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Age of Decadence Reviews

Iluvcheezcake

Iluvcheezcake

Prophet
Joined
Aug 27, 2014
Messages
1,902
Location
Le Balkans
HORE SHET! :O The amount of self control xD
 
Goral

Goral

Arcane
Patron
The Real Fanboy
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
3,576
Location
Poland
Newest GOG review (3/5):

Pros: Combat and mechanics are solid and varied, even if some of the features are one time use only, as the game provides you with no incentive or chance to use them. Lore and setting are genuinely good, and interesting to read about. Story and pacing are not something to write home about, but will keep you engaged all the way through.

Cons: Railroading galore, reminding me more of a poorly executed "choose your own adventure" book or a D&D session where the DM is really protective of his story and therefore all unplanned branches are prone to end in a "rocks fall and everyone dies". The plot is split into rigid paths, allowing for some semblance of choice. While some of it you can skip, you will be doing yourself a disservice, as you need all the skillpoints you can get. Only of course you don't know you are skipping anything until there is no way back, as the dialogue goes on and on, railroading you into choices you don't intend to make. There are rarely more than 3 dialogue options at a time, separating into two categories: ones that move the plot and "tell me more" with skillchecks sprinkled in between. You have no idea what skillcheck will come when and failing them most of the time gives you no second chance, leading to an instant game over or a fight (read: an interactive game over for a speech focused character). Mid to late game this can halt your progress if you don't have the skills or skillpoints and need to make the check.

TL;DR - there are two main ways to play this game: pure melee or, if you like punishing yourself - speech focus with liberal walkthrough usage and save scumming. Besides that expect a decent story, unique and captivating lore and constant, out of the blue railroading. Better wait for a discount.
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One of the best negative (I'm disregarding rating here and judging this by text only) reviews I've read (which isn't hard considering that most of the other ones are of the "it's too hard" variety) but still there are many false claims like "there are rarely more than 3 dialogue options" or suggesting that there isn't much flexibility for character building (yes, pure fighter or pure talker are main builds but there are dozens more interesting ones that sometimes require some ingenuity to work).
 
HeatEXTEND

HeatEXTEND

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Feb 12, 2017
Messages
4,146
Location
Nedderlent
Darth Roxor said:
indeed
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Goral

Goral

Arcane
Patron
The Real Fanboy
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
3,576
Location
Poland
New negative review on GOG:

Noodlemonster said:
1) The game claims that: "Choices are what the game is all about - crafting your own narrative via a variety of choices that alter the story, playing field, and your options down the road." Yet, if you are anything but a pure melee character; the game mechanisms massively encourage you to NOT spend skill points. Strange design decision, right? You Lvl up, and then DON'T spend what you get! If you do not do this, you WILL be unable to proceed in the narrowly focused arch of your selected character, as your skills will be not be high enough to proceed in your selected quest line. And if you dare step outside your quest line, you will be squashed, as you will lack the skills to complete, or to even take part in other quest lines, and so will likely be only left with 1 melee heavy quest line to complete the game. Which is a catch-22 for you

! 2) Hope you like save-scumming, because this game treats it like a core mechanism. The game screws you on rolls (which it hides from you by the way, more on that below). Sometimes, it takes only 1 hidden, bad roll, and well, be ready to reload the fight. The game even auto pre-saves before the battle; every battle. See, save-scumming as a CORE MECHANIC! And don't think for 1 moment this only effects melee. You want to progress as a non-melee? Be prepared to NEVER spend your skill points, as you must save them until you reach a point where a higher lvl skill is necessary, load the game to right before you make the check, (yay, more save-scumming!) then pump your skill, 1 lvl at a time, to where you can succeed. If you do not do this, you will likely not be able proceed in the quest line which your character was designed.

3) The game claims that: "The Age of Decadence is an experiment, an attempt to explore a different direction, taking you back to the PnP roots of the genre." Well, if thats the case, I'd hate to play D&D with this guy! He might be the type who always rolls behind the screen, and is ALL about screwing over their players any way they can. That the problem, the sneaky screwing. If your gonna screw me, at least look me in the eye when you're doing it!

You see, it feels like the game is screwing you behind your back. VERY often, I will miss on a 60% chance to hit, 3-4 times in row. Maybe I was just VERY unlucky, but it just felt like the game decided to screw me, like it was assigning a different, hidden, value to different attacks depending on how often I did them, making the stated chance to hit false. I would be fine if that game did that; encouraging different kinds of attacks and making it more like a real fight, but TELL me you're doing that! Don't lie to me about my chances, and screw me over when I use the false info! Show me the numbers game!

I could critique this game further, but I'm getting close to the character limit. I beat the game twice, mercenary and loremaster paths, same ending both time because of the above problems, and I'm done with this game. There may be a bit more to see, but my interest in it is completed extinguished.
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Trashos

Trashos

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
3,413
You see, it feels like the game is screwing you behind your back. VERY often, I will miss on a 60% chance to hit, 3-4 times in row. Maybe I was just VERY unlucky, but it just felt like the game decided to screw me, like it was assigning a different, hidden, value to different attacks depending on how often I did them, making the stated chance to hit false. I would be fine if that game did that; encouraging different kinds of attacks and making it more like a real fight, but TELL me you're doing that! Don't lie to me about my chances, and screw me over when I use the false info! Show me the numbers game!
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I don't think it would do you much good, buddy.
 
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