To make it short: I've always loved the Gothic-Style RPGs and am quite happy they stay true to their roots whilst experimenting with other settings. There's nothing quite like these sort of RPGs, they are rough, unpolished and often unforgiving... yet I love them to pieces. And for this review to not be completely irrelevant, here's a pro and con list: PRO: + Atmosphere an Immersion + Soundtrack + Feeling of Secrets hidden everywhere + Open World + VERY long game + Lots to do and explore + Interesting Setting + Story is quite good CON: - Unpolished, often clunky (especially combat) - Graphics not really up to date - Very unforgiving, especially so in the beginning - The Menu structure and descriptions are horrible and are flat-out lies sometimes - Some dialogue trees make no sense ("We will meet as enemies on the battlefield, I'm afraid" - then fights alongside you) All in all, I'd recommend this game to anyone that has enjoyed a GOTHIC or RISEN game before. If you haven't... I suppose it's pretty hit-or-miss, I can imagine the difficulty at the beginning driving a LOT of people off.
The title says it all - the game has some things really going for it. The soundtrack and sounds in general add a lot to the game and actually manage to create something like an atmosphere out of very little else. And this "very little else" is a problem; the procedurally generated rooms are very same-y, there are very few types of enemies (at least at the point I am, which is about 4 h in) and the fights generally aren't all that interesting. And this is a bit of a bummer: A roguelike that is mainly combat with combat that is just... meh. When I say it's "just attack and dodge", I am describing most of the genre, so I won't do that - I can't exactly point my finger at a single problem (to name a few: combat (or movement and honestly pretty much the whole game) that is responsible for me not having a good time playing it. I've played many roguelikes/lites and am no stranger to frustratingly hard combat or slow progress. Sundered has all that (if you chose harder difficulties at least), but I do not feel statisfied, I just feel a bit bored. I wish I could articulate why I feel that way, but I really just can't, which makes this review a bit pointless - but if you read this, you are probably extremely critical yourself and just need a push in one direction or the other.
...you are into reading lots of text. I know I am. The flaws of the game are pretty obvious: slow pace, little mechanically interesting gameplay. Maybe you could add the (initially) confusing UI and the unsureness of "what should I do" on your first play. And yet. And yet, it's one of the best games I've ever played. The lore and writing is brilliant enough to more than make up for it's flaws - I really can't praise it too highly. But I just like everything about it, the setting, the way stories are told, the fact that every single port is so very intriguing... but I digress. I just love it that much. I've played for over 160 hours, conclueded a certain storyline that takes everything you and your predecessors ever archieved and gives you a few pages of text, and I loved it. It is so full of secrets, of "what would have happened if I did something different?", of places to explore... but this is just true for me. If you want a mechanically sound game or aren't fascinated by the game's lore and atmosphere (or just don't like reading a million lines of text), you probably won't like this game all that much, and that is totally relateable. What I want to say is that this is potentially the best game you'll ever play... but it's more probable that you just wonder what all the fuzz I keep on talking is about. You'll have to find out yourself. Or don't. Just remember that ALL SHALL BE WELL AND ALL MANNER OF THING SHALL BE WELL
An interesting little game. In Lion's song, you follow the lives of a few extraordinary people in Vienna around the turn of the 19th Century. Which - to me - is a bit of a mystical and gorgeous phase of European history. So why "only" 3 Stars? First, because of the fact that this is less a point-and-click adventure that includes interesting choices and more of a story 'on rails' - but I suppose it's my problem for thinking the game would be something else. And while the atmosphere is decently captured, I found Episode 2 and 3 far, far superior to episodes 1 and 4. There's a bit to explore in choices, seeing how the stories are somewhat interconnected and the resulting consequences, but to me, there was nothing exciting enough to really replay all of it to 100%. About the artstlye: while I realize that the colour and style itself are a concious choice, I find them to work in the beginning but then become rather bland once one gets used to it. Overall, I did enjoy the experience altough I must confess episodes 1 and 4 felt really tedious to me at times - which is a considerable part of the game. You meet a few interesting characters that lived during that period of time and visit historic locations,, but it feels more often than not like namedropping or including things for the sake of including them. (as if someone thought, "I'd be a shame not to include Dr. Freud" and included him in two short scenes). I did however like episodes 2 and 3 quite a bit, and as I remarked, the atmosphere is decently captured. I just wish the characters had more time to develop more fluently and subtile.
