Archmage Rises

I have very rarely had a response which approaches contempt for an attempt at designing a game, but this is such an occasion.

I really wanted to like Archmage Rises. The premise is something I've been hunting for for a long time. But the execution? It just didnt land. The game feels like 3 or 4 completely separate systems stapled together with no consideration for cohesion

I like what they're trying to do here, Archmage Rises is looking for the level of open-ended emergence to be found in the finest of sandboxes. And that's totally my jam. That said, it's a mishmash of scrapped and reimplemented systems right now. I looked at footage from what they had two years ago. It honestly looked deeper and more interesting than what I played now. You used to be able to freely explore hexes on the overmap. You used to have to choose which spell is most appropriate to defeat which enemy in combat because there were multiple avenues of attack (physical / magic) and visible elemental resistances on everything - not anymore. There used to be branching spell progression (albeit, not much), not anymore. And so on, they've taken a lot of this back to the drawing board. I like that they're putting that much work into Archmage Rises, but I don't like it when depth is left on the cutting room floor. I'm a big proponent of the, "Games are a series of interesting decisions" approach to game design. And these half-implemented systems would appear to me to have most of those decisions already made for the player: [list][*]I get that we're a gifted aspiring Archmage, but why is there zero consequence to casting spells? No fatigue or other cost outside of a few spells on the overmap and you can just nap those off (or not and roll saving throw vs heart attack - yes, I'm serious). For the most part, using magic is all upside for no downside, every opportunity to cast a spell is a chance to raise your spell school experience. But how much more interesting of a decision it would be if magic use had a downside, or at least was capped to a rising ceiling of aptitude, a rocky and perilous road to magical mastery. [*]In combat, I Mage hand anyone with a charging attack to interrupt them, otherwise do as much damage to the most dangerous enemy. That's not an interesting decision because it's all reaction and no decision. I have a bunch of spells but I don't need any but a few favorites, there's no circumstance that requires I think on my feet in combat. The way they handle protection is pretty bland, they just lump all your armor into one pool that gets whittled down and at that point you run. These aren't interesting decisions. [*]Elder Scrolls-style skill progression is another example of all up to no down. I go to town I exhaust all conversation options because it takes zero in-game time to do and I gain persuasion skill doing it. That's not an interesting decision because it's all gain for no risk or downside. Wandering a dungeon and watching my perception go up feels unearned because I didn't [i]do[/i] anything but enter the room, it didn't cost time, it didn't cost energy, etc. Again, all gain, no risk, no downside, and thus a non-decision. [*]I'm given quests to find materials and ask the townies where it is and get vague instructions. (Nowhere in the game does it even tell us 1 hex = 1 mile, and frankly I'm still not sure that's true.) I get close to the materials and cast the spell that detects materials and find nothing. These aren't interesting decisions because this isn't a game, this is random wandering around. And when I finally stumble on the hex to harvest, I am given a menu where I can choose between the best spell I have for the job or inferior means, not a real choice at all. [*]I have to hold down alt to see the click spots in dungeon. And sometimes it dismisses skill increases I want to see. That's not an interesting decision, that's not even a game mechanic, it's just annoying thing that impacts gameplay flow. [*]I hire a ship for a week. I stay on land for a few hours and the captain gives me a glowstone and tells me to call them again. I use the glowstone and they charge me again to hire the ship. Captain, I already paid you, what's going on here? Oh, I can sell the glowstone and maybe make the captain mad? That's more of an interesting decision than most things on this list. But what if I want to give the glowstone back or have it keep track of how long it's been rented? I can't. Because this is an unfinished system, like all of the above. [/list] That's not to say that there's zero interesting decisions. Because in a game this open, where you can go anywhere and work for anyone, you have a pretty huge amount of decisions available. A few of them are bound to be alright. But given how little care has been spared at balancing the core mechanic, it feels a bit in a broken-clock-is-right-twice-a-day sort of good balance. It's also kind of buggy. Quests I've taken won't show on the log. I've got three skill books, I've read one, and sometimes I can get another book to show up as a reading option and sometimes I don't. Text dialogue sometimes has variable triggers in it that have been masked wrong. Etc. Clearly this game has a lot of duct tape holding it together. I've seen much worse early access games, but it's rough. But you might notice I'm still recommending. I really respect what they're trying to do here. Being able to ask any NPC any question? That's pretty big, and [i]usually[/i] works. Having thousands of NPCs going around doing stuff, living lives, adhering to schedules? Also very impressive. Emergent procedural content on nearly every level like a glorious narrative engine onion? I wish every game had that. And besides, I tend to recommend on the scale of, "Would someone likely get as many hours of enjoyment out of this game as they spent dollars?" Sure, I'd say you could find 12 hours of fun here. That said, I really wish they'd put more emphasis on improving the quality of the decisions given to the players in the core mechanics. Maybe it's just a half-finished mess right now. I'll have the opportunity to come back in 1.0 and revise this review accordingly.

This game could be good, but progress is slow and it has some major issues. The funniest one I didn't expect is performance. After every single action seemingly, there is a decent 1/3rd of a second delay. Over time it really becomes grating, and leads to where the largest inhibitor towards continuing the game is just how annoying this little thing is. I never got to the point of where I got into the midgame as that was just too frustrating. Since progress is slow too, the scare of potentially dying and having to repeat the long beginning of the game with all of this lag is daunting.

Very good for what there is now. it's not finished yet, but the bones are good.

One of the games that are close to my dream game. Happy to see it evolve!

Was looking for a new D&Desque experience, sadly, this is not it. The game lacks any real depth and the encounters are far too difficult. I wouldn't recommend this purchase, this will not be a game I will invest any time in.

Interesting game, but too many bugs to recommend it at it's state. Items unbalanced, most of the that features that game hints at are not inplamented, spells are not balanced and most of them are useless. I would say game is completion is 20%. Will keep an eye on it as it really seem something I would enjoy if it ever finished.