Stygian - RPG Codex Review

Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones has been reviewed by RPG Codex.

Controversial Features

The first controversial decision you'll notice is that there is no manual saving; only ten rolling autosaves and save-and-quit (which are also part of the roll, so they can be lost). There also aren't any save profiles, meaning if you want to try out another character before finishing, all your progress is lost. The developers have promised to patch this out, but as it is now, it's not so bad (other than the lack of profiles). Areas are small enough so that saves are frequent, and there's never more than one combat encounter per map. I lived with my bad substance-addiction rolls and some of my less-than-ideal decisions and made it to the end.

The second is the bane of numerous RPG players: time limits. If you go without rations, you'll go hungry, get stat penalties, and eventually starve to death. If you go without sleep, you'll get fatigued and eventually end up with heavier stat penalties, and resting is never free, requiring either money or camping supplies (which are rarely found in the world itself). Making matters worse, the passage of time is opaque to the player, though the developers claim the meters remain paused during dialogue, menu screens, and combat. A few hours in, you'll find yourself rolling in enough money that these will be mere nuisance mechanics, but I don't believe they belong here to begin with. Why make any player feel rushed? First, this has a relatively short length for a role-playing game. Second, it isn't a hardcore dungeon crawl or survival game. Third, there are a lot of text descriptions in the world one can read that a time limit will make one want to avoid entirely. It's like tacking on a day/night cycle and a periodically-draining blood meter to Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines; just obnoxious. It's also not like there are a lack of strategic gameplay elements; the management of health and sanity meters is sufficient.

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Originally Posted by Silver
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones has been reviewed by RPG Codex.

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Thanks for this. I did end up stopping my game of stygian as I found the game's combat to be horrible. Also now knowing that the game isn't a full game makes me not want to go through it all.



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Wow, the codex hates another game. I'm pretty surprised.

Originally Posted by GabrielMP_19
Wow, the codex hates another game. I'm pretty surprised.

That's not hate. Codex generally doesn't post hate-reviews. If that was the case, we'd get more reviews than we could possibly read
The Codex simply has very high standards, which many games do not fulfill. And high standards are good, they prevent one from becoming like mainstream media, just 70%+ rating everything if it looks nice…

It's just not a very good game, due to A LOT of issues.
I mean, survival elements and timers in a game that is not a survival game at all and that actually invites you to take your time otherwise and to inspect the really nice enviroments - doesn't take a genius to figure out that's not the best idea if a game element contradicts the rest of your game.
Same with an ending that isn't even a cliffhanger, but basically just the game stopping without any resolution at all.
Same with turn-based combat that has no speed-up option.

Instead of attacking the reviewer it would be more effective to attack what is wrong with the review.

Originally Posted by GabrielMP_19
Wow, the codex hates another game. I'm pretty surprised.

Originally Posted by TheSHEEEP
The Codex simply has very high standards, which many games do not fulfill.

I don't buy it. I've read a lot of their reviews before and sometimes they just nitpick the hell out of some aspects which are no issues at all. The Codex is a huge nostalgia echo chamber.

You still haven't criticised the review.

The codex can be 'edgy' at times, so don't go by what you have previously read.

Originally Posted by GabrielMP_19
The Codex is a huge nostalgia echo chamber.

Given the amount of arguments at the Codex about every teeny little detail of pretty much everything, I don't think "echo chamber" is the right term.

You still haven't addressed the actual content of the review.

The Codex is a funny place. They often hate games I'd expect them to like and sometimes like games I'd expect them to hate.

Originally Posted by JDR13
The Codex is a funny place. They often hate games I'd expect them to like and sometimes like games I'd expect them to hate.

Some examples would be good?

Originally Posted by GabrielMP_19
…The Codex is a huge nostalgia echo chamber.

Originally Posted by GabrielMP_19
Wow, the codex hates another game. I'm pretty surprised.

Wow, the RPGwatch hates another codex review because they have high standards and they make better reviews. I'm surprised.

Wow, the RPGwatch hates another codex review because they have high standards and they make better reviews. I'm surprised.

The good thing is that what you write can be read and interpreted in two ways, depending on one's preference

That's an unintended master level of trolling. Beginner's luck.

Originally Posted by GabrielMP_19
I don't buy it. I've read a lot of their reviews before and sometimes they just nitpick the hell out of some aspects which are no issues at all. The Codex is a huge nostalgia echo chamber.

There's your proof.
Just because you have low standards, doesn't mean real issues with gameplay are nitpicks.
You might choose to ignore issues. Others don't have to do that.