Aeon of Sands - The Trail

A nice looking DRPG let down by its writing. Its not just that the writing is bad(it is), it actively gets in the way of your enjoyment. The player character makes annoying quips, the dialogues choices feel bizarre with some of them having completely difference "voices" in the prompts, the way the story scenes flow feels schizophrenic. The game touts itself as a "gamebook" which means it also inherits the worst parts about it. After 16 hours of playtime I supposedly got the good ending in the game but I didn't understand anything about the story. Any interest or intrigue that might have been built up gets undercut by unfunny quips. The level design is on the harder side of DRPGs. You pretty much need to scour for secrets for progression and exploration feels somewhat nauseating due to combinations of repetetive tilesets, low draw distance and tiny FOV. The combat on the other hand is very braindead. I spent more healing items walking through damage zones while exploring than in all the combat encounters throughout the game. Despite its flaws I would still recommend it. Its an interesting game and well worth playing for people who are looking for a first person dungeon crawler like Might and Magic 3 or Dungeon Master

Nice game, it has all the things I liked back in the time when dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder or Dungeon Master were new. It might be a bit rough around the corners sometimes, but you can feel it has been made with love for the game and the genre. Can recommend this for anyone who enjoys the genre.

This game was a real endurance test for me. I managed to do one play-through of it. According to stats you get to see at the end I only discovered like 10% of the locations??? I never managed to get any companions and I tried different dialog branches with various characters. I'm not a fan of the writing or maybe more of the "style" of the "prose" it's too verbose for my taste and I think there's many awkward/wrong sentence constructions or uses of words here that make reading them a chore for me. Two of the dungeons I couldn't solve or the enemies were just too strong at that point. As far as I'm aware you cannot go back to dungeons or most locations to try again. This is something you should be aware of when you buy this. It's sorta linear. You get one go at each thing you choose to go to and the path (trail) to them is not fully linear but sorta. This isn't an open world dungeon-crawler like for example the might & magic series. Some things like the inventory can be really pedantic and annoying. And although I've played many games and I played for example Might & Magic 2 a lot when it came out in (1986?) I found this game quite hard at times (I played on normal). All that said: The whole thing is clearly a work of vision. The developers seemed to have chosen to make things exactly the way they wanted them to be. Which for me personally washes away most of the grievances. The game is unique as far as I know. Also when I finished it I did have a strong sense of accomplishment. I'm glad I bought this game and took the time to play through it once. (You're clearly meant to try again but although I recommend this game I think I've had enough for now).

Fantastischer Bloober mit hohen Wiederspielwert da je nach Weg der gewählt wird jedes mal andere Begegnungen und Begleiter auf einen Warten. Zwischen den Dungeons spielt es sich etwas wie ein Abenteuerbuch und die Dungeons selbst wie Dungeon Master.

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Love the game for the most parts. The story was simple yet interesting enough to keep me going, length of the game was perfect so it didn't feel boring by the end. Replay value was clearly there but I'm more into plots so replaying the game when the entire plot has been revealed doesn't make sense to me, and the other details don't matter that much. The best part other than the autosaves and quicksaves would be the map functions including writing, ie labelling, and symbol placements. As for the other parts that weren't as great, the top of the list would be the writing. The writer was trying to write in an elaborate, flippant, and sometimes dry style, but ultimately came across as long-winded and roundabout. The other would be the puzzles which consisted of 90% hidden buttons/levers and fake walls, making the dungeons tedious to go through, or worse if you're some kind of perfectionist - have fun testing every single wall block in every dungeon you encounter. To be fair, it can feel therapeutic in doing something repetitive and mundane like that, so it's not always bad, only during those times when you're trying to get to the next part of the story but you just can't find whatever it is that opens the next door. All in all, a good indie game for the price. Hoping for a sequel.

Tough game to judge as the good is as good as the ugly is bad: a lot. The ugly: Dungeons, the dungeons are bad. No structures, rooms, straight corridors or anything noticeable. Just huge maps of mushy dungeons. And in those dungeons you have to check every damn walls to find secret buttons or invisible walls. No strategic thinking, no tactical enemies etc.. just bland boring huge dungeons (only exeptions for me: the pit, underground cavern and the turret vines). The bad: The "run" concept. A numerous of bad mechanics constantly pushing you toward one type of gamepely: finish the game in 12 15 hours then replay it over and over. So: no rest, limited inventory, no merchant (but i found this idea nice) and a very limited number of save slots. This run concept is not integrated in the game, it's just silly restriction pushing you toward this type of gameplay. Could the game be played differently without those boring limitations: YES, totally. So if, "run" type is not your gameplay preference, prepare to suffer (of too harsh on this point, it's very manageable but very boring also). Balancing: It's not very good. For exemple the darts are complet boss crusher as there is no cooldown and they do big damage. As long as you have stamina, i destroyed every boss without taking damage in less thean 8 sec. Rats from beginning to end (litteraly, the end boss summon rats). Easy fights with sometimes monsters who can wipe out your entire party in a single attack (tinkerer nomad for ex). The car evolution is based on equipement, and the variation between start and end game is not big (this i kinda liked, you start human and finsh the game human). The good: Background of the world and art direction is what pulled me through the game. It's REALLY REALLY good. The story, is good also but a little confuse, not enought develloped. Writting is also very good (even if the constant breaking of 4th wall... meh not my thing, but it's just personal opinion). The good thing is that nearly all the dungeons are optional and the game is very easy (in normal at least). You can finish the game with the dagger you find in the intro dungeons (if you keep the darts for the boss). It's kinda weird, it's like the game encourage you NOT to play it. All in all; it's a game i'll definitly remember with a smile but also a game i'll never, ever play again. As i said, a tough game to evaluate.

Ist ganz nett gemacht. Aber es hat mich irgendwie nicht gepackt. Pro: + Die Dialoge sind witzig. + Gute Online Hilfe (welche auch im Tutorial wieder verwendet wird). + Das Kampfsystem ist intuitiv. + Die Musik gefällt mir. Contra: - Die Dialoge sind ellenlang, nur in Englisch und ohne Sprachausgabe auf die Dauer recht nervig. - Die eingeschränkte diagonale Sicht lässt nur vermuten wo sich der Gegner im Kampf gerade befindet. - Die UI verschwendet viel Platz und lässt dadurch ein viel zu kleines Sichtfeld übrig. - Wenn man endlich eine Waffe findet zerbricht sie im Kampf mit dem nächsten Gegner und das dazugehörige Ereignis verschwindet in der Textkonsole. Ich hatte eher Glück das überhaupt zu bemerken. - Wenn man dann endlich einigermaßen gerüstet ist stößt man auf einen Gegner der keinen Schaden nimmt und an dem alle Waffen nacheinander zerbrechen. - Es will irgendwie keine richtige Atmosphäre aufkommen - Zwischendurch ertönt immer wieder ein Gong mit einem Hinweis in der Textkonsole (hat aber nur selten einen Mehrwert) - Die Gestaltung der verschiedenen Ebenen sind teilweise einfach nur mit unterschiedlichen Farben voneinander unterschieden; praktikabel ja, aber auch wenig kreativ - Wenn zu viel Magie angewendet wird erleidet der Charakter Schaden; kreativer Ansatz aber im Kampf eher kontraproduktiv

A fun dungeon crawler with great aesthetics and art and a good number of maps to explore. It's not the deepest game mechanically, and there are some awkward bits to the combat, but it makes up for it with heart and personality, as well as a large degree of variety in encounters and choices. It's impossible to see everything in a single playthrough, and while any given dialogue choice may close one path, it will open another elsewhere. The writing is deliberately very goofy and for some players that will be a turn-off. It's a fine line, but to me it came across as earnest and as a result I found it endearing rather than annoying. There's no real depth to the story or characters, but the game's more about the setting and choices anyway. Some of the maps are a little too sprawling, perhaps, so if you try to fully map them and find all the secrets they can turn into a bit of a slog. There's a very nice variety in environments, though. The game is designed to keep you moving forward. Rather than look back at the path you may have missed, it asks you to look ahead. If you accept that and roll with the punches there's good fun to be had here.

Literally unplayable