So, anyone have any impressions ?

I played the demo a couple of years ago. After that I stopped reading anything about AoD because I knew I didn't want to spoil it for myself. I'm looking forward to playing the full version.

It's a real cRPG for once.

So far so good. Even managed to survive the first combat encounter )

For once?

Wasteland 2, Shadowrun games, Pillars of Eternity, Sunless Sea... So many amazing games got released lately. Last two years are amazing when it comes to classic-style RPG games

Anyway, I'm buying this tomorrow, let's see how it is.

I tend to play the older games far more then anything that came out lately.

Bought this and looking super forward to this.

Nice to see you still on the forums! Have you tried the game yet? I have been enjoying it so far myself ;)

I'll say that I can see a specific audience absolutely loving this game, but I don't think it's quite tapping into the things I personally like about this style of RPG. I feel like I've had to do a lot of save-scumming to make sure I get through pass/fail skill checks or else get locked out of the quest line I've already built my character around. It's still interesting enough that I want to play more, but I don't think I'm as hot on it as some are.

If you focus on a core 3 skills then you should be able to pass all of those skill checks normally.

Played it for about 4 hours or so. At first I got stuck in tutorial toying around with various builds - every RPG needs a sandbox arena from now on. So I started a thief storyline and got into what I suppose is Act II with it. A lot of people complain about random stat checks, but as far as I am concerned, all you need to do is use common sense - when picking a thief, do not build a merchant. When you see people in trouble, do not rush in to help unless you also want to end up in trouble, that kind of stuff. Other than that, the world is quite spectacular and writing is decent.

In other words, a real cRPG!

I like lots of different kinds of cRPGs, but there hasn't been anything like AoD in a long time (if ever).

I can't recall a single one, perhaps save for some class-specific user modules for Neverwinter Nights. Seariously, when choosing background, the game asks you what kind of role do you wish to play, and then changes half of the bloody game to work with that role. It's extraordinary.

I also played the tutorial a few years ago and fell in love. My biggest fear is that I won't be able to figure out a second time some of the things I did well my first play through.

I played the Paladin archtype, I forget what the role is called in the game, and managed to make peace between the factions in order to restore the fallen house I served rather than eliminate them. I vaguely remember it was tricky and not altogether straight forward how to arrive at that junction but nothing more specific.. I only played once so I doubt anything will come back to me, but here is hoping.

Thanks GoG. I found Pillars of Eternity to be a bit lackluster, but I know this will be satisfying! Now if only the downloader would stop updating my other games and just deliver this one to me

Okay, Age of Decadence is one of the most bizarre RPGs I have ever played. It's incredibly compelling, yet broken on so many levels. The game has amazing combat mechanics - seriously, they're incredible, very polished and surprisingly clear. Also, every RPG needs a sandbox arena as a part of its tutorial, I got stuck there for two hours. The world and writing are amazing, I'm pretty much in a constant state of depression while playing the damn thing and the first thing I learned is that goody two shoes dies fast, so I cheat, rob and kill my way towards hopefully improving the larger picture. The first time I saw the Abyss sent shivers down my spine. The graphics are spartan but effective and all you need to survive is to use common sense. Mostly...

... Mostly because the devs clearly bit more than they could chew. Most of the issues with this game come down to the fact that it presents many of its quests in the interactive book format. This means two things: 1.) Player interactions are strictly limited to what writers thought of, 2.) Gameplay is not partitioned properly
1.) Good RPGs tend to give players a world with which they may interact creatively using the tools developers gave the player, potentially in ways devs never expected. Let's say a designer deems it appropriate to place a door somewhere in the game. Every single such door will then have the same set of interactions associated with it, with predictable outcome. Lockpicking skill will open the door quietly. Bashing the door open will aggro nearby enemies. Blowing it up will aggro everybody. Important thing is that these options are consistent, with predictable results. Additionally, no matter many how many skills there are in the game, to make those work, you just need to properly associate them with these objects. Bad design is when writers and scripters don't take all your options into account, but the worst thing that's gonna do is raise some eyebrows.

AoD, on the other hand, only offers what writers could think of at any given moment. If you see a lone guard, sometimes you can attack him. Other times you can't. Sometimes you can impersonate a member of some group. Other times you can't. Hell, at times, the game doesn't even offer a choice to back out of a situation you could easily back out of, whereas in proper gameplay you could just walk out. Which brings me to...
2.) Due to the unpredictability of your actions and their results, you need to savescum. Due to the structure of quests, you can't even savescum and allocate your skills properly. I mean, if the game absolutely has to be structured this way (and I suppose that's because modelling the entirety of many interiors would take ages), at the very least allow us to save and open character sheet while in the dialogue mode. Ideally, you could also show us the threshold of those rolls so the most efficient strategy in case there are no viable options for our current build isn't "up a needed skill by one. Try again. Die. Up it by two. Try again. Die. Up it by three. Try again. Succeed"

All in all tho, I enjoy the game quite a bit. I do believe devs sort of dug their own grave by giving player a lot more options than they could ever account for, both in amount of skills on offer and combinations of various player decisions. But oh well.