Frayed Knights: The Skull of S'makh-Daon

If you enjoyed games like Wizardry and Might and Magic from days gone by, Frayed Knights will not disappoint. Loaded with lots of humour and some rather unique characters, FK will have you cheering for the heroes and cursing the monsters in no time flat!

It's actually a really nice game. I had some troubles with the graphics first, because...while I like old school 3D graphics, some of the enemies looked a little bit strange. But once I overcame this, I had a lot of fun playing this game. If you like old CRPG, this is for you. The GUI is something to get used to and even if you do, there are still some annoyances left that will bother you throughout the game, but even Skyrim has those, so... The graphics are, as said, old school 3D. Personally, I like this. But even if you don't, I bet that you won't notice it after playing it for a while. The story is fun and the character interaction is too. However, it's never over the top. It's always likeable. Don't get fooled by the first impression...you will feel like as if you are back in 2000 and are playing the latest and greatest game.

A surprisingly deep dungeon-crawler, a-la Wizardry, with humorous writing and tons of quests. It's a bit dated, but if you're someone who likes old-school gameplay with a more modern spin, then you'll enjoy this game. Grab it when it's on sale.

Awesome turn-based fantasy game. I started playing since it was recommended as a modern version of Pools of Radiance. Similar gameplay. More humor. Great developer support. This is neither a hard-core min-max game or for fluffy carebears. You will die and everything won't be obvious right away. But you don't need the perfect class builds to be successful. Most important: fun game at a great price.

So ... Frayed Knights. It is one heck of a good game! It has it's pros and cons though. But I beat it, and here is what I think. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. 1. Items and spell descriptions - Some of these can be totally wrong (I'm looking at you Peel Armor and Potion of Resist Disease), so it can get confusing. But once you figure out what they are, it isn't bad. 2. Quick spell slots - Only 3? That's right. So most of the time, you'll forget about your other spells. That is a pain. I'd suggest priniting out a spell list for yourself. 3. Stars - Though this mechaninc is neat in itself, losing it when you have to quit the game because of an emergency or something else while in battle ... and you LOSE all the stars you got? I can live without that. 4. Skill descriptions - Some can be pretty easy to figure out while others? I still have no idea what they do. Eh ... ~~ But the story (which I was very sad to see end) was great. There was a few twists in there that caught me off guard, and my dad and I had a few discussions over dinner on what we thought was happening and who the bad guy/girl was. I did a Let's Play of the game on my You Tube channel which you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMRlAJ5VsPJWTIk-cWHFKiUyr4sgxy_Ed Also, I did a bit of research, since at the end of the game, the party had hinted at a second one in the works. I found this page on the creator's blog http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=7763 which was back in 2014. I tried contacting them about it, but no luck. So if the developer reads this, I hope you continue to make Frayed Knights 2! Arianna, Dirk, Ben, and Chloe are all ready to continue their adventures.

A first-person RPG with turn-based combat (in a point-based D&D-style skill/feat/attribute system). The 2D assets are pretty good but 3D is less so. It wasn't too bad until I left the first dungeon and reached the main town. It's not terrible but it's pretty empty of detail. There are only the basics: A road texture, environment/landscapes for the background, scattered buildings and trees. The redeeming feature is the lighthearted, silly conversations and sometimes satirical situations as you do the standard quest-based gameplay. Gameplay:[list] [*] There's a main town (that provides rest, a vendor, and story/quests). [*] Leave the town to go to a decently sized area. In those areas, there are generally entrances to individual dungeons. [*] In the dungeons, you fight monsters (usually behind doors or on patrol), open treasure chests, or press a button to search the immediate area for traps/hidden loot. [*] It uses turn-based combat but the more you do things (like attack or cast spells), the lower your max endurance becomes (which is used for attacking/casting). Eventually it's safer to just go back to the main town and rest to restore your max endurance. [*] After every action/combat you earn drama points which builds up in meter. You spend drama points at any time (like in combat) to restore health, exhaustion, revive, or just have better odds (like when attacking). It's a mechanic that rewards not reloading saves because you lose them every load. [/list] The search action is a problem that happens in a lot of RPG/adventure games. There's a small chance that you could find something in a random unmarked spot so you might be compelled to search every single thing just in case. In other games it would mean searching every tile (boxes, vases, bookshelves, etc.) in the hope for random stuff. In this case it means searching every few few of movement for traps or treasure (which becomes tiring). In my opinion, just skip the fuss and use the strategy guide's Secrets section to know where to search for treasure (and optionally do a search in front of treasure chests/doors for traps and in suspicious entrances/areas). Search is bound to 'x' so any place I wanted to search I pressed x->space (x to search, space to immediately close the popup window). I recommend you read/skim the manual and use the free official strategy guide as you play (unless you really like going in blind). However, like the game itself, it has a few bugs (incorrect info) but they're pretty minor and mostly deal with equipment/spells. If you want to understand some game mechanics (to make better decisions), take a look at the included manual and the official strategy guide (especially the General Rules, Strategies, and Tricks section, but you may want to avoid other sections for spoilers). It explains how damage is determined but I didn't see how chance to hit/accuracy/attack/defense worked (beyond the generic action chance of success). Worth a look if you are fine with bad (for today's standard) graphics, enjoy RPGs and have the patience to learn a simple/complex combat system and make efficient skill/feat/equipment choices. You can't reset your skills/feats and you don't get a lot of skill points so if you change your mind your character will be noticeably weaker. Other thoughts (general):[list] [*] It's nice there are hotkeys for a lot of things and that you can go through movement, combat & searching with only the keyboard. [*] It's unfortunate that it doesn't always give the full details of things. A lot of (but not all) things are revealed in the strategy guide. The game tells you a general description but doesn't always reveal the actual game mechanic behind it (even when using the separate strategy guide). For example, it does let you look up how much health is restored with the Life Trickle spell (though I'd prefer it always shown) but it won't let you know the difference if you augment the spell (which boosts its effects and stamina cost). I also have no idea if it's worth putting points into attributes (because I don't know how much each point affects stuff) so I just spent it on feats I really wanted then hoped attribute points were worth it and put the rest there. [*] How do shield modifier (nothing to do with shields; there is a 2H weapon that gives this bonus), defense bonus, and reflexes affect defense? I've read that attacks automatically get a natural +4. I assume armor level is only for damage calculations. [*] It's a little disappointing that you can only go up to level 13. You don't get access to enough skill points to comfortably splash into optional/flavor skills/feats while keeping your attributes up (at least it would be nice to increase it to two per level). If you don't optimize skill point usage you might end up struggling in combat (but . [*] Combat turns you around to face the enemy so it can be easy to get disoriented. According to the loading screen tip, the compass points to whichever direction the party is facing but I didn't take the time to figure it out. I thought it would point north (or at least up on the map) but it's not so. [*] Map view is pretty hit-or-miss. Maps don't show the direction you're facing and most leave entrances/exits/interesting places unmarked. This means some maps are just a mess of brown and I was better off mapping locations with my mind than using the map (but even if maps were better they reset). The better maps had humor: the scribblings in some dungeon maps were a nice touch. [*] There are multiple save slots and you can name your saves (which is good) but it lacks save details so you don't automatically know your most recent save unless you type it out yourself. [*] It would be nice (for the sleeping) if they recovered endurance (like resting). It makes some sense and otherwise it's a pretty bad situation because not only do you lose turns, you have to spend a turn resting afterwards if you're out of endurance. [*] It's a bit annoying that reusable rogue tools still have a break chance because you can't buy rogue tools until late in the game. It feels better overall to just fail most traps and heal up using renewable resources. [*] It's a little annoying that when enemies drop items (when defeated) you don't always see the loot bag (you have to look downwards). I'd rather auto-pick up the stuff than have to look down and do it manually. [*] It would be nice to directly go to the journal entry for the enemy instead of having to search and click on it. [*] You move at a decent pace but I'd still like to have a run button (at least for the main town). [*] Health bars often overlap (and you may have to spend combat looking at their feet to get less overlap). [*] You should at least be able to hover over the buff/debuff icon and see the current effects in a tooltip (buffs are grouped into one positive icon and one negative icon). [*] In the hobgoblin bunker there are couple of shields that stick out of the wall. It seems like they should be hanging off the wall instead of being stuck halfway inside. [*] I'm not sure it's worth using shields for front-line characters. Enemies often just attack the back line and you can't intercept them. It's probably confirmation bias but it feels like Arianna is my least-targeted character. I put points into reflexes for back-line characters just so enemies missed more. [*] I think I had the most trouble with Hobgoblin Officers despite being over-leveled because of their AoE and their love of swiping at both of the back line members. The ice elementals were also pretty tough at low levels because of their AoE. [/list] Continued in comments.

Frankly, I didn't give this game much of a chance. Interface feels like a flash game. The graphics aren't 'dated'; they're simply bad. The banter is shallow. The combat is lackluster. There wasn't a single aspect to this game that made me think, "That was done well."

I really enjoyed the game. Some quirks and I wish you could run. Took a little time at the start to understand how to manage resources (healing, endurance, exhaustion) - but was quite enjoyable from that point forward!

A fine blobber with lots of witty banter. The only part of the game that I disliked were the random encounters - too many of them can be resolved simply by mashing the attack button for a minute or two until the enemies are dead. That kind of gameplay is not fun or interesting in any way; for the sequel, I'd prefer to see fewer, more complex encounters instead. On the technical side: the game not very alt-tab friendly - the graphics can bug out and the fps can drop down to 3 FPS when you change back to the window. There's also a small bug where taking items with the "inventory" button (or by hitting the space bar) fails to trigger certain states. To be on the safe side, you should always use the "done" button when looting unique items.

A throw back to the old RPG "blobbers" of the late 80s/early 90s. I love those old games and this game certainly scratched that itch. Drama star system was a fun addition and prevented save scumming. Also, the pregenerated characters were genuinly fun and entertaining. Really, for me, the one downside was the GUI was a bit rough but it was workable and didn't hold back my enjoyment of the game. Looking forward to the sequel.