1428: Shadows over Silesia
Shadows over Silesia is a dark action adventure game with fantasy elements, set in real medieval Europe. With true historical events in the background, you can mainly expect challenging puzzles and difficult battles, but also stealth passages and important decisions. You will come across possessed devil worshipers, sexual demons, and beasts from hell, as well as creatures well-known from European mythology.
Dark fantasy story
Europe is in the middle of religious upheaval and many preachers predict that the end of the world is near. The year is 1428 and the Hussites have just set out on their Silesian campaign. These heretics appear to be the biggest threat in the kingless country. But true evil of a completely different kind is lurking nearby and it does not intend to engage in religious disputes.
The game is linear and takes place during the entire Hussite campaign. It will be divided into thirteen chapters, with which you will be able to spend about 30 hours of playtime. You will experience everything from the point of view of the two main characters. Hynek, a grumpy Hussite hetman who doesn’t hesitate to swear or mess around with anything, and Lothar, a Hospitaller knight, a man of good education and manners who stands alongside his brethren in the front line of the Silesian defense. Each has their own motivations and views of the world around them, different equipment and abilities. Their fates will soon become intertwined. Will they face one another, weapon in hand, or forge a fragile alliance to stand shoulder to shoulder against a far worse enemy?
Isometric graphics
The graphics are inspired by classic RPG games. They are isometric, stylized, and a bit fairytale-like. The action often takes place underground, in the rain, or at night, which serves to amplify the dark atmosphere and focus, which is mostly placed on the contrast of light and shadow.
Challenging puzzles
The original puzzles you will come across on your dangerous journey will most definitely be challenging. Classic adventure games of the 1990s were a big inspiration. You will have to take advantage of your surroundings, look for objects, obtain information, and solve puzzles or encoded messages. Some problems can be solved in multiple ways, or they can be cleverly worked around.
Sneaking in the shadows
Sometimes you’ll have to blend into the shadows and sneak past enemies to avoid being detected. Following their patrol routes and habits will help you find the best path. Or you can try to quietly take them out, one by one.
Complex combat
The combat system is easy to understand but it takes practice to fully master it. Remember one thing: being outnumbered is a problem! If three or more opponents attack you at the same time, you will die! The key is to take advantage of their mistakes, wait for the right moment, and then attack. You will face not just knights, villagers, and robbers, but also various supernatural beings - and you shouldn’t underestimate them.
Diverse environments
During the game, you will move around on foot as well as in the saddle. You will visit various real as well as fictitious places in medieval Silesia. You will plunder villages, doggedly defend the city walls, and explore places such as secret dungeons, abandoned mines, or forbidden parts of monasteries. For example, you can look forward to visiting Röwersdorf, Nysa, the Brzeg monastery, or the Rabesberg castle.
Hidden coins
You will have the opportunity to search for two kinds of hidden coins. Only the best of the best will be able to collect them all. Not only will you fill your wallet with them and unlock unique achievements, but you can also occasionally use them to progress through the story.
Read More: Best Medieval Isometric Games.
Vugluskr: Zombie Rampage
In this video I take a look at Vugluskr: Zombie Rampage, a third person zombie shooter.
Don’t get me wrong this is a very low quality game…. but…. I enjoyed it! It’s the level design that won me over. You need to activate these zip lines to complete the level and find the keys. Each zip line requires 15 crystals to activate so you need to play the levels cautiously so you have enough crystals to get out from where you put yourself. It’s quite fun.
Now for the low quality parts… pretty much all the rest. There is nothing (that I have encountered) that was game breaking apart from when I hit escape to try to find options for key bindings only to discover it just leaves the game if you do that. I had to start my video again. :( There’s no jumping, poor shooting animations/sound effects, poor menus, etc, but it was fun and that’s ultimately what it’s all about. So if you don’t mind games that look cheap but play well your in for a treat I think, a cheap one too at $5 USD. Anyway, take a look at the video to really see what it’s like.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Medieval Zombies Games.
Gothic Playable Teaser
TL;DR
! Gothic is a timeless classic that managed to be serious competition for Morrowind, the Elder Scrolls game of its time. Offering a compelling and vastly branching storyline that encourages multiple replays, interesting characters, intricate crafting systems, multiple specialized classes and a semi-open world, it captivated millions for many years. Sadly the graphics and the controls didn’t age all that well, so THQ Nordic, who now own the rights and apparently dearly love the franchise, are trying to revive the game.
– Real player with 11.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Medieval Singleplayer Games.
This isn’t the Gothic you remember, and it’s not the Gothic you deserve.
–-
This is a tech demo asking for player feedback so they can decide whether to bother making a full game. Neat idea? Somewhat, but it feels half hearted.
Rather than trying to be like the original Gothic, instead it’s a blend of Witcher with Skyrim and fails at being any of the three. You’ll find poorly implemented ideas from all of them borrowed openly and then draped over with janky combat and long drawn out unskippable cutscenes.
– Real player with 7.9 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
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
Misericorde: Volume One
The year is 1482.
The age of exploration and enlightenment is on the distant horizon and the Renaissance is in full swing across Europe; but in England, the War of the Roses is in its final throes. Change is coming, but in one little convent in the north of the kingdom, everyone has seemed blissfully unaware.
Everyone except Sister Catherine, a beloved nun and firebrand thinker who has just been murdered. In an isolated monastery with an already mysterious reputation, any one of the Sisters could be the killer—and Mother Superior is as stumped as anyone else. That’s where you come in.
As an Anchoress, you took an oath to never leave your cell; to devote yourself entirely to God and provide spiritual support to all who came to your door. But as the only Sister who couldn’t possibly have committed the crime, you have a new mission: solve the case, before the bishop shutters the convent and the killer goes unpunished.
The Superior hasn’t told everyone why you’ve suddenly joined the regular congregation, but something tells you most of these women know exactly what’s going on. Who can you trust? Who is being honest, and who has their guard up—and why? Is the convent really haunted? Who killed Sister Catherine? And worst of all… are you next?
Knight Arena
1/10
best part is a wise opponent’s AI, approach to battle and swift weapon switching in different circumstances.
Strange that the first Achievement still wan’t fixed, my guess, this explains that game will be as it is.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Ultimate Edition
First off, I’m a huge fan of the Castlevania series. So that foundation may color my opinion of this game and it’s ensuing interquel and sequel (which I’m currently in the midst of). Something about medieval through Enlightment era Europe with a heavy gothic/baroque aesthetic, corrupted through dark forces that threaten the world? Awesome. Tons of monsters pulling on a multitude of inspiration from the myth cycles of antiquity through the modern Universal monsters? Yes, please.
Konami struck gold initially by creating these dark adventures that took a quite serious tone for the early Nintendo systems, offering a beefy challenge of vintage Nintendo difficulty through several increasingly impressive platformer games. They then evolved into the famed Metroidvanias with the release of Symphony of the Night on the Playstation - trading a bit of the reflex-intensive difficulty for massive sprawling environments that took forever to explore and fully unlock - and followed this formula with several excellent installments on Nintendo’s handhelds where they found their most sustainable home and success through the late 2000’s. Then Konami, sensing the increasingly stagnant nature of the series as it became mired in repeated iterations of SotN’s sprawling platformer/RPG hybrid, started searching for a way to revitalize the series again, just as SotN ignited a sort of Golden Age for the series.
– Real player with 98.7 hrs in game
(Important note: This game, for whatever reason, doesn’t like being set to fullscreen + max res on a display other than that which Windows / your video card identifies as Display 1, regardless if it’s your primary display or not. Weird bug but easy to fix.)
Lords of Shadow is a flawed but polished masterpiece and a triumph of artistic direction. It’s shortcomings are forgivable. That said, since you can expect to sink upwards of 40hrs into this, I’ll go into some more detail.
Presentation wise, this game is stunning. Masterful visuals paired with smooth and optimized 4K performance make for an eye-popping experience. The art team went all out on this and it shows. I’ve never taken so many screenshots of a game before. Two major detractors though: 1. Some of the cutscenes were pre-rendered for console are unimproved by modern hardware (they still look passable but they’re jaggy af); 2. Godrays are a weak point. The score is powerful but not iconic; you’ll love it in the moment but try to recall the music later and you’ll likely struggle, for the most part. This isn’t objectively a bad thing, as it simply means it’s enhancing the experience without overpowering it but I was disappointed by the lack of iconic singles and the abscence of a Bloody Tears revamp.
– Real player with 47.4 hrs in game
Gothic 1
Gothic is an open world RPG created by Piranha – Bytes, and today it’s a classic cult title recommended to everyone who enjoys a role playing game, or an action title for that matter.
The player takes control of our hero, the nameless hero, who just happens to be imprisoned and sent into the colony. For those who don’t know, the colony is the king’s solution to the war with the orcs. In order to keep extracting the precious ore from the mines, but saving manpower, his highness ordered the magicians to create a dome surrounding the ore mines. Convicts are sent in, and when trying to leave the magical barrier kills anyone who dares to cross it.
– Real player with 67.8 hrs in game
Ambition unfulfilled
Disclaimer – Steam version of Gothic is flatout broken. It is likely that you will have to manually install patches just to get the game started. If you don’t mind such a thing, a little tinkering is recommended as community-made fixes greatly improve the game’s performance on newer hardware.
Gothic is an almost 20 years-old open-world RPG created by German studio Piranha Bytes and published by JoWood interactive. The game stars a classic fantasy setting with a fun little spin to it. The kingdom of man is invaded by an orc horde, and the only thing holding the line is wondrous equipment made out of magical ore. To fuel the war effort, a penal mining colony is established – no matter the crime, the punishment is mining of ore. In order to keep the convicts dedicated to the task a magical barrier is created over the mining colony. A blue dome that allows all things to enter, but no living thing to exit. Long enough a steady stream of magical ore leaves the colony, a steady stream of supplies flows inside. If you ever wanted to see a fantasy adaptation of the 1981’s Escape from New York, this is probably as close as you can get.
– Real player with 65.3 hrs in game
Gothic® 3
Gothic 3, in its current form, is the definition of a mixed bag. While the release version was pushed out long before it was ready, the community managed to finish the job, in what I would call an unprecendented effort. The end result is great in some aspects and painfully lacking in others. Overall a decent package, but not for everyone.
First off: any of the following statements are based on the community-patched build, which is not included in Steam by default. In order to enjoy this game, I strongly recommend downloading the Community Patch 1.75 and the Humanforce Quest Pack 4. Without these, you will have a significantly worse time.
– Real player with 332.8 hrs in game
“Gothic 3 scored only 8/10 because producer JoWood ‘rushed out’ production…” that’s a funny complaint because an 8/10 from any major critic is a heavenly blessing upon a game like Gothic 3. Nobody who plays any of the Gothic or Risen games is ever on the fence about them; you either love them or wish that you could set the developer on fire.
Allow me to explain:
I love Gothic 3. I come back to it over and over even though by now the graphics are seriously dated (I had originally reviewed the game many years ago and called it beautiful) and I have discovered pretty much everything in the world that there is to discover. There are hours upon hours of quests and content in the game to keep you busy and most of them are pretty easy to figure out. Rarely do you have to trek across an entire continent (like in some other open world RPG’s out there) in order to pick up item x and then walk all the way back to drop it off. It happens… but it’s rare.
– Real player with 167.9 hrs in game