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AoD recieves undue praise and favouritism from the Codex

Tavernking

Don't believe his lies
Developer
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,216
Location
Australia
At first this game can be charming, but the charm quickly wears off as you stay longer.

The main problem is that this game is more preoccupied with "being hardcore" than actually being consistent. It's VERY easy to sink 10+hours in this game, only to realize that you've built an extremely un-optimized character and you need to restart, all the way not really explaining anything of note. Very bad and vague introduction to concepts and mechanics.

The game pits you in several situations where if you have not specced a minimum of points in "XY" skill you're dead, and have to start over, and does this for purely the sake "being hardcore". The lore justfying most of this situations is extremely sketchy. For instance, one minute you're this promising up and comer on this new faction, the next this same faction is sending you in an impossible odds mission like you're nothing.

You're not playing the way you want to in this game; you are playing the way you must do to succeed. That is, you're not role-playing your character, rather you're manipulating your character's stats once you've found out through trial and error what stats your character needs to have to progress.

On top of this, there are actually very few quests. There are a bunch of alternatives, but any given character type has only a few that they can reasonably do. A smooth-talker, for example, cannot do the heavy combat scenarios. Nor vice versa. And aside from the quest givers, some merchants and a few thief targets, the rest of the population are mannequins. Exploration is minimal and the game is on rails.

On top of all this, there's this Vince guy (a developer) with his incredibly annoying, passive-aggressive attitude, both in the forum and when answering to negative reviews. abrasive developer builds a hardcore-wannabe game, wich boils down to "reload until you catch the right combination of skills and skip optional quests because that's what you would do in real life". I copy pasted all of this from various negative steam reviews.
 

Morkar Left

Guest
When I played the game it felt to me, that the only real choice I have is at the beginning which character class I want to play. After that it's sticking religiously to it regarding char advancement and decision making. Which in the end meant for me not having any choice at all despite doing replays with different chars.
I didn't finish the game because I lost interest very early in the game because of that. That system would have worked a lot better with a party instead of one single char.
 

Trashos

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
3,413
It's VERY easy to sink 10+hours in this game, only to realize that you've built an extremely un-optimized character and you need to restart, all the way not really explaining anything of note.

Oh my God. My build may not be able to succeed. What am I going to do?!

You're not playing the way you want to in this game; you are playing the way you must do to succeed. That is, you're not role-playing your character, rather you're manipulating your character's stats once you've found out through trial and error what stats your character needs to have to progress.

This is not true, btw. There are various paths available, and hybrid characters are possible. It is just that the paths are narrower than what they usually are in other RPGs. Which makes it all the more satisfying when my hybrid character manages to succeed.


A smooth-talker, for example, cannot do the heavy combat scenarios.

A truly revolutionary concept.
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,352
Location
UK
One of the game's achievements was to simulate life, or rather, the cruelty of life. If you aren't lucky and knowledgeable enough, you're fucked depending on the situation.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
a game cannot be an RPG without companions, if I can't roleplay having friends then I'm being detained by the developer and they're infringing upon my agency
I'd go so far as to say they're unamerican
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
How often is it the case in AOD that you can't advance at all because of your build, versus, you can't advance in the particular way you want at that moment? My experience in the game was often that I couldn't do what I wanted, but I never was actually completely halted. The real challenge to enjoying AOD is recognizing that its design means that you can't get it all, or get exactly what you want, and that a big part of the game is figuring out when to back down rather than save scum.
 

Alexios

Augur
Patron
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
444
I don't think AoD's praise is undue in a world where what passes for an RPG is almost always complete popamole trash. The game certainly has some serious problems, namely the CYOA structure and terrible camera.
 

Saduj

Arcane
Joined
Aug 26, 2012
Messages
2,547
How can the praise be “undue”? People who like the game say good things about it.

Does the OP think he can retroactively make people not enjoy the game by posting this collage of Steamtard babble?
 

Tito Anic

Arcane
Shitposter
Joined
Dec 27, 2015
Messages
1,679
Location
Magalan
At first this game can be charming, but the charm quickly wears off as you stay longer.

The main problem is that this game is more preoccupied with "being hardcore" than actually being consistent. It's VERY easy to sink 10+hours in this game, only to realize that you've built an extremely un-optimized character and you need to restart, all the way not really explaining anything of note. Very bad and vague introduction to concepts and mechanics.

The game pits you in several situations where if you have not specced a minimum of points in "XY" skill you're dead, and have to start over, and does this for purely the sake "being hardcore". The lore justfying most of this situations is extremely sketchy. For instance, one minute you're this promising up and comer on this new faction, the next this same faction is sending you in an impossible odds mission like you're nothing.

You're not playing the way you want to in this game; you are playing the way you must do to succeed. That is, you're not role-playing your character, rather you're manipulating your character's stats once you've found out through trial and error what stats your character needs to have to progress.

On top of this, there are actually very few quests. There are a bunch of alternatives, but any given character type has only a few that they can reasonably do. A smooth-talker, for example, cannot do the heavy combat scenarios. Nor vice versa. And aside from the quest givers, some merchants and a few thief targets, the rest of the population are mannequins. Exploration is minimal and the game is on rails.

On top of all this, there's this Vince guy (a developer) with his incredibly annoying, passive-aggressive attitude, both in the forum and when answering to negative reviews. abrasive developer builds a hardcore-wannabe game, wich boils down to "reload until you catch the right combination of skills and skip optional quests because that's what you would do in real life". I copy pasted all of this from various negative steam reviews.

Agree almost with everything you said still i enjoyed it very much. I liked combat, writing, setting, world building. Yes developer is very insecure but i understand him it is his first baby:lol:
 

Reever

Scholar
Patron
Joined
Jul 4, 2018
Messages
534
These are the same people that cry in the steam reviews that they got invited by a merchant in a shack and instead of gold they got a shank in their back. "B-But why couldn't I superman myself out of that situation like in my Skyrims !:negative:"
 

HeatEXTEND

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Feb 12, 2017
Messages
3,928
Location
Nedderlent
It's VERY easy to sink 10+hours in this game, only to realize that you've built an extremely un-optimized character and you need to restart
Any and every cRPG worth anything demands a restart after 2-3-4 hours in, assuming you go in blind and like to optimize. If this process takes you 10+ hours that's on you. Good job idiot.

The game pits you in several situations where if you have not specced a minimum of points in "XY" skill you're dead, and have to start over
Funny, this never happened to me once in 7 playthroughs after the mandatory 2 hour restart, which should let you pick up on the "flow" of the game. Not fucking once. Good job idiot.

you're this promising up and comer on this new faction
What? Did you play the game?

You're not playing the way you want to in this game
Laughing my fucking ass off.

That is, you're not role-playing your character, rather you're manipulating your character's stats once you've found out through trial and error what stats your character needs to have to progress.
You LITERALLY pick a ROLE at the start of the game. How fucking thick can you be? Trial and error to progress? Just because you can doesn't mean you should, go sue mcdonalds for being fat while you're at it.

There are a bunch of alternatives, but any given character type has only a few that they can reasonably do. A smooth-talker, for example, cannot do the heavy combat scenarios. Nor vice versa.
Yeah, if Fallout was properly balanced it would be kinda shit, right? Imagine having to choose instead of murderfucking the Devil to death and convincing God he's got it wrong, all at the same time.

Exploration is minimal
Yes, yes it is. Good boy.

the game is on rails.
Or in other words, you go down a narrowing path. Sounds better and is a much closer approximation to what's actually happening, because of your choices.

On top of all this, there's this Vince guy (a developer) with his incredibly annoying, passive-aggressive attitude, both in the forum and when answering to negative reviews. abrasive developer builds a hardcore-wannabe game, wich boils down to "reload until you catch the right combination of skills and skip optional quests because that's what you would do in real life".
"I want to be cool and smart but the mean dev won't let me :( " It's okay, where did he touch you?

I copy pasted all of this from various negative steam reviews.
Well played :negative:
 

buffalo bill

Arcane
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
1,004
OP wants AoD to be an RPG that he can't lose and in which any character build can do everything.

Virtues of AoD over nearly all modern RPGs: you can lose and not any character build can do everything.
 

RegionalHobo

Scholar
Joined
Oct 2, 2018
Messages
294
very few games go for the '' gritty/low level adventure '' that this game do in teron and the start of madoran before your character gets to terminator status.

for this alone it s worth my praise. that said i don t disagree that if you go full munchkin, trying to see everything with one character, the character creation and leveling is far more a puzzle than a rpg.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Agree with Tavernking & Morkar about a lot of their points. AOD is a great idea, which just doesn't translate into anything exciting in terms of gaming unfortunately.

For a first attempt at a game it's worthy of massive kudos though. A real honourable attempt at doing something different.
 

Strange Fellow

Peculiar
Patron
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
4,013
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Any and every cRPG worth anything demands a restart after 2-3-4 hours in, assuming you go in blind and like to optimize.
AoD is just about the only CRPG I can think of that requires you to restart if you fuck up your build. And plenty of the best CRPGs have rudimentary or no character building, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms. ;)
 
Last edited:

Stormcrowfleet

Aeon & Star Interactive
Developer
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
1,020
I get what some of you are saying, but after my first playthrough I saved all my XP and did savescumming at each scenes. It's dumb and that's my biggest criticism of the game.

That being said, I like the game. The systems are solid, the world is actually fun to explore and reroll (in order to explore other quest/faction), which in a 3d/isometric view is quite rare*. The game is not perfect that's for sure. Yet I have 100hrs+ into it and all the achievements, which is quite rare for me.

* Some did it great, like Planescape. And as much as BG or BG2 are among my favorites and most played RPG, exploration is not really it's strong suit: there is barely nothing barred or hidden, and after one playthrough you've seen it all. At least AoD has something different in that regard.

I'm optimistic for the next game they pump out.
 

Diggfinger

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
1,200
Location
Belgium
If I have the choice between:

a) The RPG Codex: a site that is biased towards hardcore RPGs with old-school mechanics (0.000001% of game releases)

vs.

b)ANy other crap-gaming site, biased towards teh random shit spit on the gaming market every split-second
:gd:



....I proudly choose da Codex:whiteknight:



Sure, AoD is not perfect. I dont like the 'chapter' structure, i.e. that when you leave certain areas you cant go back and complete unfinished quests.
But otherwise I thought it was great.
 
Last edited:

FeelTheRads

Arcane
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
13,716
When I played the game it felt to me, that the only real choice I have is at the beginning which character class I want to play. After that it's sticking religiously to it regarding char advancement and decision making. Which in the end meant for me not having any choice at all despite doing replays with different chars.
I didn't finish the game because I lost interest very early in the game because of that. That system would have worked a lot better with a party instead of one single char.

Pretty much. The game literally plays itself.
because of your choices.

lol no.
Because of where the script takes you.
AoD has a couple of paths and the only real choice is going down on one of them. That's it. Muh choices.

Buttt hurrr i can fiend difurrunt things with other characturz. Wow, so revolutionary.

The fantards are still wanking each other over the "zomg so harcore good riddance rofl" bullshit marketing VD was vomiting. Because learning how VD wanted you to play the paths he scripted is so fucking hardcore.

"I want to be cool and smart but the mean dev won't let me :( "

:retarded:

No, it's actually "I want to play the game, but the developer has already played it for me".
 

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