Balrum

feels like Ultima Online... but offline

6,5/10 An interesting RPG but too long for its own good. My first impression was really good. While the gameplay is very different, it reminded me of Baldur's Gate 1. You play as a young boy raised by a old man, you have some strange and cryptic nightmares, your identity is more than what it seems. And you are mostly free to explore a fantasy world in the order you want. Of course Baldur's Gate has a better story, and is better in all aspects, but I was nevertheless hooked by this nostalgia feeling. The first part of the game is split in four big map representing a forest, with two villages inside. Exploring can be rewarding, there is a mix of dungeon and puzzles which can reward you with better equipment or even unique item, and you can find lore notes along the way which I enjoyed. Villagers NPC have some simple side quest at the beginning until you find the truth behind your own existence with the main quest. And here is part 2. Same recipe: four big map with a town, more dungeons, etc... It's more or less the same thing, yet at this point I was beginning to have enough. This game suffers from several problems. The first one is the lack of progression. You start off weak and you end the game not much stronger. But the "good' news is that the ennemies aren't progressing much either. For example, at the very beginning of the game the first things you kill have around 1000-2000 HP, at the very end of the game (50 hours later) the common ennemies have around 4000 HP and the last boss to conclude the adventure has around 6000 HP... Only 1 stat by level and you finish the game at maximum level 11. 1 strength = something close to + 1 melee damage... And to underline the uselessness of stats, the fights also depends of level. If the character has a lower level than his enemy, it will augment his probability of missing his attacks... There are many side professions/skills (archery, cooking, farming, smelting, etc...) to learn but you can't learn all of them, because there is a limited amount of learning point gained each level. And each profession has several levels of expertise. But for most of them spending all the points to upgrade it to the max level isn't really worthwhile, even if it's the main fighting professions. To summarize, every choice to improve your character have too little impact... Another problem is that this game development was probably finished a bit too early. Some events would remain unexplained even after the game is finished (the apparitions of the woman in black). Some quest endings are very sudden and without consequence. The writing was better at the beginning of the game. And It was only in the epilogue that the game tried to explain in a clumsy way the nightmares made at the very beginning of the game...

if you like open world full of trees and nothing to do but run into a black wall and nothing but trees have fun. 6 hours playing trying to remember peoples names for small task like collecting wood or nails. most of the time running for 30 min through trees with nothing going on.

Fun oldschool feel ,Stardew valley meets diablo 1998

Terrible UI. Terrible Guiding. Don't let the "Wannabe" hardcore gamer reviews fool you. This game is ass.

Balrum is certainly an unforgettable experience. It has everything you'd ever want in a game, RPG, building your own house, farming, taming creatures, magic, etc. But where it really exceeds is at exploration, the world is HUGE, it took me this many hours to finish a run, I've went and gathered almost everything there was to get, I've explored every single cave, corner and more yet I feel like there's still hidden secrets and walls I haven't breached yet, quests that I haven't really fully completed because from what I understand the game sadly has some loose ends. I could praise it all day for it's quests, for the fact that it doesn't hold your hand at all which for the yellow paint players might scare them away but the game rewards you constantly for the amount of exploration you're doing, amazing loot is basically thrown at you constantly if you manage to complete the challenges and dungeons. Now we only need Balrum 2 to improve everything to perfection

Really great mesh or CRPG game with survival/base building elements, it even has wasd movement which is really nice. Hope to see a sequel eventually with perhaps multiplayer of sort and a lot of quality of life updates and stuff.

Balrum is a very difficult game. I have to restart it more than three times because I selected wrong character abilities. Finally, I got all of achievements after 295+ hours playing. Pros: +Very huge maps. The Balrum map also connects to other big areas. +Many exploration points and quests. There are tons of enemies and dungeons. +Build your own house and depot in the safe place. +Farming, crafting and hunting. +Steal items from other people. +With a Mass Poison potion, you can kill everyone in the village. Cons: -All map locations are fixed. The number of enemies is limited. -There is no method to remove grass and fruit trees on the other maps beside safe place. -Adds learning points to unnecessary abilities will result in game failed. -Some quests might be stuck if you do things in the wrong order. -Don't use a Mass Poison potion on "Woman in black". Because you can't attack her, the game will be crashed after she touches you.

[h2]Balrum does what it needs to do, but it could be better developed and more polished.[/h2] Balrum is an old-school open-world RPG from 2016 by Balcony Softworks, with clear crafting and survival elements layered on top of its traditional RPG structure. On Steam, the game has 42 achievements, but Steam lists no Trading Cards among its features. In terms of playtime, it’s often estimated at around 30 hours for the main story and roughly 40 hours if you include side content (based on HLTB data). That said, I won’t be getting anywhere near that. After 3.5 hours, I’ve decided I’ve had enough—it’s simply not really my kind of game. [b]Story[/b] Story-wise, it’s actually pretty decent. You start with a house that’s partially burned down and you’re tasked with rebuilding it, while also investigating an earlier family whose house also burned down and who then disappeared. I haven’t progressed far, but the setup and atmosphere are interesting. In the official description, the story takes place in Darkwood, years after your community fled into those woods, and revolves around “dark secrets” and a world that keeps getting more dangerous. [b]Graphics and Audio[/b] Visually, it’s 2D isometric and clearly pixel-art/retro. You can sharpen the image and scale up the UI in the settings, which definitely helps readability, but it remains a pixelated style. (Fun fact: according to the community wiki, the game runs on an in-house engine designed to perform well without demanding hardware.) The music and sound effects are fairly simple; don’t expect high production values, but they do their job for the atmosphere. [b]Gameplay[/b] At its core, you explore a large open world in real time, with tactical, turn-based combat whenever you enter fights. Along the way you’re constantly gathering resources (wood, stone, plants, etc.) to support the deeper crafting/survival layer: you can build, craft, farm (grow your own crops), and even tame an animal companion—and that companion is fully controllable, adding another layer to combat. There’s also solid RPG depth: you use learning points to build either a “pure” character or a hybrid build, and the game features dozens of side quests, dungeons, and even three different paths to reach the ending. My biggest issue, however, is direction and objective clarity. There are barely any clear signposts/quest markers, so I felt like I had to keep the map open almost constantly to avoid getting lost. Fast travel via obelisks helps, but not enough to remove that feeling of “searching instead of playing.” There’s also very little handholding; there is a digital manual available through Steam (“View the manual”), but in-game you’re expected to figure out a lot on your own. [b]Price[/b] I got Balrum through a Fanatical Mystery Box and paid less than €1 for it—at that price it’s absolutely fine, especially with 3.5 hours played. The full price (around €14.99, depending on region) is something I personally wouldn’t pay, unless you really enjoy slow, open-ended RPGs—or you pick it up during a good sale. [b]Conclusion[/b] Balrum has some good ideas (especially the crafting/survival systems and character building), but the lack of clear direction and the slow “from point to point” flow made me drop it after 3.5 hours. This is more for players who enjoy minimal handholding, wandering, discovering, and digging into systems—less for anyone looking for a casual experience with clear objectives.

Надоели современные игры? Ностальгируете по старым играм? Хотите отдохнуть от городской суеты Таранта? Так спрячьтесь в лесу! Хороший саундтрек, продуманный гринд. Вы сами создаете свое приключение. Вас помещают в мир похожий на мир Толкина, уголок Средеземья. В роли горлума деревенский дурачок Кардью. Есть отсылка на день рождение Бильбо. Множество пауков и всякой нечисти и только деревня Балрум, как Хоббитания отделяет Вашу деревню от внешнего мира. Зачарованный лес защищает Вас от внешнего мира. Да зачем Вам этот внешний мир? Кода можно себе сделать добротный домик хоббита и общаться со своим стариком, которого так и тянет в приключение. Везде вы читаете текст и ищете записки. Как пронырливый Бегинс пробираетесь на чужие фермы, чтобы стащить грибы у Бирюка. Мне кажется, что сам Балдурс Гейт 3 взял отсюда механику лагеря, только здесь можно строить, построить загон и вырастить свиней или пауков. И не надо с ними этих безнравственных отношения выстраивать. Вам срочно нужно купить ночью? Магазины всегда в этой деревне открыты. Открываешь дверь, видишь спящего продавца. Так крикни ему в ухо: "ПРОСНИСЬ!". И он встаёт и даже не обижен. Вы можете сразу продать ему все Ваши консервные банки и вытрясти все деньги из него.