The Red Solstice
I’ll skip the stuff about it beeing 8 player coop and sooo on and start talking about the stuff that might not be mentioned as often in short reviews:
The game offers multiple difficulties.. however the base difficulty is intended to be rather challenging for Players.
Which is definitly a good thing since it’s all about improving your own skill and after many defeats rewarding yourself with your very first win… somewhat darksouls-esque..
Classes:
So far there’s a total of 8 classes and depending on what the player wishes to accomplish every class has one or more distinctive roles.(Tank, Healer, DmgDealer,Scout….)
– Real player with 2514.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best CRPG Co-op Games.
I played this game when it first came out and I immediately fell in love with it.
It’s a slick tactical shooter. With hordes of alien zombies trying to kill you. Meanwhile your team of husky voiced men attempt to complete your objectives.
Again it’s a great game. I stopped playing it for some time and decided to get back into it and immediately fell back in love.
Great set of classes
Assault-great all rounder very good beginner class. he’s great with light weapons and rifles and he even smokes a cigar. Do you want to live forever?
– Real player with 1210.3 hrs in game
Pillars of Eternity
I’ve always consider the progress of graphics and telling stories with well made CG instead of words are good things for game industry, I thought the stunning graphics could bring the game world closer to us than the classic literature did.
Yet I found myself totally immersed by Eroa ,in this game than I’ve ever been in other games before, the astunning details I read from these words,just makes me questioning if the game industry is on the right path consider all those games with great power of graphics but turn out to be a total nightmare.
– Real player with 94.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best CRPG Story Rich Games.
The game is just inredibly boring for me, never played it more than couple of hours from the start. Comparing to old BG/IWD series and Planescape:Tormet the only advantage of PoI is the graphic.
Game mechanics like allowing to sleep only when you have camp wood or some enemy beetles opening a door you close a moment earlier to hide from it is just lame.
– Real player with 87.4 hrs in game
Lords of Xulima
Polished, entertaining game. Played through it straight twice, and I can see myself playing through it again in the future.
I could list some pro’s and con’s or repeat what others have already said, but instead I will highlight a few points which may clarify some of the mixed points you will see in other reviews. The purpose, I hope, is to help potential buyers in figuring out the perspective from which other reviewers are coming from.
1. The game is “linear” in that you are expected to go a certain path on the game world, but the path is not in a straight line. This will throw off some players who are used to the typical themepark RPG set-up where the game holds your hand on how to get to the next area.
– Real player with 606.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best CRPG Indie Games.
Lords of Xulima is the game I have invested the most time into on Steam, so I kind of have to recommend it. But that recommendation come withs a lot of caveats.
I’ll start with the reasons why my playtime is so large. One simple reason is that this is a pretty long game. Depending on difficulty, dying and how much you save-scum, I’d estimate 50 to 100 hours to beat the game. The fact that I suffered a number of crashes, losing progress, extended that further. If you want to try out all the character classes available, you’ll need to play at least twice; I actually ended up finishing the game three times to 100% it.
– Real player with 398.9 hrs in game
Serpent in the Staglands
A friendly reminder that taking on a pack of wolves with a kitchen knife, or single point in a first level spell is a bad idea.
Serpent in the Staglands is a modern ‘old-school’ style crpg in both look and feel. Gone are the arrows of patronization, the quest log, the terrible bland puzzles that a brain dead toddler could figure out, and in is a true return to form of open world crpgs bursting at the seams with love and attention to detail. For a game made by a team of two people, it is one of the gaming masterworks of this decade in my eyes.
– Real player with 39.6 hrs in game
Serpent in the Staglands starts of with you, the Moonlord, trapped in a mortal body.
With very little info you set out throughout the Staglands in order to put the pieces of what happened together.
From the get go the story pulled me in, I really liked the mystery and the continuous search for clues to figure out who trapped you and why.
Being in mortal form also strips you of your powers as a God and this is a very refreshing take on the genre: you’re not the typical hero which everyone asks for help, you’re just a peasant which most people ignore.
– Real player with 35.4 hrs in game
Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut
August 22nd 2017: W2 Review by Tandberg_J (steam account name) (tandbergj@gmail.com )
Summary:
“The absolute dream for fans of the classic style of Fallout 1, and Fallout 2, and it’s still a good game even if you are just casually familiar with Bethesda’s Fallout reboots.”
This review is for the Director’s Cut Edition, which in 2017, has been mostly debugged, and is very stable. I play on a PC for the record, and can’t comment on the console ports. But, I’ve played and beat the original PC version as well, before the director’s cut was released, so I’ve seen the game’s development and refinement. (I recommend learning how to edit your save game files, [they are plain text .xml files,] as this allows you to avoid some glitches that might affect your game in purely mundane minor ways, and you can avoid little annoying bugs like not getting credit for a small side quest) Also, you can edit your characters and give them some clothing and aesthetics that are not available in the vanilla game. But this is optional of course. Also there is a huge mod scene for this game, which I can’t really say I’ve tried.
– Real player with 393.8 hrs in game
Did they pull it off?
I don’t quite know what I was expecting when I first backed the Kickstarter. Wasteland was a beloved classic, my first proper PC game, and it showed me just what games were really capable of. Problems with more than one solution, missions that could be failed without forcing a game over, the player’s responsibility to build a balanced team, the combination of descriptive paragraphs with the limited graphics to paint a more vivid picture; the experience blew my fragile little mind at the time. A contemporary title can do many or even all of those things, but whether they can match that feeling - the impression that I’m playing something truly groundbreaking - is a much more loaded question.
– Real player with 165.0 hrs in game
SKALD: Against the Black Priory
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1609100/Skald_Against_the_Black_Priory__the_Prologue
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1712620/SKALD_Against_the_Black_Priory_Original_Soundtrack_Vol_I/
You drag yourself from the black tides, across the corpses of drowned men, and onto the unwelcoming, craggy shoreline. Gulls cry overhead and the stink of seaweed fills your nose. By some miracle you have made it to Idra. It will take all your skill to survive and unravel the eldritch mysteries of the Black Priory. Pray your sanity holds.
About the Game
‘Skald: Against the Black Priory’ is an old-school roleplaying game that combines modern design and a fully realised narrative with authentic 8-bit looks and charms.
Delve into a dark fantasy world, full of tragic heroes, violent deaths and Lovecraftian, cosmic horror. Explore an engaging, branching story mixed with rich exploration and crunchy, tactical, turn-based combat that will seem familiar yet innovative to RPG fans, old and new.
Do you have what it takes to lead a company of broken heroes from the tainted shores of Idra to the gates of the Black Priory - and beyond?
Features
Lovingly crafted retro-style art:
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Experience a richly illustrated world of authentic pixel art using thousands of hand-drawn tiles and images
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A palette inspired by the legendary Commodore 64 computer.
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Optional CRT filter for that authentic old-school experience.
Deep character creation:
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Build your main character and recruit a party from among a dozen diverse characters, each with their own skill-set, agenda and personality.
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Choose from a dozen classes and backgrounds as well as heaps of feats, spells and equipment as you take your party from level 1 to 20.
Crunchy tactical combat:
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Engage in challenging, fast-paced, turn- and grid-based combat.
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Play it your way, with fully customizable difficulty and feedback settings. Or hit ‘auto-resolve’, lean back, and (hopefully) watch your party cleave a bloody path through their foes.
A richly detailed, living world:
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Explore the vast expanse of Freymark and the Outer Isles and watch your actions spell doom or salvation for the region.
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Focus on the rich, branching narrative… Or live the life of a mercenary and explore varied sidequests and encounters - the plot will wait for you.
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Manage your party as you make camp, recruit hirelings, travel by land and sea, and interact with powerful factions and their visions for the world.
Become part of a fantastic community:
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Skald was made possible by crowdfunding and already has a large, passionate and welcoming community that can’t wait to meet you.
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By joining Skald’s Early Access you’ll have a direct line to the developer, get sneak peaks and give feedback on forthcoming plans and help shape the game into a modern classic.
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We will publish the powerful tools used to create the game in an effort to support and encourage modding and content creation once the game has fully launched.
The Story of Skald: A Dream Come True
Skald is the dream-project of a lone Norwegian developer, AL.
AL missed the thrill of delving into grand, immersive games such as ‘Ultima’, ‘Magic Candle’, ‘Wasteland’ and the Gold Box series. When he noticed the lack of newer roleplaying games that combined the classic (early 90s) charm with more modern game design he decided to take matters into his own hands.
AL set to work crafting the game of his dreams.
A highly successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign with 700 backers, and a fast-growing community of passionate fans proves he made the right call.
Collaborators
Despite being a one-man company, Scape-IT has been able to collaborate with some amazingly talented people in creating SKALD:
Danny Salfield Wadeson is a UK-based writer & narrative designer who has worked on BAFTA and TGA nominated narrative games such as Roki, Backbone and Duelyst
Twitter: @MadQuills
John Henderson is an experienced fine artist and illustrator and is also a teacher of Art. Whether using dip pen, oil paint or pixels, John’s work is easily recognizable as being highly atmospheric as well as lovingly created. Having worked on many publications and indie gaming projects he is also currently busy with his own project, Wild Wood for the C64.
Twitter: @JohnHen65953721
Scott Hartill UK based artist and game designer. More interested in pixels than anything else. Currently busy developing a PS1 style survival horror in his spare time.
Twitter : @cluly
Torgeir Fjereide is a Norwegian artist and illustrator. He loves painting mythological and medieval scenes and he’ll take any excuse to paint a bearded man.
Twitter: @TheBrushOfThor
Post Horn Public Relations is a pro-bono initiative created to support talented developers.
Twitter: @horn_pr
Rachael A Edwards hails from England and spends most of her days writing fantasy novels about morally grey characters in worlds filled with mythology, corruption and magic. An avid gamer, Rachael’s love for storytelling began at a young age. She is currently working on a YA fantasy novel and is represented by Rena Rossner of The Deborah Harris Agency.
Twitter: @RachaelAWrites
MementoMoree (formerly known as Paolo Pomes) has been creating art since his late teenage years. Proficient in most types of art, from pencil & paper to highly detailed 4k textures, he’s found solace and pleasure in the retro pixel art!
Twitter: @MementoMoree
Marco Pedrana is a digital and traditional art vagrant. He started as draftsman in advertising and comics, went on in illustration, then painting, then conceptual art. He doubled back on videogame design with Aeon of Sands, creating its graphic, story, and sfx. Lately he freelances as a 3D generalist for indie game and cinema productions.
He focuses on narrative art, regardless of the medium or scope.
Twitter: @marcopedrana
Romanus Surt is the main guy at Graverobber Foundation, the developer behind Das Geisterschiff and Der Geisterturm. He does music for SKALD.
Twitter: @surt_r
Edwin Montgomery is a composer and sound designer for games, films and performance. A long-time RPG obsessive, he wrote the soundtrack for inXile’s remastered 30th anniversary version of “Wasteland”. He has created music and sounds for a variety of fantasy game worlds, including Warhammer 40,000, Game of Thrones and Neverwinter. Edwin does sound design for SKALD.
Twitter: @edwinmyshkin
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Disclaimer: I do NOT reccomend the game at its current pricing. Furthermore, after much thought, I do not reccomened it for what it claims to be. This is no Planescape: Torment and it is not a worthy successor. Nevertheless, there is something worth the time it takes to play, even if it is deeply flawed. Below is my first formal attempt at a review, which I have tried to do indepth and professionally as possible.
At the conclusion, there will be a numerical score with a breakdown for my reasoning behind it.
– Real player with 125.5 hrs in game
This is a long review, consider yourselves warned.
I think that the mixed feelings about the game in the steam community and in general express my own feelings about it as well. While there are some aspects that are wonderful, there is also a sense that something is missing or amiss. So, rather than being a extremely coherent essay-like review, this is more of a catalogue of my views on individual aspects of the game. Also, I wil be overtly comparing this game to Planescape: Torment and not treating it separately, because I cannot go back in time and unmake myself playing PS:T and not basing my expectations of this one based on that one. Also, this review is focused much more on the game’s content, philosophy etc rather than on more formal aspects such as combat or difficulty. So, being clear on that, strap yourselves in and we may begin.
– Real player with 122.3 hrs in game
Shadowrun Returns
Let me start out by saying that this is the first Shadowrun game that I have ever actually played. Yes I have tried the 1993 Shadowrun for the Super Nintendo but I could never get into it due to it’s… Interesting controls (read point and click with a controller). But the game concept and the universe intrigued me, Over the years I forgot the name of it several times but would bring it up every few years and try to find the name of it and feel that they should remake it for the pc where it ultimately belonged. Well a few months ago was one such time that It popped into my head, I did a quick search for it and what did I find but a new Shadowrun being made for its proper platform (psst its the PC). I instantly fell in love with the style and everything I say was just the best thing I have ever seen.
– Real player with 42.1 hrs in game
Heads up, I need a runner and you need the Nuyen, are we on the same page? Good. If you’re used to quick and easy jobs, well you’d better strap on tight. This one’s a slap to your senses, a bug in the system, a pair of fools in an all-star hand.
If ‘get the job done’ is your middle name, then that’s all I need to know.
Whaddaya say, chummer?
Shadowrun Returns is a lone-wolf style, turn-based strategy with RPG elements, set in the year 2054 within the gritty underbelly of Seattle, combining an urban cyberpunk fantasy with the abrasive narrative of a seasoned crime novel.
– Real player with 25.5 hrs in game
Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition
With as much written content as a novel, branching storylines intimately linked to your character choices, and a real tabletop feel where intrigue and negotiation can supplant the need for bloodshed; Shadowrun: Hong Kong is the commensurate single player RPG experience. It is best suited for avid readers who love video games, and for gamers who love interactive fiction. The tactical combat, the freedom of character creation, and the a-la-carte missions should appeal to the more goal-oriented RPG fans among us. But if you don’t like to read, you’ll find the game (and its predecessors) to be a bit of a turn-off (even though they are a much better read than basically every other RPG these days). For me, the game’s writing and art are on par with Dragonfall, and its gameplay has been dramatically enhanced.
– Real player with 79.6 hrs in game
The Shadowrun mythos is an edgy, magic-infused cyberpunk dystopia that stepped off the neo-noir streets of Seattle this run into the fluorescent, neon light of a noodle shop. Of all the Shadowrun games, I think Hong Kong inundates you the most thoroughly in mood and environment. It’s like walking onto the set of Bladerunner with all its mixed-ethnic, cultural richness and rain-coat dripping, depressive atmosphere; the setting is both gorgeous and miserable.
I avoided Shadowrun for a long time because I’m just no fan of isometric games. They take away what is, for me, the most important feature of storyline gaming: that first-person point of view escapism. A top-down, god’s view of the world is a big wall when I want to feel immersed in an environment and persona. But the Shadowrun cult-following has been so widely celebrated, I overlooked that when I bought and binge-played this trilogy. And I’m so glad I did.
– Real player with 76.7 hrs in game
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director’s Cut
Disclaimer: This review was written when Dragonfall was a DLC and will be updated to better reflect Director’s Cut in the future. If you are already familiar with the DLC version, skip to the end for my initial thoughts on the new features.
When Shadowrun Returns came out there were numerous complaints. Rather than ignore them, HBS listened to the fans and fixed many of them when they released Dragonfall. That wasn’t enough for them, wanting to better address the players suggestions they re-released it as a stand alone game and freely upgraded everyone’s existing copy.
– Real player with 605.2 hrs in game
2054. Berlin. The Flux State. It’s a world of magic, technology, metahumans, megacorporations, and dragons. You are a Shadowrunner, a criminal who does the dirty work for clients who can pay for your skills. But things aren’t always as they seem, as you’ll soon find out.
As the story unfolds, you’ll find yourself faced with some hard choices. Your clients can’t or won’t give you the whole story, and moral ambiguity will cloud the decisions you make. Not only that, the way you lead your team can have repercussions on how they view you. As you progress through the story, they may open up to you, giving you information about their lives. I felt like this was really well done. Your teammates have back stories, character flaws, and even side quests. It’s up to you to say and do the right things to gain their trust.
– Real player with 124.0 hrs in game