Avalon: Sacred Crusade
“Beware the schemes of mortal men. For all the shortness of their lives, they lust to leave their mark. Before this hubris, even the Gods can be tumbled.” - Merlin the Outcast
To some, Avalon is an idea, a myth, an ideal, perfection; it is a place outside of time or space, an eternal edifice. To others, it is home. The Avalonians share much with Humanity, but one cannot remain in Avalon for long without becoming something… else. Long ago, in the forgotten age of The Migration, the Covenant was formed: the bridges between realms would be closed.
Their greatest criminals, however, continued to be cast out forever to languish in the mundane realm. Some lived as Oracles, Saints, or Wizards. Others we remember in legends of darkness: Sorcerers, Shapeshifters, Blood-drinkers, scattered across time.
Now though, the realms grow close once again, the veil between them weakening by unknown machinations. The Grail has been stolen, and without it, evils long buried are rising in ever greater numbers. The call to battle has gone out for the first time in this age, and many have answered it. These new defenders of the ancient Covenant must not fail, for the fate of both realms now hangs in the balance.
A Blast From the Past
Return to an era before all stats were homogenized into just health and mana. Avalon: Sacred Crusade takes heavy inspiration from popular RPG titles of the 1990s and features rich character customization that allows you to select your character’s origin, attributes, spells, and equipment.
No easy recoveries or quick wins here. Deal with a classic death penalty system where you drop your items on the ground and need to retrieve them. Experience what it was truly like to play early MMORPGs and graphical MUDs.
You may choose to adventure alone, however, the game features a robust party system which allows up to six players to work together in the same group. For the best experience, bring your friends - or make new ones in the game!
An Authentic Retro Experience
Listen to classic 16-bit Sound Blaster effects while you slash away at pre-rendered 2D sprites. You can experience all of this without the usual hassle of running a retro game on a modern system. Avalon: Sacred Crusade will run on any DirectX 10 capable PC!
A Note To the Community
We are passionate about maintaining a good relationship with our community. We welcome any feedback that you might have involving the game or its development, be it positive or critical. We are running regular community events that you can participate in and earn special achievements. If this interests you, consider joining our discord! https://discord.gg/Bv5MreE8zn
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DARK MAGIC
This is a great platformer game, honestly you should get this game for it’s price. Great lore, well thought out platforming, fun combat with interesting enemies, for the most part great sound design, all around great game.
The only issue i have with the game is the sound that plays when you attack is a little harsh, i think it should be a quieter, more subtle sound that doesn’t drown out all other sounds and the music. 8/10 game.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
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Risen
Annoying, old-fashioned and inconvenient
Graphics
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Detailed landscapes, always something new to notice
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Nice lighting that adds atmosphere
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Characters barely move their body and are very stiff
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Faces are barely animated
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Low resolution textures
Sound
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Brilliant background sound
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German voice acting very good but only average English voice acting
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Sound makes game come alive whether it is animal growling from meters away before you see them, nearby waterfalls or the chitchat of NPCs
– Real player with 93.2 hrs in game
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There seem to be a lot of people reviewing Risen who are somewhere around 10-15 years old, because despite the game being only 9 years old, many have this weird impression that the game is old, dated, the graphics are ugly, and these players keep imposing retroactive standards on the game that have only really popped up in RPG gaming over the last few years. This suggests the reviewers are new to RPGs, new to gaming, and that their concepts of what an RPG should entail is informed more by the AAA games of the last 5 years than the bulk of RPG gaming history. Don’t let bad reviews deter you; Risen is a fantastic game.
– Real player with 62.5 hrs in game
ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif
Fall of Setarrif is probably the most sorry excuse of an addon I personally have laid eyes upon. No wait, the sorriest is actually Forsaken Gods for Gothic 3, but this comes in very close.
The “addon” basically is nothing more than a 2-3hour premium priced actual ending to the absolute letdown of Arcania. While finishing the story for good, there is little to no content in this self proclaimed addon which has probably even less content than many DLC which are priced a third of the asking price. While I advise against getting Arcania in the first place, this addon should be avoided like the plague, not because it’s so terrible, it’s actually a bit better than most of Arcania, but the asking price and lack of content are outrageous. Being forced to buy this addon to be able to actually conclude the Arcania storyline is also a d*ck move from the old publisher Jowood. I don’t believe that THQ Nordic should be allowed making any profit off this either though, so do yourself a favour and steer around this.
– Real player with 31.4 hrs in game
In spite of my negative review for Arcania, my review for Arcania Fall of Setariff is positive (or at least positive enough).
My judgement probably depends on the fact that Arcania was such a huge disappointment that the small improvements that I was able to experience made this chapter partially enjoyable. Anyway…
PROs:
• At the beginning you can choose to export your old character from Arcania to this new chapter. Most of the items previously owned are available.
• The map was improved : you are still forced to follow the path without any chance of freedom during the gameplay, but, in a certain way, now this is less obvious. Furthermore, I like the fact that you need to challenge yourself with trapped/dangerous paths.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
HeXen II
Another Raven & id collaboration project but whereas Heretic was a modification of Doom, Hexen II is a modification of Quake. Or more precise - their engines. Seems history repeated itself in terms of quality ratio between the “re-skin” job and the original game. Almost everybody can agree Doom is a better game than Heretic, although I gave my respect to level design of the latter which was notably more advanced. The exact same thing can be said about the Hexen II and Quake relation in that regard.
– Real player with 32.1 hrs in game
HeXen II is a testament to how Raven software was the bees knees back in the 90s and on through the early 2000s. While not perfect and definitely not for everybody, HeXen II is still enjoyable.
First off, there is a very good patch in the community guides that uses the Hammer of Thyrion source port and the game runs flawlessly on modern systems (with music) with that installed. With that out of the way, in the presentation department, we have the Quake engine firing on all it’s fully 3D, fantasy-world-spewing cylinders. Today, this might not look like much, but in days of yore this was jaw-dropping stuff. And to be fair, the environments themselves are very detailed and a lot less cartoony than HeXen or Heretic. Raven nailed the feel of old, eerie, long-forgotten places and walking around these levels really immerses you into a hostile, dark fantasy world. Sound design is also great, the music is atmospheric, the weapons and spells feel meaty and impactful, it’s just all there. It’s dated, yes, but that doesn’t automatically make it bad.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Pale Cachexia
Beautiful Sadness
Lonely. This is the first word that greets you when you start Pale Cachexia. Alone in the dark wood. The contrast between forest’s spring awakening and “ghostly gloom” of the night, with “rustling sounds of crickets”, nocturnal creatures and “ominous howls”, the feeling that someone is breathing right behind you while you venture among the endless unmoving trees - all set the mood of the VN right from the start and mark it as decidedly Gothic and Romanticist. With a sense of crippling loneliness and smallness the main character Esther stumbles through this vast, misty forest in search of a cure for her terminal illness, and finds herself in a gloomy Gothic manor, almost like she just stepped into a dream.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
Short Review:
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Kinetic visual novel (no choices)
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Complexity in story and characters
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Heavy topics of death, illness, grief, guilt, and loneliness
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Somewhat open ending
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Nice art, including unlockables
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Soundtrack that perfectly enhances mood
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Overall an atmospheric, emotional story I enjoyed!
Full Review:
What an atmospheric, emotionally complex story. This kinetic novel (visual novel without any choices) has elements of horror and fantasy, and there are some creepy parts, but it’s mostly mysterious and melancholic, dealing with the heavy topics of death/dying, illness, grief, guilt, and loneliness.
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
Risen 3 - Titan Lords
Risen 3 is a third person open world action roleplaying game made by Piranha Bytes, the team that gave us the Gothic games and of course the first two Risen games. It’s hard to talk about Risen 3 without referring to the previous games, which I’ll call ‘PB games’ for short.
To summarize: Risen 3 is definitely a step up from Risen 2 but all in all, it is probably still a game that only fans of PB games will love and a game that only fans of the genre may learn to like.
To talk about this game more in-depth, I’ll take the list I used for my reviews of ‘Risen’ and ‘Risen 2’.
– Real player with 94.2 hrs in game
This is a long review, so just read the bottom paragraph for a simple summary of my thoughts.
It surprises me that the general consensus for this game is worse than Risen 2: Dark Waters. To be fair, if you hated Risen 2, there likely are not enough redeeming factors about the end of the trilogy to be worth your while. But nevertheless, some substantial improvements to the overall experience have made this a promising step in the right direction for Piranha Bytes as a developer.
Risen 2: Dark Waters was ultimately a failure as an open world, engrossing RPG. It was extremely shallow, overall having one of their smallest and most lackluster world designs to date, with most of the islands consisting of winding pathways with few interesting landmarks leading between major locations. These locations were greatly devoid of life, as the characters were as dull and two-dimensional as wooden boards. The combat wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen in a game, but it took forever to get the necessary skills to stay on top of combat, and by then you just got used to button mashing between prayers. Beyond combat, half the skills in the game were worthless or used in only scripted situations that were easy enough to do without.
– Real player with 84.7 hrs in game
The Adventure of Magical Girl
The Adventure of Magical Girl is a pleasant JRPG/RPGMaker game, providing several hours of gameplay and entertainment.
It has a cute story and it’s not very hard to beat.
Achievements are quite easy to unlock too.
It looks like a sequel to The legend of Bean though it’s not necessary to have completed that previous game to fully enjoy The Adventure of Magical Girl. However, both games use the same world and map so it’s a bit easier when you’ve already completed The legend of Bean because you’re already accustomed to that universe.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
The good:
1- This is a short RPG maker game. - I don’t mean it is bad because of this -.
2- Some parts of the game are polished well: for example the animation during battles.
3- no random encounters. You only fight an enmy when you collide with it - which i think is good -.
The bad:
4- Sadly it seems it suffers from the same problem that many other rpg maker games have: the game is not balanced. I mean you could quickly level up and breeze through the game and care not for any strategy while fighting.
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Darkened Glory
First and foremost you have to keep in mind that this game is in the alpha version / early access, and it could be changed by the time it is a final product. The mechanics of the game are similar to a Souls style games, it’s not yet polished but it has the basics. It currently just has an Arena for PvP, but there will be Singleplayer / CO-OP campaign too in the future. It has a distinct Slavic / European flair to it, which i personally very like. The recent updated came along with level editor which is a nice feature. Optimization is usually really good with drops (drops occur from the fire animations, devs are aware of it and will fix it eventually), i have a 1060 6gb, i7, 16gb ram and i am in the 100-144fps range. Final verdict: buy the game if you want to support it’s development, it’s unpolished currently, but looking at how much the game is updated, a year from now the game will be in a completely different state, i can only assume it’s going to be in a better state!
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
a very fun game !! the maps are very good quality and the characters are consistent with the type of game darkened glory is.
I absolutely recommend this game!
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Naudrion: Fall of The Empire
Very fun game. Exploration galore. Big world. Needs better quest notes. Needs more detail in buildings. (reminds me of Gorgon decor). Leveling is nice, but didn’t notice much progression with power on spells. Ice magic was okay, but a sword seemed more efficient. Need to have increased damage as you level or as you add mana…or just some progression spells. Love the skill books that can be bought since I like to craft too. Crafting seems not in. Couldn’t make an ingot, or make leather. Didn’t seen any Alchemy recipes or cooking etc. Runes sometimes didn’t work, found that dropping them and picking up helped.
– Real player with 25.2 hrs in game
Naudrion: Fall of The Empire is an excellent dark fantasy with an open, seamless world, with multiple crafting and interesting tasks.
I like this game that it was created by one person and is constantly updated, it is very cool on the part of the developer that he did not just put the game out and forget but continues to develop it!
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game