Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME4) is a fabulous addition to the rogue genre. Although the larger narrative elements are not random, the individual dungeon levels vary on each play-through. The one man developer enhances the rogue-like experience by dumping unnecessary/un-fun rogue mechanics like potion tasting and hunger. Permadeath is still included, but deaths in Maj'Eyal are usually the result of bad choices by the player rather than simply random occurrence. The character progression system is quite involved and unlocking many of the available races and classes will take hundreds of hours to achieve. The game is available to play from the dev website for free in its entirety (minus the expansion). Paying for it gets you some slight enhancements. I've nearly 150 hours in this and I recommend it heartily.
I like Depths of Peril. It's a nice ARPG. The quests are pretty good. the world is dynamic, you can adventure with an AI partner and can build up a retinue of followers, who hang out at your clubhouse waiting for you to choose them as your adventure partner. There's plenty of monsters and items and potions and stats. But then, the overall goal is to become the dominant clan, sorry "covenant," in town. This involves either negotiating with, or raiding rival covenants. The thing is, negotiating is a PITA. The other covenants simply refuse to deal with you unless it's at an exorbitant advantage for them, so raiding ends up as the standard course of action. The only real trick is to wait until the right moment to raid. Disappointingly, when you "win" by becoming the best club in town, you simply start over again in an identical looking town, but everything in this "new" town is just higher level than the last. I like Depths of Peril, overall. I just think the diplomacy part could have been way better, especially as it's a central focus of the win-condition.
I've played close to 40 hours of this and have had to repeat quite a few fights in order to progress. Overall, I like the tactical game. Hex maps with unique environment twists and varied opponents. It starts a bit slow, as the early battles are kind of boring (as are some flash back battles interspersed), but as the game progresses there are some good tilts with challenging mechanics. There is a degree of randomness to each attempted attack or spell and missing repeatedly is a bit frustrating when it happens and directly leads to a loss. And losses, as I indicated earlier, do happen. Progression is brisk and character development is fun, assigning points wherever you might choose. The skills, spells and talents are hardly balanced, but at least there is some variety to throw your earned exp at. Less thrilling is the overall plot, dialogue and voice acting. Your obligatory teammates are also flat at best, and annoying at worst. However, the game still succeeds in spite of these extremely mediocre elements.
It's a nice little spaceship sim. I like directing the crew about and it's very challenging to actually win. Mostly, it's a lot of dying and restarting, but each time is fun... for a while. After a couple dozen play throughs, the game does get pretty repetitive. So 4 stars for the game overall. Well worth the money, but a little more variety in the encounters would be a welcome addition.
