i fucking love this game holy shit - impeccable vibes
Still in early access, leaving this score assuming the game keeps up the quality of the story and the mood and the world building when it's finished. For moments I felt like I was back in Morrowind.
Gameplay is very surface level compared to its inspirations but the quest writing and worldbuilding is insane. Some of the best dark fantasy to come out in the last decade or so.
General world design takes a lot of influence from Morrowind, often times only giving you directions to follow before you get a map and almost no fast travel aside from different teleporters you'll have to memorize and strategize around whenever youre planning a trip.
Combat is simple but can be a somewhat fun hack and slash towards the end. The main problem I notice is that one of your four main stats, might, doesn't really do much compared to everything else. I kept it at 1 my entire playthrough and was able to do consistent damage while also being able to open as many locked doors as I wanted and sprint without losing stamina with agility. It's not like the game has enough depth for a replay to begin with but I felt that if I invested in might at all I'd practically have thrown my whole playthrough.
The quests and world are horrifying and thought provoking and had me excited to explore at every turn, but there's little consequence to any of them gameplaywise, I assume to let you keep sidequesting and shopping in areas that quests will claim are to be destroyed. I don't mind keeping the consequence to an ending slide but I'd like a little more than just a line telling me what happened.
The environments have a pretty fantastic sense of scale especially for a smaller scale unity game like this. You're often interacting with things on large moving platforms or coming in contact with gigantic pulsating creatures and it all works seamlessly. It generally does a better job letting you physically interact with the world than most AAA games do.
That said it still feels very unfinished in plenty of places even with the "1.0" mark slapped on it. Certain endgame crafting materials that are shown in menus are entirely absent and the airship you get towards the end has only one regional variant (despite every airship dock having an upgrsde shop) with entirely incorrect geometry. The intro is made up from terribly edited voiceover (which is changed to actually match the rest of the games audio during the ending slides anyway!) and an awful sort of squash and stretch rigging animation slapped over some entirely fine still art.
Overall I think it still needs more time in the oven but considering the amount of time and resources the team assumedly had and how much it stuck with me I think it's a good purchase if you don't mind the intentionally old school jank.
General world design takes a lot of influence from Morrowind, often times only giving you directions to follow before you get a map and almost no fast travel aside from different teleporters you'll have to memorize and strategize around whenever youre planning a trip.
Combat is simple but can be a somewhat fun hack and slash towards the end. The main problem I notice is that one of your four main stats, might, doesn't really do much compared to everything else. I kept it at 1 my entire playthrough and was able to do consistent damage while also being able to open as many locked doors as I wanted and sprint without losing stamina with agility. It's not like the game has enough depth for a replay to begin with but I felt that if I invested in might at all I'd practically have thrown my whole playthrough.
The quests and world are horrifying and thought provoking and had me excited to explore at every turn, but there's little consequence to any of them gameplaywise, I assume to let you keep sidequesting and shopping in areas that quests will claim are to be destroyed. I don't mind keeping the consequence to an ending slide but I'd like a little more than just a line telling me what happened.
The environments have a pretty fantastic sense of scale especially for a smaller scale unity game like this. You're often interacting with things on large moving platforms or coming in contact with gigantic pulsating creatures and it all works seamlessly. It generally does a better job letting you physically interact with the world than most AAA games do.
That said it still feels very unfinished in plenty of places even with the "1.0" mark slapped on it. Certain endgame crafting materials that are shown in menus are entirely absent and the airship you get towards the end has only one regional variant (despite every airship dock having an upgrsde shop) with entirely incorrect geometry. The intro is made up from terribly edited voiceover (which is changed to actually match the rest of the games audio during the ending slides anyway!) and an awful sort of squash and stretch rigging animation slapped over some entirely fine still art.
Overall I think it still needs more time in the oven but considering the amount of time and resources the team assumedly had and how much it stuck with me I think it's a good purchase if you don't mind the intentionally old school jank.
Story and lore are very well written. The highlight of the game, but unfortanely everything else kinda sucks.
I was excited to play this after Lunacid, but there aren't many similarities aside from the graphics style and camera.
While i loved the writing, the combat and gameplay are just unberably bad. It's barely functional and kinda kills the enjoyment.
OST is good but very repetitive and there aren't enough tracks.
I wanted to say exploration was good but honestly, it feels like nothing ever matters. I was full of knives, potions and stuff by the end of the game but rarely used them. Most of enemies can be bypassed by either running or just killing with a bonk or two. Builds don't matter because the game is insanely easy.
I was disappointed by this game. I hope the devs continue to make games and stories but please invest more in the gameplay and RPG elements next time.
I was excited to play this after Lunacid, but there aren't many similarities aside from the graphics style and camera.
While i loved the writing, the combat and gameplay are just unberably bad. It's barely functional and kinda kills the enjoyment.
OST is good but very repetitive and there aren't enough tracks.
I wanted to say exploration was good but honestly, it feels like nothing ever matters. I was full of knives, potions and stuff by the end of the game but rarely used them. Most of enemies can be bypassed by either running or just killing with a bonk or two. Builds don't matter because the game is insanely easy.
I was disappointed by this game. I hope the devs continue to make games and stories but please invest more in the gameplay and RPG elements next time.
Love me a bite-size RPG like this, stuffed full of gothic vibes (Folks keep comparing it to Morrowind aesthetically but holy moly are the Thief homages rampant as well). A few annoyances exist, like the lack of voice acting and the inability to just save wherever you like, but overall, here's a narratively-rich experience that also trades heavily on having the player spec their character to explore and exploit the world in different ways (see: lockpicking vs lore skills). And a epilogue slideshow ala Fallout; oh, be still my beating heart.
really excellent quest writing, zippy exploration, and enthralling art direction carry this scrappy, arcade-ish spin on the open world action rpg "immersive sim" bethesdalike whatever.
the combat is trivial and straight up running past it is just as. thankfully, everything else is far more interesting
the combat is trivial and straight up running past it is just as. thankfully, everything else is far more interesting
It's a gorgeous game for sure, but nothing past that is all that compelling.
The game is really about the exploration of this world and the quests, which I was engaged by the entire time. Sure its heavily inspired by things like warhammer and other dark RPGs, but as someone who isn't big into warhammer it did enough to differentiate itself. The combat is too easy and lacks any depth, but it didn't put me off, its competent enough. I thought it was quite good, just keep your expectations in check. Also it has an RPG slideshow ending and I'm a big sucker for those.
It's kind of miraculous how well Dread Delusion captures the sense of wonder that the world of Morrowind has always instilled in me, and yet it simultaneously takes no notes from that game with regards to mechanics. What this amounts to is a lot of the joy provided by exploring and questing being severely undercut by the lamest rewards possible and a feeling that you'd be better off not fighting any of the enemies at all.
Ohh Paeguthhhhh what's your number haha heyyyyyyyyyy
as others have said, the combat isn't what you should play this game for. it does the job and i don't have any complaints about it, but the world, writing, and art direction are clearly the stars of the show. it's an amalgamation of incredible ideas. i'm still working through it and i have to assume still fairly early on, but i'm feeling very positively about it so far and excited to see how everything turns out!
great story, worldbuilding, and atmosphere let down by an extremely barebones RPG system. the developer wanted to cut down on the tedium of the genre and succeeded only in removing all the fun, while leaving in a lot of the tedium anyway.
very worthwhile for the writing (generally), at least one of the sidequests is genuinely award-worthy and the main quest is no slouch. but you have to put a lot of good faith into it and act like the gameplay has weight and matters, even if your brain knows it really does not. also, it runs really badly somehow and has bugs, still needs a lot more patching at time of writing.
i highly recommend it but not without a lot of asterisks.
very worthwhile for the writing (generally), at least one of the sidequests is genuinely award-worthy and the main quest is no slouch. but you have to put a lot of good faith into it and act like the gameplay has weight and matters, even if your brain knows it really does not. also, it runs really badly somehow and has bugs, still needs a lot more patching at time of writing.
i highly recommend it but not without a lot of asterisks.
Dread Delusion is a game that has some of my favorite RPG writing of all time and thankfully knows it's abilities in other fields. That is to say that the map and exploration is wonderful, the combat is nothing (which I would prefer to it trying to be something and failing. Outside of a complete genre change I see no way that this game would ever end up with astounding combat and it doesn't need it), the writing is impeccable, the music is great, and the art is excellent.
Dread Delusion takes many fascinating routes with its quests. Most major quests turn into a philosophical debate about whatever topic may be at play: subservience that provides comfort, the ability to change oneself, the value that death brings to life, the game covers many interesting topics in its journey and honestly I can't name a weak execution among them.
Dread Delusion takes many fascinating routes with its quests. Most major quests turn into a philosophical debate about whatever topic may be at play: subservience that provides comfort, the ability to change oneself, the value that death brings to life, the game covers many interesting topics in its journey and honestly I can't name a weak execution among them.
i was very very much enjoying this for the first 7 or 8 hours but i slowly started to realize that all of the RPG elements are kind of just there for show. as much as i wanted to defend this, others are right - the combat is so easy that it makes the rest of the game a little boring. i was loving exploring the world until i realized the best rewards for exploration here are little lore dumps and new npcs to talk to - the gameplay centric rewards don't mean much to me when i kill every enemy in 3 stunlocked hits. idk. definitely will come back to this, but playing through it was just making me want to play king's field 4 really bad, so im gonna do that instead now
Uma bela mistura de rpg ""bethesda-like"" das antigas com immersive sim. A direção das quests é linda, geralmente tenho problemas com jogos indies pq pecam muito em dialogos rasos e insignificantes no contexto geral da história, mas nesse é muito bom.
O lado negativo é que o combate é bem fraco, mas num sentido de parecer até desnecessario. O jogo é bem fácil também, dá a impressão de que é mais uma história interativa do que um jogo em primeiro lugar.
Recomendo.
O lado negativo é que o combate é bem fraco, mas num sentido de parecer até desnecessario. O jogo é bem fácil também, dá a impressão de que é mais uma história interativa do que um jogo em primeiro lugar.
Recomendo.
I loved the story in this game, everything felt like it mattered which is great and the visual style is amazing. I really like that every stat has a reason to get it for exploration which is what this game does incredibly. Overall I thought this game was close to excellent.
I have my gripes tho. It's very buggy atm but that's probably just teething problems. The combat is there I guess but I never engaged in it because running past enemies always felt like the better and faster choice. I didn't play with combat magic much but the utility magic felt great. The final area you go through felt really weak and lacked the cohesion of "this is the final area so buck up buddy" that I'd expect. Late in the game you get something that makes it easier to go places and I thought that wasn't utilized as well as it could have been.
I say all this but I really do like this game and I think as an RPG with complex moral implications for the choices you make it definitely is a standout.
I have my gripes tho. It's very buggy atm but that's probably just teething problems. The combat is there I guess but I never engaged in it because running past enemies always felt like the better and faster choice. I didn't play with combat magic much but the utility magic felt great. The final area you go through felt really weak and lacked the cohesion of "this is the final area so buck up buddy" that I'd expect. Late in the game you get something that makes it easier to go places and I thought that wasn't utilized as well as it could have been.
I say all this but I really do like this game and I think as an RPG with complex moral implications for the choices you make it definitely is a standout.
got over the cool colors and realized there's like no game
where most roleplaying spaces unfurl into greater mechanical, numerical dimensions, this only gets more and more hazy and frictionless over time; taking on a melancholic quality as you soar and glide effortlessly thru the world, decadent accumulation carving an ever-increasing gulf between You and Everything Else
sprawling curiosities, unreliable histories, and warbly metaphysics never making peace or finding balance with the ceaseless extrinsic rewards. excavation and communion of the dream growing distant as you pawn off Squirming Godlings to the highest bidder, buy out every house on the market, and upgrade weapons you don't need to kill things that pose no threat to acquire items you won't use
it's all the more uncanny cos none of the perverse little interloper privileges are of much benefit to you. save for a couple sloppy dungeon crawls dredged up out of the early 2000s there's hardly anything that demands to be solved thru violence or expenditure. all that hard power amounts to nothing compared to having a bunch of stats invested in candles
I agree with more or less every criticism that's been brought up to some extent, and I'm pretty sure that people who say it's like king's field probably send cryptograms to local newspapers when they're not LYING on the internet, but I like what's here more than I'm bothered by what isn't: the exploration and quaint little cartography; the surprising tenderness; the strange, incidental mode of unheroism; the disinterest in blood n bone problem solving; even the shameless Michael Kirkbride ReShade bits
when you make The Object Graveyard I can no longer take umbrage with your boss hitboxes being too tall to hit my character or the earlygame revolving around lockpicking for lockpicks so you can lockpick for exp to upgrade your lockpicking. I don't care, I just wanna see what's on that island over there
anyway, check it out: the swords are kissing
sprawling curiosities, unreliable histories, and warbly metaphysics never making peace or finding balance with the ceaseless extrinsic rewards. excavation and communion of the dream growing distant as you pawn off Squirming Godlings to the highest bidder, buy out every house on the market, and upgrade weapons you don't need to kill things that pose no threat to acquire items you won't use
it's all the more uncanny cos none of the perverse little interloper privileges are of much benefit to you. save for a couple sloppy dungeon crawls dredged up out of the early 2000s there's hardly anything that demands to be solved thru violence or expenditure. all that hard power amounts to nothing compared to having a bunch of stats invested in candles
I agree with more or less every criticism that's been brought up to some extent, and I'm pretty sure that people who say it's like king's field probably send cryptograms to local newspapers when they're not LYING on the internet, but I like what's here more than I'm bothered by what isn't: the exploration and quaint little cartography; the surprising tenderness; the strange, incidental mode of unheroism; the disinterest in blood n bone problem solving; even the shameless Michael Kirkbride ReShade bits
when you make The Object Graveyard I can no longer take umbrage with your boss hitboxes being too tall to hit my character or the earlygame revolving around lockpicking for lockpicks so you can lockpick for exp to upgrade your lockpicking. I don't care, I just wanna see what's on that island over there
anyway, check it out: the swords are kissing
I can't get into it.
The game's world is beautiful and dripping with style, the atmosphere is cool, the lore is doing some fancy ideas and the plot doesn't seem all that bad, but the game itself is just... bland.
The combat is so unbelievably bland it ceases to be believed, so shallow and easy that I put 0 points into might and still clubbed enemies to death with a sword because it was still MUCH more effective than spells, the enemy variety (in terms of gameplay) is practically non-existent, and the character building has nothing to chew on.
There's just this... lack of sauce to the game. It's all kind of there, looking pretty, but there's no bite to any of it. It's all so surface level, toothless. Maybe I get bored too easily, but I sadly can't find the motivation to turn the game back on.
The game's world is beautiful and dripping with style, the atmosphere is cool, the lore is doing some fancy ideas and the plot doesn't seem all that bad, but the game itself is just... bland.
The combat is so unbelievably bland it ceases to be believed, so shallow and easy that I put 0 points into might and still clubbed enemies to death with a sword because it was still MUCH more effective than spells, the enemy variety (in terms of gameplay) is practically non-existent, and the character building has nothing to chew on.
There's just this... lack of sauce to the game. It's all kind of there, looking pretty, but there's no bite to any of it. It's all so surface level, toothless. Maybe I get bored too easily, but I sadly can't find the motivation to turn the game back on.
I was attracted by the graphics and general atmosphere of the game.
But the gameplay itself is not engaging. I got quite bored after 1 hour.
I really wished it would click more for me...
But the gameplay itself is not engaging. I got quite bored after 1 hour.
I really wished it would click more for me...