Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue is available on GOG.com. You can see it here
Vagrus is an award-winning roleplaying game with a narrative focus, open-world exploration, and strong elements of strategy. The player takes the role of a vagrus - a caravan leader who strives to survive in a stra...
Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue is available on GOG.com. You can see it here
Vagrus is an award-winning roleplaying game with a narrative focus, open-world exploration, and strong elements of strategy. The player takes the role of a vagrus - a caravan leader who strives to survive in a strange and dangerous dark fantasy world by leading a traveling company on all kinds of ventures.
A vast realm is yours to explore, filled with unique locations, strange factions, and a colorful cast of characters. In order to punish the Empire for its sins, the Elder Gods unleashed their power a thousand years ago that ended up devastating the realms. The continent is now a wasteland, riddled with arcane anomalies, swarming with twisted monsters, and haunted by roaming undead even after long centuries of rebuilding.
A large selection of stories make up the game’s narrative in the form of events and quests. The choices you make in these often affect your companions and the world around you. Pick your background from trader, mercenary, or explorer; work for factions, follow rumors and trading opportunities; acquire wealth, gain fame, and discover hidden knowledge.
Engage in turn-based, tactical combat that involves your companions and a large variety of enemies, both humanoid and monstrous. Use a wide range of character skills as well as your own leadership-related abilities to succeed. Positioning and support skills are of paramount importance in these challenging engagements.
Journeys have to be planned and prepared for carefully, lest they end in disaster. Manage your supplies, morale, and your crew’s vigor effectively to survive. Haul cargo and valuables across the wasteland or take it from others. Your crew of workers, fighters, scouts, and slaves have to be managed well to optimize their effectiveness.
A wide variety of companions can work for you in versatile caravan roles, such as scoutmaster, guard captain, treasure hunter, or beast handler. Each companion comes with unique combat skills, background stories, and personal quest lines that can upgrade them further when you complete them.
Ally yourself with mighty factions that shape the Riven Realms with their influence on commerce, brutal wars, and constant scheming. From prosperous Trading Houses to criminal syndicates and religious organizations, these groups offer powerful rewards and boons to those loyal to their cause. But take heed - befriending a faction will more than likely antagonize others.
To say that "Vagrus: The Riven Realms" is text heavy would be akin to saying that water is very wet. This is the mother of all choose-your-own-adventure stories disguised as a game. And a beautiful, if desolate, disguise it is. The interface is elegant and generally easy to use, albeit with a few issues for those of us playing on Steam Deck. That said, it is clearly programmed to support controllers if you don't want to use a mouse or trackpad, and it mostly works that way.
If you haven't tried "Vagrus" and you have ever enjoyed pen-and-paper RPGs, this is not a game to miss. It has vivid story-telling, a system that works well delivering that story, and numerous player choices that drive the narrative forward. I especially like games that offer multiple paths to completion (is there really anything that can be called "victory" in such a devastated wasteland?), and the multiple ambitions system does that here. Oh, and it will just about run on a computer powered by a potato battery. That's something of a feat for modern games.
Good so far. Please add more pictures for each/all of the locations - different bars/gardens/arenas etc. Please add some realtime dungeons/dungeon exploration. Needs more music too for the different locations. Please allow main character participation - I'm a sorcerer, but to what avail? I would love to see a full 3d version one day! Some vivid descriptions of place really make the game - but I'd like to visit too! More equipment/equipment slots.
Its more an management-RPG game than your typical RPG game. There is a story there and somewhat an alignment system, but it is pretty hidden. Its really text heavy - but pretty engaging, intriguing and interesting.
I really enjoy playing this game - it took me a bit of time to really get into it but if you enjoy reading engaging stories and playing a role in a unique fantasy setting, give this game a chance! It is quite unique and more akin to a TTRPG than a CRPG. It is reminiscent of the Dark Sun D&D setting - brutal and unforgiving. The creators did a really great job fleshing out the setting. It has a few rough edges as an indie game - the combat in particular is quite basic and tends to lag even on high-end computers. But I highly recommend it to anyone that likes to play in the theater of the mind and does not need moden graphics to enjoy a story.
