Lords of Infinity

Great Story

This series has been a joy to "play" through. All the way from Sabres to Lords! I can't wait for wars of infinity to come out and hope it does sooner than later!

Good game. Can't wait for the sequel.

14 year old stat decay. That's it. That's the whole review. This should've been the game where the player character who made it through the nightmare that is Sabres and Guns *should* be starting to do better, but it's like Paul Wang forgot that he included multiple difficulties in his game. I made a near perfect character going into lords only to hit consecutive decreases in a build that was already much lower than the 25 year old. Wang. Buddy. You gotta fix this. WHY are the 14 and 18 year old functionally no different from each other stat wise? WHY does the first time we go to the estate decrease our stats? WHY is my dragoon losing intelligence and charisma in Aetoria? Shouldn't it go up, especially for a character just now hitting their later twenties? We speak and engage in politics every day, Wang! It feels like Lords of Infinity, moreso than any previous Infinite Sea entry, wants you to feel malnourished and wanting. You won't get progress within your relationships, you won't pass a lot of important stat checks due to stat decay, you will spend ten minutes restarting the chapter after making a single mistake (better than the entire game, like the previous entries at least), half of the content is locked to two paths (which is frankly just inefficient as an author if you're producing interactive fiction, it takes forever), and there's too many hidden stats that require looking within your save file if you wish to actually know where you stand in relation to each faction. I also don't appreciate how huge and disjointed it is with all the clubs and variables as there is no longer a "perfect route" I can try to forge. I mean there is, but I would need to replay the game like twelve different times and understand every hidden variable Paul Wang decided to implement and frankly, I don't have it in me. I think what Lords of Infinity made clear is that whilst this author is a good writer, he is not a good game designer. You NEED a guide to play these games even somewhat well because of the missing save system and overwhelming amounts of hidden stats. I liked the previous two games in spite of this for their engaging linear narratives and slow-but-sure rise of the player character, but both of these are missing in Lords. What is the appeal, bar the more political narrative? Don't get me wrong, I like that part of it, but it can't exactly carry the entire package by itself. I don't recommend playing this entry until it either gets fixed or when Wars releases in 10 years. As it is right now, it's a *very* frustrating slog.

Пишу рецензію відразу на три гри Sabres of Infinity, Guns of Infinity, Lords of Infinity. Не бачу сенсу писати різну для кожної, в результаті це все одно одна суцільна історія. Можна взяти окремо першу, щоб оцінити, а ось брати другу або третю окремо я не бачу сенсу. Історія доволі цікава і різноманітна. Є доволі багато варіантів проходження гри, особливо в другій частині. В мене сумарно вийшло 17 годин на проходження всіх 3 ігор, і це одне проходження з кількома перепроходженнями окремих моментів. Один великий мінус, який би я виділив це неможливість відійти трошки назад на минулий чекпоінт, якщо тобі не подобається історія. Це більше менш фікситься в третій грі в якій після кожної глави в тебе питають чи хочеш ти її перепройти чи ні. В перших двух іграх, тобі треба проходити з нуля усю гру до моменту який тобі не подобається кожен раз, що доволі бісить.

The 3rd game in the Infinity Sea series. In this title, you play as the Dragoon Officer, who returns victorious from a successful war, to inherit the family fiefdom from his father. The game is highly frustrating because there are two major paths to follow, and though they do not seem as if they should be, they are mutually exclusive - and either path chosen locks you out of a tremendous amount of content. I was truly hoping someone made a modded version that let you just sort of merge the narratives, but so far no luck. I truly hope not to encounter more of this in future titles in this series... That said, well worth the time to advance the story of the Dragoon Officer.

So I will say off the bat, I like the slow burn, I think the writing overall is pretty good, I do think you if you are reading this review as a player should take a look at other reviews to see if the game is up your alley, and I think one day I will finish it. However, I literally can't make it through this game with the choices I made in the prior 2 games, even after feeling like the character I left behind at the end of Guns was fairly successful! It feels a lot like the designer took a look at the wealth stat and went "people remembered to prioritize this, right?" despite the fact that most options to secure wealth had really rough tradeoffs in the previous games that would reasonably deter most people from securing them. I think that concept is interesting at first glance, your character in Sabres and Guns was a warfighter, and Lords goes to great lengths to contextualize returning to peacetime as something the warfighters can't come to grips with so easily, but the mechanical brutality of economic management here paired with the usual lack of consequence telegraphing made it fairly hard to want to see the story of my war hero bumbling through politics and economics through. When I was playing Guns for the first time and realized I needed to make better choices in Sabres to come out on top, I thought that was pretty novel, it didn't feel like I had to redo Sabres to progress but if I wanted to continue seeing the story I wished to see I would have to go do it better. So I did. Now, I have the same feeling, but knowing some of the sacrifices to wealth I made to get the character I wanted, I realize now that the minmaxing I'd need to do to achieve the narrative that captivated me is particularly difficult, and maybe even impossible. It does feel like the systems are snuffing out quite a few MC paths, particularly idealistic heroes. I think with more gameplay driven systems here beyond just stat checks, a tiny bit of the curtain should've been pulled back to help make more informed decisions during the Estate management turns. I had done my first Guns and Sabres playthroughs without a guide but this one near-immediately necessitates a walkthrough to know what the heck is really happening. One day I'll start over from Sabres and Guns with the knowledge I have now, and maybe have a more fun time with Lords as a result. But I am not exactly itching to do it right this minute. So, I gotta say farewell to the Infinite Sea for now.