Claymore 143 & Age of Decadence

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Sorry it took so long but as I've said several months ago I have much less free time than before and I don't have anyone to help me. That also means that chapter 145 will come out much later than usual (assuming Gernot will translate it of course). Age of Decadence coming out didn't help either since I've spent every minute of my free time playing this awesome game. It's a low-fantasy, post-apocalyptic cRPG that should appeal to anyone who liked (in my case: loved and loves) Fallout (or likes Desert Punk, characters here resemble the ones from Desert Punk).

And no, no one is paying me for this advertisement, in fact it's the opposite. I've pre-ordered it about a year ago (paying over 30 euro) because I've enjoyed demo more than any full game that came out in the last 9 years and I think it deserves to be noted (for the same reason I'm working on a Desert Punk, awesome manga that only few people heard about). So if like me, you appreciate good, intelligent writing, interesting plot twists and a challenge that requires you to use your brain I highly recommend this title. You can but it on Steam or better - via BMT micro which gives its developers more money and you still get a Steam key (once you post on their forums and request for it). Be advised though that it's an early access (about 2/3 of the game) but it's still about as long as Fallout New Vegas. To see all content though you need to play different classes and try different characters. To every quest there are multiple solutions and every guild has unique content. Believe it or not but with my previous playthroughs I've already spent over 100 hours on it and I'm still not bored.

Anyway, below you will find my opinion that I've posted on RPG Codex:

It is one of the best RPGs I've ever played and I'm enjoying it very much even on my crappy machine (which doesn't even meet the minimal requirements that are on Steam :D). Teron itself (so a free demo) is easily worth 25$ but with Maadoran it's a bargain. What I like the most in AoD:

    1) Story being presented from different perspectives and different POVs. I don't remember anything like it in any other game which raises its value even further. Something fresh for a change instead of another "chosen one rescuing the world and fighing the dragons". I think it would appeal to all A Song of Ice and Fire saga (hopefully someone will tweet it to them :P). Sadly, many people will probably rage quit before they even notice that (or might be too stupid to notice that).

    2) Combat. It actually is enjoyable and makes me want to fight instead of mindlessly left clicking on everything that moves (or sends something that moves). The challenge makes it rewarding once you win whereas in Fallout 1/2 you could have defeated almost anyone with shitty stats and quick-save->quick-load strategy since even with 0% chance of hitting you could have done a critical hit (on the other hand you could have missed a target from point blank range when using a machine gun and having 95% chance of success). In AoD there isn't a universal strategy for every fight. E.g. when fighting a fast and agile opponent that had very high dodge stats using a smaller but faster weapon was more wise (as it should be). You would never hit him with a big hammer but you would hit him with a small one and since he was so agile thanks to practically no armour it was enough to defeat him. The same goes for spears - for the most time they are a superb weapon because of it's unique properties but there are fights where you're at a disadvantage (closed spaces for example). There are ways to overcome this but it's not like you can have only one weapon (like turbo plasma rifle in Fallout) and defeat every opponent with that.
     
3) Replayability and  Choices and Consequences. They actually do matter and you can never do every quest in every possible way without replaying the game. And that is a good thing IMO. In Fallout New Vegas for example I did practically every quest there was, investing in speech at first since I knew that I could open safes or hack into computers later. For some reason no one would do it before me. Well, not in AoD. If you won't do quests in Teron someone else will and you can't go back for them. Which makes sense and which makes me want to replay the game. I don't want to replay F:NV though since I've done everything there was to be done and walking for hours was tedious (BTW, that's why I like teleporting, although I won't make a point about it).
    Anyway, it's really well written and it's not as unforgiving as some may think. In Maadoran for example I chose to be a stupid brute (read: mercenary) that worked for Thieves Guild. As it turned out [spoiler]because I've invested too many points in combat and not enough in lock picking/disguise and other thief skills (since I assumed I was a muscle for them, not Arsene Lupin) I couldn't do much at the end of Maadoran when Levir - the leader of the T guild there - asked me to. But that didn't ruin that much since I still had the option to go to Ganezzar. I expected to be executed or something like that but it wasn't the case (which again shows that writer actually thought what he was writing, trying to kill a killing machine wouldn't be the smartest move and in all honesty he had nothing to gain from that but a thing or two to lose).[/spoiler] I haven't tried all the options available yet so I might be able to see a different outcome but my point is: you don't have to repeat the game from the start to enjoy it. The game despite being difficult, still gives a player a certain margin of error, big enough to not be frustrating.

There are more pros (and I should write more on C&C) but I don't have the time right now to write about them. I prefer to play the game a few more times (read 10 at least :P). Once I do I'll write something more. As for cons, besides camera being a bit clunky I have none. And even that isn't that bad once you learn to use middle mouse button (which sometimes doesn't work for some reason and I have to use ctrl+mouse button).