Etrom 20th Anniversary Edition

Etrom is in every way an epic adventure. It really takes courage and determination to play such a difficult, absurd, old and hostile game. The screens of megacities chant disturbing messages in a... strange way. But somehow, after a series of ferocious and endless fights, after some violent, rough and somehow mystical dialogues, the world of Etrom captures you and you want to understand what the hell is happening with this story of the Astral Essence and the deities of Abysses that hunt you. Recommended for crazy people!

Good old-school point&click/action-adventure with RPG elements such as character progression, and choices affecting the story (7 endings). To run this bad boy on newer Windows, you might need DgVoodoo2 [code]For more game recommendations, check out my Steam curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44815970-Dark-Side-of-Gaming[/code]

A leap into the past. I strongly recommend it.

Before you complain about bugs, gonna save you some time. The game is meant to be played like Diablo, mostly with the mouse and keyboard shortcuts here and there, but unlike Diablo the camera isn't fixed. You have to shove the mouse left and right to pan the camera. I got stuck in a door trying to find the exit to the first level before learning this. It reeks of everything edgy and cool from the 2000s in a good way, with extended lore to boot. Never heard of this game even back in the day, but if you don't mind the rough edges it's a no brainer. Like what the heck, how did I miss this game ?

[h1][i]“F*CK! DAMN! ASS! YOUR MOTHER!”[/i] ~AVGN[/h1] Let's do things differently this time, OK? Usually, I do some history first, then I speak about the game itself and only then I tell people what's wrong with it. This time, though? Everything. Everything is wrong with this game. And in case you still didn't make a mistake and pay for it? You need a warning. No, seriously, you don't need this game. And let me tell you why right ahead. I know what you're thinking while looking at the store page. “Hey! It says '20th Anniversary Edition'! Must be classic I've missed. Guess, this version is a nice way to catch up.” [i]Nope![/i] Nah-hah. As long as your name is not [b]James Rolfe[/b] and you don't make “angry” videos on [b]YouTube[/b]? Stay. The. [i]F*ck.[/i] Away. My butt being on fire aside, here are some bare-bone facts to make you reconsider. “Glorious” 1024x768 resolution only. No extra job of any kind done for this version whatsoever (I compared it to the original side-by-side and didn't find any difference). Fonts (dialogue options included) that don't fit the screen. Ancient codecs that may or may not play videos correctly. Infinite crashes in all sorts of places with no way to save the game during your first hour or during the dungeons. “Ha-ha, you're dead!” moments and timed events that barely give you enough time to do things right without telling you what exactly you're supposed to do. Map that only makes things worse. Missions that want you to look for something (often without even telling what exactly) on pretty big maps full of enemies, while having very limited ammo. Bugs... In my case, it was like this. I started the game – it crashed. I started it again. Made it to the intro video. Game crashed. I started it again. Made it past the video (no idea why, but there's, like, 50/50 chance), managed to start playing (while still alt-tabing in order to make it past loading screens which just won't let me through otherwise), entered the gun shop. Quit the gun shop. For whatever reason, the whole map of enemies was waiting for me outside and killed me in a second. I tried again – game crashed. I tried again, avoided store (or any other doors), almost made it to quest's destination that was supposed to unlock save option for me, the game launched me into the air, where I was stuck for good with no way to get out. You know the drill at this point. Quit, re-launch, crash, try again, get into the bug, try again, finally start a confusing quest, then die because this game is absolutely terribly made. Happy Anniversary. The funniest thing, though? Publisher (which deserves a review on their own) is well aware of all that. “We regret to share that bugs and system crashes, both during game launch and during gameplay, can happen frequently on some hardware and software configurations.” That's what they say right on the store page, while recommending us... to google for a third-party software and fix things manually. They f*cking know their game doesn't work. And they're OK with it. Feeling festive yet? But OK. You've got the idea. This game is a technical disaster. And even with technical stuff aside, it's absolutely terribly made and is barely playable. But what is it exactly? Well, as [b]Rhett[/b] and [b]Link[/b] would say... [i]Let's talk about that.[/i] Long story short, [b]Etrom[/b] is a child of 2000s. The times when line between AAA and indie was way too thin and pretty often it was hard to tell the difference between the expensive project and self-published stuff like [b]Etrom[/b] just by looking at screenshots. Not saying that [b]Etrom[/b] looks good for 2006 (it was a year that brought us [b]Final Fantasy XII[/b] and [b]The Elder Scrolls IV[/b], after all), but you know what I mean. It's something akin to [b]Archangel[/b] (2002) and [b]Mistmare[/b] (2003). Something you may have actually picked up in a big box just because screenshots looked fine and then... Yeah. Wannabes trying to play gods is never a good idea. Even when there were cool ideas ([b]Archangel[/b], for example, allowed us to shapeshift into three different forms), it never felt good. Never. Exactly why nobody even remembers that there was a [b]DUNE[/b] game based on 2000 mini-series. Those European releases from early 2000s? Bad for your mental health. Back to [b]Etrom[/b], though. Which is your name, by the way. Who're you? Well, you're some dude. Who touched sh*t he was not supposed to. And, while being guided by some spiritual weirdo (strong [b]Shadow Man[/b] vibes), you're supposed to find seven keys that are hidden in different parts of the world. That's... pretty much it. Well, that and the fact that you'll be able to turn into a devil and ride a mech on one of the maps. That's pretty much the whole story and even multiple endings feel more like a dull and uninspired choice. But OK, OK. Who needs story? Maybe the game feels goods? [i]Nope.[/i] A thing that publisher blames for most of the negative reviews is the controls, which they claim to be “both revolutionary and controversial for its time”. Should I say it isn't true at all? What we have here is a terrible imitation of [b]Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption[/b]. Pretty much everything, from mouse-oriented controls to the UI, was taken directly from [b]Nihilistic[/b]'s game that came out, like, six years before this. In [b]Etrom[/b], though, things revolve around hub location. Somewhat similar to what we had in [b]Soulbringer[/b]. Hub is a place where you can save (thankfully, your first visit there would also unlock the quicksave option), level up (you can collect the experience anywhere, but you'll only level up after returning to hub) and store items (which is more useful than you may think, since your inventory is ridiculously tiny). And as for the rest of the game? Well, the thing is – there isn't much, really. If you'll manage to somehow avoid bugs and crashes, you'll quickly find out that there isn't much to do here. There's only a few maps, there's only a few optional objectives, while the rest of gameplay is just you, fighting the enemies (which are everywhere, hiding on every corner and usually just start running at you all at once with no intellect or tactics involved) and trying to figure out where to go and what to do (map aside, quest journal in this game is a useless bull too). There are lots and lots of grinding and, of course, it doesn't feel fun. Just because of how cheap and clunky everything is. I didn't mention [b]Mistmare[/b] for nothing. After playing [b]Etrom[/b]? I'm starting to think that it wasn't really [i]that[/i] bad... Sure, sure, you can shapeshift in [b]Etrom[/b]. But... Let's just say it's, like, a million times less useful than it was in [b]Archangel[/b]. And [b]Archangel[/b] was anything [i]but[/i] a good game. Shapeshifting feature is so terribly implemented that you won't even think 'bout it until that certain part where you either guess that it's finally time to use it or die. So yeah. That's [b]Etrom[/b] for you, guys. Is it any good? [i]Hell, no![/i] If something, it's a nice addition to my personal list of ancient perversions. [b]Archangel[/b] (2002), [b]Mistmare[/b] (2003), [b]BorderZone[/b] (2005), [b]Vampire Hunters[/b] (2007)... Actually, you know what? [b]Etrom[/b] feels quite a lot like [b]BorderZone[/b]. Except being much more limited and way less buggy. Don't get me wrong, [b]Etrom[/b] is buggy as F, you just won't get into a game-breaking bug on your every step. Then again, [b]BorderZone[/b] is a russian game and when it's about f*cking things up beyond recognition? Nobody can beat russians. Italians from [b]P.M. Studios[/b], who made this game, did their very best, though. You didn't play [b]Etrom[/b] yet? Praise [b]Beebo[/b] for that. Because this here? Is a dark side of gaming industry. The one that'll break your mind and spit on its broken remains.

This old game received several negative reviews from some large specialized press portals. But I didn't trust these reviews, I played it, and I was pleasantly surprised. There are bugs, but on my system I only encountered a bug only once every 10 games I played. So even though the bugs are there Etrom is still better than some more popular games out there that get rave reviews. Graphically the game is old, but very dark and fascinating and the storywise it kind of gives me the feeling like I'm playing through a kind of strange version of the movie "Bladerunner" mixed with the dungeons of Moira in Lord of the Rings...not bad at all! Just don't compare it to any of the recent titles of this genre and you'll find that it's very different, and yet still fun. Give it a shot...it's very cheap and better than some of the '$50 DISASTERS' that have been incresingly flooding the market over the last years.

WUFFFFF that was wild.

Posiadałem tę grę paręnaście lat temu na płycie i czasem gra ładując mapę potrafiła sama się zamknąć i tutaj dzieje się to samo. czasem coś przycina i znikają statystyki postaci i nie da się ich włączyć, wówczas trzeba zamknąć grę i ją ponownie włączyć. Fajnie pograć w grę do której ma się sentyment jednak błędy gry nie zostały naprawione i na 9 godzin grania, gra wysypała się 5-6 razy...

Etrom is a really great game!

I've been playing it for a few hours and so far I like it. Clearly this is a game from twenty years ago and it shows graphically, but the game itself is still fun. The story is quite complex and there are many equippable items. It was a very ambitious title for its time, which achieved most of its goals. Definitely a peculiar experience that deserves to be played.