Information The Occult Chronicles: Cryptic Comet's New Boardgame Roguelike

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Cryptic Comet; The Occult Chronicles

Cryptic Comet, the indie studio known for Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum, has made its latest game, The Occult Chronicles, available for purchase, which currently gives you access to the beta. (A demo will also become available once the beta ends.)

The final version is scheduled for release next month, but according to the website "very few bugs should remain" in the beta, so you may as well buy it now. Fans of board games, roguelikes, magic and the occult, as well as of Cryptic Comet's other games, may find this of interest.

The Occult Chronicles is now available for purchase as part of a Beta Buy in program. The price is $14.99 and you will get a download link that lets you download the latest version. The link that you get from our digital distributer BMT Micro can also be used later to download the final version when it is released.

The Occult Chronicles is a computer turn based strategy game whose design is heavily influenced by both modern adventure board games and the classic rogue like formula. You take on the role of an Occult Defense Directorate (O.D.D.) agent who has been assigned a mission to investigate an ancient estate out in the country. You start your adventure in the Main Entry Foyer and then proceed to explore the creaky old mansion encountering all manner of strange and haunted things. Your mission will take you to the caverns and dungeons below the mansion where you must confront and defeat an unspeakable evil.​

For more details -- including character creation and the character attributes, death and insanity mechanics, the Tarot card game used for challenge resolution, inventory, quests, and classes -- check out the description on the official website. Meanwhile have some screenshots (click the images for higher resolution):

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Esteemed community member Gragt has already posted a thread about the game on our forums, and this is what he had to say about it:

Like other Cryptic Comet games, it has a strong board games feel (this one reminds me a lot of Arkham Horror and Elder Sign due to the occult theme) but the difference with AE or SI is that it takes a roguelike approach to things instead of strategy and diplomacy, resulting in a fun and surprising mix of familiar elements. True to his niche game position, the whole thing is rather complex and unfortunately the documention is still as dry as before, but it gets better after a few games.

The idea in this game is that you play an investigator sent to check out some paranormal activities in a haunted countryside mansion. Of course treachery is afoot, there are quests to complete, baddies to kill, items to collect, clues to gather and an old one to kill in the basement. Like the other CC games it is heavy on interfaces and menus yet oozes atmosphere with its art and deep gameplay.​

If you feel like giving it a try, you can buy The Occult Chronicles for $14.99.

 

[SuicideBunny]

alone in the dark: the boardgame?

 

[pakoito]

You win this time, Gragt.

 

[Mrowak]

Bought it yesterday :D

And still haven't had time to play it

 

[Cosmic Misogynerd]

Yeah, I really miss some tooltips or in-game help for the game, the card challenges aren't difficult, but if you don't understand how to play, there's a PDF in the game's directory, it has a rather dry but useful explanation of how to play. I just finished my first game... killed of course. I'm really enjoying the game, with its mixture of roguelike and board game. Heck it even has permadeath (play in the reaper difficulty).

 

[Mrowak]

I've found time to play it a little bit. Makes me wonder who'd call this game a strategy. It's a stat-based roguelike, plain and simple. The gameplay is too luck based for my tastes.

However, I have to say I like the pulpy feel of the game's theme. Somehow it's very lovecraftian, at least in the scenario I played (there are several to choose from). So far I think it was a good investment.

 

[Gragt]

It's luck based but following board game tradition you get various ways to alter your luck, change card values, discard and draw cards, etc. It doesn't guarantee success as you can be very unlucky but it gives you some influence. And of course it always tricks me into thinking that I'll pass that challenge with just my good luck and that's how you get eaten by a green cube in the second level of the basement.

Funnily enough, Vic Davis is the one who prefers to call it a strategy game and regrets advertising it as a roguelike even though it's closer to the latter than the former.

 

[MisterStone]

The main problem with the other Cryptic Comic games is the shitty multiplayer support, and the weak computer AI that making playing a one-player game boring after about three plays. So if he's making a decent single-player game, I'm in. I suppose it's asking too much that he make a mobile version...?

 

[Galdred]

The main problem with the other Cryptic Comic games is the shitty multiplayer support, and the weak computer AI that making playing a one-player game boring after about three plays. So if he's making a decent single-player game, I'm in. I suppose it's asking too much that he make a mobile version...?

How so? Armageddon Empires AI was more solid than most strategy game AI I saw in action, as it performs OK without cheating. That and you could customize your deck for greater challenge anyway.

 

[Seboss]

I suppose it's asking too much that he make a mobile version...?

As long as Davis doesn't move on from shitty Windows-only Adobe Director as his development platform, that ain't happening. Why he insists using that instead of XNA or any of the bazillion other game dev frameworks out there is beyond me. I guess he doesn't care for retooling and learning whole new languages and APIs.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Very positive RockPaperShotgun review: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/06/21/occult-chronicles-game/

It might involve tarot cards and dice rolls, but roguelike malevolence beats through The Occult Chronicles’ dark veins. If you’ve played any previous Cryptic Comet games, this one is very different. There’s an element of strategy, but it’s much more about roleplaying-through-chance, and sets you as a single character creeping through assorted terror-stricken mansions. Deadly enemies from across the pantheon of horror fiction await, and you must defeat them by might, magic, mind-powers and even, on occasion, conversation. Enemies will chip away your sanity as readily as they will your health, and if you’re not able to stock up on items and upgrades regularly enough, you’ll face the dark lord Perma-death. (Optionally, at least – you can turn that off, if you’re a giant cowardly wimp).

[...] This is only the beta version of the game, so balance may well be tweaked before release, but to be honest I’d rather it wasn’t. Unashamed sadism has a lot going for it – hello, Dark Souls – and the sense of reward when surviving this game’s thunderstorm of cruelty, even for a short while, is enormous. “I think I’ve finally broken Occult Chronicle’s back!” I bragged to a similarly-struggling Adam earlier. Ten seconds passed. “GodDAMMIT.” (That was the zombies I mentioned earlier.)

Mansions of Madness and Arkham Horror are appropriate touchstones for this one, but I think it could only really exist as a videogame despite overt boardgameiness. While its huge, sprawling levels with each step you take potentially having a random effect could potentially be recreated in the medium of printed card and plastic tokens, it’d have to go into a box so large that carrying it would transform you into something as hunched and misshapen as the horrors you battle in the game. It also has a certain amount in common with that brief mid-90s haunted house game trend – Seventh Guest, the Legacy and similar Poe-inspired fare. Most of all, however, it shares the tendency of other Cryptic Comet games to have obtuse interfaces and appropriately cryptic rules. It took me a good three hours of play – each session lasting a maximum of half an hour – before I could really see what the game was.

[...] I actually don’t want to explain this too much, as paradoxically I think part of the joy of this game is figuring the damn thing out despite the pain of it, but essentially whenever you try to fight, banish, communicate with or, in the case of those bloody doors, unlock an opposing force of some kind, both entities play cards. The number and type of cards available to you depends on what type of character you’ve built and how you’ve upgraded him or her (no real limitations on that front – name of your choice, pick an avatar from small set and male- and female-looking icons and a non-gender-specific background, such as police officer or mystic, with associated powers and stats), with the same going, if less visibly so, for whatever eldritch horror or peculiarly deadly timber oblong you’re facing.

You’re trying to play cards of the same suit as he/she/it/Ian Door plays, and if yours is a higher value you bag the pair of them and gain some points towards the victory target in this encounter. There’s a fair bit more to it than that, such as a number of far harder to grasp spells and feats which can alter the contents of the hand, and the importance of face cards such as kings and queens. You’ll figure it out. You’ll have to figure it out.

If it sounds dry in principle, in practice it’s incredibly tense. So much blood drained from my face so often upon seeing a King of Cups turn up on Spectral Handyman or whatever’s side of the table, while I miserably clutched just a two of Wands and a Page of Pentacles. The reason for this was the penalty upon losing – another card game, this time a straight-up gamble. Choose poorly and I’d lose harrowing amounts of health or sanity, pick up a game-long negative effect such as a permanent reduction in the number of cards I’d have in melee encounters or even the occasional instant death card.

[...] Despite initial impenetrability and despite the fact it’s absurdly, brutally unfair, it feels like such a complete design. It’s ultimately more accessible than anything in its stable too – a short, sharp, savage roleplaying adventure rather than the glacial, long-running cold wars of this developer’s usual fare. Like FTL, it’s the dark magicks of One More Go Even Though I know I’m Doomed compulsion, paired with that vital, gradual sense of understanding a little more each time I play, slowly, slowly, slowly reaching the point where one day, maybe, I might actually beat those deadly odds.​

 

[MisterStone]

The main problem with the other Cryptic Comic games is the shitty multiplayer support, and the weak computer AI that making playing a one-player game boring after about three plays. So if he's making a decent single-player game, I'm in. I suppose it's asking too much that he make a mobile version...?

How so? Armageddon Empires AI was more solid than most strategy game AI I saw in action, as it performs OK without cheating. That and you could customize your deck for greater challenge anyway.

I was thinking more of Sollium Infernum, where the AI was not able to deal with the complexity of the game, esp the different ways to score points and win. Sure, it knew how to rush places on the map and position and outfit legions for max effectiveness, but that seemed to be all it was good at.

 

[Cosmic Misogynerd]

Damn, this game is addictive. I haven't been able to win a single game , but still having a lot of fun. Yeah, I concur with the feeling of knowing better the game each time I try another play, or experimenting with different character backgrounds, with focus in a specific job, etc.

 

[Mrowak]

I must say I liked FTL better - I just think there was more strategy involved than here. Sure, being able to weight the odds and pick winnable fights are also important strategic considerations, but somehow chance is too much of a factor here for it to be to my liking. I feel FTL balanced sheer luck vs. tactics much better.

Then again I am a guy that favours chess over poker, so there is that.

 

[MisterStone]

I suppose it's asking too much that he make a mobile version...?

As long as Davis doesn't move on from shitty Windows-only Adobe Director as his development platform, that ain't happening. Why he insists using that instead of XNA or any of the bazillion other game dev frameworks out there is beyond me. I guess he doesn't care for retooling and learning whole new languages and APIs.

Yeah, i guess that is too bad then. I don't want to talk shit about the man because his games are gorgeous, but he's doing himself a disservice here. And with the whole pbe as the only multiplayer option. I feel like he could be making a lot more $$ if he'd switch to a different Dec platform an so on. I think he also hates the big commercial distro portals like Steam and so on, so its probably all the less likely he'll make mobile versions.

Well, if he's happy with his status quo then more,power to the bro. But if he wants me to buy another mp game, he needs something better than pbem.

This game looks p. cool though. I'll probably get it after release and a demoiis available.

 

[Gragt]

He wanted to go on Steam at some point but Steam turned him down. He knows that it's where the money comes from. He even made a special "Never on Steam" sale after that incident :D

I found the PBEM system of Solium Infernum to be much easier to deal with with a service like Dropbox than with actual emails.

 

[SuicideBunny]

bought it, played a session, played another one on reaper mode with slow story, was almost at the end when it crashed.

 

[Mantiis]

Any more impressions? Seriously considering a buy but I might wait for release as I am worried about bugs.

 

[Tzaero]

There now some videos of it on youtube.

 

[Mantiis]

After checking out a few vids I think I'll wait for the release. Thanks.