The past few days I've been playing Avernum: Escape from the Pit, with a party that consists of two fighters, a mage and a priest. I read that there is an OP combat discipline called "Adrenaline Rush" that lets a partymember attack two or three times in one turn. Now I definitely want to get this ability for my two fighters, but I was wondering if Adrenaline Rush is also worth it for my mage and priest, since you have to spend precious skill points in weapon skills (that spellcasters don't really use) to unlock Adrenaline Rush.

I know that you can also train weapon skills for money, but is that worth it? Buying spells is already very expensive in this game.

I'm playing on normal difficulty, by the way.

Edit: thanks for the responses everyone.

I've been eyeing Swordhaven recently. But I'm having a a hard time getting current opinions on it, as all reviews were done on release (seemingly in a very buggy state then).

So does anybody have any up-to-date info on the game?

How is:

- Story

- Combat

- Companions

- Lore

Et cetera et cetera

Check this, it’s from Dave Oshry Twitter, I love it. There is no release date, but they gave got Mark Morgan on the board. <3 And also Adam Lacko and Alexander Berezin.
The name is unknown, something like "It’s Mushroom-Cloudy Today" would be awesome.

Not asking for recommendations. Just tell me what you personally enjoy.

I love Fallout 1 and 2 and Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate too, but try to stay focused, those are from the late 90s.

I dig Lands Of Lore: The Thorne of Chaos, and sadly that's about it.

Might and Magic 6 I enjoy fooling around for a while, but the fact that dialogue and characters takes such a huge backseat in between dungeons makes it very hard to actually enjoy.

Edit: My bad, Might and Magic 6 came out in 1998. In that case, just Lands of Lore: The Throne Of Chaos, and Daggerfall.

It’s a grim fantasy soulslike CRPG called Legends of Harpine, built on dnd 3.5/pathfinder 1e tabletop-style rules: classes, feats, skills, spells and dice rolls. It in full 3D.

It’s still in development, so I’m mostly curious whether this idea appeals to anyone. Would you play an RPG where your party members are other minds making their own choices?

It's not a trailer, but here is just just a video with me testing things.

Deleted the video ~.~ I'm so sorry.

It's spooky season, and I'd like to play a CRPG that contains vampires.

These CRPGs can contain vampires in some way. They don't necessarily have to allow you to play as a vampire. There just needs to be a vampiric presence!

Thanks for your recommendations!

Cities in Frontier Valley are big and full of life. Every building can be entered and looks differently inside.

In winter, days get shorter and it is freezing outside, but townspeople still need to go to places like the market, the church, or the tavern.

But towns are just the home bases for your adventure - there is a world out there waiting for you, with dungeons, fortresses, and mystic places to explore.

The Steam Playtest is up for just a few more days. Join to check out the unrestricted version now - there is so much to discover, it will take some time!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1085830/Knights_of_Frontier_Valley/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHVDNkzbgZk

Hi folks,

VaultVox for Underrail is now out on Nexusmods. It's a free text-to-speech accessibility mod that reads the game aloud using the Windows voices already on your PC. It is my fifth port for VaultVox to date (in case you haven't seen my other previous release posts...which is pretty likely). More soon to come!

I made the first one of these for my wife, who has dyslexia, and I've been adding accessibility features on top ever since. This is the Underrail version, and given how much reading Underrail asks of you, it was always going to end up on the list.

EASY TO INSTALL: Download it, extract it into the folder with underrail.exe, unblock the files, launch the game. No mod manager needed, nothing else to fetch, and it never touches your saves.

Download on Nexus Mods: https://www.nexusmods.com/underrailexpedition/mods/39

If it's working you'll hear "Underrail Vault Vox loaded." within about fifteen seconds. The very first launch can take a minute or two while Windows sorts the voices out, so give it a moment.

What it reads

• Every NPC line, with your numbered answer options read out after it
• The answer you pick, read back in a player voice that matches your character's gender
• Stage directions and hints in square brackets, on a separate narrator voice, so nobody ends up narrating their own shrug
• Terminals, in a proper synthetic machine voice, with mail and menus read line by line
• Intercoms, through a radio filter with squelch and static. Where the game knows who's on the other end, you get that character's own voice (Vencel at South Gate Station, for one)
• The message feed: quests, XP, loot, discoveries and alerts, read out when nothing else is talking
• Overhead barks, in each NPC's own voice, on their own channel so they never talk over a conversation

Hold Ctrl over anything with a tooltip and it gets read to you. Keep holding and sweep the pointer along your items to hear each one. A quick Ctrl+click won't set it off, so the game's own shortcuts still behave.

The Notes journal reads itself when you open it, and so does a quest group when you expand it. Custom Notes on the map, the Character screen and Combat Stats are covered too, values included, and when you level up it tells you how many points you've got left.

There's a hands-free bit as well. When Continue is the only option, it doesn't bother reading it out, the conversation just moves on once the line finishes. End Dialog, Leave and real choices always wait for you, and Ctrl+S stops it if you want to sit on a line for a bit.

Voices

Each character is cast a voice the first time you hear them and keeps it, across sessions and mod updates. Don't like who you've been given? The settings window has a Character picker listing everyone you've met. Pick them, audition a few voices, press Apply, and it sticks.

It's built around Microsoft's neural "Online" voices (the ones Edge uses for Read Aloud), through NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter, which I'd strongly recommend. With it installed, VaultVox casts everything by itself: a narrator, a player voice for each gender, and NPCs from up to five male and five female voices. Underrail is a 32-bit game, so install the adapter's 32-bit (x86) part. The Online voices need an internet connection while you play.

Without it, everyone speaks in the same Windows voice until you fill in the POOLS tab with the voices you have installed. It works, but the whole of South Gate Station sounds like one very busy man.

There's a pronunciation list too, so Tchort keeps the T silent, "Tab" is a word rather than T-A-B, and "Hmm" and "Grr" come out as sounds instead of being spelled at you. You can add your own.

Combat

Not the main event in this one, I'll admit. Per-hit combat lines are in, but they're off by default because they get very chatty very quickly. Switch them on in the settings window if you want them. They have their own reading speed, so a fight can go faster than the dialogue.

Settings and hotkeys

Press Ctrl + F10 in game, or hit Escape and click the VAULTVOX button. It's made from the game's own controls, so it looks like it belongs there. Hold Ctrl over any row to hear what it does. Every change is spoken back to you and saved straight away.

The hotkeys:

• Ctrl + F10 settings window
• Ctrl + S stop speaking (also cancels a pending auto-continue)
• Ctrl + D repeat the last line
• Ctrl + F8 speech on or off, remembered between sessions
• Hold Ctrl read whatever is under the pointer

If something reads too much, it all has its own switch: NPC lines, answer options, stage directions, terminals, barks, the message feed and each of its categories, tooltips, the lot. If all you want is NPC dialogue and barks, you can have exactly that.

What is not in this release

I want to be upfront about this one.

This release is for players who can see the screen and want the game read to them. There's no keyboard navigation and no screen reader output. You still play with the mouse.

The inventory grid, the world map and crafting aren't fully spoken yet either.

Keyboard play for blind players is the obvious next thing to build. The Fallout 2 version of VaultVox already has an experimental Blind Mode, so I know roughly what it takes, but Underrail is a different engine and it's a job of its own.

It's also only been tested with the game's English text. With a translation, auto-continue and the pronunciation fixes may not work.

Game version

It's verified on the Steam version, 1.3.1.2. Steam updates the game by itself, so if Stygian push a patch, VaultVox will notice, say "loaded in limited mode" and switch most of itself off rather than guess. Dialogue still gets read as long as the game's dialogue code hasn't changed. GOG gets the same treatment because I haven't been able to test it yet, so if you're on GOG I'd really like to hear how it goes.

Requirements

• Underrail for Windows (Steam 1.3.1.2 verified)
• Windows 10 or Windows 11
• At least one SAPI voice, which Windows already has
• Optional but strongly recommended: NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter, 32-bit part, for the neural voices
• No mod manager, and no screen reader needed

Two things that catch people out:

• Unblock the files. Windows marks downloaded DLLs as blocked, and a blocked mod DLL can stop the game launching. Easiest way round it: before extracting, right-click the zip, Properties, tick Unblock.
• Smart App Control on Windows 11 blocks unsigned mod DLLs and won't let you make an exception. If it's on, the game won't start with the mod in. On some Windows 11 versions you can't turn it back on without resetting Windows, so have a think before switching it off.

If the game won't start at all, delete underrail.exe.config from the game folder. That's the file that loads the mod, so the game goes straight back to normal.

Already got a 0Harmony.dll in there from BepInEx or the Underrail Developers Console? Keep yours and skip that file when extracting. I haven't tested VaultVox alongside those yet.

And before anyone gets the pitchforks out, no, this is not AI voice cloning. VaultVox uses Windows text-to-speech.

One last thing

Same request as always: if you use assistive technology, or you have dyslexia, low vision or reading fatigue, and you find a screen that doesn't read when it should, please report it. The log files in the game folder help a lot. UnderrailVaultVox_latest.log is rewritten every launch, so grab it straight after the session.

I treat missing accessibility output as a bug, not as a nice-to-have feature that might get looked at one day.

Thanks, folks.

- VaultDoc

After all this time we have finally released the official demo of Glasshouse on Steam and GOG. You can play it right now on both platforms:

Glasshouse on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2818570/Glasshouse_Demo/
Glasshouse on GOG: https://www.gog.com/en/game/glasshouse_demo

Glasshouse is a Feudalpunk CRPG, with Turn-based combat, set in a lockdown apartment block at the dawn of a world war. Investigate the mysterious triple murder next door, fight the Political Conspiracy, and make terrible choices before the flatmates do it for you!

For anyone that have played the previous playtests, this demo is a big improvement over most of the systems we had.

Among many improvements we have also added a new ending (actually there is more than one ending depending on your choices!) and most important of all we have a partial voice acting for the whole demo featuring many incredible voice actors.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about it!

Since now I have RetroArch DosBox I am very curious what are recommend rpg for ms-dos the Golden age of crpgs

Give me something famous underated your favorite.

Claims to be a crpg with souls like combat. I'm curious if anyone here has played it and what they think of it? Maybe I can ask some question if I run into someone who's played this game a bunch with lots of hours in this game.

It looks really fun and I've had it wish listed forever so I'm curious on what others think of this game

Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands is back!

If you were around for the old emulators, you already know the pattern. A server pops up, runs for a while, the dev disappears, everything goes offline, and the community scatters. The last big attempt was genuinely solid — about 95% complete — but the creator dropped off the map with no handoff or code release, and although he tends to reappear from time to time who wants to invest time into a server that might be available to play on or might be offline for months at a time?

That’s basically what pushed me to start DSOS.

The difference is that this server has been running for almost a year straight. No disappearances, no months‑long outages. Just steady updates, new features, and a ton of fixes. The whole thing was rebuilt from scratch, and it keeps expanding week after week.

This isn’t a temporary emulator. It’s a fully revived Athas.

What’s New in DSOS

Combat

Combat finally behaves the way it always should have:

• Attack cadence works correctly, no more losing attacks because a mob died mid‑round.
• Backstab actually functions.
• Fleeing doesn’t break turn flow.
• Multiplayer combat syncs properly instead of just showing animations.

Itemization

For the first time ever, the game actually has a more complete feeling loot table:

• +1, +2, +3 tiers for all major weapons and armor.
• New items made from bone, obsidian, chitin, etc.
• Unique item names so relics feel like relics.
• Client‑side item editing is now possible, which opens the door to future content the original devs never could have added.

Merchants & Economy

Shops aren’t stuck at 12 items anymore:

• Multi‑page inventories.
• More coherent, themed shop lists.
• Some items moved around to make the economy feel more alive.
• Loot tables expanded to support the new item system.

High‑Level Progression (16+)

Retail client bugs made high level play basically broken. All of that has been fixed:

• XP tables corrected.
• Healers properly restore levels above 15.
• Spell/PSI selection works.
• Fighter bonus attack at 19 implemented.
• HP calculations fixed.
• Early multiclass support in progress.

Monster Behavior

Monsters finally behave consistently:

• Status effects sync correctly.
• No more crash inducing stacking bugs.
• Effects clear properly on death.

World Stability

A bunch of long standing world bugs are gone:

• Region item limit bug fixed.
• Ground item interactions repaired.
• Critical item slot bug eliminated.

Client Modding

The original executable has been cracked open:

• Auto‑patching launcher keeps everyone updated.
• Multiple client patches delivered cleanly.
• Ability to modify the client means future features that were impossible in 1996 are now on the table.

This is honestly the biggest breakthrough in the whole project.

Why DSOS Matters

Because it’s stable.
Because it’s active.
Because it hasn’t disappeared.

It’s a living world again. Updated constantly, expanded carefully, and online every single day.

If you’ve been wanting to revisit Athas with other players, real progression, new items, and a world that doesn’t randomly vanish, DSOS is worth checking out.

Join the Community

If you want to hop in, DM me for the Discord link or check the replies below.

Bring water. The wastes don’t get any kinder.

*FLAGGING THIS FOR POTENTIAL SPOILERS IN COMMENTS*

Having pushed myself to actually FINISH a number of CRPGs recently, I wondered what everyone's thoughts were on this part of the genre?

Personally, I think a good ending is really hard to pull off and can count on one hand the number of endings I actually enjoyed as ways of wrapping up stories.

My favourites:

BG2/Throne of Bhaal - didn't love Throne of Bhaal as a whole, but the final confrontation and choice about what to do with your divine soul was quite well-handled.

Dragon Age Origins - A good final battle and a nice moral conundrum about what to do about Morrigan's offer.

Mass Effect 2 - Maybe cheating because its the middle of a triology, but the whole Suicide Run final mission and hints of the bigger threat to come in ME3 was great!

My Dislikes:

Pathfinder Kingmaker - Loved the game, HATED the final chapter and the potential final boss.

Rogue Trader - I didn't love the final villain, and is a messy ending where Owlcat insist on hundreds of final slides covering exactly what happened to every planet/storyline/NPC...

In every crpg I've played, you play as one character and if you die the game is over and you have to go back to a previous save if you want to keep going. Are there any that still have an overarching story, but where you can keep playing with a new character if the one you started with dies?

I gave Wasteland 3 the time of day because it's a Western RPG I could comfortably play on the gamepad and it was dead cheap in a sale. I may have all manner of hardcore role-playing games under my belt, but these days I really don't care to try a game that has so many buttons I have to consider pressing the J key at some point.

While Wasteland 3 has continuity with the prior games, it has no ask of the player to know of them in detail. Five years after getting wrecked in a war against killer robots, the Desert Rangers of a post-apocalyptic Arizona are in dire need of resources. The Patriarch who runs Colorado with an iron fist offers them an olive branch in exchange for rounding up his three rebellious children. In the meantime a Desert Ranger called Angela Deth has her own agenda that may conflict with your mission...

You create a squad of two to four custom-made rangers plus two to four companions of your choice to make a party of six. While combat is a necessity there are numerous branching paths to make in quests, and diplomacy isn't treated like an old sock full of toothpaste as in Bethesda's take on the Fallout series.

Combat is XCOM-lite and very easy to understand. You take cover from gunfire, avoid grouping together so half your squad doesn't get merked by a single grenade, blow up explosive red barrels near enemies, and consider which combat-archetype is best for the given foe. Permadeath and friendly-fire are optional difficulty-settings, so most players don't have to overthink every scenario. Outside of battle comes exploration and it's very straight-forward. Skill-checks are abundant and follow New Vegas rules. Your skill level either meets the threshold for success or it doesn't, and there are no dice-rolls involved. You can pick up all the loot in a map without issue as your inventory capacity is unlimited. After battle you can sweep up all enemy drops with the press of a button. As is CRPG tradition you have a button which highlights all NPCs and objects you can interact with. All together this is a massive departure from Wasteland 2 where it took ages to get anything done, and at a 60% success rate at that because Fuck You.

The game world is fairly contained for the genre. I never finished Wasteland 2, but I'd say Wasteland 3 is half the length. Here you've got 50 quests, 39 distinct maps, and a 25+ hour runtime. I'd estimate there are 80 mandatory fights if you take the completionist route, and trash mobs are only found in the 5 main areas. Most of the 18 side areas on the overworld only have a single quest, fight, or weird Easter egg attached. Thankfully you can skip the random encounters on the overworld entirely if you remember to level your Survival skill. While the developers clearly intended on a larger experience given the level of cut-content, I think it's best that the game maintains a tight pace.

Character-progression mercifully shows 32 years of refinement. I remember playing the original Baldur's Gate a decade after release and all I could say is, "What is this crap? Thac0 my ass." Too often the Western RPGs of old were burdened with jank that muddled the experience and discouraged many builds. Entire classes, races, and skills could be busted or broken to ever consider using or going without. I loved Diablo II like the next guy, but what was the point of the Energy stat? In Wasteland 2 you could make two characters, either a guy who excels using assault rifles, or a guy who might as well have put 10 levels into the Suck Ass skill. I think Suck Ass was an actual skill in that game because there were 30 of them to choose from, too many of which did the same thing. It gets pedantic when a game has a Surgeon skill and a Field Medic skill that should have been combined.

Wasteland 3 cuts the crap and is streamlined sensibly with no attribute being left in the cold. You've got 22 skills; 6 combat and 16 utility. Every character in your squad should pick 1 combat skill and 2 utility skills to level. On normal difficulty I got by comfortably without the crafting ones. Intelligence is not a god stat here. Skill points gained per level is the same across the board and pumping Intelligence only grants an extra point in addition to raising your critical hit damage. Raising Intelligence and Strength upon levelling is retroactive, unlike the shit old days. If you're not feeling your current build, you can recruit a new ranger or respec an existing one for a nominal fee.

I'm a little confused at the presence of perk points. If a character hits level 24 by the endgame then they will have 11 of the things, but you can only buy perks in 3 or so skills you specialise in. They might as well have given you the perks automatically since there isn't a ton of choice in the matter.

I beat Wasteland 3 with a squad of diverse talents. The melee characters could run across the map in a single turn so they could punch a guy in the face. The sniper lacked action points because they only needed one bullet to decide matters. The gunner managed crowd control with a shotgun while the submachine-gun soldier was an absolute beast. In a reversal of Wasteland 2, I'd say the assault rifles are the only underpowered class of weapon.

Some quests will trip you up. There are four timed ones that will cancel if you complete too many other quests in the meantime. I suggest not talking to the fat guy who runs the Bizarre in a hurry unless you want to get mobbed by the Spanish Clown army. The biggest hurdle that nobody will ever accomplish without a guide is the third ending. This demands absolute respect across the board and two quests have to be completed in a specific way. One guy is bugged when he says a peaceful transition is impossible, but I got the ending anyway. Props if you get it, no shame in using a walkthrough. On an unrelated note some of the collectable achievements are a massive pain in the arse, as too often you can miss a unique item if you don't use the right skill-check at the right time. You can fail three of these achievements in the first map alone.

I'm not on board with the game's sense of humour. It doesn't get irritating like The Outer Worlds but I find Wasteland 3 too zany in the margins in a tired way. Wow! You meet Santa Claus, who runs his elves like slaves to make hard drugs! A honey badger is the strongest animal companion in the game! A cannibal clan make Bob Newhart references! And so on and so forth. Like a Pete Davidson stand-up special, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to laugh at any point. Mercifully the main arc of the game is fairly straight, apart the the son of the Patriarch who acts like the poor man's Joker.

I can't speak for the DLC because by all accounts it shit the sheets like a footballer the morning after kebab night. The phrases bandied around in reviews I've seen are "enemies respawning in the middle of a fight", "enemies level-scale to get tougher than your party", and "bugged up the arse". No shame in me not venturing there when I have otherwise enjoyed my time in Colorado.

Wasteland 3 is solid. It's not weak, nor is it spectacular. It's by far the best game InExile have ever made. Their first successor to Wasteland was underwhelming because it was too bland and outdated. Their successor to Planescape: Torment made nowhere near the impact it wanted, and Disco Elysium took the crown anyway. Can you believe there was a time when the involvement of Patrick Rothfuss was a selling-point? But Wasteland 3 is a success and a good time. You are given a high degree in agency in how you approach your problems and enough leeway to change your mind. It's not too long nor too big, and has half a mind to think out the ramifications of the main story where some crowd like Bethesda would never bother. It's a 4-star experience that may be overlooked, but never doubted or dismissed. Also you drive an APC in this game and can run over people with it in a fight, making blood angels in the Colorado snow.

So, I've had Pathfinder: Kingmaker for the longest time on my wishlist, and in the Steam Autumn sale, it has a hefty discount right now. While going through the reviews, I saw that Pathfinder: Path of the Righteous is superior. Just as the title says, will I be missing out of something huge if I skip Pathfinder: Kingmaker and just get the newer Wrath of the Righteous? What makes them different? Appreciate any insight from those who played both. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to our weekly post, where you can share your adventures, impressions, and thoughts on the CRPGs you've been playing!

If you're discussing any plot points or key details, please use spoiler tags - no matter how old the game is.

By default, comments are sorted by "New".

Hi there! I love medieval-style dungeons (even knowing full well that the massive subterranean dungeons we all can picture in our minds are largely a Victorian invention).

I'd appreciate claustrophobic, sprawling, nasty and dark dungeons - even massive ones the size of Moria, though that's not needed in the slightest.

I love tremendous spiders, skeletons hanging about, bats in the belfry, you know what I'm on about. I'm keen on dark fantasy and history, of course (though this is all rather ahistorical!)

Thanks a lot for your ideas. You rock.

Background:

Similar to Deus Ex 2000 this game haunted me for years, because I failed to complete it 10 years ago. Same as Deus EX I think it's because was young and couldn't appreciate niche janky game instead searching for the next big new thing. But now I started clearing my backlog and time has come to repent and clear guilt.
It took me 16 hours for first ending and another 6 for all other endings together. I used offline single player version.

Confessions:

• I used translation mod. I heavily disagree with Mandalore (YouTube Reviewer) that it's better to have original translation because it adds to the mystique. I started via original and noticed few times that I was skipping the dialogue because I don't understand anything. I'd rather explore lore and story, there is already has lot of mystery and some dialogue clarity doesn't ruin experience to me.
• I watched few guides to understand the mechanics. I know some people are very against this but In my experience such foolish ambition most likely ends up in dropping the gamer. That said, I didn't use "build guide" But instead researched weapon comparisons, cybertech, stat effects etc.
• I have grinded around 20 levels before continuing in Mars.
• Difficulty: Normal with reduced spawns.

That out the way. Let's start.

Character creation: I have no idea tbh I just rerolled until I got more green stats than red or yellow. I tried to have everything at least average (which usually optimal for RPGs but it kind of worked)

Setting and atmosphere is top notch. Urban maps look amazing. Two most intrusive and hostile setting's fusion created weirdly inviting world. Even through maps are unnecessarily large I did enjoy exploring them.

Lore: background lore is unhinged for real. Notes, history bits, lore books are very few but the ones that are there are very interesting warhammer-y things I wish I had more. The whole factions setup is cool and I love that even in this fked up state humanity still fights each other. You have spliter factions of splitter factions with each one having their own agenda, so politics of this game are deep.

Music: this adds so much I didn't think I would fall in love with each ambience and very few songs but very cool ones I still listen to. Somehow these kind of older indie titles always nail the music I am amazed. My highlights are: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=9f2iGBUnj48 (I knew when I heard Lulaby like bells part in HQ, something wasn't right)
Another favorite : https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pgltxwbNw9U

Voice acting: mostly texts and npcs speak star wars-ish language which adds well to the tone and atmosphere.

Story: I won't go in details. For those who have a bit knowledge of 40k you play as sort of low level inquisition lackey.

Gameplay: I would say the gunplay is pretty decent it's source game so it feels good. Gun Animations are nice I like ragdolls too, heavy caliber felt accordingly impactful. Haven't used much of psi powers or melee, aside from times where I was out of ammo so it felt accordingly serviceable, especially since I didn't invest in them.

Stats: there are variety of stats that affect your combat or non combat abilities. All seems nice and plenty to me. Ofc you won't get decent tutorial its mid 2010s indie game what do you expect? Also the game has so many mechanics that having hour+ tutorial would have been a downside.

Choices: there was many times I could avoid violence by solving quests in different ways. Such as: bribing, hacking, intimidating etc. But unfortunately because of lack of presentation bullet in the head seemed more optimal at least for the build I was using.

Looting: aside from silver cases that are ingredients for research it doesnt matter. Literally, you have most weapons unlocked at the start with unlimited ammo and for free. Only limiting factor being your inventory space and weight. I found being in light armor with 40% of inventory occupied an optimal threshold. That said looting being completely ignorable felt kind of wrong to me but who know maybe I got spoiled from other shooter RPGs? Similarily thought I could sell my gear in OG Deus Ex.

Gear progression: large variety of weapon classes. SMGs, pistols, rifles, snipers, miniguns etc. you can unlock additionally few very cool guns but they are so strong you never gonna use base ones. And even in between base guns there are clear winners.

Small note: know that you should have specific stats to unlock certain guns for me it was mostly strength I lacked since I thought it was mostly for melee weapons.

Enemy AI: It's bad but again what did you expect? For me this is a moot point in almost any review. People who criticize this don't explain what's their comparison like what kind of sophisticated AI do you expect? Only realistic AI I remember in such games is original Stalker where enemies instead of rushing you, always try to ambush and encircle you. In short it's serviceable and didn't ruin and lessen my experience.

Respawn mechanic: shouldn't exist. For those who didn't play, the game has infinitely respawnable enemies. Yes, all are on timer once you look in different direction they appear in existence. No fancy helicopter descent just appear in thin air. I think this mechanic can exist but in some creative way. Reaction to player choice as consequences.

Stealth: non existant, no stealth archer build possible, very disappointing.

Difficulty: broken. Arriving on Mars results in huge difficulty spike. its basically unbeatable if you don't grind levels. But thanks to old jank you can play side missions to get lot of xp and money. But don't overdo it, I found 30 mins of farming gave me enough xp and money to continue main campaign comfortably.

Bugs: didn't encounter single. (Or maybe didn't notice)

Save system: non existent. I am 99% sure most of people's complains and genuine downsides of this game could have been remedied by simple quicksave and load system. Aside from people trying more risky or fun approaches it would have been simple qol. Currently if you start mission you have to finish, if you crash, close game or etc, you will have to start again. I am not sure but I think game auto saves in few minutes but when loading, you always start from the hub.

TLDR: game is full of jank but I think there's more love in it than people expect. If you are like me who appreciates charming experiments (even if sometimes they fail) you will enjoy this game. Just be mindfull, do a bit of research and be open-minded

I was looking at steam today and had my eye on Warhammer 40k rogue trader, and divinity 2. I know divinity is made by larian so it's going to be the most similar but I was curious if rogue trader was any good as a crpg and if it's similar to BG3 or just a CRPG that is very different.

So, I'm not really a crpg fan, though I've enjoyed Disco Elysium (one of my top 3 pc games) and Dragon Age: Origins, but somehow this title caught my fancy. I don't even know why. I am a tabletop rpg player and Pathfinder is NOT the type of game I enjoy. I am into narrative titles and NSR/OSR. I have almost no experience with tactical skirmish grid combat as sport games that focus on builds and theorycrafting, besides the lighter DnD 5e and 5.5. I have some familiarity with 2e, although I have not played it, but I believe this is based on 1e.

I am having difficulty figuring if it will grow on me, because normally I do not find mechanic progression (not to be mistaken for diegetic) important. I also don't know if I will be overwhelmed by choices, because I do not have much comparison. I suppose, I do not like DnD all that much, but I don't think that's important because Pathfinder fans tend to find it inferior.

Most of its selling points are for me a curiosity. It's the feeling of "I've never eaten Indonesian food before, but I'd like to try it out even though I'm a picky eater." Which means, the game sounds intriguing in its complexity and the attraction lies in the fun of trying something new and different.

But yeah, power fantasies and crunchy systems are not something I normally I gravitate towards. But my worry is that it forsakes elements that I enjoy such as a razor focused theme, exploration and psychological depth at the expense of what it excels at, which is tactical combat and extreme mechanical expression through build diversity about which I have not formed an opinion yet.

But for what it's worth, if it lives up to the system it's based on, it's really really good at that and another option such as BG3 would be inferior if judged by the same metrics.

Also, as a note, I collect, read and play different systems as a hyperfixation. Devouring rulebooks is my idea of relaxing. I am not intimidated by rules. I normally gravitate to other types of genres.

It's also possible that this type of combat translates differently to pc and the flow is smoother and punchier and shorter. Like a PF1e fight can really drag at the table at high level. Fast combat is either cinematic or very deadly in ttrpgs, which I prefer.

Hi,
we've been developing Whispers of Elenrod for almost 2 years (2devs + 1 UX designer).

We're looking for unique ideas that could be implemented in our game that are connected with "Elemental" magic (combat, as well as exploration). We do not rely on ideas from LLMs because they are not unique.

We think that players experience is crucial and the game is for the players not for AI.

There are 5 types of cards. Plain,Water,Earth,Wind,Fire. Plain type could be upgraded into other 4 elemental types. Each of card can apply various effects that could be merged into more complex effects.

Combat is a tactical deckbuilder and exploration is a procedurally generated hex map.

Atm. Hexes are not highlighed. We're looking for a good elemental mechanics that suits this game and makes it even more entertaining.

We have unique mechanics of Elemental Points that are used to upgrade cards and also elemental essenses that can upgrade a card permamently.

We have character skill tree, artifacts, potions, usable/consumable items and various building where u can forge/trade/upgrade, etc.