Age of Decadence is an ambitious game which mostly achieves what it sets out to do. And it seemingly sets out to create a replayable RPG with meaningful choices and many outcomes (the number of endings is in dozens). However, such ambition is not without tradeoffs. Firstly, some skills are more useful than others. While there are no outright losers, not all of them are created equal. Secondly, the game is meaningfully short. It can be completed in about 10 hours or so. Nor is the number of NPC's overwhelming - there are relatively few things to do, and the locations are not really that big even if they seem otherwise. Thirdly, the world is rather limited, and, for the lack of a better word, can feel strange sometimes (but this can be said about an awful lot of RPG's). Overall, if anything, it is a spiritual predecessor to Disco Elysium, where multiple meaningful social checks keep things interesting, and the inability to get the best ending on the first run and relatively short duration keeps the interest in replays alive. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but once you get into the groove it plays well.
OK, basic premise: this is a thief "stealth" game where getting in front of one of the many bots will summon the police and jeopardize the mission. Problem is, whomever designed it decided to cut corners on level designers and just decided to go with random levels. Second problem is, this random level thing simply doesn't work: leaving aside the game's ability to create unconnected tunnels, randomly spawning enemies can create both ridiculously easy and ridiculously hard situations at random. Game design simply doesn't work. First time I say "I want my money back", but can't get it, since I bought it on Nintendo Switch.
