Summary: an interesting narrative game with a couple of cool moments, an OK way to spend a couple of evenings. It's cheap, so I would recommend buying it even if just to broaden your perspective on the RPG genre. Feels more like a test game before the developers put out something really good. On that note, I really wish them further successes in gamedev, I think they have a lot of potential. Good: - Unique setting. Ancient/medieval India, a setting not often seen in the genre. - Good general plot. A story of a riot and upheaval in a city-state. - Different characters. An ability to look at the same storyline from different points of views. - A couple of tough choices. Not all choices are tough, but some actually make you stop and consider the consequences. Bad: - Consequences not impactful enough. Some consequences are not described at all, some are too vague, and some are not displayed prominently enough. At the end, you feel like 80% of your choices didn't matter, and 20% didn't matter enough. - The ending feels rushed and not solid enough. You don't feel as if the story has had a proper conclusion. - The dialogue stats (NPC attitude) system doesn't seem to impact anything. - Controls are somewhat janky. You need to be too close to NPCs to talk to them. Sometimes pathfinding doesn't work. - The maps involve too much empty walking and I see no reason (other than possibly technical) to split every level into different "rooms". Everything could have been placed on a single screen so that you don't need to load levels all the time. - No tutorial. - Some things are useful for lore exposure, but not for gameplay. Items and inventory don't serve any purpose, and neither do books. - All in all, the game tries to look more impressive than it is. You could delete 30% of the existing systems without impacting the gameplay in any way. You do a lot of things, but only 70% of them actually matter.
PRO: - Good RPG skill system. In the beginning, while you aren't that skilled, it really makes you feel the weight of your choices. But, it allows you to use the narrative clues to balance out your weaknesses or shoot yourself in the foot if you ignore the storytelling. All in all, a solid skill system that ties in with the narrative very well. - The setting. 18th century Europe is a refreshing setting, and the occult elements gives it a very Gothic novel vibe. - The first part of the story. It is a nice detective/mystery with memorable characters and lots of questions that you feel good about answering. You feel as the many threads of the story gradually come together - very satisfying. The choices you don't make are intriguing too - you can't NOT wonder what you missed out on. - The detective part. You actually have to pay attention to the narrative and the visual design. In-game comments will help you, but you need to rely on your own memory and wit. Clicking randomly will not be enough. The best part of the game, IMO. CON: - All the PROs mentioned before start crumbling with time: The plot becomes rushed, unnecessarily complex in some places, redundant and unimportant in others. The big plot twist is really bad, and it makes prev. choices feel meaningless. Your build becomes less relevant. The choices less impactful. There is less choice in general. The game starts to make mistakes in calculating what were your previous choices. The finale is shameful, both as a narrative and mechanically. As a story, it comes out of nowhere, and the characters involved feel so randomly chosen. As a game, it is tied to very specific skills. Less than a perfect build? Sucks to be you. I actually felt weaker by the end with all of my builds. CONCLUSION: Good game overall, starts to go downhill near the 2/3 of the game, awful ending. Do recommend playing it, good fun to be had, but buy it at a discount and be prepared to say "WTF?!" and "Well that sucks" in the second half.
