Recent reviews by jrox8

bought the game and loved it so much I finished it in like 4 days. so much for building a backlog.
The Age of Decadence is a brilliantly-written low-ish-fantasy RPG marketed toward classic Baldur's Gate and Fallout fanboys (fanmen?). it is a hard game, but complaints about its difficulty are mostly void because it's not like dark souls where you are invariably the victim, it's just horizontally designed. not playing a fighter? don't fight. build your character, read a guide, and I guarantee you'll have decisive RPG fun regardless of build (although you can have the most fun with a high-STR/DEX Imperial killing machine like I did). imagine if Underrail was made in a worse engine and stuck the landing a little better, and you have the janky yet infinitely brilliant product that is The Age of Decadence.
requires replays (for loremasters, which I am not), requires reading glasses, and could use more female characters (seriously, it's a miracle even the PC can be female) but Iron Tower apparently makes up for it in Colony Ship, which I will be waiting to buy at full price to support them.

more proof that video games are an inherently artistic medium. my genuine GOTY contender. thank goodness mit aia got back safe <3

game is very fun. feels like you're playing a tabletop campaign, just... not on a tabletop. good pacing, inventive missions, huge character variety. feels like reading a good book and intermittently playing XCOM.

I did have a bug right at the epilogue where my character sheet was somehow usurped by Duncan... making me a clone of Duncan for whatever reason. but the game's a decade old, you take what you can get.

The ONLY GAME I am looking forward to is B.C. Piezophile.

"So which part of this game is the filter?"

"That's the neat part. All of it is the filter."

I hate to leave a negative review. I loved the first 20 hours of this game, then the plot kinda loses itself in a Tchort-shaped pitfall, and then the gameplay falls off a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cliff once you get to Deep Caverns. I seriously think Deep Caverns could be considered a psychological hazard and it's the LAST section of the game. Whatever you're imagining while reading these reviews, it's at least 10x worse than that. Depot A, a much-feared part of this game, is like preschool compared to DC. Emergent gameplay? Never heard of it. Max Mechanics or Electronics or you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥ at 40 hours in. Listen to what people tell you to do. Die trying.
I did really have fun, I thought it was everything classic Fallout could have become over 20 something years. When I beat Depot A and truly understood the game (embracing player-unfriendly mechanics), that was a cool experience. That said, I played on Easy, used the Wiki, did the easiest build, and skipped quite a bit, so I guess this game rewards those with more time than I currently have. RIP pipeworker.

Memento for fans of abstract high fantasy, very very good game

I beat this game in 4 hours and it's better than Baldur's Gate 3 by several magnitudes

Enter an ALIEN LANDSCAPE full of BIG MUSHROOMS and MILD RACISM. Experience the thrill of POLITICAL CONSPIRACY, a BRITTLE ECONOMY, and a REGIONAL EPIDEMIC OF BROMANTIC NIGHTMARE FUEL. Learn the ANCIENT RITES of a PUNISHED PEOPLE, and make amends with your DIVINE HELICOPTER MISTRESS through VIOLENCE and BLOODSHED. Strike down the MAD GOD (that's also your secret admirer) and restore PEACE AND PROSPERITY in the name of URIEL SEPTIM (and the only friend you'll ever truly have, CAIUS COSADES).

(OpenMW is the optimal way to play, don't let my hours fool you)

PIPE DOWN AND SET THOSE NAPKINS, NAPKIN BOY!!!

This game whispers to me like the Green Goblin mask every time I open my laptop. I've never played a game that's so flagrantly hostile towards the player but is also extremely cognitively absorptive. Some day I'll figure out how the ♥♥♥♥ to play this game, and then I think I will be happy.