-Death? Try Explore mode, where you have infinite lives! Beef up you're character as much as you want and decimate you're enemies! Too easy? Try Adventure Mode where you have limited lives. You LIKE punishing yourself? Try the Plus Mode where immediate Perma-Death is a thing and suffer all you want. -There's DLC available that add a ton of content. Now for the CON- -There's people out there who don't understand things. There's reviews about this game being a scam... What? Yes, the game asked me if I wanted to make an online account, and that there would be some perks... I don't have internet at my home computer, so I said "no" and passed that up... I STILL GET THE ENTIRE GAME THAT I PAID FOR AND LOVE IT. No reason to dock the game for stars because I didn't get connected to an online community. Geeze... If you know what you're buying it's a 5 star game. It does all that the description page says it does.

TOME has been setting the standard for years. There is no commercial alternative (and never has been to my knowledge) that approaches the depth and replayability. You get years of valuable playtime for nothing, not even having to register, on the creator's website. The creator deserves the right to offer something extra for those who want to support his work. The foundational game is enough for anyone. But I just bought the whole thing because it was on sale and because it's outstanding. If you want good games like these, put something into talented creators. Buy it and pat yourself on the back.

Random generation just means more game to play and more fun, right? Eh....usually, it is not so clear-cut. I have come to immediately ignore any game that advertises "roguelike elements" personally, and if you are that way, I urge you not to lump this, very good, game in with those bad experiences. This game, instead of using a fast respawn rate to justify unpolished and unbalanced chaoticity, has well-placed random elements, just enough to keep things interesting without sacrificing story or strategy. This game has a lot of interesting classes, some of which you have to unlock by exploration, which is part of the interesting worldbuilding. The campaign is not random, but quests consist of doing more exploration and combat, so their presence is not intrusive in repeated games. Combat is technically turn-based, but you can speed through the turns or slow down at will. The game is very combat oriented with hardly any roleplay; fortunately the combat is a lot of fun. A word about difficulty: classes are not equal in difficulty, and in general, you will unlock harder classes to try as you play. You can also select between permadeath, limited lives, and unlimited lives. A permadeath run is amazingly doable compared to most roguelikes, and the game is even fair enough to be fun with this turned on. You do have to be _very_ patient, as the automove feature is not smart enough to avoid some deathtraps. If you don't want to do permadeath, the game will not punish you for it, either, which is refreshing. Two things that caused me to knock off a star. This game is available for free, which is fine. What is not fine is that this paid version of the game available on GOG still contains advertisements asking you to consider buying the game. I really think the dev should take the time to remove those. Also, since someone has to say it, the art is...subpar, especially the loading screens. The game art itself (tiles and sprites) is not bad enough to be distracting.