Graywalkers: Purgatory

Final update: no news for years. Avoid, I’ll keep my old first impression when the demo got released. I backed the game some years ago. It was a rough ride, but i like what it has become so far. UPDATE: tested the new updates on July, 26 [b]At a glance:[/b] It combines a playstyle of XCom and Jagged Alliance, with adding some old school RPG elements like character sheets, levels and inventory management. Many different skills and traits have already been implemented. They also polished this part since my last check. Even more options are greyed out, with plans to be implemented. Thus, I expect plenty of character development in the final game with individualization options. Depending on how they set it up in the final release, I would expect more than just one optimal “character build”. [b]The goods - story:[/b] Besides these basics, there is one thing I really loved in my fist playthrough (and my short re-play of the newly added missions): the current style of the story (as far as there is one implemented so far) and the way it is delivered. Currently every story piece is supported by static, beautiful painted pictures; they look kind of “washed-out” giving them an antique vibe. Being mean, I could call them blurred, but I like to think of it as an overall design decision. The art style seems to fit in quite well into the demolished, “overrun-by-demons” world. I would not expect bright colors, so this kind of fits. Imagine the story parts put together like a graphic novel. Even better, now and then, your team members chat with each other – usually at the start and end of a mission. This seems to be the basis for developing the story arc of the final game. During these conversations, small dialogue options are offered, sometimes with a simple question and answer system. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as choices, so it is more or less a give me more details on this or that dialogue approach. Also: your squaddies go with on the point comments. You find the chosen one? He looks like a dumpster? They sure will comment on that. The story seems to become an interesting combination of end of world meets buddy movies. It is not all dark and black and dramatic or too serious. So far, it is serious enough, but still… with attitude? Anyways, the development team seems to have a very special sense of humor. A sense at least I do like :) [b]The goods – game foundation:[/b] Really impressive in my eyes is the damage calculation. The system seems thoroughly worked out. You get all things you would expect of a turn-based tactic game. The chance for a hit and the damage done are derived by taking distance to the enemy, armor rating, weapon type, skill level, currently used skill and so on into accounts. The game offers different types of damage, and obviously also resistances against different types of damage. Again, as with the story, being mean it might seem too much. I tried to get into all the details reading skill descriptions, weapon types and stuff, but it is complicated. You might need some sort of diploma to finally get all the logics. But then, the games shows a percentage rating for your hit chance and a number for the damage potential. So it might be complicated in the foundation but it is delivered easy enough to be ignored. But if you are like me and are into these things, maybe even love to min-max I would expect some fancy combinations to be done with all the skills and traits, that come on top. There will be many individualization choices if this gets implemented and balanced out. And there we are at… [b]The bads – the current state or the expectations:[/b] With regards to some other posts in here: yes, it is not polished, and many things are missing or are not balanced – there is for sure a potential to mess it up, especially considering my game foundation pros. There is so much to be balanced, of course there is a chance to never get it done or final. Also, especially the graphics quality and textures during the game parts are really, well, special. The game does not come with high-res textures or even whatever-res ones - it looks “old, sometimes even bad”. Clipping failures here and there, too. But then: it is an indie game developer, and the game is based on the unity engine, which is an old engine making most games using it look “old, sometimes even bad”. History repeats itself: taking an old engine seems to deliver old looking games. There you go… Some deeper thoughts on this: The dev team tries to go with a realistic look. This kind of thing does not age very good. Don’t get me wrong, I do like realistic looking games way more than cartonic ones. But considering the way the team has still to go and the time they will need to finalize all this, I am not sure if this was a good choice. At the end, more months/years until the game is finally released will not help improving the graphic quality :) Long story short: if you need at least somehow state of the art graphics to like a game, you will be disappointed. Please let me add: when it comes to the game mechanics, different to others, I did not find anything broken. I have played many released games with more bugs and even worse mechanics. Is everything implemented yet? Nope. But did I experience game breaking bugs in my short playtime? Nope. Maybe I do expect a different level of quality by an early access version? Because, even if there are any bugs or broken mechanics, this is – as said already – an early access version. Just because many other developers start to use the term as the new “demo for all” approach or “get digital items for preordering” that shouldn’t influence the idea behind the concept or raise the expectations to an almost finished and polished product. Leading me to… [b]Summed up:[/b] The game is a nice combination for fans of tactical games that like mystic and urban fantasy settings. It is by far not finished, and the team still has much work to do. But, and that is a huge but: considering what we backers had after years of waiting, this release and the current state is awesome. The vision of the world and creativity of the creators is overwhelming. They added so many own ideas, you have never seen in an AAA-studio product I’d love to see this evolve and become what the devs want it to be. And as I stated above, this tiny game has some very well elaborated foundation. And even better: Dreamlords tries to use the early access to get some fundings, also to learn what the community likes and what not. I repeat myself, but still: In my books, this is the definition of early access. I hope some of the bad reviewers adjust their expectations with a realistic benchmark while writing their reviews: team in the Philippines, not more than five peeps in average during the long run, classical indie studio, not much funding, but still there. Thinking of the long breath Russel and his gang showed so far, I am sure this will be some nice “end-of-world-with-demons-and-guns-jagged-alliance-meets-dnd-kinda-game”. I’d say, if you have some spare money and time to wait, give it a try and help some people build their dream game. That is what I did, even if it won’t happen it has some kind of good feeling to it. But it looks like it will happen, so even better. Good job, Russel!

bad bad bad. took my money few years ago, and steam wont refund me

(Enero 2020) De momento aun está muy verde. Solo se puede jugar a una serie de misiones, el inventario aun no funciona e incluso varias opciones dentro del juego están sin implementar (como el agachase o los disparos de oportunidad), también da algunos tirones, por lo que supongo que tendrán que optimizarlo un poco más, pero en general me ha gustado lo que he visto y el juego tiene mucho potencial. Por mi parte cuenta con mi voto de confianza. (Febrero 2025) Edito. Varios años más tarde (5 nada menos), el juego sigue estando igual de verde y sin terminar, por lo que o bien está abandonado (lo más probable) o bien el equipo de programación es incapaz de añadir mejora alguna en cinco años. Así que mi consejo es huid de esto como de la peste.

Overall, the game is worth getting and is playable. Definitely it is still an early access game that still needs some work. As long as the devs continue working on it, it would be a good game. I like the concept and the characters seems interesting to play. Combat is good and fun and the visuals and graphic style have nice look to it. Too bad that there are not enough missions to play though yet and the idea of preludes is unique. I also ran into a couple of bugs that hopefully gets fixed.