Qasir al-Wasat: International Edition

This game looks pretty but beneath the look lies some serious issues. The Good The art style and story are very interesting. I didn't get far but I really wanted to see more. The Neutral The music works but doesn't have any tracks that stand out in my mind. It did it's job but not something I go out and buy independantly The Bad My first complaint is the lack of a decent tutorial or even a very visible prompt that pressing s is required to move in stealth. The game gives you an easy to see prompt for movement by popping up the movement keys, and pops A over a door which you see your character swipe at and open, indicating it's probably an attack as well (It is). However the game never tells you that you need to press and hold s in order to move stealthily, otherwise your character can move one step and then be attacked because for a stealth game where you will most of the time be moving at a stealth speed, stealth is NOT the default. This is a bad decision which leads to numerous problems. Further the actual stealth gameplay does not seem deep with some of the areas being too tiny to actually do anything. Throw in an autosave feature vs. a manual save combined with autosave and you will be redoing sections if you mess something up in another section and get to sit through the dialogue...again. The unskippable dialogue of people talking that occurs outside of cutscenes, in which the dialogue is skippable. On top of this, I had the frustration of wanting to quit the game and hitting escape and realizing this did nothing. It wasn't until a frustrated 30 seconds later that I finally realized to open the menu, you need to hit return. ESC does nothing except skip cutscenes, I believe. This goes against gaming conventions and led to another annoyance added on top of the prior ones. It is within this menu that I finally discovered the section that tells you how to play. Also, I'm not sure if it actually tells you but I don't remember it telling me the difference but it does say you can poison people. What's the difference between poisoning them and a regular attack against them? I have no idea as I don't remember it saying. As for the stelath mechanics themselves. It's essentially a move silently and don't get in their physical way and you'll be fine. There are no ways to really move guards from their positions other than your ridiculously loud default movement. It doesn't matter what surface you're walking on. If it's carpet or stone, stealth movement is silent, default is loud. There are no pots or other objects that you can hit or use to distract the guards. This game lacks depth, nuance, and good feel for the gameplay.

Very unique game. Though at its core, it's a simple stealth game with occasional puzzles, its unusual setting (I wish there were more games taking inspiration from Islamic myths, it would be a welcome change from common high fantasy tropes), excellent atmosphere, and the way its mechanics reward different ways to play truly make it shine. + Great visuals, taking their inspiration from Persian art. The lighting was also very well-done. Play this at night with dim lighting, it's even better. + Amazing sound design. From your character's footsteps to the patrolling guards' distinctive skipping, as well as ambiant sounds here and there, or the characters' "voices", everything is near perfect. + Simple but effective mechanics. You can go full stealth, massacre everything in your way (making further stealth attempts harder, but exploration easier), and use traps against the enemies (though they usually work better against you). + Two endings. You can get the first one in a couple of hours, but you will likely miss half the content of the game by doing so. - A few repeated puzzles, particularly the "rotating wheels". Some of them are a bit unclear as well. - Later parts of the game focus less on stealth and more on traps and teleporters, so it's sometimes hard to know what to do next. 8/10 Definitely get this if you're into stealth games, Islamic culture, or both.

For similar reviews and our popular daily giveaways please visit http://www.steamified.com/ So what does the title Qasir al-Wasat actually mean? It’s meaning is relatively simple and cleverly ties into the game’s story. Qasir al-Wasat means the palace in the middle and that is precisely the game’s setting.The game’s Steam description, below, does a very good job in explaining the game. So rather than focusing on that I’ll jump immediately into my opinion on the actual game play. I’m not generally a huge fan of games where you’re dead in one hit and have to start over from a checkpoint but I was definitely a fan of this game. The setting is brilliant and the narrative that begins with the introduction really suckered me in. I genuinely felt as though I was experiencing Syrian culture. In a world where many people are far too easy to dismiss the culture because of world events its a real treat to see something that is so easy to immerse yourself in. It’s content is something that even those who hold ill-formed prejudices should be able to gain enjoyment from. I’m a huge fan of how the stealth mechanic works. It also happens to be the most important mechanic in the game – present in almost everything that you do. If you move into lit areas enemies will see you therefore you need to be careful where you are at all times. But that is only the first layer of the mechanic. Arguably the most important part, certainly the most compelling from my perspective, is if you kill an enemy and get blood splatter on you you’ll become visible to enemies even when you’re out of the light. There are pools of water spread throughout each map that allow you to cleanse yourself of the blood and to return to a fresh status. These are well placed throughout the game with most or at least many serving as a checkpoint (I didn’t die everywhere so I’m not one hundred percent certain). The puzzles, of which I would consider most games of being, are fantastic and helps make the action-adventure a thoroughly enjoyable experience. There are a number of ways to move throughout the majority of the areas of the game and each will result in making the next part of the game either easier or more difficult. It’s a game where you can choose to attack and kill everything in your path or try to play as sneakily and stealthily as possible. Some rooms will require you to kill your enemies where as others can be conquered without getting blood on your hands, literally. I really do not have much to criticize. The only thing would be considered trivial. I believe that you’re thrown in at the deep end and not quite in the best way possible. I died a few times in the very first room. It took me a couple of minutes to work out exactly what I had to do and then I was set. The game is difficult, intentionally so, and you will die often. A few of the hits do feel as though you’ve been cheated but they’re easy to overcome and it’s not really a big factor in the game. Otherwise it’s a truly wonderful experience and one of the best that I’ve had this year. I wholeheartedly recommend this game to everyone. I think there’s something here for all gamers and there truly is no content here that anyone could consider insulting. A truly great game. For our Steam group go here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Steamified For our Steam Curation go here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Steamified#curation

This game took about 10 hours to complete, so for the current steam sale is completely worth it. The puzzles in it were enjoyable and a bit difficult but that only made it better. I didn't have to look up a guide to figure any out, so that was nice. What I did have to look up a guide for was what I had to do next towards the end. Usually that's a deal breaker for me, but it was fine with this game since most of it was actually really well designed. As far as the gameplay, I generally hate games like this. I don't like walking around, running between rooms and overcoming traps and guards. However, the story was good and it drove me to continue and the mechanic of sneaking had a sense of fantasy realism. Basically no one is invisible (duh) but if they were the game portrayed how it would play out well enough. The graphics were fitting. I don't like 2D anything unless it's one of my old favorites, but actually the art was a really good. The sounds were good and musical. I wish there was voice acting, but instead it's something like Don't Starve when conversation happens. The voice acting could have really upped the game's value. Nonetheless, it was well done the way it was done. So I definitely recommend you purchase it even if it isn't up your alley (but at the $10 sale.) If it is up your alley, 15 dollars is better than acceptable. If you speak Arabic, I'd recommend it at $15 simply because it was so fun to read the names and know that you know the translations. It's set in a Muslim setting, so if you are Muslim, I guess that's nice too, but I'm not, so I have no idea.

Peguei Qasir na promoção do Steam pra testar. Comecei logo porque se eu não gostasse eu já pediria refund. Mal pensava eu que daí duas horas já estaria completamente viciado no game! Eu não sosseguei até descobrir todas as passagens secretas do palácio, interessado em cada trecho de história que o protagonista compartilhava sobre seu passado misterioso ou sobre o motivo de seu Contrato ter sido feito da maneira que foi no começo da história. Consegui pegar o final verdadeiro do game (o mais trabalhoso de conseguir) com menos de 10h de jogo. Ainda assim teve segredos do palácio que eu creio que não consegui descobrir. Esse estilo de jogo (viciante para mim) me fez lembrar quando eu estava aprendendo a jogar Resident Evil no PlayStation, vidrado para descobrir cada segredo da mansão. Qasir combina este tipo de exploração com puzzles e uma mecânica de stealth risco-recompensa e faz tudo de forma primorosa, junto com uma história rica e intrigante baseada na mitologia Persa. Qasir é, de longe, o melhor jogo indie brasileiro e obrigatório para quem curte esse estilo de jogo.

I've been writing guides for this game on One Angry Gamer, so I've actually played it for quite some time now. It has become one of my favorite stealth games. I highly recommend it and I REALLY love the story. I have become a bit obsessed with the secrets of the palace, and there are two things I am missing. 1. Accessing one of the secret rooms (I can't figure it out still...) 2. Find the final secret document. If you like Stealth adventure games with a good story, play this! Also... I would very much enjoy if the developers make a sequel so we can interact with the Northerners a bit. There was a certain painting that blew my mind. :P

Great ambiance and story but poor gameplay.

This game has unique, beautiful and polished art style, interesting lore and engaging plot. I loved every minute of exploring the enigmatic palace. Puzzles were the right amount of complexity for me too. Sound design is minimalistic, but quite clever. My only complaint about the game would probably be the music, or the lack of it really. As a musician, i cannot but think how this game would benefit from simple but authentic music, like oud or ney taksims, or mid eastern percussion layers, maybe something of this kind: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYQ_ol3L9Ag] Ney flute music [/url] I'd recommend this game for you if you enjoy artwork, atmosphere and exploring in games. This is probably not the game for you if you expect fast paced action. My thanks to developers for the great experience!

This is a remarkable game, mainly because of its lore and ambiance. The mechanics, which some reviewers harshly criticize, are not that bad at all. They just require the player to take things slowly. Achievements are fun to get and truly improve replayability. All in all a game I would like to see a sequel to.

Clever but in the end, boring.