Let's have a real talk about this game /v/
>A lot of dialogue and solid lore building through conversation and exploration text
>Huge variety of skills, each of which seem incredibly useful at various time
>Designed by a small team, who act in a professional capacity and talk with their fans.
>Graphics are incredibly dated, and there are numerous faulty models
>Difficult combat meaning you have to choose who to fight, and when carefully.
>The art is nice, when you get to see it
>Lots of replayabillity due to the differences that dialogue and skills can make, choices change how quests end
The only main problem I have with it are the graphics, and that thus far you can only control your own character and not have a small team to help balance out certain fights.
If you can get over the incredibly dated graphics this game is a real gem, and I encourage anyone who enjoys old school cRPG's to pick it up at full price to support the devs.
Age of Decadence is fucking awful.
I can forgive it's atrocious graphics, poor transitions, indie quality maps and movement, but the combat system is so fucking poor and boring as well, the interface is clunky as fuck and the UI is atrocious.
It seriously plays like a game released in 1990 and I'm sorry, but that shit just doesn't stick. It took 7 years to develop and this was the best they could come up with, fucking embarrassing.
The writing may be excellent (I cannot confirm or deny, did not go far enough into it), but everything around is is awful. Pillars of Eternity is much better.
>>318181856
And that's fine anon, not every game is for everyone. However I think it's an excellent game. As I said, the graphics are dated beyond belief, and combat isn't supposed to be the major selling point. the game opens up with a massive message telling you "Combat is hard. You will miss a lot, and you will die a lot if you're fighting more than one person." but despite the fact that they say that, you can still play a combat character as I am doing now.
The writing is amazing, quests can be handled in a variety of ways, hell in the very beginning of the game you have three choices of how you want to start as a mercenary alone, and each choice leads to a different path. Every class has their own distinct quests that you can't get as any class other than the one you picked. And while the interface may not be as polished as some other games, it's still good compared to a lot of other modern cRPG games.
You don't have to like it, but it has a lot going for it if you can move past the bad graphics.
>>318181856
>AoD haters have a pasta
Too bad that the archive is kill to prove that you are a giant faggot.
>>318179980
Game is great and has a demo, but as we all know /v/ doesn't talk about good games at all.
That and consolefags have and grafixfags being the largest part of /v/.
>>318182478
>the game opens up with a massive message telling you "Combat is hard. You will miss a lot, and you will die a lot if you're fighting more than one person." but despite the fact that they say that, you can still play a combat character as I am doing now.
That's one of my problems with the game. The combat bills itself as dangerous but it's just a generic RPG combat system. I was expecting actual realism, yet it took me 4 fucking strikes to the head with a fucking axe to kill a random thug. And it was tedious as fuck. Fuck that noise.
>>318183876
>realism
>Vidya
Ok anon let me explain you something about solo PC games, if the game were as lethal as you want it to be then your PC wouldn't stand a chance against 2 hardened thugs, let alone a guard outpost of trained soldiers (5+), you would be dead in a lucky crit or hit and you would be screaming that you got fucked by the RNG.
So in order to balance this, most RPGs use abstractions of what we consider health and life, in the form of Hit points or HP for short, so when you hit say an arm you don't hit then at full unless you get a crit.
>>318183876
I can understand that, to a point. aiming anything at someones head is going to be hard unless they're brain dead enough to just let it happen. The four swings thing however you're right about. I did also expect combat to be more weighty, but that is also only one of many ways to play the game. You can beat this entire game without a single fight happening because the game allows you to do that.
>>318184525
I understand that, dude. It's just that the game seemed to be advertising itself as a low-magic high-realism game, the way the game presents itself bills itself as such, and then the game outright tells you stuff like "Combat is not a breeze, you will die a lot, remember, it can be avoided"
But it's just generic RPG combat, only poor. It's one of the worst turn-based combats in any RPG I've seen in the past decade.
Even discounting my disappointment, it's still bad.
>>318184996
>I understand that, dude. It's just that the game seemed to be advertising itself as a low-magic high-realism game, the way the game presents itself bills itself as such, and then the game outright tells you stuff like "Combat is not a breeze, you will die a lot, remember, it can be avoided"
Game is dangerous not realist, it's not a simulation per se, also you are surely speaking about the first two thugs in the first quest that while they have enough CON (HP) they barely can harm you. If you want to kill them faster try something different maybe you will learn how to play then.
>But it's just generic RPG combat, only poor
Highly doubt that you played more than once or twice, first quest for sure.
>But it's just generic RPG combat, only poor. It's one of the worst turn-based combats in any RPG I've seen in the past decade.
>Even discounting my disappointment, it's still bad.
>Opinions
I like how you are trying to discredit the game using subjective arguments on personal experience, while you yourself didn't play more than 1 quest; I really would like to hear why you are doing it but I think I will find the answer as subjective and short as your opinion of the game.
>>318179980
It's too niche even for RPG fans.
>>318181856
Is this you?
http://attackofthefanboy.com/reviews/age-decadence-review/
Loved it, but it did feel a little short and ended rather abruptly.
>>318185665
>Highly doubt that you played more than once or twice
How many times is it required for a person to play a game before deciding that it is bad?
>I like how you are trying to discredit the game using subjective arguments on personal experience
Not that anon, but if people aren't allowed to give their opinion you may as well delete the fucking thread because no will be able to say anything.
>>318186327
I've been informed that the games major selling point is it's replayabillity, as I said earlier each class has distinct quests and variations as you play. I am on my second play through personally and I can already tell there is a huge difference in certain quests, as well as how the skills all interact with each other.
>>318185665
Opinions are all welcome, I want this to be a thread were people talk about the game and how they feel about it as a whole, I personally love the game and think the devs should have some more support because I'm interested in what they will make with a bigger team and budget.
>>318186356
>How many times is it required for a person to play a game before deciding that it is bad?
Finishing the game once or twice with different characters at least; Try killing the Arena Champion with that aimed head with a bronze Axe and not missing or using the same tactic with the final boss lets see how you fare and how "unfair" the game is.
>Not that anon, but if people aren't allowed to give their opinion you may as well delete the fucking thread because no will be able to say anything.
All experience is subjective, alcohol drinks are at first is bitter (most of them anyway) but with enough experience you can start enjoying the different tastes that it provides; This applies to everything really.
Given that I played the game several times with different builds I can tell you that indeed it's quite different of what he is making up
>>318186160
Meanwhile:
http://www.destructoid.com/review-the-age-of-decadence-318681.phtml
http://www.destructoid.com/review-fallout-4-318096.phtml
>>318186963
>You require to beat the game once or twice before having the privilege of thinking it's bad
Holy fuck, you're a colossal faggot.
>playing demo
>come across a mercenary who is pissed at a woman because she owes him money
>only dialogue options are to tell the guy to fuck off or to pay her debt
Wow such a great role playing game so many choices! I can be the SJW I always wanted to be women can do no wrong :^)
>>318187384
Actually, options you don't qualify are hidden from you. Or were at one point. I'm not sure how they changed the skill check and dialog system.
>>318186963
>I can tell you that indeed it's quite different of what he is making up
He isn't making anything up, though. He stated facts and said why he didn't like a game based on them and all you said were "yeah but that's subjective". No fucking shit. And you also say he needs to finish a game once or TWICE before he gets to have an opinion about it? What kind of retard keeps playing a game they aren't enjoying enough to finish it two times? Get real.
>>318187352
What's the problem? Too hard for you?
>>318187384
Hope you have enough gold left because you got mugged and you didn't even find out.
>>318186963
That doesn't mean shit and you know it.
>They gave Fallout 4 a lower score!
Only thing these games have in common is that they're both RPGs and that's a very loose connection on both sides of the spectrum considering Fallout 4 plays it very lite with RPG elements while AoD seems to go overboard with them as well as presenting everything as a collection of scenes and not really your typical where you get to dick around, grind, etc.
>>318187504
What exactly isn't he enjoying exactly? He gets to kill the thugs and live based from what he says, his only complain is that it takes 4 hits to kill a thug with high CON, which isn't a good complaint.
What he wants? Insta-killing people? then it wouldn't be hard at all, or if he were in the receiving end too hard....
>playing a game they aren't enjoying enough to finish it two times?
No but playing a chapter would do, instead of complaining about a
SINGLE initial quest that he beat....
>>318187554
You're giving us Age of Decadence fans a pretty bad rep here, stop posting please.
>>318186963
To be fair, I disagree with some point he made in the Fallout review. I'm no fan of Fallout 4 by any means, but if you still rely entirely on V.A.T.S. then you clearly didn't pay attention to huge leaps and bounds they made with the shooting system.
>>318179980
I think AoD is a good game, but I agree it's dated in a lot of way, as well as the fact that the game drops you in a huge world with little direction short of "Figure it out" But that isn't a bad thing, it allows a player to actually figure out who he wants to be which is an awesome feat.
>>318188784
Besides the grafix, how is AoD dated?
Quest design?
Exploration?
Systems?
Choices and Consequences?
Exclusive content?
I never loled so hard at a game as when you get to use the divine spear.
Everytime I saw anything of related to UI of this game I'd get the shivers.
I'm fine with horrible graphics. I've played Thief 15 years after it came out, but the UI just screamed cheap, shitty, amateur game.
>>318189172
Perhaps dated isn't the best term, lack of polish maybe? The journal is a mechanic but it doesn't tell you where to go, in most cases it's common sense "The guards refused your offer, try again." would obviously lead realistically to the barracks or a guard post. That one was simple, however another quest in the journal read "You've heard information about >Man's name here< go speak to him." but the game didn't tell me where the man was, and even in the dialogue where I had learned the man was in town I wasn't given a general area. Now I'm not one of those people that needs a map marker to the exact location, but I would think the journal could read something else like "Last you heard he was near the market."
I also agree with OP that it would be nice to be able to hire an ally or something as most fights you get stuck in are 2 or 3 on one and there are few ways to balance it.
>>318189462
Serious question what exactly do you find ugly about the UI?
>>318181856
I completely disagree.
Age of Decadence is probably the greatest RPG released in the past decades. And I'm fully serious here.
No other game came as close to the brilliance of the dialogue-based role playing of Torment as this game.
And the combat system has quite a lot of depth too. It easily beats games like Torment, Fallout or Arcanum - which all had somewhat clunky combat but great role playing mechanics.
>>318189778
Well yes the journal needs a bit more polish in regards of that and the game would be but you need to read m8, you can just forget everything.
Try reading the characters section maybe it's there.
>>318186327
>Loved it, but it did feel a little short and ended rather abruptly.
I put roughly 180 hours into it. I'd recommend playing it again with a different build. There's a LOT of content which you're going to miss otherwise. Not to mention that you get to see the various events that unfold from a completely different perspective or get to affect them in a way where they play out differently.
>>318190051
Fair enough friend, I'll admit I overlooked the character sections for the longest time. Everything said though I'm really enjoying my time with this game, and I'm only about 8 hours into it.
Who /imperialguardwithhighINTandCHA/ here?
My favourite playthrough so far.
>>318183876
>That's one of my problems with the game. The combat bills itself as dangerous but it's just a generic RPG combat system.
It's not though. It involves a lot more tactical depth. Depending on your build and what type of opponent you're facing you have to play quite differently. You have to make use of different types of attacks, you have to make use of alchemy and items like bolas or nets, etc. In the vast majority of RPG systems of that kind it's usually about simply attacking the enemy until he drops dead. In this game however, you need to decide where to place yourself in order to guide the enemy into choking points, you need to attack different body parts in order to lower the enemy's defences or likelihood of successfully attacking you, you may need to use different weapon types at different points, etc.
Combat is a lot more involved than you make it sound like - and I don't know a single RPG in existence where you only control a singular character which implements a comparable amount of depth.
>I was expecting actual realism, yet it took me 4 fucking strikes to the head with a fucking axe to kill a random thug. And it was tedious as fuck. Fuck that noise.
If your enemy wears a helmet that might actually happen. Also, it's by no means tedious. In most cases, people who describe it as tedious simply have tried to build a character who's good at everything and then picked fight that were too much for their character to handle. A combat focussed character can handle himself reasonably well, while a mixed type of character who also does a bit of talking needs to rely on other types of trickery in order to beat the harder fights.
>>318190564
It's good enough, I've been experimenting with low int characters and CHA training makes up for it a bit.....
>>318190564
I've played a high INT and low CHA Imperial Guard. I've always liked the idea of playing this smart and scheming advisor in the background who makes the hard decisions and whom nobody likes.
>>318190564
>>318191394
My current character is a merc who I'm RPing as an ex bandit who came to town to be slightly more civil. She joined up with the thieves guild and now she's working her way to the top, or wherever the most coin is. She's relatively low int but also low Char, lots of fighting.
>>318189792
I only played it the day came out so I don't exactly remember what the UI looks like, but it looked cheap and tacky and a lot of it looked like placeholders.
Pretty sure the mouse had a fucking yellow border glow on it.
How many different quest lines do you guys think there are?
>>318193556
It's hard to tell, since the game doesn't really work in "lines". The vast majority of important quests are heavily branched and they can play out differently. Obviously the various guilds all have their own quest-lines, which however also intersect with each other as well as the quest-lines of the great houses.
>>318189462
And it is. The UI and interface systems are atrocious. The ugly graphics don't help, but that's what's truly unforgivable about the game.
>>318190761
>If your enemy wears a helmet that might actually happen
But he didn't. The enemy had no helmet, I had full skill in Axes and 9 Strength. He still took 4 hits to the head.
>>318193793
I'm only on my first playthrough so I have no idea how much I'm missing yet.
>>318195098
>The enemy had no helmet, I had full skill in Axes and 9 Strength. He still took 4 hits to the head.
What do you mean by "full skill"? A skill of 10? What was your critical strike skill? In any case, it's well possible that you were unlucky with your rolls. In general however, an enemy who doesn't wear head armour is easily knocked out by a strong hit with a high skill.
>>318195156
You're missing out a lot obviously. The game is meant to be played multiple times with different characters. There's no way for you to see everything in a single playthrough.
>>318196071
Full skill as off Character Creation, so I think it's like, what, 6?
Even then. With 9 Strength, 9 Dexterity and 6 skill in Axes, and a successful head blow which is not dodged on a guy with no helmet, you still need 4 of those. The combat system is most certainly not realistic.
>>318196623
There is no such thing as a "realistic" combat system in existence, so that can hardly be held against the game. In terms of damage it certainly is "more" realistic than most other systems though, since a character isn't able to take that much damage, assuming he's not armoured well. Also, you can actually kill someone quite well by hitting him over the head. There's a reasonable chance to knock him out with each hit and axes do quite a lot of damage. Go find a game with a more realistic system - I don't think you'll have a lot of luck. Especially spears were handled remarkably well in this game.
Can I go through the game on conversation alone, or will it force me to fight?
>>318197751
I want to know this too, I might get it
>>318197751
You can beat this game entirely without ever fighting if you have the right skills and make the right choices in dialogue
>>318198605
>>318198634
I'm assuming that if you don't spec into combat, combat is impossible.
Are the decisions obvious enough to avoid fighting, or will I get surprised buttfucked and realize that playthrough is fucked? I mean, I can just save a lot, I don't mind re-doing stuff, I just want to know.
>>318198892
I haven't had any problems on my lore master playthrough. There are always going to be skill checks in conversation, it's a lot up to you to know which of your skills is the right choice. Also some healthy suspicion is a great thing in this game, as the world is not a kind place to be.
>>318199292
Well the game IS called "Age of Decadence", not "Age of Trust me Buddy"
Downloading the demo as we speak, thanks bro.
>>318199432
Of course, I hope you enjoy it.
