Lords of Xulima - Review @ Wizard Worm
- Thread starter HiddenX
- Start date
Great game! I can only recommend it!
One of the few games that are 100+ hours that I finished. I need to replay this someday but it's a big commitment. Fantastic exploration and monster variety. Felt like an updated Might and Magic 2.
I think LoX is the first Kickstarter game I backed. For some reason I never played very far into it. I should probably give it another look, but the 100+ hours is daunting.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Enjoyed the heck out of this game the first time I played it, and still plan to replay it sometime in the near future. A steal even at full price, you will get plenty of entertainment out of this one, guaranteed!
When I first saw the overland map I was immediately sold. Played it on hard and it took 107 h according to Steam. When it was over, it was good it was over. Although, I just OCD had to explore every nook and cranny.
To bad the developer moved onto other genres after this release. At least They are Billions was a decent apocalyptic RTS city builder. Hopefully they make another RPG.
LuckyCarbon
RollPGs
I beat it back when it came out but recently tried replaying it and bounced off hard even though I barely remembered any of it. I have to be in a special mindset to play a game that's lacking so many modern gameplay and UI features.
Steam has 63 hours for me, so it took me quite a bit less than 100 hours. But that's still a long game by modern standards.
Steam has 63 hours for me, so it took me quite a bit less than 100 hours. But that's still a long game by modern standards.
Funny thing is, They are Billions was only to tide them over to LoX 2. Nobody saw the success coming.
I also hope they will come back to RPGs soon and not go for They are Billions 2.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
I think years ago there were rumours of a follow-up game, yet I've not heard anything recently about that. And that's bad news for us all, as this team was truly on to something special with Xulima.
SSIGuy
An Islander Returned
I mean, seriously, who could not like this game?!
Anyone who has not played it yet... stop reading and just go play the damn thing!
Anyone who has not played it yet... stop reading and just go play the damn thing!
I tend to play fewer games than some others here but to replay the good ones more often. I have 337,9 Hours in it on steam, played it obviously in 2015 and again in 2019 and finished it on the highest difficulty level.
For those, who didn't play it yet: I recommend to play it on a low difficulty level once to learn the game system and the game world. Then to replay it on a higher level. On the highest level you need to play it very carefully. While the game seems quite open-world on lower levels, you need to choose the sequence of events very carefully on the highest level in order to get a good balance of your level to the enemies' levels. Like in Gothic you can encounter much too strong enemies if you choose the wrong route in early stages.
For those, who didn't play it yet: I recommend to play it on a low difficulty level once to learn the game system and the game world. Then to replay it on a higher level. On the highest level you need to play it very carefully. While the game seems quite open-world on lower levels, you need to choose the sequence of events very carefully on the highest level in order to get a good balance of your level to the enemies' levels. Like in Gothic you can encounter much too strong enemies if you choose the wrong route in early stages.
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2007
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Drithius
Magic & Loss
It was too long of a game that had you knowing 95% of the plot in the first hour and then had you repeating the same arc four? times over. It was fun, but was a pretty boring slog towards the end.
Games don't need to be long to be enjoyable.
Long games are welcome but their length should be warranted and not simply for padding.
Games don't need to be long to be enjoyable.
Long games are welcome but their length should be warranted and not simply for padding.
That's how I felt. Game was fun but very repetitive. I played till about the same point 3 times
Interesting that you feel like this about it. While you are right, that you do four similar tasks story-wise, the locations, enemies and tactics were still very different between these parts, at least for my feeling. May be you played it on a difficulty level, which was too low, so you didn't notice the difference in challenge between the different parts of the story?
Probably the individual experience depends on the question, what is most important for you in a game. Normally for me story is the most important ingredient in a game and the fighting is only the "salt in the soup" for me.
But in this specific turn-based game I found that the design of encounters was so interesting, that it played a little bit like chess: You had to carefully consider every move in a fight but it was clearly a fair chance to make it. In real time games the fights would have been too much for me but in a turn based game I like it.
I never had the feeling that something was repeated as a filler and even in my second and third play through I didn't feel any repetitiveness. To the contrary, in every playthrough I was a little bit sad, when it was over.
But of course it is all subjective and I can understand your view too.
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For me I didn't feel it was so strategic fighting the 10th group of mushrooms or the 8th group of ravens. And then what happened was that they coloured ravens blue which meant they were stronger ravens. Same with the soldiers. So I must have fought the exact same group of enemies more than 20 times just of different colours.
Actually what I found more fun was the feeling of progression. Getting a weapon which did 3 more damage made a big difference for example.
The devs used to actively talk about LoX 2 a lot. There's even a stickied Steam thread titled 'Lords of Xulima II feedback', but their participation trailed off after the release of They Are Billions. They've hardly mentioned it since 2017-18, and I have a feeling it might be dead in the water at this point.