Age of Decadence - Review @ GameBanshee

Myrthos

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In their review of Age of Decadence, GameBanshee aren't too thrilled about the game an feel it is very much a failed experiment.

The Age of Decadence has value in a post-Kickstarter world because it does what no other crowdfunded RPG has done: it toys with the very structure of the genre. Sure, it wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but it's ultimately its own thing.

However, the problem with experiments is that they don't necessarily all give good results, and The Age of Decadence is very much a failed experiment.

Sure, it's a game that has much to offer. It includes a completely optional sidequest that can only be found by repeatedly perusing the services of a town healer and allows players to confuse stone demons by using the demon's own logic against it. It even offers an entire story path focused on the study of history and its practical applications.

But its praiseworthy elements don't quite work together in concert and the game ends up feeling schizophrenic as a result.

Unfortunately, it just doesn't quite work.
More information.
 
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It is a harsh review, indeed, but I have yet to play the game in order to form my own opinion.
 
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I think most people know that I disagree with the conclusion.

Of course, this paragraph is amazing though :
Sure, it's a game that has much to offer. It includes a completely optional sidequest that can only be found by repeatedly perusing the services of a town healer and allows players to confuse stone demons by using the demon's own logic against it. It even offers an entire story path focused on the study of history and its practical applications.
 
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it still needs time.
pb 1y or so considering the resources.
 
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it still needs time.
pb 1y or so considering the resources.

They said they wouldn't be spending more than 3-4 months on the game, except for bugfixing.

The next 4 months will be about adding some more stuff to the game and balancing it.
First big update will be an update to the Arena in Maadoran, incorporating some really strong characters.
 
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It sounds like GB wasn't paid for a review here. GB has reviewed some terrible games and given an overall good conclusion. In this case it seems like the conclusion doesnt match their own review.
 
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I feel broken and depressed after reading GB review.

Sometimes it's best to not read reviews. Especially now that refunds and demos are available.
 
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it still needs time.
pb 1y or so considering the resources.
God, I hope not. The game is done IMO. It's not perfect, but it is unique and far ahead of the competition in many many ways.
 
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not sure why you say you hope not.

agree with the second part
 
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In this case it seems like the conclusion doesnt match their own review.
IMO it matches it well enough. Reviewer likes some of the game's elements but finds no synergy.
For me, this bit is the most telling one: "Every single scenario, every single interaction was handcrafted by a developer. As a result, often the challenge lies not in understanding the gameplay systems but in learning the developers' logic and the content of the game. Making a new character just to have enough points to pass a skill check isn't really an interesting experience, just a tedious one."
It like a difference between learning to gain knowledge and learning to pass the test.
 
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IMO it matches it well enough. Reviewer likes some of the game's elements but finds no synergy.
For me, this bit is the most telling one: "Every single scenario, every single interaction was handcrafted by a developer. As a result, often the challenge lies not in understanding the gameplay systems but in learning the developers' logic and the content of the game. Making a new character just to have enough points to pass a skill check isn't really an interesting experience, just a tedious one."
It like a difference between learning to gain knowledge and learning to pass the test.

You are right as well. I just felt his conclusion was harsher than his text.
I agree with the skill point checks. Sometimes it gets frustrating to be skill gated so often. I see why they did it, it just took me a bit to wrap my head around the change.

It's difficult for me as I'm the type of person that likes one solid playthrough experiencing everything. I end games like fallout with 100 in every skill so I don't miss out on skill checks. I'll leave an area and come back if I can't go with the option I want. It's why I appreciate checks that give multiple options at one spot. Barter/science/speech/guns etc
 
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not sure why you say you hope not.
agree with the second part
I say I hope not because they've spent 11 years on this game. With any piece of art -movies, novels, games, whatever- there comes a point where you put it down and move on. It's never going to be perfect, but there's a point you have to say "It's done" or it will be the only thing you ever do.

They have two other games they hope to make. I'm more interested in seeing those games get made than seeing Age of Decadence get another 12 months of polish.
 
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You are right as well. I just felt his conclusion was harsher than his text.
You know what Wisdom? It's just a feeling, but I think that reviewer was so harsh because he wanted to like this game and just couldn't…
 
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First town (available in demo) offers you everything this game is about.

I tried to play this one as any other RPG, clearing area of side-quests before moving on and was severely punished for that many times. Then I realized that you are not supposed to do all quests, just follow your own way through the same story based on your archetype (attributes and skills).

Experience is very unique. IF you go for purely combat driven character prepare to be cheated and duped and manipulated and miss a lot of content. Go for smart lore-master and you will have to skip almost all combat content in the game (at least so far as city #2) and for few unavoidable battles prepare bombs and potions. And prey for lucky rolls.

Combat is not easy to say the least, some battles early on are insanely hard but doable. And some battles are designed to be deadly just to drive the point that if you outnumbered you are pretty much f**d.

Anyway, I strongly encourage anyone interested in hardcore old-style RPG to try the demo and decide for themselves.
 
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IF you go for purely combat driven character prepare to be cheated and duped and manipulated and miss a lot of content.
Hardly. You're not missing content as a fighter, you just see a whole lot of combat content, which you wouldn't see as a loremaster. Once you get the combat down (and all the ancillary strategies and items that help out in combat) you can have a lot of fun as a hybrid. As both a Praetor and an Assassin I got to kill many people *and* see a lot of the lore and hidden locations.

And some battles are designed to be deadly just to drive the point that if you outnumbered you are pretty much f**d.
Not true. There is only one combat in the game designed for you to fail, even with the options available to a pure combat character. In that one you're not outnumbered.
 
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hardcore old-style RPG

This is the thing, you're promoting it as something tried and tested, others are promoting it as pretty much a new entity. What exactly is hardcore about it? What exactly is old-style about it? And bare in mind having difficult combat is not either old style nor hardcore, the concept of hardness is mostly a question of familiarity. For example, you could argue that Dragon Age inquisition has hard combat, but only if someone unfamiliar with its style was trying to kill level 11 monsters at character level 4. As has been pointed out, AoD is mainly about learning how to make it easy rather than just being hard per-se. And this reviewer found the learning process boring rather than entertaining, which is fair comment is it not? And hasn't that always been the case, even with older games, in that it's about whether you enjoy learning the systems, not whether those systems are difficult to learn or not.
 
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I think a nice big gulp of perspective is lacking in this review.
Experiment? Schizophrenic? Have these guys EVER played RPGs at all?
I mean, I can definitely agree with some of the points they made, if not all, but the thing is, is it a problem at all? Who cares if you need meta knowledge to access some of the quests? Who cares of if you need to reload every once in a while to figure something out? That's RPGs for you.

Just as they have been all this time.
 
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This is the thing, you're promoting it as something tried and tested, others are promoting it as pretty much a new entity. What exactly is hardcore about it? What exactly is old-style about it?

I just used a cliche, sorry. "Old-style CRPG" is a very used one, with very personal meaning for everybody. (And lead developer is not very fond of it either, as holy wars at RPG-codex could attest).

For me personally it would be: No hand-holding, trying to role-play your character and being punished for mistakes and rewarded for right choices.

Game like, for-example, Ravenloft or Dark Sun from 90s or recent Demon's Soul.

Not to say that other approach to game-design is flawed. I liked Troika's games and both original Fallouts, where progression is smooth and mistakes are not that critical.
 
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