Passageway of the Ancients

TLDR; So, mild do not buy from me. The main reasons are linearity and it's repetitive. You can play one of 3 races, but it's just skin deep. There are a total of 5 classes, but 3 are already taken by companions and so it's really two choices: mage or fighter mage (Sentinel). The loot table is extremely small, almost like they were really working on a 1st gen smartphone for development. There are many, many better games out there and most are free if they're of this quality. It's not horrible, but it IS barely mediocre. Just go buy something else or replay NWN/NWN2 or one of the amazing host of mods. Almost any of them will be deeper than this game. Sorry, devs. I wanted to like this but this seemed mailed in at best. If you are new to rpgs in general, this would be acceptable maybe. I've played several rpgs though and this would fall near the bottom of all of them.

[quote] Love RPG? [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39973073/]Make sure to Follow my Curator Page[/url] for plenty more! [/quote] Great story and lore, average gameplay and bad combat. The game itself is quite linear, with surprisingly few secrets. I don't know who came up with the idea of ​​"combat options", but it's a failure, all they do is interfere, confuse and spoil the impression of combat. The game’s pacing is perfect, allowing you to fully appreciate the intricate ruins and the history behind them. Its puzzles are well-designed—challenging but never frustrating—offering a smooth progression that feels rewarding. Overall, the game is easy and interesting to play, the story is captivating. Well-thought-out characters, a huge amount of loot, a skill tree. But I'm afraid only true old-school veterans will be able to enjoy the game. 5/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PDnBjMJra0 [quote] And don't forget to [url=https://www.youtube.com/c/WizardWorm?sub_confirmation=1] Subscribe to my Youtube [/url][/quote] [quote] Join my [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/wizard_rpg] Steam Group [/url] [/quote]

Very good game for those who love old-school RPGs with the interesting plot

As much as I was was looking forward to this, I am not happy with it. I thought after the demo that the devs would improve combat, but its terrible seriously. Also entirely to much loot, everyone loves loot, I love loot but when its just everywhere and you can't even pick it all up, its not good. It just feels half baked, unpolished, and has a lot of bugs. Maybe the game will get improved and I will keep an eye on it, the devs seems very nice, so I feel bad about leaving a no recommend

Passageway of the Ancients ist ein richtiger kleiner Indie- Geheimtipp für alle Fans und Freunde von isometrischen RPGs. Führe Deinen Helden mit einer Party bis zu 3 weiteren Mitstreitern durch eine liebevoll gestaltete Welt und Dungeons (in denen man sich auch gern mal verlaufen kann). Es gibt aber eine Mini-Map sowie eine Gebiets- und Weltkarte. Das Spiel hat bekannte grundlegende Mechaniken ähnlich dem alten Baldurs Gate und auch ein paar eigene Mechaniken. Es ist alles nur in englischer Sprache verfügbar; nach und nach liest man sich gut ein. Man sollte einen höheren Schwierigkeitsgrad gleich zu Beginn wählen, dann wird es nicht zu einfach (und evtl. langweilig). Die Kämpfe sind Echtzeit, man kann jedem Charakter seine Kampftaktik zuweisen und jederzeit während des Kampfes Pausieren, Heiltränke zu sich nehmen etc. Man findet recht am Anfang zwei Teleport-Steine, welche man an je einem Ort platzieren kann und dann immer von A nach B teleportieren kann, dies ist in "mehr-stöckigen" Dungeons sehr hilfreich, um z. B. in die Stadt zu reisen, um Händler oder Heiler aufzusuchen. Apropos Händler: man findet wirklich viel loot bei gefallenen Gegnern, in Kisten, Truhen, sogar auf Tischen und in Betten (Geld, Schmuck, Waffen, Rüstungen, usw.) und hat oft volles Inventar und kann so bequem per Teleport immer Sachen verkaufen und/ oder identifizieren lassen. Das Spiel wird seitens der Entwickler (Indie- Studio aus Texas) ständig verbessert , es kommen fortlaufend Patches und Updates, so gefällt mir das. Das Spiel ist sicher nicht mit AA+ Titeln zu vergleichen, besitzt aber seinen ganz eigenen, leicht "schrulligen" Charme und weiß dem geneigten old- school- RPG´ler zu gefallen. Es ist jetzt keine wahnsinnig spannende oder packende Story, aber es gibt viel zu erkunden und ich kehre auch nach kurzen Pausen immer wieder gerne zu diesem Spiel zurück so nach dem Motto "so, diesen Dungeon wollen wir heute aber schaffen", dann ist es aber meist alles so weitläufig und man merkt, die Karte wird nicht so schnell fertig abgelaufen, und -Achtung- die Gegner respawnen nach Verlassen eines Ortes, nur die bereits freigelegte Karte bleibt erhalten . Von mir gibt es einen Daumen nach oben und für den Preis kann man nicht viel falsch machen. Für die Arbeit und Liebe zum Detail haben es das kleine Studio mehr als nur verdient, wenn das Spiel mehr Beachtung bekäme. Eine 7/10 und mit dem Indie- Bonus eine 8/10 :-)

Passageway of the Ancients is a unique game, but not for the right reasons. It claims to draw inspiration from classic titles of the 90s and early 2000s, yet I find myself questioning which elements in this game truly reflect those eras. It's unfortunate, as the story and world show potential and are well-written. However, the game fails to create an engaging experience, with many design choices falling flat. Ultimately, you'll spend the majority of your time navigating vast dungeons in search of the exit while resisting the urge to loot every single container. Full review: https://rpghq.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=164571-passageway-of-the-ancients

Great game! check it out! (I was not paid to say this)

TLDR; I got stuck on the cutscene videos several times. Was only able to progress by turning of the video playing through the settings option but as far as I could tell you weren't able to turn off all cutscenes so eventually I wouldn't be able to progress at all. I don't usually review games but considering this one has so few and the majority are positive I figured I'd make one so people know the issue I had with the game. When I first booted it up and clicked new game it started to try and play an opening cutscene however nothing started playing some text came up on the screen I read it and I waited for the transition to more text or video and nothing. I see a "skip video" button in the left hand corner click that and nothing happens. I start clicking all over the screen pressing enter, escape, ect. no response. I check the status of the game and it says its responsive so I just close it and reboot then click new game again. Same issue. This is all before getting to make a character or anything. So I look in the settings and see there's an option to turn off the opening clip so I decide to do that and try one more time. This time new game brings me right to character creation. Which as someone else has stated is pretty lack luster not many options but it is only a 4 person team so that's fine with me. But the "reroll" button is extremely misleading it doesn't actually roll you new stats it just auto redistributes your ability points for you leaving you with 3 to place yourself. All stats start at 8 and you have 28 points to spend no matter how many times you roll. You can just subtract all the points and move them how you wish rerolling is pointless unless you wanna try some random configurations or to simulate rolling your stats without actually doing so. I make my character (I did like that you could make them overweight that's something I wish was in all RPGs) and start the tutorial. Tutorial was meh, there was no tutorial for camera movement or character movement there was one about locking the camera and unlocking the camera but it didn't go over how to actually move the camera or your character I just assumed how to do it from experience with other games. But overall it was just okay. However, at the end of the tutorial guess what happens? It wants to play another cutscene only it doesn't play and I can't skip it so I just closed the game, requested a refund, and came here to make a review. I wouldn't recommend this game at the moment. If this was in early access I'd give it some slack and wait for some updates before making an decisions about it but this is a full release. Maybe in the future if they fix this issue I'd recommend it. There was interesting things about it that I enjoyed and it has a classic CRPG feel. But at the moment I can't. Those who were able to play the game without issues I envy you I'm not entirely sure what happened for me but I know it wasn't a problem on my end.

a bit similar to Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Icewind Dale, fighting different creatures is slightly complicated. Designing your character, can be a long process depending on how much you want personalise it. lots of fun, played 9 hrs straight.

Where do I start with this one? I'll go back to the beginning, a few years ago when I first heard about this on RPG Codex and shortly after seeing a facebook ad for it. The story behind the development of "Passageway" is really interesting, a couple of gentlemen in their 70's taking their lifelong love of fantasy and RPG's and making a game that hearkens back to the glory days of CRPG's (you know, late 90's...). And while the screenshots and short videos paint the picture of a game in the veins of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, the gameplay is a whole different situation. The game starts off well with the character creator. You can spend quite a while making your character look the way you want and have several different races/professions to choose from. You only create one character as the rest of the team you meet shortly into playing the game. It doesn't take long to start seeing the issues, as the pathfinding and combat issues show up during the tutorial. I actually had to skip part of the tutorial as my character refused to go into one of the rooms to do the next task, and this specific issue will keep rearing it's ugly head throughout the game....there has been at least 20 instances where after combat is finished, no one in your party will move no matter what you try. The only workaround I could find is to save the game, quit, and reload. 90% of the game is just walking around enormous caverns/buildings looking for the next quest item to progress the story. There is a ton of lore throughout the game given in large blocks of texts at certain times. After you gain a few levels, the game becomes too easy on the normal difficulty. All of the thousands of containers/chests/urns you find have the same items over and over again. Early in the game you can find a +1 stamina necklace. You'll also find that same item mid game and late game. Early on all of your characters will find sets of armor that will be better than anything else you find while exploring, and also better than anything you'll find in the shops. You'll end up selling everything you collect besides the potions and plants you find and you'll have more gold than you'll ever need. I have to say, the loot system in "Passageway" is among the worst I've ever played in a game. About haflway through, you'll stop opening anything you come across unless it is a yellow-highlighted chest, as those contain quest items. On the surface, it's a RTWP combat system. But once you're strong enough you won't pause anything and you'll see your party wipe that map with anything quickly. All encounters are extremely predictable. Three to four monsters at a time of the same type depending on where you are. If you run into an orc in a castle, you will only see orcs. If you run into trolls in a cavern, you will only see trolls. Enemies appear out of thin air, and if you leave the area (say to return to town) those same enemies will reappear. The only way to get any satisfaction out of fighting enemies is to ramp up difficulty. You can cast spells along with melee fighting, but I have not found one instance where I've needed to cast a combat spell. You can also transform into a dragon like character which supposedly makes some battles easier, but again, I have not found a reason to do this, and I'm 20+ hours into the game. It seems like a really half baked idea up to this point. A couple strong points of the game is the writing overall. You can tell a lot of care and time has gone into the backstory and characters. I believe this game would have made a better book or series of books instead of a game. Also, the soundtrack is absolutely perfect. Many different music pieces ebb and flow throughout the game. Unfortunately, you will get sick of it too as the areas you explore are so huge you will hear the songs repeat dozens of times before you move on to the next part. It really does hurt me to leave a negative review for "Passageway of the Ancients" as you can see the effort here in many ways. I just want to give an honest take on what I've played to the intended audience, those of us who've been playing CRPG's for many years.