Even so, there are a lot of things many players won't enjoy about The Age of Decadence. Some, like some rough game balance and an almost stripped-down world with very little non-essential content, may be addressed before release. Others, like the high dependence on text descriptions and the general lack of exploration, looting, and environment interaction, are probably going to stay for the long haul. Iron Tower are still taking feedback into account, but I don't think players will be satisfied going into the game expecting it to be X or Y - despite the inspiration, Vince and crew have made a game that's all their own, for better or for worse depending on your preferences.
Ultimately, the demo of Age of Decadence has, more than any game in a long while, left my jaw firmly planted on the floor. As an RPG player who loves deep character systems, game worlds with rich lore, nebulous and amoral situations, deep reactivity and interesting quest design, The Age of Decadence doesn't just meet the bar, it leaves some of the best and classic CRPGs in the dust. And as much as I can complain and nit-pick about what the game does or doesn't do, I find myself constantly coming back to it, just to try the same scenarios again as a different character, or to see if I can win a challenging fight, and ten times through, I'm still finding new locations, events and characters - that's the sign of a great RPG to me.
There may be some rough edges, but Iron Tower's long-lost "dead game in a dead genre" has already brought me more enjoyment in its demo than just about every other RPG to come out in the last several years, and I for one can't wait to try to the final game.
