颓废年代/The Age of Decadence

The Age of Decadence our first but hopefully not the last RPG is now available If you ve been following it or playing it in Early Access you know what to expect If you ve just discovered it quot stay awhile and listen quot The most commonly asked question is:What Kind of Game Is It
It s a very different game than anything you ve ever played I m sure you ve noticed that the RPG genre hasn t really been explored yet and most RPGs follow the formula that didn t change in20 years While there were always games that strayed off the beaten path Darklands Planescape Torment King of Dragon Pass such games were the exceptions that only reinforced the rule
The Age of Decadence is an experiment an attempt to explore a different direction taking you back to the PnP roots of the genre It doesn t mean that the game is awesome In fact there is a good chance that you won t like it precisely because we took too many liberties with the established design
So What Sets The Age of Decadence Apart From Other Games1 The Setup
Traditionally many fantasy RPGs are about killing things clearing up dungeons and being a hero There is nothing wrong with mindless fun and wish fulfillment but we want to offer you something different To quote Tom Chick Quarter to Three s game critic
quot But Age of Decadence wants nothing to do with kobolds just as it wants nothing to do with Doo-dads of Unimaginable Power The overarching idea is a crumbling society divided among three noble Houses each fumbling around in its own version of darkness to comprehend what destroyed the world That s the central mystery It plays out like noir in that you are the detective piecing together what really happened from differing accounts all vividly written with clear voices and efficient prose And like a detective in a noir yarn you can t help but become part of the central mystery effecting an outcome you might not have intended quot
The Age of Decadence is not a game about killing monsters or exploring mystical lands but rather surviving amid the greed and brutality of your fellow humans and carving out a name for yourself Good and bad are purely relative It s a world of scheming and backstabbing in which your words and actions have the potential to forge alliances and sow discord and your path is never certain
You get to play with seven different factions three Noble Houses and four professional guilds merchants assassins thieves and the army all fighting for power or influence over100 named characters over750 generic characters with unique IDs taking part in violent take-overs assassinations and power grabs and over600000 words of dialogue a well-developed and thought through world believable characters realistic motivations but no elves dwarves magic and wizards in fashionable pointy hats.2 Combat difficulty
Another design aspect worth mentioning is combat difficulty It s a hard game
Combat difficulty is integrated into the setting You can t say that the world is harsh and unforgiving and then let the player kill everyone who looks at him or her funny The game has to be hard dying should be easy and you should have reasons to pick your fights
You aren t a powerful hero who can defeat anyone and save the world and it is the difficulty that reinforces this notion Make the game easier and we re back to the powerful hero setup So unless you re a natural born killer watch what you say and think before you act or you ll end up dead before you can blink.3 Choices amp Consequences
Choices are what the game is all about crafting your own narrative via a variety of choices that alter the story playing field and your options down the road From multiple quest solutions to branching questlines you ll have plenty decisions to make and consequences of said decisions to deal with which is what makes the game incredibly replayable
Starting the game as a mercenary and joining the Imperial Guards will give a completely different experience different quests different content and points of view than say playing the game as a merchant less buying low and selling high more scheming and plotting to gain advantages for the guild a praetor serving a Noble House or an assassin
The questlines are interwoven forming a large overarching story so playing the game only once will be like witnessing events from a single perspective which is limited by default You will have to play the game several times to better understand what s going on piece everything together and see the full effect of the choices you make.The Big Question Should You Buy The Game
Try before you buy Even if everything I said sounds exactly like your kind of game try the demo first That s what it s there for It gives you access to the first Chapter consisting of3 locations and about30 quests split between mutually exclusive questlines and decisions