Varthos - Heir to the Throne

It's an odd game. ARPGs are about having a build idea, moving forward with it by focusing on paths and avenues the game has to progress it, and to take it to ends of the game. This game is about taking what drops you have, altering completely what you do based on those drops, and getting lucky enough to get carried forward. There is no builds here; attribute points do so little in terms of lowering and mitigating damage as to be almost useless. The only progression found in game is to either die or win a round and take what meta-progression you acquire to boost your account for when you start the game. Items are dropped based on level, which scales somewhat to what attributes they can boost, but more importantly, the base damage of an item. The only good path I see so far in game is to get lucky enough to drop a high damage item that can carry you for a few levels. This is much harder at level 1, where you are introduced to game, as zones to adjust to your level as you level. Instead creatures are the level where you started the zone at. I was level 7 when I ended the first zone, where it rescaled to level 7 enemies. In that time of playing the first area, I ran into a few issues. There is no regeneration for health, which is what the entire difficulty of the game seems centered around. The only difficulty is how well you back up and dodge some attacks. Since enemies will stop where they are to attack you when in range, you backing up at a good speed will negate MOST things hitting you. Except range attacks. Range attacks will auto target you up till the point the projectile is released. If the enemy has naturally fast projectile speed for its animation and enemy sprite, such as the goatmen in the desert area, they are the most dangerous creatures in game. The stones also have a solid chance of stunning you for two full seconds. The second area, in contrast, was not as tough as I dropped a two handed weapon that took me from doing 70-90 damage per default to about 300-350 damage per auto attack. The weapon also had a small AoE lightning spell that was low cooldown, stuns all enemies for 2 seconds, and did base damage equal to the weapon for almost no mana cost. The only thing was semi-difficult afterward was the boss. The boss will stand still and throw super fast poison canisters filled with spiders. If you damage him enough, it will cause him to be stunned for like five seconds. If you can time your dodges well enough, have enough damage, the round is over and you technically win, letting you exit that game, keeping your character and gear. What happens if you are in the middle of a run a need to do other things? Well too bad, you can leave your run and lose all your gear. That's your problem. It was at this point, I ALT+F4ed and probably will not be back without massive changes to how the game functions In conclusion, the only benefit to playing this game is to semi-mindlessly backup, ogle over a lucky drop that defines or ruins your run by not dropping, dying ignobly, and either going back for more or quitting entirely. Things to fix: -Have some amount of progression in game for certain playstyles. You can play as a trapper but I saw no trapper abilities whatsoever -Make your attributes actually affect your stats beyond a few HP per point with no scaling, compared to enemy health bars -Either scale creatures to the level of the character as they progress through the zone or give some level scaling to loot as your progress through the zone. -Give players some reason to continue playing the game. Two maps, no way to save and quit between runs, and no other incentives beyond some basic meta-progression.

Review by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34633003-Gaming-Masterpieces/lists/] Gaming Masterpieces [/url] - The greatest games of all time on Steam. Is this game a masterpiece? No, not now. Maybe never. Varthos – Heir to the Throne is the debut title from Nightshift Game Development, a small studio founded by three industry veterans from Berlin. You can never have enough Diablo-like games, so let’s take a look. And off we go… or maybe not. Uh—Varthos – Heir to the Throne doesn’t support gamepads? Sure, the PC master race plays only with mouse and keyboard—but normal people have long since gotten used to controllers on PC as well. I installed the game on my living room PC to relax on the couch over the weekend while testing it thoroughly. That’s not going to happen—uninstall and reinstall it on another test machine. No idea why the developers decided against controller support—but it’s sure to draw heavy criticism. How am I supposed to play this on the Steam Deck? It also completely rules out console ports—unless Nightshift later figures out how to make the game work with a controller. Fine—second attempt with mouse and keyboard… First, you create your character. You can choose between four talents, though there aren’t any strict classes. Besides the generalist, you can focus on melee combat (Brawler), magic (Scholar), or ranged combat (Tracker), but over the course of the game you can develop your character however you like. So your initial choice doesn’t lock you out of anything. You can’t change your appearance or other features, but you can at least name your character. Then you choose where to begin—either in the forest or the desert. There you stand, wearing nothing but a loincloth. Grab the weapons lying around, equip them, and soon the first suicidal giant frogs (in the forest—spiders in the desert) attack you. Slash them down with your sword or shoot them with your bow (which has unlimited ammo). Before long, other enemies appear and drop items like weapons and clothing. Many enemies also drop healing potions—honestly, they should have used them instead of mindlessly attacking me! However, you can’t carry much…which makes sense—your loincloth doesn’t have many pockets. Still, it becomes tedious quickly: after picking up a few items, you’ll have to either make room in your “underwear inventory” or leave things behind. Most equipment can’t be used right away anyway—you need to level up first before equipping better gear. Movement uses WASD, while aiming is controlled with the mouse. You can zoom or rotate the camera with the mouse wheel. Holding Ctrl lets you block with a shield (if equipped), reducing damage, and pressing Space lets you dash—leaving a trail of fire that enemies happily walk into. At the bottom left of the screen is your health bar, and on the right your mana bar. You can also see stamina, experience progress, and a minimap in the top-right corner. Character progression isn’t straightforward, however. In Varthos, many elements are procedurally generated—not just dungeons and loot, but also abilities. Your character develops depending on the items you wear. On leveling up, you gain attribute points to distribute among stats such as Vitality, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Toughness. If you die—you’re dead. Permanently. Permadeath. And this is on normal difficulty. There’s no easier setting—only two harder ones (Hard and Nightmare), which are locked at the start. After dying, you’ll see a “you died” message and return to the lobby to create a new character. At least that process is quick. But this clearly isn’t a game for the faint of heart. As typical for roguelites, there is also permanent meta-progression. By earning hero points, you can unlock upgrades in the lobby before starting a new run—these improvements apply to all future characters. A total of 16 attributes can be upgraded across four tiers each. This system is crucial because you will die often at the beginning—that’s intentional. Only after multiple runs will your characters become stronger and survive longer... assuming you earn enough hero points. The story is very sparse—actually, it barely exists at the moment. You’re supposedly thrown into a struggle for the throne—survive, and you’ll become the new ruler? Hard to say. The level selection screen mentions objectives like defeating a leader in a desert temple or uncovering the secrets of a monastery in the forest. The developers plan to expand the narrative later. There’s also no real tutorial yet, though basic mechanics are explained via text pop-ups. A more detailed tutorial is planned. There’s no voice acting either—understandable, given the lack of a real story. The game is expected to remain in early access for at least another year. Ultrawide monitor support also needs improvement—currently, you get large black bars on a 3440×1440 display. Performance-wise, the game runs without issues, though system fans may ramp up even at capped frame rates, suggesting further optimization is needed. [u][b] Conclusion:[/b][/u] Varthos – Heir to the Throne attempts to refine the classic Diablo-style gameplay. At its core, it’s a traditional hack-and-slash action RPG, but it also incorporates elements from modern extraction shooters. The game uses a familiar isometric perspective, and the graphics look solid. Equipment you wear is visually reflected on your character. Enemies behave as expected—fairly dumb, attacking within a set radius and retreating when you leave it. The game is designed for multiplayer, supporting up to three online players. This significantly lowers the difficulty, and players can revive each other in certain situations. Playing solo, however, it’s currently more suited to hardcore players. Overall, it’s only partially recommendable at this stage. The foundation is solid, but it lacks content and variety. What’s there is good—but it would benefit from more diversity and polish.

so.. im going to recommend this game based on a couple things. for one thing the dev kept their word and added controller support, you dont get that very often. on top of that once you get the hang of whats going on its actually a fun game even in early access. i think a lot of the older reviews on steam from early access games should probably be removed after a while because they pertain to the product in the past, (ver.0.0.001 vs. ver.0.5.06) like progress HAS been made, the devs are not only active but reachable. i dont think its meant to be an "easy" game and as such i dont expect to never die (you are actually rewarded for dying up to a point). little by little you get stronger until you start beating levels and then difficulties. im told more features are coming which im sure will be interesting, lots more to unlock. the skills/spells are on the weapons which is nice too because the right weapon can change your playstyle drastically without being entirely alien. ive had a lot of fun with it knowing its only in early access. i wouldnt take TOO seriously reviews that are old or from people who only played for less than an hour (they didnt learn the game). try it yourself, its not a huge spend and you can get it bundled.

아니 이 미친 짭디아들 용서할 수가 없다 블리자드에게 사죄해라. 만들거면 버그라도 없애!! 내 아학자 오늘 그는 죽었다. 아 개짱나

I like the taste a lot! Very fun game to play with friends. I hope you can change the way to revive teammate instead of finding a shrines. For example, like sacrifice half of HP or portions.

Such a unique genre mashup! I’m only a few hours in and I can already tell I’m going to spend a lot of time here. It’s still early days, so expect some missing features and a need for more content, but the co-op experience is already a blast. It has that "just one more try" feel that makes a great game. Excited to see where the developers take this!

Fun Game. Needs optimization and more maps. Looking forward to future uptdates!

Interesting so far. This is the first perma-death type game I have played so I am still getting use to it. Bought it during early access for $20 and so far I would recommend it.

Love this game so far! Coming from a long time POE / Diablo and general ARPG fan. I love the visual elements of this game so far, evertthing looks great. I like how the weapons give the skills you use, perhaps in the future, equipment could do the same by giving similar skills or enhancements to skills. I cant wait to try playing with this friends, I think it will encourage voice chat / parties to have to literally communicate and coordinate attacks, due to how quickly you can die in this game if not tactical, and I think that's awesome! Also coming from a mostly Console gaming point of view, I need to play this with a controller, but so far it's awesome early access game!

coop is fun need more skills more chest more maps shrines to buff or change skills