Aurora Dusk: Steam Age

Developer abandoned the game, and until that changes this will be a hard no for me.

I like this game. An Rpg/Tower Defence/City builder hybrid. Has various modes of game play such as story mode/skirmish and survival. There's a lot of good here ... However ... There is be a memory leak issue that will cause the game to crash randomly. Looking through the forums this seems to be a long standing issue that the Developer never fixed. The game is no longer being updated, so unfortunately I can't recommend Aurora Dusk: Steam Age.

so came back to this game after a while it had some bugs before but was playable but now it just freezes on the first wave every time in survival fix your crap yo. STILL ♥♥♥♥ and freezes devs suck

A game where, in a very basic and limited kind of way, you have the ability to configure the AI to play the game for you. Mind, you CAN make all the decisions yourself, and I cheesed my way through the campaign's highest difficulties by kiting and using ranged weapons, but it's actually far more interesting to try to configure a set of instructions for the AI that results in a victory without your ever needing to intervene.

A fun game system with an okay campaign and not very fun sandbox. Gameplay revolves around building up a city (production buildings and defenses) to defeat an enemy base. What really sets it apart is that while you have control over your own character, the rest of the citizenry has a mind of its own. If they want armor, they'll build a forge. If they need food they'll go cook some. They'll even build defensive towers. Full 100% autonomy with no limitations. You don't get to plan out every building and action, the NPCs are largely making their own decisions. The tradeoff is less control and sometimes NPC actions would compete with your preferred resource use, but overall it really made it feel like I was in a world of actual people, which I really enjoyed. You do still have heavy influence on your town's progression, for example if you start a big/expensive project the NPCs will work on finishing it, and you can build extras of resource generation buildings to encourage that type of output. Unfortunately the game doesn't do a whole lot with this. The campaign was fine, putting you through various scenarios with various challenges, and it was a nice introduction to the games' tech progression and combat strategies. Sometimes it felt a little repetitive but overall I enjoyed it. Sandbox mode is where the game really came up short in my opinion. The inability to recruit more people made things feel very limited, and fighting AI didn't feel very satisfying since they basically were towns just like yours minus a human character guiding/pushing them forward. I think this type of system could be really fun and chaotic if thrown into a more dynamic living world: NPCs with unlimited autonomy populating a city the human character influences and contributes to without direct control, in a world of similar cities, with populations and borders that could fluctuate at will. The concept of this game is great and I enjoyed playing the campaign but overall it feels like a cool idea in search of a world to live in. If you want a few hours of fun experiencing that sort of unfulfilled potential, then I cautiously recommend this game.

This is a hidden gem for Steam! Absolute must buy if you want a fresh take on a RPG/strategy/sim blend. It offers a unique experience with guiding a little town with its autonomous AI inhabitants all working to better themselves and protect their town. Imagine playing with Sims and they can build their own town from scratch, craft their own equipment but you also have to hold off waves of enemies or destroy their town, guiding everyone in yours and rallying them to raids as needed. The freedom the AI townspeople have and the way they build, craft and level up is something I've seen very rarely in gaming. It's almost like they are little Sims with their own lives. You can help or sit back and watch as much as you like, but the player can really make a huge difference with the right involvement and choices. There's a fun campaign with a story to follow that introduces you slowly to all the features of the game and expands the scope of what you're fighting with some different styles of maps and enemy attacks. You also have sandbox modes you can set up a wide range of factors to make it easy or hard and change game types to give a lot of replayability.

Удивительно залипательная игра. Я прошел кампанию, и решил было, что в Авроре ловить больше нечего. Весь контент и игровые механики исследованы. Дополнительные режимы особого интереса не вызывают. Но на следующий день я всё же запустил игру. А потом ещё. И ещё. Никак не мог оторваться. Экспериментировал с прокачкой и экипировкой персонажей, с настройками режимов игры. И всегда хотелось попробовать что-то новое. Постоянно приходили мысли "а вот что, если так сделать? Или лучше вот эдак?" И в итоге наиграл добрых 30 часов. И, возможно, это ещё не предел. Что же из себя представляет Аврора. Это некий гибрид стратегии непрямого контроля, РПГ, башенной защиты и немного - симулятора выживания. В начале мы создаём персонажа. Или двух. Или 10. Да сколько угодно. В кампании мы ограничены только одним героем. А вот в других режимах можно выбрать до 9ти персонажей. Один из них будет главным, а остальные - помощниками. Впрочем, от главаря по сути своей они ничем не отличаются. На них можно переключаться, их можно выделять рамкой. А ещё их можно отдать под управление ИИ. Который, к слову, можно тонко настраивать. Или выбрать один из готовых архетипов: лучник, маг, шахтер, плотник и тд. Можно сделать из помощников устрашающую личную гвардию. Или же рабов, которые будут добывать ресурсы для главного героя. Вариантов почти бесконечное количество. Игровых режимов 2: схватка и выживание. В "Выживании" мы отстраиваем город и защищаем его от наступающих орд Тёмных Сил. В "схватке" - сражаемся против городов ИИ, которые точно также отстраиваются и развиваются. В игре предусмотрена смена эпох, как в Цивилизации или Age of Empires. Начинается всё в каменном веке, а заканчивается в эпохе победившего стимпанка. Под нашим прямым управлением находится только ГГ и его помощники. Остальные горожане делают что хотят. Строят ненужные вам здания, размещают защитные башни в совершенно ненужных местах. Впрочем, я немного утрирую. К тому же ИИ горожанам можно тонко намекать, какая постройка необходима в данный момент. Стоит лишь начать её строить, а потом оставить недостроенный остов. Какой-нибудь ушлый поселенец обязательно достроит ваше здание. Возможно не сразу, правда. Таким нехитрым способом можно экономить ресурсы. Которые, кстати, добываются довольно медленно. Добывать их может наш ГГ и его спутники. Причем у каждого есть свой инвентарь. Прочие поселенцы тоже их добывают, но исключительно для личных нужд. А ещё практически любое действие прокачивает соответствующий навык, начиная от размахивания булавой, и заканчивая металлургией, умением наездника, и скиллами ношения штанов и обуви. С военными действиями похожая система: ИИ поселенцы по сути могут только отражать нападения. Чтобы атаковать кого-нибудь, приходится нанимать солдат в казармах, гарнизонах, осадных мастерских, а также строить големов. Обидно, конечно, что кроме кампании и 2х настраиваемых режимов, в игре больше ничего нет. Очень не помешали бы сценарии и дополнительные кампании. А так, за неимением дополнительных активностей, Аврора рискует довольно быстро надоесть. В неё приходится играть как в песочницу из разряда "развлеки себя сам". Но, тем не менее, игра получилась более чем достойная, особенно в своей ценовой категории. И, что немаловажно, очень оригинальная. Собственно, за это я и люблю инди игры. За эксперименты с геймплеем и самые неординарные концепции.

It was a great idea, and it's not a bad game, but I'm going to go with not recommended. Please note however, this comes with a caveat that I have not tried a lot of custom or multiplayer, so my review is basically just for the campaign. So I like the variety of things you can build and do, and it could potentially be a pretty fun city builder/rpg/strategy, however said campaign seems to rush you with its objectives and therefore I feel like I wasn't really encouraged to get into the intricacies of it. Other issues I had with it, for its simple 2D graphics, it sometimes lagged when I played, or the animation wasn't very smooth. Also all the dialogue is text, yet in the campaign it's pretty short and pretty bad; would have expected more from a game not limited by voice acting or elaborate graphics. The game itself is kind of cool, but late game I found the best strategy to be just spawning lots of resources, starting high level buildings, and then just letting the AI villagers finish the projects. Gollems, and some of the defense towers are pretty over powered, and unfortunately they seem to be the key to victory. I kind of wish the game had focused more on smaller units and leading troops rather than just building OP gollems and defenses. So yeah, I wanted to like it, but I didn't think the campaign was great. However you might like the multiplayer, and there may be users who have a blast with custom maps. I just personally found the default game to be lacking.

Joins discord of a dead game in 2023 I found it a bit late but I've had a lot of fun with this one! Few games allow the amount of unique character automation as this game. It's almost more fun to create an AI and sit back to see how it does than to actively play! The character and companion stat progression keeps me testing them as they level up as well. Any suggestions on other games that attempt this?

This game is an absolute hidden gem. If you're looking for a long RPG with persistent characters and levels that stay with you, try this out. It's genuinely fantastic. It also has a civilization style 'age advancement' as the campaign or the missions progress. The only downsides with it is there appears to be a memory leak after a few hours that causes maps to run sorta bluh but you can quit and finish easily. The game also seems weirdly choppy when characters move, and if a sequel is made it would be nice to be addressed. Multiplayer also is iffy. While it works, it seems that whoever joins needs to manually reconnect occasionally, but all of your equipment and inventory is the same so it's not a big deal.