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Tenrius · Oct 15, 2013

I bought this game on the Not on Steam sale and pretty much forgot about it, like some of you probably did (yes, JaseC, I'm looking in your direction). Today I actually got around to playing it and I think you should give it a chance as well.

It's an obscure experimental game made in Russia (not unlike stuff like Pathologic and The Void, although this one is made by different people) and it shows. Everything is kinda quirky, the artstyle is occasionally weird, the setting is mysterious and original, but somewhat sketchy and over the top, however it's quite an interesting adventure game/VN (whatever your definition of a video game is) overall. And it is actually closer to point-n-click adventure games than the usual VN fare: you get to wander around locations, even do some sidequests, collect money, spend that money on something. The VN component is also quite prominent, though: there is a ton of dialogue you have to click through as well as some classic VN-style branching implemented by multiple variant choices in key points.

As for what the actual story is about, I'll just quote the official summary to avoid any spoilers:

Some facts about the setting and the atmosphere?
Well, Leviathan takes place in a dark fantasy world mixed with cyberpunk and alien technologies. Five noble families rule the country under the suzerainty of Plague King - the supernatural creature who has an ability to plague the country with the terrible disease called Decade... The story begins at the first day of the Decade and ends at the last day. The way HOW it ends depends on you.

The only real complaint I have is their choice of language: don't see the real point in all that gratuitous swearing, which sounds particularly weird in such a setting, especially with the overall writing being pretty decent. That probably only applies to the original Russian version though (which is the one I'm playing), as I simply don't see those specific wordings translating into English. Note that only the first three episodes of the game are now available in Russian, English and German, with an upcoming English/German release of the fourth and fifth ones.

The game is still going through the Greenlight process at the moment, but you can buy it directly from the developers. Four out of five total episodes are already available and you can play the first one for free. You'll also get a Steam key if the game is greenlit.

So yeah, I think it deserves some attention, do check it out and/or vote for it on Greenlight if you like it.

Some more screenshots and artwork:

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Sentenza · Oct 15, 2013

I'm wondering if some of those artists worked with Katauri on the King's Bounty saga, because I'm getting a very similar vibe from some of these drawings.

indigo-cyclops · Oct 15, 2013

Bought this off the devs site, really enjoying it actually. However I'm currently stuck. It's actually well written so far and the translation is good. Don't pass on this, adventure gamers.

Tenrius · Oct 15, 2013

TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
I'm wondering if some of those artists worked with Katauri on the King's Bounty saga, because I'm getting a very similar vibe from some of these drawings.

Yeah, it's pretty similar, but it's kinda hard to say if they did. Couldn't find the full list of the people who worked on the game after a pretty thorough search, found only names of the producer and a couple of writers.

Tenrius · Oct 16, 2013

I'll give it another bump, just in case. Ah, a lot of my threads seem to end this way.

Nillansan · Oct 16, 2013

Oh I seem to have already voted and added this to my collection. It sounds very intriguing.

Tenrius said:
I'm not sure if they'll provide a Steam key if it's greenlit though.

The following statement can be found on their store page:

Lostwood Games said:
In case of STEAM release, you will get an extra key for STEAM version of the game.

Clevinger · Oct 16, 2013

looks cool

voted for it on greenlight

Tenrius · Oct 16, 2013

Nillansan said:
The following statement can be found on their store page:

Thanks, added to the OP.

By the way, according to a vk.com post by the developer, they had gathered about 6000 votes by October 2. They also said that they needed 12k-18k more, but I'm not sure where that comes from as Valve doesn't seem to have the Greenlight passing criteria available publicly, so it's probably just a guess/estimate.

Nillansan · Oct 16, 2013

Tenrius said:
Thanks, added to the OP.

According to the store page, they are also working on a Mac version, they will announce a release date at a later time.

Tenrius said:
By the way, according to a vk.com post by the developer, they had gathered about 6000 votes by October 2. They also said that they needed 12k-18k more, but I'm not sure where that comes from as Valve doesn't seem to have the Greenlight passing criteria available publicly, so it's probably just a guess/estimate.

It is odd that they didn't mention what their current position is, it would be nice to know whether they are in the top 100 or not. I am going to do my best to spread the word, it sure sounds like a game that deserves some more exposure.

Dascu · Oct 16, 2013

Tenrius said:
By the way, according to a vk.com post by the developer, they had gathered about 6000 votes by October 2. They also said that they needed 12k-18k more, but I'm not sure where that comes from as Valve doesn't seem to have the Greenlight passing criteria available publicly, so it's probably just a guess/estimate.

Nillansan said:
It is odd that they didn't mention what their current position is, it would be nice to know whether they are in the top 100 or not. I am going to do my best to spread the word, it sure sounds like a game that deserves some more exposure.

No, at 6000 votes they're not in the top 100. That extra 12-18k would be enough to put them in the top 50 though.

EdwardTivrusky · Oct 16, 2013

I bought this in a bundle the other day and it's pretty good. The art is gorgeous, the translation is fine and it's quite an intriguing story.

I've been distracted by many games recently but this one stuck out, i'll be returning to it at the weekend for sure.

Tenrius · Feb 11, 2014

Crossposting (kinda) from the Steam thread:

Tenrius said:
I'd like to encourage people to vote for Leviathan: The Last Day of the Decade on Greenlight again. Apparently, the developers are facing some financial trouble with completing the last episode and their leader is putting his own money into the project. They are talking about an indiegogo campaign soon, but they also said that they are at 87% in terms of getting the game greenlit. I have no real idea what that actually means, but I imagine they are pretty close. I've been really impressed with chubigan's story from earlier and I think it would be wonderful if something similar happened here. So do check out the greenlight page and vote up if you like it enough.

For those who just want get a quick impression of what the game is like, it's basically a hybrid VN/adventure game made in Russia, with a fairly unique setting and an interesting artstyle. It's not without its issues, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first two episodes (didn't play the next two yet lol, as I initially decided to wait until the firth one would be released) and it's definitely a good game, not exactly common, either. The first episode is available for free and you can currently buy the season pass just for $9.57 (20% off) directly from the developer. If you play the first episode now, note that the second one is significantly longer.

Clevinger · Feb 11, 2014

Tenrius said:
Apparently, the developers are facing some financial trouble with completing the last episode and their leader is putting his own money into the project. They are talking about an indiegogo campaign soon, but they also said that they are at 87% in terms of getting the game greenlit. I have no real idea what that actually means, but I imagine they are pretty close.

damn. I hope they make it.

Tenrius · Feb 11, 2014

Clevinger said:
damn. I hope they make it.

I wish they were a bit more transparent about these things, like perhaps saying their exact position on Greenlight.

Lain · Feb 11, 2014

Just some days ago I picked the game back up, looking to continue from where I left off in chapter 2, only to find that my save game disappeared (the game even reverted to demo mode, so I had to unlock it again) and I'm wondering how it happened.

Kinda sucks that the game hasn't been greenlit yet because it seemed interesting from what I had played, with some quality art to boot.

Tenrius · Feb 12, 2014

Lain said:
Just some days ago I picked the game back up, looking to continue from where I left off in chapter 2, only to find that my save game disappeared (the game even reverted to demo mode, so I had to unlock it again) and I'm wondering how it happened.

Kinda sucks that the game hasn't been greenlit yet because it seemed interesting from what I had played, with some quality art to boot.

I just checked and my own saves were intact. Bad luck, I guess. As for not being greenlit yet, I think they are just not doing a very good job of promoting it. As far as I can see, they are mostly just talking to people in vk.com group, which has just 1500 participants and it's all in Russian. There also was a review on some fairly obscure website and that Not on Steam sale (which is how I found out about the game) and that's pretty much it. I wonder if they reached out to RPS, for example, those guys cover a lot of obscure PC titles.

I also just learned that their composer apparently also worked on Resogun! Unexpected, lol.

Tenrius · May 1, 2014

So this game has actually been greenlit. It happened a whole month ago, as a part of the April 3rd batch. Sorry for not paying attention and not doing an earlier update lol.

Anyway, I think this is great news. As far I understand, the developer has promised to "do his best" to get the game on the Steam store in June/July.

Tenrius · Nov 1, 2014

So the developer posted this picture along with the word "soon" on Tuesday:

This thread is more than a year old now lol. It'll be nice to finally see the game on Steam.

JaseC · Nov 1, 2014

Tenrius said:
I bought this game on the Not on Steam sale and pretty much forgot about it, like some of you probably did (yes, JaseC, I'm looking in your direction). Today I actually got around to playing it and I think you should give it a chance as well.

Thanks for reminding me.

Tenrius · Nov 1, 2014

JaseC said:
Thanks for reminding me.

Haha, I actually completely forgot about putting that into the OP

Tenrius · Dec 1, 2014

So the game is apparently out on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/328270/. You have to message the developer on vk.com to get your key lol (if you bought it previously, that is). Hopefully I'll get mine tomorrow.

Lain · Dec 1, 2014

Tenrius said:
So the game is apparently out on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/328270/. You have to message the developer on vk.com to get your key lol (if you bought it previously, that is). Hopefully I'll get mine tomorrow.

Do we really have to do that to get keys? Sounds like an hassle.

Tenrius · Dec 1, 2014

Lain said:
Do we really have to do that to get keys? Sounds like an hassle.

That's what I did because I have a vk.com account, but I think you can also message them on Facebook or Twitter (as per these tweets: https://twitter.com/LostwoodGames/status/535139737905135616 and https://twitter.com/LostwoodGames/status/535140052243070976). But yeah, they are handing them out manually for some reason.

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