Review GOG Plays The Age of Decadence

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Age of Decadence; GOG; Iron Tower

The folks at GOG.com have given Iron Tower's turn-based RPG The Age of Decadence, currently in its beta, a try and here's what they think (as quoted by Vince D. Weller, the developer):

"... And this is one ambitious project. In one sentence, “The Age of Decadence” is a post-apocalyptic hardcore RPG game when your choices have very serious consequences.

I did not write the “hardcore” world by accident - this is a big strength and at the same time weakness of this title. It’s a real CRPG game with huge number of numbers, statistics and build that matters, that you can play with, but also break them until the game becomes almost unplayable because of the difficulty of situation you will be put in. For example I can choose to make a mercenary who is a very good trader - but when it comes to combat he can be beaten by normal thief.

So you need to think smart and think like an RPG gamer would. This is good because of the simple truth that this is a very solid RPG game, and a bad thing because it’s a niche and very demanding RPG game.

What am I trying to say is that this is not the game that I would recommend even to RPG gamers (after Skyrim and new Fallouts they became a little more simple minded). This is an old-school RPG, when you need to have a passion for this kind of gameplay, or you will be bored after first couple of hours. (...)

Pros:
- Great RPG mechanic.
- Nice graphics, not revolutionary but there is a big attention to detail.
- Focus on choices and their consequences.
- Scale of the game - it looks like a huge adventure.
- Original setting - post-apocalypse meets roman empire.

Cons:
- Hard and unforgiving mechanics. (Which actually might appeal to hardcore gamers)
- Poor tutorial and generally not friendly for new gamers.
- Combat can be very long and boring.
- The story is not special in the beginning.

Questions:
- Is it possible to release some kind of adventure editor or maybe even game editor for this title?

(...)

This is the game for hardcore RPG gamers who will invest the patience and time to get to know it very good and only then draw a huge amount of fun from it. (...)"​

You can read about Vince's reaction to this feedback at the Iron Tower forums.

 

[Gragt]

RPG Game.

 

[Captain Shrek]

 

[Gragt]

Ah well, at least they do make good comments and go beyond the "died in the first fight; game sucks", but the repeat of "RPG game" is kinda disturbing.

 

[Licaon_Kter]

So this is the "please let me put it on GoG.com" pitch?

 

[Infinitron]

Ah well, at least they do make good comments and go beyond the "died in the first fight; game sucks", but the repeat of "RPG game" is kinda disturbing.

: x

So this is the "please let me put it on GoG.com" pitch?

I'm pretty sure they basically have to auto-accept any game that got Greenlit on Steam.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Combat long and boring ?

 

[norolim]

RPG Game.

This is just an error commonly made by someone for whom English is not the native language. In many synthetic languages you do add the equivalent of "game" before or after RPG, because RPG does not take inflections and inflections are necessary to construct sentences in such languages. Polish is a synthetic language.

The rest of this review seems objective, unbiased and spot on as confirmed by Vince. If only they could move some of the guys from GOG to the CD Projekt RED team

 

[Jaesun]

Combat long and boring ?

Of course it is. GOG IS CDProject. They only want shitty real time action games.

 

[Charles-cgr]

Combat long and boring ?

Of course it is. GOG IS CDProject. They only want shitty real time action games.

HEY!! No they d....

Oh never mind :D

 

[DwarvenFood]

I mean, playing the demo, being aware that one mishap or bad roll could mean to be dead, killed by a fucking oaf for hire, makes far from boring combat IMHO. But fuck 'em, this one will be a morgoth purchase for me when time comes.

 

[Infinitron]

Do you guys not notice things if they aren't pointed out to you?

What am I trying to say is that this is not the game that I would recommend even to RPG gamers (after Skyrim and new Fallouts they became a little more simple minded).

Fucking incline of GOG

 

[Vault Dweller]

So this is the "please let me put it on GoG.com" pitch?

I'm pretty sure they basically have to auto-accept any game that got Greenlit on Steam.

They were interested long before we got on Steam. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

 

[Charles-cgr]

So this is the "please let me put it on GoG.com" pitch?

I'm pretty sure they basically have to auto-accept any game that got Greenlit on Steam.

They were interested long before we got on Steam. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

I agree they're good folks. Notwithstanding their dislike for some game I made they spent a lot of time on my case where most just pressed delete.

 

[Azrael the cat]

It's the best style of review you could have possibly hoped for. They clarified the type of game it is and challenge level (okay they skimped on alternate solutions but that always happens given their limited time for playing before writing on it - I recall secrets and new solutions in Deus Ex being discovered almost a decade later, with not a single written source documenting them - you've either got to go 'herp dep, do this and X will happen, do this and Y will happen', or just accept that the reviewer will only see one path and at best take it on fate that there are genuine choices

More importantly, it will attract EXACTLY the kind of gamers likely to buy AoD and will only drive away folks who would never have played it to begin with. What more could you possibly want?

 

[MicoSelva]

What am I trying to say is that this is not the game that I would recommend even to RPG gamers (after Skyrim and new Fallouts they became a little more simple minded).

No, RPGamers have not become simple-minded.
Simple-minded have become RPGamers.

 

[Charles-cgr]

What am I trying to say is that this is not the game that I would recommend even to RPG gamers (after Skyrim and new Fallouts they became a little more simple minded).

No, RPGamers have not become simple-minded.
Simple-minded have become RPGamers.

Or perhaps the scope of the term RPG has expanded somewhat. A lot.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It's the best style of review you could have possibly hoped for. They clarified the type of game it is and challenge level...

More importantly, it will attract EXACTLY the kind of gamers likely to buy AoD and will only drive away folks who would never have played it to begin with. What more could you possibly want?

Exactly.

 

[Trash]

That's actually a pretty good objective analysis of the game. And it seems they think it's ideally suited for the niche it's aimed at. Neat.

 

[JarlFrank]

So when is it going to be released? Can't wait. Loved the demo, even though single-character turn based is kind of boring.
Thursday 2013, bring it on!

(also I will boycott this if it's not released on a thursday)

 

[Excidium]

Combat long and boring ?

But it is.

 

[Erebus]

Combat long and boring ?

I don't get it either. I tried the demo with all possible classes and always managed to get my PC slaughtered in combat very quickly. :D

 

[jewboy]

Isn't AoD going to have difficulty levels?

 

[Jaesun]

Yes. it has an AWESOME difficulty level for complete retards.

 

[Charles-cgr]

Isn't AoD going to have difficulty levels?

From what I read of VD's answers to that same question on their forums I would say a big fat NO. Or I might be remembering it wrong.