Age of Decadence?

Irwin John Finster

Irwin John Finster

Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
I know I'm late to the party on this one but this game is being called unbearably difficult or the greatest cRPG ever made depending on who you ask. I have some questions...

How is the performance and stability? I'm reading about some people having crashes.

What are your overall thoughts/impressions of the game? What do you like about it, dislike about it, etc.?

I read an actual "critic" review for this game that started with "I haven't played a decent RPG since Skyrim" and I almost stopped reading there. The guy said it was too difficult to understand how to play the game and I think he gave it a 1 out of 5 score or something. So the fact that someone who thinks Skyrim is a good RPG hates Age of Decadence has made me think I will love Age of Decadence lol.
 
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I can't speak for the technicality, since I haven't play it nor get it, but go get it anyway! By way of GOG, preferably.

I suggest traverse the Codex's subforum for Iron Tower Studio AND their official forum for more information on technicality. At this point, though, they should've patched a lot of things.

Oh, and if you can, buy it at full price, pretty please? The reason for that is because this. But then, you might end up not liking the game because of few and/or many things, so I suggest surf the internet for more info. I'm so sorry I can't provide much.
 
One of my favourite games from the last couple of years. It's not perfect, but it has strong design that very much appeals to me personally. I think it's the only game on Steam where I have all achievements and specifically went achievement hunting because most achievements represent different story paths/endings and I wanted to see everything on offer.

Performance and graphics are not ideal. I've had some technical problems, but nothing that broke quests or anything. Mostly odd graphics problems that could be fixed by restarting or the occasional crash. But that's also rather unimportant in my opinion, considering what the game has on offer. Sort of like with Fallout 2. Technical problems are annoying, but never stopped me coming back even for a second.

The game is not that difficult once you understand what's going on in the systems, or at least can be made relatively easy by placing your skills right.
Some general tips if you want to try it out:
  • Don't skimp on learning the ropes. Do the tutorial, read the help menu etc.
  • Save up skill points. Don't place them until you need them. This is especially useful in combination with the next point:
  • Save and reload a lot to see what options are available to you. Almost every single quest in the main questlines has branching points, options for betrayal etc. Make hard saves when you enter/leave major cities and feel free to set the number of quick/auto save slots higher than the default of 3.
  • For different playthroughs, I recommend starting by completing the game as a pure talker with no combat skills or physical attributes, following the Merchant questline (aka easy mode). This gives you a good general overview of the game without any challenging combat. Then try a pure fighter with focus on combat and crafting/alchemy, following the Imperial Guard questline, to get a grip on the combat. After that, you should have enough of a grasp of how the everything works to try your hand at hybrid characters.
  • For combat skills, focus on one offensive and one defensive combat skill. Never take both dodge and block. Critical strike is useful, but not necessary if you've other skills to focus on.
  • For non-combat skills, persuasion and streetwise are the bread and butter of talkers, along with impersonate and maybe trading. Lore is very good and opens up locations otherwise inaccessible. Crafting also has many non-combat uses in combination with lore.
  • For your very first playthrough, I'd recommend going through completely without guides/spoilers if you can. However, once you've completed the game in one way or another, don't be afraid to use google to check out some of the things you couldn't figure out (e.g. how to get into the Tower Of Zamedi or The Abyss)
  • Look in every nook and cranny of each map. There's a few things that are unfortunately rather easy to miss, even with highlighting of interactable objects turned on. And unfortunately NPCs don't have indicators for when you can talk to them.

Hmm... Maybe I should post this as a review on Steam too.
 
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Danuis said:
This guy?

http://attackofthefanboy.com/reviews/age-decadence-review/

Just...sheesh. Other revenues gave it a lot more of a 'sound' (I'll say *sane*) review, so his review might not hurt the game, but it's still depressing.

I'm interested in AoD, a lot, personally.
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Yea that's the one lol. It's so stupid I think he might just be trolling.

I think I'll take a look at the game and post what i think in the near future. But please share your own thoughts about the game.
PlanHex said:
One of my favourite games from the last couple of years. It's not perfect, but it has strong design that very much appeals to me personally. I think it's the only game on Steam where I have all achievements and specifically went achievement hunting because most achievements represent different story paths/endings and I wanted to see everything on offer.

Performance and graphics are not ideal. I've had some technical problems, but nothing that broke quests or anything. Mostly odd graphics problems that could be fixed by restarting or the occasional crash. But that's also rather unimportant in my opinion, considering what the game has on offer. Sort of like with Fallout 2. Technical problems are annoying, but never stopped me coming back even for a second.

The game is not that difficult once you understand what's going on in the systems, or at least can be made relatively easy by placing your skills right.
Some general tips if you want to try it out:
  • Don't skimp on learning the ropes. Do the tutorial, read the help menu etc.
  • Save up skill points. Don't place them until you need them. This is especially useful in combination with the next point:
  • Save and reload a lot to see what options are available to you. Almost every single quest in the main questlines has branching points, options for betrayal etc. Make hard saves when you enter/leave major cities and feel free to set the number of quick/auto save slots higher than the default of 3.
  • For different playthroughs, I recommend starting by completing the game as a pure talker with no combat skills or physical attributes, following the Merchant questline (aka easy mode). This gives you a good general overview of the game without any challenging combat. Then try a pure fighter with focus on combat and crafting/alchemy, following the Imperial Guard questline, to get a grip on the combat. After that, you should have enough of a grasp of how the everything works to try your hand at hybrid characters.
  • For combat skills, focus on one offensive and one defensive combat skill. Never take both dodge and block. Critical strike is useful, but not necessary if you've other skills to focus on.
  • For non-combat skills, persuasion and streetwise are the bread and butter of talkers, along with impersonate and maybe trading. Lore is very good and opens up locations otherwise inaccessible. Crafting also has many non-combat uses in combination with lore.
  • For your very first playthrough, I'd recommend going through completely without guides/spoilers if you can. However, once you've completed the game in one way or another, don't be afraid to use google to check out some of the things you couldn't figure out (e.g. how to get into the Tower Of Zamedi or The Abyss)
  • Look in every nook and cranny of each map. There's a few things that are unfortunately rather easy to miss, even with highlighting of interactable objects turned on. And unfortunately NPCs don't have indicators for when you can talk to them.

Hmm... Maybe I should post this as a review on Steam too.
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Thanks for the info. I really admire what the game seems to be trying to do so I'm going to check it out soon. graphics aren't important, just stability.

It looks like a very interesting fictional universe as well-very original with post apocalyptic ancient Rome themes and LOW FANTASY which is great because there is too much high fantasy stuff for now.
Black Angel said:
I can't speak for the technicality, since I haven't play it nor get it, but go get it anyway! By way of GOG, preferably.

I suggest traverse the Codex's subforum for Iron Tower Studio AND their official forum for more information on technicality. At this point, though, they should've patched a lot of things.

Oh, and if you can, buy it at full price, pretty please? The reason for that is because this. But then, you might end up not liking the game because of few and/or many things, so I suggest surf the internet for more info. I'm so sorry I can't provide much.
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Have there been any problems with GOG version getting updates?
 
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VDweller said:
If you're interested in the game, try the demo first to make sure you like the overall design and avoid disappointments.
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Black Angel said:
I don't know, since like I said, I haven't played it nor get it. I only suggested GOG because of DRM-free.

And like the man Vince himself said above, try the demo first (how could I forgot there's a demo :facepalm:)
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Thanks for letting me know. I think i am going to love the game. I've been pretty tired of fantasy settings but this one looks very original and creative. Will post my thoughts when I play it, but I think I'm going to like it either way because I appreciate this sort of creativity and it occupies an under-served and under-represented niche in gaming.
 
VDweller said:
If you're interested in the game, try the demo first to make sure you like the overall design and avoid disappointments.
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Started as an Assassin named Zoticus, Merchant comes into town and he's already got a target on his back. Poor sod. Beautiful game.
 
I can't remember any crashes in my playthroughs. It's possible there were one or two, but since I can't recall them at all, it's safe to assume they weren't problematic.
 
Along with Fallout 1 it's my favourite RPG. Combat is great, plot and dialogues are top-notch and characters are very memorable. It has also quite a few cool plot twists that will make you chuckle. There are no fetch-quests here, no grinding and in general this game doesn't waste your time but serves crème de la crème. Warning though, if you'll like it you will become addicted. I've already spent over 300 hours in it and I'm still not bored.

FYI there are some issues with Radeon cards after latest (Crimson) driver upgrade but it can be easily bypassed by setting the lighting to low or by some other things. You can also roll back to 15.7 version of a driver and it will work like a charm on every setting. And GOG version works perfectly on Wine so if you're a Linux user you can enjoy the game without problems.
 
Stability depends on build. The one prior to the actual version crashed a couple of times for me, haven't had a single crash with the actual one though.
 
I just love AoD. It's a RPG that actually makes you feel like you're playing a role... For some reason that's pretty rare.

Regarding the supposed unbearable difficulty that some people have complained about: In Age of Decadence, combat is rather realistic in the sense that fighting is very dangerous. You can't take a thousand arrows and sword blows to the head... So unless you are exceptionally strong / skilled, there is a good chance you will be killed. You should avoid fighting if at all possible, unless you think you're ready for the consequences.

The same goes for thieves breaking into places.

Many modern RPGs let you build a jack of all trades character who can do practically everything. In AoD you really need to decide what type of character you want to play and specialize in that skillset.
 
daveyd said:
I just love AoD. It's a RPG that actually makes you feel like you're playing a role... For some reason that's pretty rare.

Regarding the supposed unbearable difficulty that some people have complained about: In Age of Decadence, combat is rather realistic in the sense that fighting is very dangerous. You can't take a thousand arrows and sword blows to the head... So unless you are exceptionally strong / skilled, there is a good chance you will be killed. You should avoid fighting if at all possible, unless you think you're ready for the consequences.
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That's what I find so wonderful about the game. It attempts to make a believable role-playing experience rather than the standard formula of "You're an invincible bullet sponge who can destroy every NPC in the game at the same time."
daveyd said:
Many modern RPGs let you build a jack of all trades character who can do practically everything. In AoD you really need to decide what type of character you want to play and specialize in that skillset.
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This is also great. Stats don't even matter anymore in big budget "RPGs" which is sad.

The funny thing is, that negative 1/5 review convinced me to get the game. All the let's plays I've seen and the game demo have me excited to jump into it. Will post thoughts on the game after playing it thoroughly.
 
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