Game News Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones Released

[HoboForEternity]

so played for 2 hours. like other said, the atmosphere is thick as the abyss. i love it. the music, sound (while not technically the most impressive SFX and ambient, it works so well). the story is intriguing, i met the green broad and the outsider plus one bodyguard i managed to convince to work for me free.

playing as nihilistic, washed up actress and the character creation is fun, great dialogue options and it feels like i will play it multiple times already like AoD. my next plan is probably extremely religious soldier. it's just fun to role-play. the story is intriguing to me so far. it's really incline, and it seems to be overlooked everywhere because it released between all these big games.

the combat (especially the speed) itself is the main flaw, but everything else is really great. if they just patch a speed slider, it would be pretty dandy.

 

[thesheeep]

Not even going to bother before a speed-up option is implemented.
Seriously, screw developers who publish their game without this option.

Edit:
It seems the game also has quite a lot of bugs still, so waiting a few weeks/months seems to be a good idea anyway.

 

[Diggfinger]

Ahh shiiet...Felipe's saying on Twitter that the game's good and this review says it's a super Lovecraftien tale and compares it to Fallout

Wallet get ready to be emptied

 

[RNGsus]

Calling it now, rpgc-GOTY

not with that copsucker game made by an art professor it won't

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Seems to lack a regular save game option. Saves only when you exit or autosaves.

 

[Sloul]

The save system is all good in my book, it negates save scumming.

I never thought I would enjoy the game that much. It's the best rpg I've played since AoD, it might actually be on par/better than AoD.
The hand-drawing and atmosphere are genius. The characters, dialogue lines etc. are superb.
I was surprised to see my dialogue lines get out of control when I lost sanity, and it's not a cheap feature thrown there to look cool, it has practical effects.
There seem to have tons of C&C.

The bad:
- Hunger system: issue is, it's a slow paced game with a lot of writing and you might want to read the descriptions of objects or simply to spend time to observe the hand drawings, but the game is on a chrono, and buying is pretty costly.
- Slow-paced combat: it didn't hit me at first, but fack, combat encounters are really slow paced, i started cheat engine to set the game on double speed.
- I think there is an issue with ''reaction'', which is the ''sequence'' of the game, I need to spend more time with the game to be sure but it seems to be very meh.

I need to progress more into the game to call combat bad, it doesn't look that good so far, but I am waiting to see what is possible with spellcraft. The game certainly does not offer combats as good as Shadowrun nor Underrail, but I am not sure it's Wasteland 2 bad either.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Yeah but the decision maybe is because the game is small.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Combat is more interesting with spells. I’m playing an occultist and along with the Outsider we game combat with spells pretty well. Also, MAN, the spell animations are the coolest I’ve ever seen.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

There's a lot to love in the game so far, but this combat system feels almost deliberately designed to annoy the hell out of people.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Only played for 3 hours. Feels like Arcanum set in Lovecraft universe plus nice 2d hand drawn graphics plus decent TB combat and really atmospheric background ambient. So far looks like one of the best kick starter games and one of the best RPGs of the decade. Not even joking.

Oh ho ho! Lovecraftian Arcanum you say. AWESOME! And I loved Arcanum.

What the fuck is wrong with arcanum, besides the clunky creation tool? I spent some good times making rogues, tech dudes, seductress, magi, etc on that game.

Kiss arse!

Spoiler

 

[Forest Dweller]

- Hunger system: issue is, it's a slow paced game with a lot of writing and you might want to read the descriptions of objects or simply to spend time to observe the hand drawings, but the game is on a chrono, and buying is pretty costly.

It takes in-game time to read things?

 

[Roguey]

It takes in-game time to read things?

It's floating text, the kind you'll find in an Infinity Engine game.

 

[thesheeep]

It takes in-game time to read things?

It's floating text, the kind you'll find in an Infinity Engine game.

Considering this is a game where you really want to look at things and read everything, making it go on a timer is pretty silly...

 

[Forest Dweller]

Oh, you mean objects in the environment. I thought you meant stuff like inventory items.

 

[Shin]

this game is pretty brad

 

[Sloul]

Now that I've got more time in the game, just a few things of notice: *Minor spoilers concerning ingame items.

Spoiler

- Crafting items through science is pretty exciting and cool. But the items that you craft are used like reliques. So basically if you upgrade a Lantern to an electric Lantern (better light, less fuel consumption), you cannot equip it. Instead, you put it into your relique slots and you need to equip (certainly buy) a new Lantern (which are f.cking costly to begin with).
- I was enjoying my science discoveries until I catch that most effects are meh (although better than occult items), but most importantly, you can buy any recipe. If you know the few recipe that are actually useful, you can disregard science entirely.
- Occult items are, imo, completely obsolete, don't waste time with them, they offer little bonus vs impactful maledictions. And again, you need to spend time to discover those. Science items are meh, but still better.
- Occult spells look gorgeous but they are meh, minus the one spell which turns enemy into stones because it also is an AOE sanity and once upgraded it doesn't have drawbacks, it also enable to keep backstabing, well, it has many applications. Circle of blood is useless on main if you have high athletic (read the top skill for combat).
[missworking perk]- There is a perk which increase heavy melee weapons damage by 2-3 point, this perk does not work.
- So far in my game, the best companion for combat is the undead soldier. Pick athletic each level up and divide the rest between melee and range +1 or +2 range.

 

[Van-d-all]

Spent some time playing it on a weekend (~20h with 5-6 different builds), and there is a great game underneath all that glitchy mess.

Atmosphere and presentation are top notch, but while the only two bugs I found were the disappearing party members and research progres getting reset, there's a whole damn lot of stuttering, unresponsiveness and pathfinding issues, especially for a 2d game on a i7/GF1080/M.2 SSD PC.

Game mechanics are pretty good. Character creation possibilities are indeed on AoD levels with dialogue opportunities for most of the skills. Sanity & Angst (kind of negative exp that forces negative traits) are also very interesting and in line with the setting. Combat is complex enough, although weirdly balanced and glacially paced.

Setting exposure might be beyond P&P levels, with entire Arkham being straight up beyond the veil from the very start and consequently throwing pretty much every aspect of Lovecraftian mythos at the player during just this single adventure, but this in turn allows for common occurrence of typical cRPG elements like spells or magic items. Said world is pretty small however; even with world map areas, it's akin to old point & click adventures, where the main city hub has just 3 screens with 3-4 locations each; "dungeons" have around 5-8 areas, albeit pretty sameish.

Save system is totally fucked up; neither is it a persistent save (gladly, given glitches) that prevents save scamming, since there are autosaves and quit save can be abused, nor is it entirely manual, effectively taking only the bad aspects of both kinds.

Should the devs care to iron out the technical issues, it really has the GOTY potential, but given scale, I think even Pathfinder was shipped in a better state.

 

[Irgsarzh]

This game has such a good atmosphere and everything just reinforces it further - the bizzaro artwork, eerie music, the decrepit poise of Arkham's denizens, humor and horror of their attitudes. I also love how there is a ton of scripted moments in the game and combat being kinda shitty (not really) just reinforces the feel that gloom and doom are about to go boom, I don't even mind it at all. The encounter design so far is good, as is the creature design; spells as others have mentioned are a jig all on their own, and it's been a while since I've gazed upon a grimoire as pretty as the dark magick it produces.

You moon around Arkham for a while and think that this is it. But every once in a while a new house or building that you thought was just a part of the scenery becomes available for exploration. Then a murder happens and you need to solve it. You start losing your damn sanity and the dialogue is getting fucked up. And you start answering people in fucked up ways. Then you learn that you can actually speak with the dead with the correct spell. You refurbish a desecrated church as a good deed just to find tomorrow that it was defiled again - this time the graffiti directly accusing you. You pray and clutch your Bible hoping to chirt the last bit of sanity out of the old tome. But hope is gone, there are only dreams now...and you do dream alright. A whole lot of gonzo. And in a world gone insane, that says a lot.

And then you find out that there is actually a WORLD MAP where you can travel to other locations outside of Arkham...if you dare.

Believe me boys, this game is going to be even better when the expansion comes out. Because it would be madness if it does not. Guys behind this title poured their hearts and souls into the abyss and it crawled back out with a thousand little dark things of delicate beautiful horror. Time to go mad and enjoy it.

So to summon more of thee, kindly chant with me: G O T Y ! G O T Y ! G O T Y !

 

[Roguey]

Oh, you mean objects in the environment. I thought you meant stuff like inventory items.

That might also be the case. The timekeeping system is completely opaque, so there's no way of knowing other than just sitting and letting it run twice (three times if you want to check to see if it runs during dialogue screens), which I have no time/patience for.

Considering this is a game where you really want to look at things and read everything, making it go on a timer is pretty silly...

I agree, but like many other RPGs before it, it can become less of a big deal the further in you go as your pile of money grows.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

That save system is probably intentional. You fuck up and well, suck it up buttercup because Cthulhu ain't playin'

I like the narration thus far but I'm wondering when this internal dialogue will start annoying me. (And i'm only watching limited reviews here). I went back to Blood Omen for a quick bit to recall that dialogue since I initially enjoyed it.

How many patches?
How many add-ons or pure sequels?

Or will it fade and flop?

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I'd be sort of fine with the save system making only automatic saves for the sake of being "hardcore and true to the experience".

Except there are a couple of problems with it:

1- It doesn't actually work. You can still "savescum" by loading one of the previous autosaves. I'm glad about it since I already experienced a couple of what would have otherwise been gamestopping bugs, if I hadn't be able to reload.
2- The system prevents you from playing several different characters in parallel, since it doesn't have a "profile system" and your new character's autosaves will overwrite the previous character's ones.

 

[Grotesque]

Do not buy this game.
Is too buggy

 

[True Ukrainian]

Just completed the first dungeon yesterday. Liking what I see so far. People are right when they say its really similar in feel to Arcanum. A few negative points though:

Glitches. When I first booted the game up it crashed after character creation. Seems to be a one off though.

Survival mechanics are a nuisance. You need to eat and sleep or face increasingly severe penalties. Problem is, your character (and party members) scarfs down food like crazy. Keeping the party supplied with canned food is a real hassle. I just decided to feed them once their status went beyond mild starvation.

 

[HoboForEternity]

is this 2019's Insomnia: The Ark?

great world, atmosphere, aesthetic annd some great content, but aboslutely broken, unfinished mess?

see in 2022 then

 

[Sloul]

There is a whole page of messages that was moved there: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...-old-ones-released.129982/page-2#post-6335194 Seems to be the central hub for discussing Stygian.