Age of Decadence

Role-playing game rarely take the “role” part into consideration nowadays and opt to go for a more action-oriented gameplay style, emphasizing on skill trees and realistic battles. However, this leaves other areas exposed and weak, such as the story, the background lore and the evolution of the main character(s) throughout the main quest line.

Age of Decadence is stubborn enough not to follow the rules of the modern industry and tries to captivate gamers with a different set of elements. This is still an experiment, mind you, but it has already surpassed many other titles to be considered a moderate success even now, even if it is not finished yet and there are a couple of things that could require polishing. However, everything is in its rightful place for a change, which means that only more content and a few gameplay fixes are required in order for the game to compete with the best of them.

When you first load up the game, you are first asked to create a character, as it is customary in almost any RPG title. The choices include classes like Assassin, Loremaster, or Merchant, but they can be fully customized with the desired skills, which are split into Combat and Civil. Thus, you can choose whether to be proficient with daggers or crossbows, as well as decide on how experienced your character will be with a lockpick in his hand, or how well he can pass as someone else, by spending points in the Disguise skill.

The defining factor, however, is that every class gets its own storyline and different quests, which means that no two characters will ever play out the same. It is of grave importance that you are at least somewhat familiar with how stats and skills work, otherwise you can get stuck, due to the fact that your character lacks the necessary ability to accomplish certain tasks during one of the many quests that lie ahead.

Story-wise, Age of Decadence takes place in a fictional land that is actually inspired by the Roman Empire and its fall, which means that the architecture looks very familiar and many of the events can be inspired from those that transpired around that period. However, the lore is almost entirely original and you can enjoy plenty of made up gods, locations and characters that shape up the world of the game and make it feel very lively and real.

One thing that's fairly obvious right from the beginning is the fact that a lot of work went into the story, the quests and the actual dialogue that keeps the plot moving. While it is true that you have a lot of answer choices during the conversations and many of them affect your influence with certain factions, as well as the story as a whole, you can also stumble into staggering amounts of texts by just wondering around the village, where preachers try to convince the peasants that the gods are about to return, or drunken storytellers who yack about long forgotten wars and the demons that ravaged the lands a long time ago.

Whenever things get a bit more violent, the game quickly changes into a turn-based combat simulator, which means that you have to keep an eye on the action points and your skills in order to deliver the maximum amount of damage over the course of each round. Every enemy is unique and poses a challenge, regardless of whether he is a lowlife thief, or a highly decorated knight that can barely be seen behind his thick armor. Thus, you should definitely pay a lot of attention to the fights, otherwise you might end up losing at very inappropriate moments.

In the end, Age of Decadence is still in beta at this time, but you definitely cannot tell that by playing it. The character creation wizard is sturdy, the dialogue is extensive and the story does not lack depth, not to mention the fact that you can actively change it as you go along.

The fact that the quest line is different for each class and the combat system uses turn-based mechanics to deliver a satisfying experience truly works wonders for the atmosphere. The only downside, however, might be the fact that the difficulty level is a bit too high and it can get frustrating at times, especially since it is really easy to get stuck because you did not pay enough attention to your character.