"Ambitious" is the word I'd most ascribe to *Dread Delusion*. It really promises a lot, given the small team that developed it: an open-world, in-depth RPG with plenty of factions and side quests with decisions to make and tons of interesting pieces of equipment and spells to find. And I think it delivers on all of those things, albeit inconsistently. If there was ever a game that I wished had a AAA team and budget behind it to truly expand on the concepts already present and shore up its weaknesses, it would be Dread Delusion.
To begin with the best parts: the world and narrative. The Oneiric Isles, and the world of Dread Delusion at large, is absolutely fascinating. I'm personally not one for stories where there's an Inquisition that's cracking down on some magical group of people or what-have-you, so despite that being one of the very first things in the game I was told about and promptly rolled my eyes at, I still found myself intrigued by all the mysteries that the spaces in this game had to offer (it probably helped that one of the first people you talk to is a woman eternally bound and tortured in a walking Iron Maiden, beaten down into believing that her agony is what's best for her). Though Pwyll and Hallowshire, the first two areas you have freedom in, can be weak in some regards, the game really shines in the Endless Realm and the Clockwork Kingdom with its fresh ideas. How gods work in this world, the frighteningly powerful Clockwork King, and the blood-steeped history of the Endless were all concepts that really had me invested and let me push past the game's faults.
Narratively, Dread Delusion is constructed quite well! The main story is, initially, pretty whatever. So, you spend your time investigating side quests, turning over corners of the world to see what dilemmas wait for you. And there are a lot! Dread Delusion is frequently placing you in moral quandaries that are genuinely quite difficult. Most of them could be summed up as, "Do you risk something for the chance at a brighter future? Or do you play it safe, preserve the status quo, and hope that we can get out of this problem eventually, in a safer way?" It might seem easy to choose the former option, but as the ante keeps being upped and the stakes keep getting higher, how many times are you willing to gamble on the lives of others? Are the upsides worth the potential disastrous consequences? This is a post-apocalyptic world, after all. Perhaps it's best to try and discover something greater, no matter the cost. But there is also still love and humanity to be had in these lands. Perhaps it's not worth it to chance destroying what remains. I found some of these questions to be remarkably interesting and worthy of great consideration before I acted. And with the New Vegas-style slideshow epilogue, you *do* get to see how your choices play out, and how they interact with each other in some cases.
All that praise being said, there is a reason I mentioned that the world and narrative is what kept me propelled through the full run-time. Many other aspects of the game were found lacking, though not foundationally — just in scope or exact execution.
The combat is standard for this PS1-style game: charging your attacks while backstepping enemy attacks, and sometimes you cast a spell that's only a little better than just hitting the enemy. In Dread Delusion's case, it's perfectly serviceable. There *are* a handful of spells that could be used to spice combat up, but the only ones I ever found were simple ranged attacks with little flair or flavor. And given that Stamina (used to make physical attacks) regenerates while Mana doesn't, I was often hesitant to use them (until I found a ring that regenerated stamina... in the last two hours of the game).
The music is fine and atmospheric, but there aren't a ton of tracks. That means you'll get very familiar with only a handful of songs that are decent, though not hours-on-end listenable, which is the amount of time you'll be spending with them. I got very tired of the theme that plays during the opening section and all throughout Pwyll, what especially sucks cause it is a very relaxing, flowing theme. I distinctly remember feeling sleepy at points, which I have to imagine is not a good emotion to evoke in a player during a game's opening hours.
The exploration of the world is... a mixed bag. There are little goodies around literally every corner (seriously, if you think there might be something there, 99% of the time there will be, even if it's just a few gold), and sometimes you'll stumble upon something interesting like a fun piece of equipment or a spell. Other times, however, you'll find some ores, and once you buy a house, it becomes apparent that probably half of the things you find in the world are meant to be poured into the money and material sink that is player housing, only one of which (Thornwood Manor) is worth it. And then there's the skyship! Once I got it, I genuinely felt as if the game were a few points higher on a scale, it was *that* fun to have that freedom, especially with the interesting new areas it unlocked.
Only, you only get it in the endgame. In my ~30 hour playthrough, I only got to enjoy the very cool skyship for 3 hours, and then the game was over.
Last, the RPG mechanics. Collecting new armor and weapons was initially entertaining, but it eventually became apparent that they all worked pretty similarly. I would toss on and off hats and rings that gave static stat boosts so I could lockpick easier, buy items for less, and pass Charm checks. And with these stat boosts being so massive, plus the temporary buffs you can get from friendly factions in Hallowshire or Thornwood Manor or your skyship, it began to feel as those the character building choices I made didn't matter. Choosing to invest in Might and Wisdom less than the other attributes didn't impact the game, because I could throw on my hat that gave me 30 Lore and work around it with ease.
I was also disappointed to see that all checks in dialogue were Charm. It would have been more engaging if the player could use their high Lore to make an educated argument, or their high Attack to intimidate someone into submission. Instead, I would put on my Charm hat before engaging in any important dialogues, maybe sip some tea in case I ever thought I might fail (I never did), and that was that. Plus, any of the less important dialogues allow the player to back out of the conversation, put on the Charm hat, then go back in to then make the check, so even if I talked to someone without it on, it was trivial and welcomed by the game to fix that.
It isn't all bad, though. There are interesting rings and accessories that can impact the game beyond stat increases. Though whether you'll actually find them... there are a lot of little discoveries in this game, and not all of them are winners.
(And one last smaller thing: despite the simple graphics, I experienced a lot of pop-in when entering areas. It was especially noticeable when NPCs would appear bald and then suddenly have hair once I got within a few feet of them, or a tree would suddenly spring up in my face. For a game that allows the player to reach really high speeds, I expected it to account for that more. However, that was only ever a minor nuisance.)
Wow that was a lot. tldr, I *would* recommend you play Dread Delusion if you vibe with the graphical style and find yourself intrigued by the world and narrative. It certainly has flaws, but I ultimately found the experience enjoyable, enough to likely go back and complete a playthrough on hard mode while choosing all the opposite outcomes.
