Fabled Lands
Fabled Lands is adaptation from the open world gamebook series of the same name, originally written in the 1990s.
If you are not familiar with the original books, what you can expect is a primarily text-based adventure in a medieval world in pen and paper style, accompanied by pretty illustrations and graphic UI. This isn’t your typical RPG game. There isn’t a single main story to follow, instead you explore the world and do whatever you please. Dice rolls determine the outcome of events, danger lurks around every corner, and your adventure only ends when you die permanently.
– Real player with 58.9 hrs in game
Back in the 90’s in Germany Ravensburger released the first four of the Fabled Lands solitaire-RPG game books in German under the Trademark “Sagaland” (not the Board Game). Already the first book “Kampf um das Königreich” (“The War-Torn Kingdom”) got me deeply involved in the world of Harkuna and the mechanisms of the books. Although I already had known the Fighting Fantasy Classics game books like “Death Trap Dungeon” there was nothing like the “Fabled Lands”-Series.
Those books are outstanding and unique in every way: You could travel back and forth in the book itself, from book to book, buy ships and become a sea trading mechant, the books “remembered” you decisions and changes the world accordingly.
– Real player with 28.9 hrs in game
Hexia
This is a game that relies heavily on luck. You can very easily get a random event that completely ruins you seconds into your game. You might end up starting a new game over and over before you make it through the first ‘story’ goal. And yet, it’s very much worth playing.
Once you get that little bit of good luck mixed with frugal resource management, you can make it through the first twenty or thirty tiles and clear the first couple of challenges. Learn your limits – don’t overspend or expand too fast. You’ll learn what impact each event choice has, which upgrades work best for your kingdom.
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game
Had fun in the short time I’ve played and quickly figured out how to keep a 0 loss of people.
I would love to see it expand more than 100 tiles but even at 90 it became slow to move across the screen when zoomed out. Some kind of option to speed up the cursor would be needed to expand more I guess.
More levels of 100 tiles but with harder conditions would be nice if expanding to more tiles is not feasible.
The text sections are a little long and some repeat through the game, so I did as another reviewer had done and skipped through the text to find the main points.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Lost Scavenger
How long could you survive in a parallel universe where the Mist dictates its rules? Would you be able to find the way to your homeworld, or will you adapt to live under the Mist domain? Fight for resources, get together with other survivors and discover the secrets of this world. This is your story.
Lost scavenger is a hardcore game about surviving in an open world that is overrun by the Mist. You play as an ordinary guy from our world that has fallen into an anomaly and found himself in a world that has been haunted by the Mist for the last 30 years. How far could you make it in a dying world in which every step may be your last? Would you be able to find the way to your homeworld, or will you adapt to live under the Mist domain? Fight for resources, get together with other survivors and discover the secrets of this world. This is your story.
Features:
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Unique world. The postapocalyptic world shrouded in impenetrable Mist. Small anclaves of survivours are scattered around what has left of the world. Do you have what it takes to find your path through all this?
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Active pause. It triggers after your every action so you can thoroughly read your surroundings, make assessions and plan your further actions.
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One life only. Your characters live only once. If they die, they die. Game over. And yet, it is a cruel world you’re going into, and nobody says that you can’t expose your companions and sacrifice them in battle to save your own life!
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No grind. No character leveling, no skill trees, no EXP whatsoever. Instead, you have to learn to play better, use your strengths and compensate your weaknesses. Git gud!
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Randomly generated world. Different biomes, weather conditions, anclaves and quests make every playthrough unique.
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Immersive simulation. The narration is dynamic and depends on your world generation settings and actions that you perform in that world. Every playthrough is a new story. And it is not necessary to follow the storyline: you can just wander around the world to try yourself!
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Virtues and flaws. Choose what you’re good at and what you’re not every time you start the new game. Unlock new traits during your adventure. New traits will give you the access to new abilities and dialogue options!
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The vast crafting system that lets you experiment or craft unique items from recipes that may be found throughout the world.
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Battles with a wide range of tactical techniques.
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Realistic damage. Creatures have a complex damage system, including locational damage, bleeding, painkillers, infections and aggravation.
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Realistic metabolism: fatigue, hunger, dehydration, hypothermia, diseases, intoxication.
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Mutations: characters affected by the Mist might get their limbs or organs mutated, which will grand them unpredictable effects.
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Realistic inventory. A complex item management system with both weight and volume limits forces players to carry only what is most necessary to character’s survival.
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Hexagonal map. Travel through ruins, hills, forests and plains on a hexagonal map. Direct visibility, altitude and daylight affect the viewing distance.
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Settlements: meet other survivors in their enclaves. They may provide food, rest and medical care. If you have something to give in return.
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Scouting: use your gear to explore your surroundings.
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Stealth tactics: search hiding places, use camouflage and ambush your enemy.
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Hunting: hunt wildfowl for food and fur, or hunt down big ones for rare ingredients.
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Use your lockpicking skills to open stashes with precious loot.
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Foraging. Search for edible plants and water sources, and use special skills to determine what is safe to consume.
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World inhabitants AI. Everything on the map lives its own life. Creatures wander around, gather resources, hunt each other or gather into packs to higher their chances to survive, which means a great danger to the player.
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Dynamic weather: daytime cycle, temperature, precipitation - and all of that depends on a season. For now, you always start in the middle of the autumn, and if you’re strong enough, you will be able to live until winter.