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The Age of Decadence |OT| Roman Post Apocalyptic Urban Intrigue Simulator 2015

hemtae

Member
ageofdecadencewolym.png

Platform: PC
Developer: Iron Tower Studio
Buy from: Steam, GOG, Gamers Gate
Get the demo!
Trailer

F.A.Q.

Q. What is this?

A. A turn-based CRPG focused on narrative reactivity. It's set in a post apocalyptic world reminiscent of the Roman empire.

Q. So I heard this was in development for somewhere in the vicinity of forever. What's up with that?

A. Although we are now inundated with games aiming to channel the spirit of the classics of old, things weren't always so rosy. Around 2004, it became apparent that things weren't going well for CRPGs. Publishers were turning to consoles. Black Isle had been closed and the news coming out of Troika was worrisome. RPGs came in only MMO or streamlined flavors. PC gaming was declared dead or dying. However, one person decided to not take that lying down. Thus from design scribblings on random pieces of paper, Age of Decadence was born. Now as it turns out, video games are pretty hard to make. Dialogue-heavy, story-branching RPGs even more so. The combat demo came almost 5 years after he started working on it. A full featured demo came about 3 years after that. Steam early access came about a year and half after that and then almost two years later, here we are. If you want a more in-depth history lesson of the developement you can go here and here.

Q. Sell me on this.

A. Uh, well that's not really a question but there is the demo mentioned at the top of this post and Chairman Yang's post about it at the bottom of this post. The creator wrote this and reviews about Dragon Age II and Oblivion so you can see if his design sensibilities match your own. Also if you like Dark Souls and dying in Dark Souls then you'll die a lot here just like in Dark Souls. :D

Q. Wow, I am actually dying a lot just like in Dark Souls. Any tips?

A. Well, have you tried just not getting into fights? If your character can't do something then they can't do that something. No shame in skipping content in this game since it emphasizes replayablity. However if you must get into a fight, someone put a guide up with some helpful pieces of information.

Features


  • 23 skills, ranging from Dagger and Critical Strike to Disguise and Persuasion to Alchemy and Lore.
  • Tactical combat system, featuring a flexible set of standard attacks, special attacks such as whirlwind and impale, and aimed attacks at different body parts.
  • 8 weapon types: daggers, swords, axes, hammers, spears, bows, crossbows, throwing weapons, each with individual traits.
  • Non-combat quest resolutions and a well-developed diplomatic path.
  • Over 100 quests, taking you to 20 locations: towns, outposts, archeological digs, sealed places of Power, underground facilities, and temples.
  • Each situation has multiple ways of handling it, based on your skills, reputation, and connections.
  • An interesting world with rich history and unclear future that your actions can shape into seven very different game endings.
  • Detailed crafting and alchemy systems: forge your own weapons with different properties, brew different potions, experiment with Greek's fire and black powder.
  • Hundreds of items, ranging from weapons and armor to scrolls, tools, flasks, and pre-war relics.
Screenshots

GAF user Chairman Yang's testimonial
This game is incredible and you should all play it.

Let's get some stuff out of the way. The graphics suck (aside from the really nice character portraits). The combat system isn't particularly fun. The game isn't a giant, epic, open-world adventure; it has relatively few locations and much of the story is Game of Thrones-style intrigue and backstabbing rather than big existential threats.

If none of those things are dealbreakers, here's why you should play AoD: it has the best dialogue-based gameplay of any game, ever. I'm including Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex: Human Revolution's conversational battles, and New Vegas in that comparison.

Why is it so great? First, the dialogue is very well-written. It has a super-cynical, dark tone that's very different than any other game I've played. NPCs can lie to you convincingly, and a few lines of dialogue can plant some vivid characterization in your brain.

Second, AoD has the best dialogue-based choice & consequence ever. You can affect large-scale events and go down some radically different branching paths, but you can also use your dialogue skills to alter many smaller choices. Let's say you're trying to convince a soldier to betray his commander and give you secret information (this is a situation in the game, but altered to avoid spoilers). You can use your Trading skill to make a deal; you can use Persuasion to make the situation seem like a winning one for him; you can use both Trading and Persuasion in a single check to make a more favourable deal; you can gamble against him and get him deep into debt (if your Intelligence is high enough, or if you have the skills to cheat) then use that as leverage against him. In a lot of dialogue systems, all of these would lead to the same outcome. In AoD, each of these options has different consequences. Get the guy into debt, and the Thieves' Guild might come collecting and kill him. Make a Trade, and you'll have your end of the bargain to hold up. Use Persuasion, and he might take advantage of the situation to improve his own lot later.

Point is, there's ridiculous depth in the game's dialogue. You can succeed with JUST conversations and no battles. This aspect of the game is so strong (along with some great atmosphere, story, and choice & consequence) that the game's flaws meant almost nothing to me.

If you're not convinced, and don't mind spoilers, you can watch these Youtube playthroughs of the first section of the game. They're based on an old build, and they're hybrid builds (rather than pure dialogue) but they should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

The Tough Trader
The Smart Soldier
 
I've been interested in trying this out for a while. Seems like the combat is designed to absolutely wreck you if your character isn't specifically built to handle it, which suits me just fine - I tend to skew towards Charisma/Speech-type builds in CRPGs anyway.

The Witcher 3 has had a near-monopoly on my gaming time for the past few weeks and is likely to maintain said monopoly through at least the end of the month, but I might pick this up at the end of the year.
 

peakish

Member
Out today, huh? I've been following the game since around '06 (although I haven't been paying much attention after the proper demo came out) so it feels a bit weird. I'm almost ... hesitant to play it, even. So much has changed in the gaming landscape, although this is still a pretty unpopulated niche.

Screw it, I'm booting it up.
 

Almighty

Member
I never thought I would see the day.

Anyway I plan on grabbing this I just don't know when. Probably winter break.
 

Corpekata

Banned
Going to get this but probably not right away, probably an early 2016 purchase. Too swamped with games and funds are dwindling.
 

aravuus

Member
Well, I don't really care about challenging combat or, well, CRPG combat in general, so anyone know how's the story and writing? Fun side quests, awesome characters?
 

Corpekata

Banned
Well, I don't really care about challenging combat or, well, CRPG combat in general, so anyone know how's the story and writing? Fun side quests, awesome characters?

The writing is the focus really. The central hook is that you can avoid combat a lot.

It has a demo, so you can check there for a good idea of the game.
 

Atolm

Member
I remember following this with interest around 2008-2009 when I was looking for CRPGs. Now it comes out and I don't have a PC anymore.
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
This game is incredible and you should all play it.

Let's get some stuff out of the way. The graphics suck (aside from the really nice character portraits). The combat system isn't particularly fun. The game isn't a giant, epic, open-world adventure; it has relatively few locations and much of the story is Game of Thrones-style intrigue and backstabbing rather than big existential threats.

If none of those things are dealbreakers, here's why you should play AoD: it has the best dialogue-based gameplay of any game, ever. I'm including Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex: Human Revolution's conversational battles, and New Vegas in that comparison.

Why is it so great? First, the dialogue is very well-written. It has a super-cynical, dark tone that's very different than any other game I've played. NPCs can lie to you convincingly, and a few lines of dialogue can plant some vivid characterization in your brain.

Second, AoD has the best dialogue-based choice & consequence ever. You can affect large-scale events and go down some radically different branching paths, but you can also use your dialogue skills to alter many smaller choices. Let's say you're trying to convince a soldier to betray his commander and give you secret information (this is a situation in the game, but altered to avoid spoilers). You can use your Trading skill to make a deal; you can use Persuasion to make the situation seem like a winning one for him; you can use both Trading and Persuasion in a single check to make a more favourable deal; you can gamble against him and get him deep into debt (if your Intelligence is high enough, or if you have the skills to cheat) then use that as leverage against him. In a lot of dialogue systems, all of these would lead to the same outcome. In AoD, each of these options has different consequences. Get the guy into debt, and the Thieves' Guild might come collecting and kill him. Make a Trade, and you'll have your end of the bargain to hold up. Use Persuasion, and he might take advantage of the situation to improve his own lot later.

Point is, there's ridiculous depth in the game's dialogue. You can succeed with JUST conversations and no battles. This aspect of the game is so strong (along with some great atmosphere, story, and choice & consequence) that the game's flaws meant almost nothing to me.

If you're not convinced, and don't mind spoilers, you can watch these Youtube playthroughs of the first section of the game. They're based on an old build, and they're hybrid builds (rather than pure dialogue) but they should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

The Tough Trader
The Smart Soldier
 

hemtae

Member
ModBot said:
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The Age of Decadence -- MB-4B3CCAF5D55E4A81 - Taken by Erudite. 20 entrants total.


t1444843035z1.png

.
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
One more thing: the game's fairly short (maybe 10 hours in the Early Access version I played around the beginning of this year) but has insane replay value. Joining a different faction at the beginning, for example, can alter the game completely, with only some sidequests remaining the same.
 

peakish

Member
This game is incredible and you should all play it.

Let's get some stuff out of the way. The graphics suck (aside from the really nice character portraits). The combat system isn't particularly fun. The game isn't a giant, epic, open-world adventure; it has relatively few locations and much of the story is Game of Thrones-style intrigue and backstabbing rather than big existential threats.

If none of those things are dealbreakers, here's why you should play AoD: it has the best dialogue-based gameplay of any game, ever. I'm including Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex: Human Revolution's conversational battles, and New Vegas in that comparison.

Why is it so great? First, the dialogue is very well-written. It has a super-cynical, dark tone that's very different than any other game I've played. NPCs can lie to you convincingly, and a few lines of dialogue can plant some vivid characterization in your brain.

Second, AoD has the best dialogue-based choice & consequence ever. You can affect large-scale events and go down some radically different branching paths, but you can also use your dialogue skills to alter many smaller choices. Let's say you're trying to convince a soldier to betray his commander and give you secret information (this is a situation in the game, but altered to avoid spoilers). You can use your Trading skill to make a deal; you can use Persuasion to make the situation seem like a winning one for him; you can use both Trading and Persuasion in a single check to make a more favourable deal; you can gamble against him and get him deep into debt (if your Intelligence is high enough, or if you have the skills to cheat) then use that as leverage against him. In a lot of dialogue systems, all of these would lead to the same outcome. In AoD, each of these options has different consequences. Get the guy into debt, and the Thieves' Guild might come collecting and kill him. Make a Trade, and you'll have your end of the bargain to hold up. Use Persuasion, and he might take advantage of the situation to improve his own lot later.

Point is, there's ridiculous depth in the game's dialogue. You can succeed with JUST conversations and no battles. This aspect of the game is so strong (along with some great atmosphere, story, and choice & consequence) that the game's flaws meant almost nothing to me.

If you're not convinced, and don't mind spoilers, you can watch these Youtube playthroughs of the first section of the game. They're based on an old build, and they're hybrid builds (rather than pure dialogue) but they should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

The Tough Trader
The Smart Soldier
The part about NPC's lying to you feels correct. I've only had a few encounters, but it seems like every two-bit character is trying to weasel you out of your money with useless artifacts. In any other game I would jump on the chance to buy a "magic ring" from a quest giver after getting my reward, but here it seems like it might as well just be bullshit. It'd be tiring if everything is like that, but I can't tell for certain now how that is.
 
This game is incredible and you should all play it.

Let's get some stuff out of the way. The graphics suck (aside from the really nice character portraits). The combat system isn't particularly fun. The game isn't a giant, epic, open-world adventure; it has relatively few locations and much of the story is Game of Thrones-style intrigue and backstabbing rather than big existential threats.

If none of those things are dealbreakers, here's why you should play AoD: it has the best dialogue-based gameplay of any game, ever. I'm including Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex: Human Revolution's conversational battles, and New Vegas in that comparison.

Why is it so great? First, the dialogue is very well-written. It has a super-cynical, dark tone that's very different than any other game I've played. NPCs can lie to you convincingly, and a few lines of dialogue can plant some vivid characterization in your brain.

Second, AoD has the best dialogue-based choice & consequence ever. You can affect large-scale events and go down some radically different branching paths, but you can also use your dialogue skills to alter many smaller choices. Let's say you're trying to convince a soldier to betray his commander and give you secret information (this is a situation in the game, but altered to avoid spoilers). You can use your Trading skill to make a deal; you can use Persuasion to make the situation seem like a winning one for him; you can use both Trading and Persuasion in a single check to make a more favourable deal; you can gamble against him and get him deep into debt (if your Intelligence is high enough, or if you have the skills to cheat) then use that as leverage against him. In a lot of dialogue systems, all of these would lead to the same outcome. In AoD, each of these options has different consequences. Get the guy into debt, and the Thieves' Guild might come collecting and kill him. Make a Trade, and you'll have your end of the bargain to hold up. Use Persuasion, and he might take advantage of the situation to improve his own lot later.

Point is, there's ridiculous depth in the game's dialogue. You can succeed with JUST conversations and no battles. This aspect of the game is so strong (along with some great atmosphere, story, and choice & consequence) that the game's flaws meant almost nothing to me.

If you're not convinced, and don't mind spoilers, you can watch these Youtube playthroughs of the first section of the game. They're based on an old build, and they're hybrid builds (rather than pure dialogue) but they should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

The Tough Trader
The Smart Soldier

So this game can basically be played as a graphic adventure?
 

epmode

Member
Oh hay, I bought this ages ago. Nice to finally see a release!

That Chairman Yang post about the dialogue trees has me pretty excited to try it out.
 

Tenebrous

Member

Entered - Thanks very much!

I've had my eye on this for a few months now, and I'm glad it's finally out, but what money I do have in my Steam wallet I'd like to save for Trails in the Sky: SC... But I wanna play this! First world problems.
 

aravuus

Member
The writing is the focus really. The central hook is that you can avoid combat a lot.

It has a demo, so you can check there for a good idea of the game.

Oh awesome, okay! The OP gave me the idea that it's more combat-focused than CRPGs tend to be, so this is great news.

Jesus christ there are many games to play. I'm only starting with Wasteland 2 and ToZ and FO4 are coming out soon, so Age of Decadence will have to wait, but I'll definitely give it a try later. Good time to be an RPG fan!
 

Haunted

Member
The part about NPC's lying to you feels correct. I've only had a few encounters, but it seems like every two-bit character is trying to weasel you out of your money with useless artifacts. In any other game I would jump on the chance to buy a "magic ring" from a quest giver after getting my reward, but here it seems like it might as well just be bullshit. It'd be tiring if everything is like that, but I can't tell for certain now how that is.
From what I remember, in these instances the writing is less targeted towards you, the player behind the screen controlling the main character in an RPG and more towards your character in the game world. And that includes not caring about your wellbeing or giving you obvious ways out (like, say, a Bioware game always does).

Players are surprised when someone is actually trying to take advantage of them and acting out of their own motivations - their existence not starting and ending with a particular questline, while the player's attention is on them. Many players are simply not used to a game doing that.


edit: vv wonderful example
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
The part about NPC's lying to you feels correct. I've only had a few encounters, but it seems like every two-bit character is trying to weasel you out of your money with useless artifacts. In any other game I would jump on the chance to buy a "magic ring" from a quest giver after getting my reward, but here it seems like it might as well just be bullshit. It'd be tiring if everything is like that, but I can't tell for certain now how that is.
Yeah, AoD turns a lot of the standard RPG tropes on their head.

An interesting example, with spoilers from early in the game:
A local, small-time Loremaster (a knowledgeable sort of profession who typically works for a noble) is scared of losing his job to a new, big-shot Loremaster from the capital. He sends you to kill him. You meet the new Loremaster in a bar, and can take him to an abandoned building. You can go ahead and kill him, but you can also do the typical good-guy RPG thing of sparing his life if he promises to leave and never come back.

If you do that, he'll promise to leave and be grateful. Later on, you find out he's gone straight to the town's leader, told him everything, and possibly given you a death sentence. (Alternatively, if your perception is high enough, you can tell he's lying and decide to go ahead and kill him.)
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
Yang: How is the dialogue quality compared to Vampire:The Masquerade or Planescape:Torment?
I'd actually put it pretty close to both of those, but the dialogue is very different in style, and very far from the more flowery, dramatic tone in those games. It's grounded, gritty, realistic, cynical, low-level stuff. Sort of like George R. R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie, maybe.
 

aravuus

Member
This game is incredible and you should all play it.

Let's get some stuff out of the way. The graphics suck (aside from the really nice character portraits). The combat system isn't particularly fun. The game isn't a giant, epic, open-world adventure; it has relatively few locations and much of the story is Game of Thrones-style intrigue and backstabbing rather than big existential threats.

If none of those things are dealbreakers, here's why you should play AoD: it has the best dialogue-based gameplay of any game, ever. I'm including Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex: Human Revolution's conversational battles, and New Vegas in that comparison.

Why is it so great? First, the dialogue is very well-written. It has a super-cynical, dark tone that's very different than any other game I've played. NPCs can lie to you convincingly, and a few lines of dialogue can plant some vivid characterization in your brain.

Second, AoD has the best dialogue-based choice & consequence ever. You can affect large-scale events and go down some radically different branching paths, but you can also use your dialogue skills to alter many smaller choices. Let's say you're trying to convince a soldier to betray his commander and give you secret information (this is a situation in the game, but altered to avoid spoilers). You can use your Trading skill to make a deal; you can use Persuasion to make the situation seem like a winning one for him; you can use both Trading and Persuasion in a single check to make a more favourable deal; you can gamble against him and get him deep into debt (if your Intelligence is high enough, or if you have the skills to cheat) then use that as leverage against him. In a lot of dialogue systems, all of these would lead to the same outcome. In AoD, each of these options has different consequences. Get the guy into debt, and the Thieves' Guild might come collecting and kill him. Make a Trade, and you'll have your end of the bargain to hold up. Use Persuasion, and he might take advantage of the situation to improve his own lot later.

Point is, there's ridiculous depth in the game's dialogue. You can succeed with JUST conversations and no battles. This aspect of the game is so strong (along with some great atmosphere, story, and choice & consequence) that the game's flaws meant almost nothing to me.

If you're not convinced, and don't mind spoilers, you can watch these Youtube playthroughs of the first section of the game. They're based on an old build, and they're hybrid builds (rather than pure dialogue) but they should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

The Tough Trader
The Smart Soldier

Okay, sold so hard. If W2 doesn't manage to grab me, I'm starting an AoD playthrough right away.
 

peakish

Member
Yeah, AoD turns a lot of the standard RPG tropes on their head.

An interesting example, with spoilers from early in the game:
A local, small-time Loremaster (a knowledgeable sort of profession who typically works for a noble) is scared of losing his job to a new, big-shot Loremaster from the capital. He sends you to kill him. You meet the new Loremaster in a bar, and can take him to an abandoned building. You can go ahead and kill him, but you can also do the typical good-guy RPG thing of sparing his life if he promises to leave and never come back.

If you do that, he'll promise to leave and be grateful. Later on, you find out he's gone straight to the town's leader, told him everything, and possibly given you a death sentence. (Alternatively, if your perception is high enough, you can tell he's lying and decide to go ahead and kill him.)
Yeah, I vaguely remembered that from the demo.
Totally killed the fucker this time around. I like how you have to think about more than your own actions in this way. If you've accepted a job to kill somebody, you're probably not going to be able to half-ass it and expect to get away with it.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Oh sweet I thought I was going to have to give this the ol Sinatar Ghetto OT™ treatment. Great thread hemtae.

I've been waiting 11 years to play this, can't wait to dig in.
 

Steel

Banned
Never heard of this. Actually, now that i think about it, it sounds a bit familiar, so I might have forgotten about it. Either case, I'm interested in seeing how people react to it before deciding whether or not I'll purchase right away.
 
This game is incredible and you should all play it.

Let's get some stuff out of the way. The graphics suck (aside from the really nice character portraits). The combat system isn't particularly fun. The game isn't a giant, epic, open-world adventure; it has relatively few locations and much of the story is Game of Thrones-style intrigue and backstabbing rather than big existential threats.

If none of those things are dealbreakers, here's why you should play AoD: it has the best dialogue-based gameplay of any game, ever. I'm including Alpha Protocol, Deus Ex: Human Revolution's conversational battles, and New Vegas in that comparison.

Why is it so great? First, the dialogue is very well-written. It has a super-cynical, dark tone that's very different than any other game I've played. NPCs can lie to you convincingly, and a few lines of dialogue can plant some vivid characterization in your brain.

Second, AoD has the best dialogue-based choice & consequence ever. You can affect large-scale events and go down some radically different branching paths, but you can also use your dialogue skills to alter many smaller choices. Let's say you're trying to convince a soldier to betray his commander and give you secret information (this is a situation in the game, but altered to avoid spoilers). You can use your Trading skill to make a deal; you can use Persuasion to make the situation seem like a winning one for him; you can use both Trading and Persuasion in a single check to make a more favourable deal; you can gamble against him and get him deep into debt (if your Intelligence is high enough, or if you have the skills to cheat) then use that as leverage against him. In a lot of dialogue systems, all of these would lead to the same outcome. In AoD, each of these options has different consequences. Get the guy into debt, and the Thieves' Guild might come collecting and kill him. Make a Trade, and you'll have your end of the bargain to hold up. Use Persuasion, and he might take advantage of the situation to improve his own lot later.

Point is, there's ridiculous depth in the game's dialogue. You can succeed with JUST conversations and no battles. This aspect of the game is so strong (along with some great atmosphere, story, and choice & consequence) that the game's flaws meant almost nothing to me.

If you're not convinced, and don't mind spoilers, you can watch these Youtube playthroughs of the first section of the game. They're based on an old build, and they're hybrid builds (rather than pure dialogue) but they should give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

The Tough Trader
The Smart Soldier

Good enough for me.
 

prudislav

Member
Loving this so far, I've been playing the "Loremaster" background, and with 3 persuasion, 3 streewise, 3 lore and 3 trading. It's pretty much the jew build. I'm bullshitting my way around town convincing people their valueables are worthless and buying them for nothing :-D
 

brian!

Member
Yeaaaah might want to rephrase that

Game looks super interesting, i see it being phrased as post-apocalyptic but not to sure what that means in this context
 

Durante

Member
I managed to beat analysis paralysis during character creation, which is at least as epic a struggle as that.

Really enjoying it so far, love that the first typical "RPG sidequest start" in the game turned out to be
people trying to rob me
.
 

Vlodril

Member
One more thing: the game's fairly short (maybe 10 hours in the Early Access version I played around the beginning of this year) but has insane replay value. Joining a different faction at the beginning, for example, can alter the game completely, with only some sidequests remaining the same.

thanks for adding that since i was under the impression this was more of on wasteland 2 / poe/ dos lenght (50 to 80 hours).
 
Glad my screenshot of my merchant character being forced to fight an army because I fucked up made it in, game is grand and I hope it does very well.

Going to try rolling an assassin next!
 
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