Preview Age of Decadence Demo Preview @ Gamebanshee

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Age of Decadence; Eric Schwarz; Iron Tower

Gamebanshee's Eric Schwarz, who is our own sea, penned a preview of the recently released Age of Decadence public beta demo. It was released recently. Last Thursday to be precise. Have a snippet:

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.

 

[Infinitron]

Hey, don't blow sea's cover. He needs to get a job in the industry first.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

This is realistic and refreshing to see, but it also means that sometimes you'll feel like you don't have as much choice as you really do. This can encourage hoarding of skill points right up until the last minute you need them, rather than the more "build character now, deal with situation later" approach that the majority of other RPGs hinge on

Which is the thing that weirds me out most. I like skill input, I like combat difficulty, but the feeling for me is more "see the consequences, THEN tailor your character" than "make a character, then feel C&C, biatch".
I have the feeling, though, that most of this is caused by the limited scope of the demo and a teensy weensy bit of world exploration BEFORE finishing all of Teron quests will help a lot in the final game.
...amirite?

 

[Excidium]

My impressions from the demo is that it's a good game riddled with questionable design decisions. But these days I'll take what i can get.

Also hate to be that guy but this game would benefit so much from having a party instead of a single character.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

My impressions from the demo is that it's a good game riddled with questionable design decisions. But these days I'll take what i can get.

Also hate to be that guy but this game would benefit so much from having a party instead of a single character.

Let's keep this feature for the remake bundle of 2027 including dead state and wasteland XLVI, shall we?

 

[felipepepe]

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.

This describes perfectly why I loved so much the demo.

 

[VonVentrue]

an almost stripped-down world with very little non-essential content (...) and the general lack of (...) environment interaction

These are precisely the issues I pointed out over at IronTower forums, the ones I deemed as detrimental to the gameplay experience as a whole.
With that said, I do have faith that VD will attempt to address these flaws, as per his promise.

 

[Infinitron]

This is realistic and refreshing to see, but it also means that sometimes you'll feel like you don't have as much choice as you really do. This can encourage hoarding of skill points right up until the last minute you need them, rather than the more "build character now, deal with situation later" approach that the majority of other RPGs hinge on

Which is the thing that weirds me out most. I like skill input, I like combat difficulty, but the feeling for me is more "see the consequences, THEN tailor your character" than "make a character, then feel C&C, biatch".
I have the feeling, though, that most of this is caused by the limited scope of the demo and a teensy weensy bit of world exploration BEFORE finishing all of Teron quests will help a lot in the final game.
...amirite?

Thing is, most games of this general type have some amount of "filler", or at least C&C-less, skill-check-less content - typically, randomly slaying monsters outside town or cleaning out dungeons - which you can grind, thereby gaining the skill points you need to pass the skill checks back in town, without it feeling like an optimization puzzle.
I'm not sure if AoD will have those, though VD did mention "ruins".

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

This is realistic and refreshing to see, but it also means that sometimes you'll feel like you don't have as much choice as you really do. This can encourage hoarding of skill points right up until the last minute you need them, rather than the more "build character now, deal with situation later" approach that the majority of other RPGs hinge on

Which is the thing that weirds me out most. I like skill input, I like combat difficulty, but the feeling for me is more "see the consequences, THEN tailor your character" than "make a character, then feel C&C, biatch".
I have the feeling, though, that most of this is caused by the limited scope of the demo and a teensy weensy bit of world exploration BEFORE finishing all of Teron quests will help a lot in the final game.
...amirite?

Thing is, most games of this general type have some amount of "filler", or at least C&C-less, skill-check-less content - typically, randomly slaying monsters outside town or cleaning out dungeons - which you can grind, therefore gaining the skill points you need to pass the skill checks back in town, without it feeling like an optimization puzzle.
I'm not sure if AoD will have those, though VD did mention "ruins".

Ruins do sound better than slaughtering civvies for SP as I read some of you gents here did.

 

[felipepepe]

Thing is, most games of this general type have some amount of "filler", or at least C&C-less, skill-check-less content - typically, randomly slaying monsters outside town or cleaning out dungeons - which you can grind, therefore gaining the skill points you need to pass the skill checks back in town

Therefore ruining any sense of consequence on your character background and choices. AoD has a very delicate skill point system, very few points set the starting mercenary apart from the starting merchant. Any character would be able to take any path just by farming enemies, you could forge your loremaster into a swordfighter right in the first farmspot.

 

[Infinitron]

Thing is, most games of this general type have some amount of "filler", or at least C&C-less, skill-check-less content - typically, randomly slaying monsters outside town or cleaning out dungeons - which you can grind, therefore gaining the skill points you need to pass the skill checks back in town

Therefore ruining any sense of consequence on your character background and choices. AoD has a very delicate skill point system, very few points set the starting mercenary apart from the warrior. Any character would be able to take any path just by farming enemies, you could forge your loremaster into a swordfighter right in the first farmspot.

Sure, no farming, but you can still have finite chunks of relatively skill-check-less gameplay. So that at some points, players can feel like their character can progress 'freely' without having to worry about optimizing their skill set for the next skill check.

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

There are also relatively few instances of repeatable skill checks (that allow the player to fail, try something else, then come back later with increased skill level) and not that many options for a single character outside the "guild" quest line, which encourages skill point hoarding. More meaningful environment interactivity and exploration incentives (a piece of lore, an interesting but non-essential NPC, a minor side quest with a repeatable skill check, a schematic...) would help, if adding them is at all feasible in terms of resources (especially balancing, which must be a nightmare with this kind of game).

 

[sea]

Thanks for posting the article here, and for the feedback.

I will say straight-up that I think that the lack of general interactivity is a problem with the game. On the other hand, I don't think it detracts enough to diminish all the good things about it. As this was a preview (might want to edit the news post there), I also don't want to get too deep into judging the game's nuances. With preview-type pieces my goal is usually to convey my experience playing and the game's conceptual strengths, rather than go into a deep analysis of the game mechanics and balance, which is all subject to change anyway. Thus, if the final game becomes boring, grindy or annoying to play because of that flaw? I'll absolutely point it out - but that's not really something I think that can be judged so deeply by so limited a slice of the game on offer at this point.

 

[Elwro]

About the "hoarding points" issue: I also "collect" points, but I'm pretty sure some dialogue options only display when the skill level is high enough. So it's not really "see the options, reload, fix the build, choose the options", because the options themselves may be different.

 

[Excidium]

About the "hoarding points" issue: I also "collect" points, but I'm pretty sure some dialogue options only display when the skill level is high enough. So it's not really "see the options, reload, fix the build, choose the options", because the options themselves may be different.

I think that's only true for Attribute checks.

 

[Elwro]

It's certainly true for reputation checks, but that's of course unrelated to the point hoarding issue.

 

[Excidium]

Ah yes, there's those too.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks, sea.

 

[hiver]

I think mentioning Duke Nukem was a bit harsh...
- and you forgot to mention best spear combat ever designed in gaming history too.

Appart from that, nice preview.
I wonder what will RPS delicate flowers make of it...

 

[Excidium]

- and you forgot to mention best spear combat ever designed in gaming history too.

I think the preview had more than enough hyperboles. Just strip it of all AoD references, make some small changes and you could sell it as an RPG review template for IGN.

Also, this part:

"There isn't just a choice between "punchy guy" or "talky girl", there's the opportunity to do just about whatever you want and see the game world respond accordingly. Focusing on combat, for instance, doesn't mean you'll never have a chance to use your head or social graces, and meanwhile smooth-talkers can also get ahead with a knife as much with words - Age of Decadence ensures just about every scenario can play out in multiple ways no matter how you spec your character."

Isn't very accurate, as anyone that played the demo can confirm. If you spread your points between combat and non-combat skills you'll get nowhere fast.

 

[Infinitron]

- and you forgot to mention best spear combat ever designed in gaming history too.

I think the preview had more than enough hyperboles. Just strip it of all AoD references, make some small changes and you could sell it as an RPG review template for IGN.

Also, this part:

"There isn't just a choice between "punchy guy" or "talky girl", there's the opportunity to do just about whatever you want and see the game world respond accordingly. Focusing on combat, for instance, doesn't mean you'll never have a chance to use your head or social graces, and meanwhile smooth-talkers can also get ahead with a knife as much with words - Age of Decadence ensures just about every scenario can play out in multiple ways no matter how you spec your character."

Isn't very accurate, as anyone that played the demo can confirm. If you spread your points between combat and non-combat skills you'll get nowhere fast.

Yes, but it's theoretically possible. Ie, the game mechanics and scripted choices allow for it.

 

[felipepepe]

Also, this part:

"There isn't just a choice between "punchy guy" or "talky girl", there's the opportunity to do just about whatever you want and see the game world respond accordingly. Focusing on combat, for instance, doesn't mean you'll never have a chance to use your head or social graces, and meanwhile smooth-talkers can also get ahead with a knife as much with words - Age of Decadence ensures just about every scenario can play out in multiple ways no matter how you spec your character."

Isn't very accurate, as anyone that played the demo can confirm. If you spread your points between combat and non-combat skills you'll get nowhere fast.

Well, even the most block-head mercenary will have opportunity to use his streetwise or intimidate, and a merchant with a good critical strike can score some smooth kills with his kinfe in-dialog. Besides, towards the end of the demo you are already starting to spread your skills more, so I expect to see sea's preview previewing right how the final game will behave...

 

[Excidium]

You have room to spread because the demo ends once you leave Teron, and because you know that 40 is enough to succeed on most if not all available skill checks.

 

[sea]

Sea I lost all respect for you with this "preview". One day you might be able to claw your way back into my affections, but that day is merely the tiniest spec on the horizon. Whether that little dot gradually becomes more distinct or vanishes entirely is up to you.

Who are you, again?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Dragon Age, however, doesn't just have a good character system, it has one of the best I've seen in a decade.

So... 6 stats + 12 dialogue skills + 11 combat skills + metagaming prescience required to raise them = best system evar (EVAR!!!!!) ?