Ex Libris

Ex Libris is a curious adventure using the Sword of Moonlight engine. Thoughtfully-crafted dialogue and descriptions await every turn. Clever literary references abound. There are multiple languages to learn, and everything from dialogue-trees to descriptions of pottery begin to change as you unearth each respective language. Combat (so far) is present, but has minimal involvement. Environments are lush and gorgeous for a SoM game, though it seems so many objects in the starting map make the performance of the engine struggle a bit. Music is enjoyable and appropriate and feel fitting for exploring a labyrinthine library full of odd sorts. Worth a play if you're the kind of person that likes talking to every NPC in an RPG.

I’ve been playing Ex Libris and so far it’s definitely grabbed my interest, but I have pretty mixed feelings about the experience right now. The world and overall atmosphere are intriguing enough that I keep wanting to come back and figure things out, which says a lot because the game clearly has some unique ideas behind it. That said, actually learning how to play has been pretty confusing. The controls feel very archaic, especially for a modern game. I really want proper controller support or at least smoother keyboard-and-mouse controls, because right now neither option feels very standardized or intuitive. Instead of naturally learning mechanics through gameplay, I found myself fighting the controls and trying to understand basic interactions more than I expected. There’s definitely potential here. The mystery and style are strong enough to keep me interested, and I can tell the game is trying to do something different. But the onboarding experience could really use improvement. Tutorials, cleaner UI explanations, and more modern control customization would go a long way toward making the game easier to enjoy. Overall, I’m interested enough to keep playing, but right now Ex Libris feels like a game with great ideas trapped behind a learning curve that’s harder than it needs to be.