Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones

Олдскульная RPG для настоящих фанатов жанра и крепкая адаптация миров Лавкрафта под видеоигровые реалии. Не особенно страшное, но атмосферное, эффектное и сюрреалистическое приключение, которое вполне позволяет проникнуться духом мифов Ктулху. Все бы ничего.. Просто доделайте игру... Просто сделайте это! Я на эту игру очень сильно зол. Она великолепна во многих своих аспектах за исключением того, что это гребаный огрызок! Игра тупо не закончена, она обрывается на середине. Я серьезно, там центральная сюжетная линия не завершена, там куча линий просто обрываются и ты сидишь перед мониторов прифигевший. Я не понимаю, зачем было в релиз впускать игру незавершенную, вообще поехавшие что ли. Плюс баги в предпоследней локации - на Окаянной улице жесткие. А в последней локации ты идешь такой, подбираешь предметы, артефакты и поэтому даже мыслей нет что это конец, но игра заканчивается. Зачем тогда было эти предметы тебе давать? К чему вообще весь сюжет? Жесть, как расстроило. [h2]Плюсы:[/h2] + Дух Лавкрафта; + Ролевой отыгрыш; + Свобода и вариативность геймплея; + Эффектная рисовка; + Атмосферная музыка. [h2]Минусы:[/h2] - Баги; - Слишком винтажный интерфейс; - Отсутствие самостоятельных сохранений; - Бои идут очень медленно.

After around 10 hours of playtime, I can say that this game may just not be for me. I wasn't into the themes and the game seems difficult for the sake of being difficult. The character creation is fine but after hours of playing I wish some things were explained better. I enjoy games that give the player freedom to play how they want to play and build their characters how they wish. But it's clear the game wants to you play a certain way and the character I made was not suited for this playstyle. There is a game there that some will like and enjoy. Not me though.

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This is not going to be a popular review. I really liked the game, despite the rage it gets. The game is graphically beautiful without needing to be too demanding. It has great soundtrack, ambiance, really effective at creating an atmosphere we would expect from a game set in a Lovecratian-like universe. It has some reaplayability value two with it's many character types and achievements to get, although it will get tiring once you know the story already. I loved the mechanics, the side characters, etc. The only real big thing to complain is that the game was never finished, its not even a matter of an open ending. It's straight "waiting eternally for the next chapter" kind of unfinished. Meanwhile, the devs already started working on a new, first-person game, set in the same universe that is currently on early access. It looks as promissing as it's predecessor, however not worth buying in early access as it will probably end up being an unfinished game for a spicy price as the other.

Я люблю её такой, какая она есть. И как бы грустно ни было от всего того, что могло бы быть, она всё равно хорошая.

[h2]Você vai sair louco sim, mas de raiva[/h2] Não falarei muito, pois não há muito a ser dito, mas o fato é que [i]Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones[/i] poderia ser O MELHOR jogo de horror cósmico lovecraftiano já feito - ainda mais somando-se ao fato de que é um RPG muito competente e complexo com uma arte simplesmente maravilhosa - mas apenas acaba sendo um jogo frustrante e incompleto. Joguei até o "final" e simplesmente estava amando tudo que vi até chegar nele, apesar da maioria dos confrontos por turno ser totalmente desbalanceada e, às vezes, quase impossível de lidar. O problema, e grande golpe deste jogo, realmente é que ele termina te dizendo que existe ainda muito a ser visto neste incrível universo criado, mas pode ir embora que o show acabou e não haverá reembolso. E não sabemos se foi por falta de orçamento, problemas durante o desenvolvimento, falta de vontade, etc. Eu acho que eles poderiam, pelo menos, ser honestos na descrição do jogo - pelo menos! É inacreditável, mas real. Demorei muito para fazer esta análise, acredito que esperando um milagre onde nos trariam "o resto" do jogo, além de um final decente e verdadeiro, mas não há/houve nada disso, e apenas posso dizer o que era para ter dito há muito tempo: não mergulhem neste mar de horror cósmico sem fim, pois a decepção será grandiosa.

Очень хорошо. Да, чувствуется не очень большой бюджет, но это не мешает игре рассказывать увлекательную историю. Боёвка слабенькая, наверное, стоит это признать сразу. Но мне, честно, вообще никак не помешало кайфануть от игры. От атмосферы. Лучшее что я играл по уровню нагнетания и беспомощности перед первородным и непостижимым ужасом. Не хочу сравнивать с Темнейшим Подземельем.. по рисовке оно конечно делает многих. Но этот тягучий тёмный кошмар здесь ощущается даже лучше. Если по началу игра хорошо поддерживает эмбиент и в меру гротескна, то Окаянная улица - вообще топ и выше всяких похвал. Я когда читал "Цвет из иных миров", думал мол - хехек, Говард Филипсович, ну вы конечно хорошо пишите, но идея ваша несколько наивна, хехек. Ребята же на разрабах просто дали подержать пивас и седеть молча обалдевать от того, на сколько лютый и не познаваемый концентрированный пездач - этот "цвет". Пострашнее рыбного запаха в Инсмуте. Моё уважение разрабам! Забаговалась? Переустанови, это очень быстро. Upd: Это на столько атмосферная поделка, что я даже титры досмотрел (один раз из сотни такое происходит). Да, не жoпаотвальный миллионный блокбастер. Не прорывная, невиданными ранее файвхэд сюжет новелла. Это очень гипертрофированная в своём стиле и превосходная по существу игрулька. Занимательный бриллиант в моей библиотеке (На момент написания там 300+ игр). Я уверен что перепройду её ещё не раз. Даже записки тут не ощущаются как уeбищный пережиток и рудимент эпохи гейдельбергенсисов. Тут нет унылых тонн писанины, которые устаёшь прокликивать. Всё работает на нарратив.

This game is not a hidden gem, but it could've been- I enjoyed the game, it has its problems, and probably isn't worth full price, but I wish I could find another game just like this but... more. It's so close. So close. It does also end abruptly, which is unfortunate, but I can still hope for more. Long story short; I enjoyed it despite its flaws and don't regret giving the devs my money. If it's on sale definitely check it out, if not- I don't know.

Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones is a Lovecraftian pastiche horror CRPG/”Sanity Loss for tripping over a rock” simulator developed by Cultic Games, a company out of Istanbul who talked about how their “next game” would be a Lovecraftian RPG after seeing a hole in the CRPG genre for the Lovecraftian mythos. Considering a lot of this is coming from their Kickstarter Video, I’m unsure as to what if any previous titles they had developed or if this was misspoken considering I haven’t found much in the way of an actual history on them, but nonetheless they were extremely passionate in the midst of creating this game. According to a Cliqst Interview (or at least a number of questions with responses sent back over mail), the developers were originally working on a board game named “4 Lords” before they seemed to switch gears and focus on a CRPG in the world of Cthulhu, all of which stemmed from developer Can Oral’s obsession with Lovecraft’s work. He had also noticed that most CRPG titles out there tended to focus on certain settings and themes, because not only was a CRPG a “risk” in publisher eyes, but a fantasy based one would be considered the most “financially sound”. With this in mind, they launched the Kickstarter around the same time they launched their first gameplay trailer; with promises of new archetypes alongside the town of Dunwich, The Dreamlands and Spellcrafting, alongside many more companions which include a narcissistic cat from Ulthar. Huge promises and stretch goals aside, they had stated in the Kickstarter that they had gone through with the website in order to stay independent without the restrictions of a publisher breathing down their neck. Overall with their financial goals, they had made 73,000 euros compared to the 50,000 euro goal and had still gotten a publisher, with an ultimate release date of September 2019. I’m going to wait til’ the end to really go into what happened after the release of Stygian, but I wanna talk about how I learned about this game and what led me to feel how I feel about it. Most of the review: https://backloggd.com/u/gamemast15r/review/4508712/ So the gameplay for the game is a CRPG, which in general involves Isometric travel mixed in with (usually) turn based combat and social mechanics that allow you to progress through a variety of different quests both side and story in many different ways. The first thing that you do is create a character based on one of several different aspects: Gender, Age, Archetype (and Background), Belief System, character portrait and then skill distribution. Gender is obvious and provides no stats whatsoever whilst age can give you a boost in skill points at the cost of certain skills (unless you’re an adult in which case you’re equally balanced). Archetype determines the general skills points you focus on whilst also determining character background (i.e. you choose a Criminal then you focus on certain skills and get bonuses with criminal characters) whilst the background itself gives specific bonuses (i.e. Occult Detective gives +1 Occult skill as well as +50 Angst, that’ll be explained later). The character portrait just gives you a general face, then you get to the skill distribution: your attributes represent your overall effectiveness with your individual skills and they’re all self-explanatory. From there you wake up. I chose to roleplay as a Criminal Gangster character of course and set out to do my thing with a focus on combat and charisma. One thing I will tell you to keep in mind is that sticking with your Belief System is something I would definitely recommend doing, because if you stick with it no matter what you will be provided unique dialogue as well as sanity, which is essential in this Lovecraftian hellscape. I suppose from here I should explain what Sanity is as a mechanic. As Lovecraft’s stories involve the loss of one’s sanity due to witnessing forces incomprehensible to man, the more horrific things you witness the quicker your sanity falls. Losing all of your sanity provides an instant fail state of course, but lowering it enough for long periods of times will add “Angst” to your character as well as change certain dialogue choices to sound a bit more “psychotic” so to speak. Angst is like an anti-level up, in which you can see too much and get hit with a penalty of your choice though I should mention this doesn’t take away from your actual levels up. At one point late in the game, my character leveled up his angst enough that I chose for him to become a psychopath, which makes you lose sanity for each period of time you avoid combat. Of course in combat situations, characters with lower sanity or angst penalties could suffer terribly in combat depending on the scenario, made worse by the fact that some of the creatures you fight quite literally take off portions of sanity as well. Killing creatures DOES NOT provide you sanity either, which means balancing your sanity with your belief system and a combination of treatment from companions (i.e. Sonia Greene Carter) or substitutes like drugs and alcohol can help you regain your sanity back. The latter of course has a good chance of getting you addicted to these substances, though of course if you were to buy a cure then that can be easily settled. Another reason that sanity is important is that if you’re going to settle with using magic, Sanity IS your magic meter, so you’ll need to keep that high enough to use it against your enemies. What’s my overall summary on gameplay? Too long; didn’t read version: it has a lot of cool ideas and mechanics that feel straight out of a tabletop roleplaying game, but combat and a crafting system that I’m not really huge into that’s mixed with difficulty spikes and a sense of cramming as much into as little as possible that it feels like there’s stuff missing with it. The good old “the potential is there for a much greater game” schtick, but a game that’s worth giving a shot anyways just to see at least how certain things work. Also managing your sanity can be a bit difficult and annoying to balance, but that’s a part of the experience alongside being potentially poor with money. Links: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1879603171 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?l=koreana&id=2226977687 https://stygian.fandom.com/wiki/Console_Commands https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/culticgames/stygian-a-lovecraftian-computer-rpg/posts/4069844 https://steamcommunity.com/app/779290/discussions/0/2575445815938589188/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/779290/discussions/0/1629665087671006948/?ctp=2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1360390/Cats_and_the_Other_Lives/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2581410/Stygian_Outer_Gods/ https://www.youtube.com/@CulticGames/videos https://www.culticgames.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ap5Dv1Sd-Q (Kickstarter Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2-ivhhpEtE (original Gameplay trailer debut) https://cliqist.com/2016/06/22/interviewing-stygian-creators-cultic-games/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/779290/discussions/0/2575445991829728723/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/779290/discussions/0/1629664544092194792/#c1629664606983252519 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2-ivhhpEtE (Debut gameplay trailer circa 2016) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/culticgames/stygian-a-lovecraftian-computer-rpg/description https://steamcommunity.com/app/779290/discussions/0/4141690560285048168/ https://steamcommunity.com/app/779290/discussions/0/4379130767059339571/ https://x.com/CulticGames [spoiler]https://stygian.fandom.com/wiki/The_Nameless_Soldier https://stygian.fandom.com/wiki/Companion https://stygian.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Day https://stygian.fandom.com/wiki/The_Black_Pyramid https://stygian.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Lips[/spoiler] https://stygian.fandom.com/wiki/Stygian_Artbook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbIBiEcD1iw&list=PLw-q3AaRgusdaPx5U0pwg4nzBSy0-iXiz&index=1 (Full Let’s Play)

Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones is a standout for anyone craving a true Lovecraftian role-playing experience. From the moment you enter its deeply customizable character creator, the game excels at pulling you into its world; your choices genuinely shape how you interact with the horrors around you. The depth of its RP mechanics makes you feel less like you’re playing a character and more like you are the investigator, slowly unraveling alongside the narrative. The game’s commitment to Lovecraftian authenticity is exceptional. Its atmosphere, writing, and themes capture cosmic dread in a way few games manage, and it confidently stands beside classics like Fallout and Fallout 2 in terms of old-school RPG depth, choice, and consequence. That said, it isn’t without flaws. Combat can be buggy at times, and the late game takes a strange, occasionally frustrating turn. After you “learn the Duchess’s spell,” you’ll know exactly what I mean. The pacing and structure shift in ways that can feel disorienting. But if you push through that stretch, the game regains its footing and delivers a strong, memorable conclusion. Overall, Stygian is a deeply immersive experience with well-written and memorable characters. An atmospheric RPG that rewards patience and roleplaying investment, well worth experiencing for fans of classic CRPGs and cosmic horror alike. The game’s most compelling mechanic may be how it slowly drives the protagonist toward madness as a genuine RPG system, blending narrative and gameplay into one creeping descent. You may find yourself thinking, “If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!” - H. P. Lovecraft