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Game News Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones Released

Infinitron

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Tags: 1C Company; Cultic Games; Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones

The Encased Early Access is nice, but let's be honest, it was doomed to be overshadowed by the game that came out less than an hour later. Cultic Games' Lovecraftian RPG Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones first came to our attention in early 2016 and quickly cemented itself as one of our most anticipated releases, despite several delays and long stretches of inactivity. Indeed, in a Kickstarter update published over the weekend Cultic admitted that they'd had to include less content than originally planned and end the game on a cliffhanger. But now their nearly four year journey is finally over. Here's the game's awesome launch trailer, welcoming you to the doomed city of Arkham:



In Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones, the player journeys from a doomed Arkham into the depths of the Abyss. Create your own character based on 1920's archetypes and carve a path through a broken and mysterious world.

Your desperate battle against forces beyond comprehension will haunt you until the end. Physical combat will be challenging, spellcasting will have dire consequences, and your sanity will be strained to the breaking point by unknown abominations. Sometimes the best solution will be to flee what lurks beyond the threshold.

Features:

  • A hand drawn 2D world reflecting Lovecraft's themes of cosmic horror and dread.
  • Enemies, environments and storylines inspired by Lovecraft’s iconic original works. Take part in quests inspired by your favorite stories and see them play out according to your own decisions and role-playing style.
  • Choose from 8 main character Archetypes, each with its own origin backstory and specialties.
  • A host of weird companions will accompany you on your ill-starred journey: the lonely, antediluvian 'Outsider', a fallen soldier of the Great War reanimated by Herbert West. Recruit these and other outlandish beings to your crew.
  • Your character's Sanity and mental state will influence dialogue options. Mental illness comes with advantages as well as hindrances. Sometimes it pays to be mad in a world gone mad!
  • Stygian's Belief System determines how your characters cope with the warped reality of the new Arkham, as well as the rate at which they regenerate lost Sanity. Belief Systems also offer unique dialogue options, expanding the breadth of role-playing possibilities.
  • A new kind of spell system which sometimes takes more than it gives. Being a master of the occult is not as simple as flinging colored missiles from your fingertips. The black magic of Stygian is potent but may cost you your mind, your health, and possibly even much more.
  • Strategic, turn-based combat from a 2D perspective, similar to the classic Heroes of Might and Magic games.
  • The struggle in Stygian is not to save the world, for that battle is lost already. Pursue your own goals in these end times: salvation, vendetta, or perhaps something darker.

If you're ready to embrace the madness, you can grab Stygian on Steam or GOG today for $30, with a 15% launch discount until next week. Hopefully you can expect a review from us in the not-too-distant future.
 
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TwinkieGorilla

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pathfinder: Wrath
Hell fucking yes. I had no idea this was coming out this month...even bothered their twitter a month ago about it! Fucking hell man, between this and Encased I don't even know wtf to do! Gahh!!
 

GloomFrost

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Only played for 3 hours. Feels like Arcanum set in Lovecraft universe plus nice 2d hand drawn graphics plus decent TB combat and really atmospheric background ambient. So far looks like one of the best kick starter games and one of the best RPGs of the decade. Not even joking.
 

Roguey

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Great to see that the excellent compression of the demo held up to the full game. 4.5 gb compressed to 1.6. I wish most games had compression that good. :negative:
 

KeighnMcDeath

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Only played for 3 hours. Feels like Arcanum set in Lovecraft universe plus nice 2d hand drawn graphics plus decent TB combat and really atmospheric background ambient. So far looks like one of the best kick starter games and one of the best RPGs of the decade. Not even joking.
Oh ho ho! Lovecraftian Arcanum you say. AWESOME! And I loved Arcanum.
 

Ismaul

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Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech A Beautifully Desolate Campaign My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
lobsterfrogman
Remember last year's Infinitron-dubbed "September and October madness"?

Were released: DOS2's definitive edition, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, INSOMNIA: The Ark, Vigilantes, Bard's Tale IV, Das Geisterschiff...
Were kickstarted: Realms Beyond, Encased, Waylanders...

Seems like it's a trend.

Btw Infinitron is at it again ITT:
If you're ready to embrace the madness, you can grab Stygian on Steam or GOG today

T H I S I S M A D N E S S
 
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Dr Schultz

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Only played for 3 hours. Feels like Arcanum set in Lovecraft universe plus nice 2d hand drawn graphics plus decent TB combat and really atmospheric background ambient. So far looks like one of the best kick starter games and one of the best RPGs of the decade. Not even joking.


I can't help but agree with this gentleman, excpet on one point. The game is definetly promissiong, charming and original, but the combat is boring as fuck.

FULL DISCLAIMER: I've played basically all the worthy Turn-based tactical games on the market and I've spent hundreds of hours with each one of them. Therefore I tend to find boring the combat part of many revered Turn-Based RPGs, even in cases such Fallout or Age of Decadence. The ones that I like during combat are those combat focused RPGs that do one thing only but do it well.
Which is to say: my opinion is extremely biased. Don’t’ trust my words if your are looking for an interesting full fledged RPG.
 
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V_K

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Only played for 3 hours. Feels like Arcanum set in Lovecraft universe plus nice 2d hand drawn graphics plus decent TB combat and really atmospheric background ambient. So far looks like one of the best kick starter games and one of the best RPGs of the decade. Not even joking.


I can't help but agree with this gentleman, excpet on one point. The game is definetly promissiong, charming and original, but the combat is boring as fuck.

FULL DISCLAIMER: I've played basically all the worthy Turn-based tactical games on the market and I've spent hundreds of hours with each one of them. Therefore I tend to find boring the combat part of many revered Turn-Based RPGs, even in cases such Fallout or Age of Decadence. The ones that I like during combat are those combat focused RPGs that do one thing only but do it well.
Which is to say: my opinion is extremely biased. Don’t’ trust my words if your are looking for an interesting full fledged RPG.
Would you have preferred it to follow in Arcanum's footsteps combat-wise too?
 

Dr Schultz

Augur
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Dec 21, 2013
Messages
492
Only played for 3 hours. Feels like Arcanum set in Lovecraft universe plus nice 2d hand drawn graphics plus decent TB combat and really atmospheric background ambient. So far looks like one of the best kick starter games and one of the best RPGs of the decade. Not even joking.


I can't help but agree with this gentleman, excpet on one point. The game is definetly promissiong, charming and original, but the combat is boring as fuck.

FULL DISCLAIMER: I've played basically all the worthy Turn-based tactical games on the market and I've spent hundreds of hours with each one of them. Therefore I tend to find boring the combat part of many revered Turn-Based RPGs, even in cases such Fallout or Age of Decadence. The ones that I like during combat are those combat focused RPGs that do one thing only but do it well.
Which is to say: my opinion is extremely biased. Don’t’ trust my words if your are looking for an interesting full fledged RPG.
Would you have preferred it to follow in Arcanum's footsteps combat-wise too?

If your are talking about having 2 different combat systems in the same game, i'd say "no thanks". If you're talking about having a real time combat system like the one in Arcanum I'd say "maybe yes";

But let me explain myself better...

In past years I would never have picked a real time (or RTwP) combat system over a turn based combat system in a party based RPG.

Today I'm more like "if the combat has to be boring, maybe it's better a real time combat system. At least it's quicker..."
 
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V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
Only played for 3 hours. Feels like Arcanum set in Lovecraft universe plus nice 2d hand drawn graphics plus decent TB combat and really atmospheric background ambient. So far looks like one of the best kick starter games and one of the best RPGs of the decade. Not even joking.


I can't help but agree with this gentleman, excpet on one point. The game is definetly promissiong, charming and original, but the combat is boring as fuck.

FULL DISCLAIMER: I've played basically all the worthy Turn-based tactical games on the market and I've spent hundreds of hours with each one of them. Therefore I tend to find boring the combat part of many revered Turn-Based RPGs, even in cases such Fallout or Age of Decadence. The ones that I like during combat are those combat focused RPGs that do one thing only but do it well.
Which is to say: my opinion is extremely biased. Don’t’ trust my words if your are looking for an interesting full fledged RPG.
Would you have preferred it to follow in Arcanum's footsteps combat-wise too?

If your are talking about having 2 different combat systems in the same game, i'd say "no thanks". If you're talking about having a real time combat system like the one in Arcanum I'd say "maybe yes";

But let me explain myself better...

In past years I would never have picked a real time (or RTwP) combat system over a turn based combat system in a party based RPG.

Today I'm more like "if the combat has to be boring, maybe it's better a real time combat system. At least it's quicker..."
I'm talking about the glorious and oh-so-exciting encounter design.
 

Dr Schultz

Augur
Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Messages
492
Today I'm more like "if the combat has to be boring, maybe it's better a real time combat system. At least it's quicker..."
I'm talking about the glorious and oh-so-exciting encounter design.

Ok, in this case, let's say that the Turn-Based RPGs that I've enjoyed for the encounter design are less than 10 in the last 30 years, and not Arcanum nor Stygian is among this select few. But - again - I'm watching form the standpoint of a tactical games-fag, so I'm definitely biased...
 
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