I enjoyed the original story, quality of writing and depth of the lore in Age of Decadence. The music brilliantly helps to create an immersive atmosphere. It's also a rare game where you control one character rather than a party. This allows to emotionally invest into the character and pay extra attention to character development. It's definitely a game to try out. Some good-to-knows: - Most quests are faction-based. I.e. depending on your alignment / background (loremaster, thief etc) you can only access so many dialogues and quests. Pro: High replayability. You can explore the world from a different angle every time you play. Con: Limited freedom of choice after you choose your alignment - some NPC encounters feel artificially staged. E.g. you come to a thieves' guild and talk to a guy at the entrance, and the only option is "Leave", because you are not a thief yourself. - Because it's faction-dependent / replayable, the total playing time of one run is much shorter than that of Fallout 2, for example. Which can be viewed as a good thing and a bad thing :) - Combat is super hard, and there's no way to grind / raise your combat XP in an easy way (e.g. in Fallout you can simply wander around the map and win random encounters). There are no combat companions either, so unless you have two combat skills (active and passive) at 6 or higher, combat doesn't make sense at all - which was a pity really. - It is extremely difficult to win all quests you get, since skill and stat checks are everywhere. One piece of advice is to distribute skill points on a needs basis. As for stats, as I know there's only one point in the game where you can permanently raise one of your physical abilities. But that's it. No pills that temporary boost your intelligence, strength etc. So if you miscalculated what stats your character needs at the start of the game, you'll find the game unforgiving. The next run will be much easier of course. - There are some minor bugs, including a couple quest issues I noticed, but nothing major. Camera control can be frustrating, but not critically. - All in all, Age of Decadence is a solid hardcore RPG that stands out for its story and atmosphere!
