The truth is this isn't a bad game. It isn't even badly executed for the most part. However, there are some incredibly questionable design choices which utterly undermine their efforts and reduce the game to something tedious and just south of boring. So why one star? Because not being bad isn't the same as being good. I only have a few hundred characters so I will speak only to the aspect I find most objectionable RNGs exist in RPGs because, on a tabletop, so many elements are deterministic there needs to be an objective standard to appeal to, firm parameters to operate within for all parties involved so everyone has a fair expectation of what they can do and what can come of it, and, importantly, to introduce a small element of the unknown to make things unpredictable since there is a lot of joy to be found in the unexpected. . .This game however allows for none of that The RNG system is simply rigged. Invest in gear and buffs to set your tanks beyond the reach of your enemies and suddenly you will find they all have critical hits to spare. Want to max a skill related stat and reinforce it with expertise to keep your ranger hidden throughout an encounter? Don't bother, in all opposed roles you will find even though his bonus' are 30% higher than the enemies that there is always someone who beats you on the roll. . .Because there is always a finger on the scale making sure the game isn't too easy, or too hard, that you have some artificial experience designed to make sure you feel precisely what they want you to and nothing else Maybe it is to pad for a distinct lack of content and short play time, maybe its because the AI is very poor (and it is), maybe its because every quest is a fetch quest and they hope by drawing out combat you won't notice the lack of innovation or imagination, maybe they simply don't trust the player. Couldn't say for sure and I don't care This game is average at best, but their weighted dice bring the rating down to one star for me
I have an hour of play, I would've gone on but unfortunately the game state simply isn't stable. In that hour it has frozen six times and deleted all my save games twice leaving only a single autosave each time. I have also gotten stuck in the terrain twice -all without completing the prologue. If the experience were better I might persist but I haven't been convinced its worth the effort You will snap your first five or six lockpicks before you get the idea but its really pretty straight forward so not a problem. Stealth works right out of the box, no complaints there. Can't speak to exploration but there was nothing in the prologue that wasn't purely linear. Combat though. . .Combat is pretty miserable. Weapons feel slow and unresponsive, there is no sense of impact, also no physics for arrows. Successful blocks still result in damage taken just reduced. I would say the idea is to caper back and forth into melee except movement has a weighed down aspect to it as through your character were under water or moving against some sort of resistance, so there is no shuffling out of range of an attack in combat once you get close enough to land a hit yourself. That is fine, I guess, not the way I would want to play anyway, but neither do I want to just face tank everything and chug potions This is pretty rough and as it stands its unplayable. I am going to assume most of these issues will be worked out prior to launch but even if they are. . .Its still a pretty average experience. The starting area is relentlessly tepid. The enemies, what I saw of them, are generic and may as well have been taken directly out of Gothic or Oblivion, so was the environment, and so was the first puzzle I came across -but its all based on a board game so that may be why Anyway. Its not a bad game, just not a very good one, and currently not one which can be confidently played. Once this reaches full release please delete this review but for the Beta people should have a bit of warning
I sometimes regret posting negative reviews on a game. . .But I don't think I will this time. Some things are obvious, such as the fact that at some point in development they decided to go a different direction but were too far along to create the assets needed to support the shift in narrative and so just repurposed what they had. In light of that, they did what they could, but the final product is nothing you could call good. By the time the opening credits end you will suspect a great deal of content was cut and the signs are everywhere after that, from NPCs who have names but no interactions, to conversations about other NPCs who died that you never met. Because there is no immersion or buildup prior to any of this you are left without any emotional anchors and so just shrug off a lot of your early experiences in the game and that disconnect only becomes greater as you go The environment and art style is supposed to be evocative of other, older, titles from Vampire: The Masquerade, such as Bloodlines and Redemption (was that the title, with Christof?). That worked for me, I imagine it will be dated for most though. The main benefit from this is everything loads and plays nicely and with some real fluidity. The levels were well crafted, with breadth and verticality to make exploration interesting but because there is so little to interact with it accomplishes no more than breaking up the monotony -and the gameplay is monotonous. This game ostensibly centers around the White Wolf system werewolves known as Garou, they never touch on any of the lore or background choosing to focus on environmentalism save for in the form of a half dozen "notes" you can pick up and read clearly added in post. That there is a stealth system but you cannot choose when you use it, just as there is a save system but you have no control over that either. There is a dialogue, but again, but its mostly pushed on the player with no opportunity for role playing. This game is just bad
Alright so I was admittedly pretty frustrated my first afternoon with this game. Couldn't hack Normal, didn't really understand what I was doing or how to get it done, every other turn my tower was getting attacked, and even after few days playing as an Artificer I still have no idea what the recipe is for the lesser mountain goat rune but I did figure out beer can be bought from towns. But! After dropping down to Story to experiment at my own pace, and getting that rune off the very first drop in the tutorial, I have found clearing that obstacle was all I needed to really enjoy the game. That and learning that my most immediate neighbor who kept attacking me could be taken out without inspiring the wrath of the other mages. I was well into midgame before I sacked his tower because I was trying not to pick any fights. This game is both better and worse than Eador which it was cloned from. Better game play, worse writing, altogether though it is a better experience. I would like a journal with quest tracking personally and for the quest mobs to range a little less wildly. It would also be nice if one you unlock a recipe for a rune you could just click on the recipe and have the ingredients pulled for you since you get an awful lot of them by the end. While I am complaining. . .Ever tried to hunt a jelly fish? You won't be able to keep up with it, I had task three heroes to box it in almost immediately and then hope it wandered within both sight and range of one of them. It didn't and I never did find it again. The quest heroes are pretty great though. Read the negative reviews because they aren't wrong but if you are on the fence I would say its worth your time and money. Word of advice? Whatever school of magic you choose for playstyle be sure to take Enchantment also. Being able to give your units flight is a must. There are a lot of locations that cannot be reached any other way, well, until end game when you unlock Teleport.
There is a lot to enjoy with the title. The voice acting, dialogue, and story is generally pretty campy -but it works for the title and it keeps the tone well. In fact I was pretty sold on this up until I got to Chapter 25 of 29. The trouble for me is that a tactical game where only one side plays by the rules simply isn't fun. If I lose a character they can't be used again in combat (an absolutely personal and optional decision I made, this isn't a forced state of the game), I didn't realize that this would not be true for the enemies also though. I can kill their named leaders three, four, a dozen times and it means nothing. They just keep showing up with better gear. I get a specific number of troops I can deploy and have to manage my resources accordingly. The enemy can just summon troops anywhere they want onto the battlefield -including directly into the middle of my ranks. I have always resented enemies spawning out of nowhere, this takes it to all new level of immersion breaking annoyance however. Point of fact this is what drove me to uninstall and abandon the game. I was winning the mission until more troops than I had descended into the middle on my party and killed my main character ending the forty or so minutes I had invested in that battle which seemed all but won. There is more I could say but not without spoiling this for those who might be interested and still want the joy of discovery. If you like a challenge and don't have any firm ideas about good game design and just want some light hearted fun I would say buy it and I hope you enjoy it. Anyone else. . .Well. . .At least now you know what you are in for.
There are some things about this game I really like, like the way you can toggle quests with the arrow key. I hate flipping through menus in a game and this was thoughtful and effective. I dig it. Mostly I just hate the game though. In a game meant to attract people who enjoy choice and consequence, what is the point in making every choice distasteful. When everyone is an asshole, noone is going to care what happens to any of them. When the player isn't invested the game gets stale quick. Probably just as well since its a rigged experience anyway. Want to save some Elves in a cave with a level 30 Dragon you can't beat at level 9? Come back later. . .And find the Dragon has levelled too! The same twenty levels you invested a few hours attaining that dude gets napping. Because you know, you can't have any experience in the game which hasn't been precisely measured and thoroughly dictated by the developers. You are still using mostly the same units, skills and abilities. . .But he isn't. That's great! It is also a game of extremes. There is no balance anywhere. You either go first, or last. Your hero goes first consistently, but mostly your units are going last. Especially when trying to punch above your weight class. Well, fine, I like a challenge, I can deal with that. . .Except the AI is ridiculous. They always know who to target. Have one knight without a shard, they will know exactly who he is. And all eight of them will focus on him and kill him before he gets to move. Nothing says fun like losing units first turn before you get to do anything with them. Oh, and don't get attached to your units. When they say RPG elements, it does not apply to these. You want to carefully select who you bring and try and keep them to the end? No no, friend. Your tier one soldiers will be killed in a single AoE attacks by the time you get to level thirty. No room for sentiment here, you always have the best! I just never got to a point where I could actually enjoy playing
This is a strategy deck building game where I don't get to choose what is in my deck, which cards are added to it, and I fight enemies with more cards than myself whose decks have multiple levels of synergy and level up at the same rate I do? Who exactly is this game made for?