Dark Envoy: Director's Cut - guns n' sorcery RTwP RPG by Tower of Time developer

[Abu Antar]

Some reviews have dropped, and they aren't making my expectations of the game any higher after having played the demo.

A skip for me.

 

[lycanwarrior]

https://wccftech.com/review/dark-envoy-combat-mastery/

7.3 score

 

[lycanwarrior]

 

[Infinitron]

Releasing today:

 

[Infinitron]

https://af.gog.com/game/dark_envoy?as=1649904300

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/945770/view/3728476412318726512

Dark Envoy is live

Dear Players,

Our team is excited and proud to share the result of many years of hard work with you.

Dark Envoy is our attempt to breathe new life into the RPG genre by creating a more dynamic gameplay experience and introducing our own RPG systems that encourage creativity and experimentation. We aim for players to feel as if they are in a sandbox of possibilities.

As an independent, self-funded company without a publisher, we had the freedom to take such risks and break away from genre norms. We know this approach comes with its challenges, but we believe that without risks, there can be no great adventure.

We hope you enjoy our game!

Thank you.
Event Horizon Team

 

[Lacrymas]

They can miss me with that RTwP shit.

 

[Cryomancer]

Does they have extremely flashy and unnefective spells? Aka the most boring type of magic? I'm curious.

 

[Infinitron]

They can miss me with that RTwP shit.

Tsk tsk, if you won't play this game then who will?

 

[Lacrymas]

They can miss me with that RTwP shit.

Tsk tsk, if you won't play this game then who will?

Even though I threatened to write a review of Tower of Time a couple of years ago, I never mustered the motivation to have a go at the game again. Now that I'm a couple of years wiser, I'm almost entirely over RTwP as a concept, let alone as an actual thing I'd waste my gaming time on. On top of that, I remember the writing of ToT being so close to something truly engaging but dropping the ball hard through most of it. I wouldn't want to go through that again, especially if I have to tolerate a RTwP system to do it.

 

[Lacrymas]

Oh, and they still have the MMO-style color-coded items, so that's a double pass for me.

 

[agris]

Oh, and they still have the MMO-style color-coded items, so that's a double pass for me.

Yep, combined with that atrocious, derivative art style: into the trash it goes!

 

[lukaszek]

problem is how meh the demo was some time back

 

[Tyranicon]

I'm rooting for these guys 'cause I enjoyed Tower of time, but RPG devs really need start hiring different artists for their stuff.

Everything started blending together years ago and now my brain just instinctively hates it.

 

[lycanwarrior]

 

[cyborgboy95]

I'm confused, fellow codexers' impressions of the demo and the critics' reviews aren't good, yet the game still manages to get very positive reviews on Steam for now (granted, the number of reviews is still low), guess despite its many shortcomings the game must have done something right that strikes a chord with players then.

 

[fantadomat]

is it a wave based like the other game ?

 

[cyborgboy95]

is it a wave based like the other game ?

Judging from reviews, enemies do have reinforcements, so maybe yes.

 

[Abu Antar]

is it a wave based like the other game ?

Fights do not happen in an arena. You fight enemies directly in the game world, while exploring.

They may have improved the game, but my impression from the demo left a sour taste in my mouth.

 

[Zariusz]

Well from my perspective its mainly because of combat, that is the meatof this game. Choices are binary, you cant ask NPCs about anything and unless the current quest allows it you cant even interact with them, cities are small hubs with 3 trading npc ( normal eq, relics and magic eq ) and have no real exploration.
Sound design is very weak, there is no separate combat music, what you hear at the start of mission you will hear at the end of it, maybe bosses have some but i cant remember it.
Besides main missions there are random dungeons with guarranted unique item, itemisation is very weak with diablo loot system and stupid things like spiders dropping gold.
This game reminds me of a weird party based diablo with tactical pause and mission based randomly generated dungeons ( like in Warframe), in theory for that alone i would drop the game but combat feels really satisfying.
I just arrived to Free Phoenicia so things could open in the future but i doubt it.
Oh and there is also crafting, enchanting and research system.

 

[fantadomat]

Hmm the setting seems very boring and generic to me. Not in the mood of a "muh humies evul epyre,killz poor noble savages" idiocy.

 

[lukaszek]

very positive reviews on Steam for now

tower of time was a surprise, mainly due to good story.
Compare reviews of two games, so far I dont see any story praises and people seem to focus on gameplay improvements over tower

 

[fantadomat]

very positive reviews on Steam for now

tower of time was a surprise, mainly due to good story.
Compare reviews of two games, so far I dont see any story praises and people seem to focus on gameplay improvements over tower

Story and exploration,the combat is garbo. This one seems to have the bad combat while not having any of the good parts .

 

[Zariusz]

Hmm the setting seems very boring and generic to me. Not in the mood of a "muh humies evul epyre,killz poor noble savages" idiocy.

That is not really the case, elves are shown as assholes who would murder random traders after they stopped being useful.

 

[Nikanuur]

I am confused about him saying it's more ambitious than Tower of Time and, at the same time, that this game is somewhat too linear.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

more ambitious than Tower of Time

Maybe on the production and presentation front