The game, at first glance, is just another 4X game, boasting economics, diplomacy, warfare, exploration, etc. along with an actual pantheon of gods to worship.
Warfare is pretty much getting together all your warriors and selecting "Charge" and "Maneuver" for offense and defense respectively. Trade is more or less just a random "Exchange one currency for another" mechanic, with a delay between the result. Diplomacy is especially simplistic, essentially boiling down to bribing other people to like you or begging them. The story is about uniting people for the common good: need I say more?
Easily the weakest part of the game is the heroquests, where worshippers propel themselves into an alternate dimension to reenact legendary deeds of their gods, in order to solve a problem relating to the quest(a quest about negotiating a conflict, for example, can end a "real life" conflict). You can read the myths in the game "Lore" section, but mimicking the myth doesn't always work, and heroquests can easily turn into a frustrating combination of Trial-and-Error Gameplay and Luck-Based Mission (selecting the right decision is only the first step. Things like magic preparation and quester skills affect the result too). One part of the Lore section talks about the "Lightbringers Quest", which is so big and complex it is divided into several sections, but you never get to play it.
Seeing as completing heroquests is necessary to win the game, it would have been a more smooth (if predictable) end to the game. In addition, reenacting this particular heroquest (which more or less ends an ongoing apocalypse) would logically destroy or at least defeat Chaos, bringing the greater cosmic story going on in the background to closure as well.
But in spite of all of this, I can confidently say that this is one of my favorite games, due to the art, immersion in such a detailed and thought-out universe, and the interesting and hard decisions it forces you to make. It's weird, it's flawed, and there's nothing I can compare it to. And that's just the way I like it.
PS. That "haunted stead (house)" event is comedy gold. I laughed when I saw that suing the ghost was an option. I laughed even harder when it worked perfectly.
Give it a try.
A lot to unpack:
The game, at first glance, is just another 4X game, boasting economics, diplomacy, warfare, exploration, etc. along with an actual pantheon of gods to worship.
Warfare is pretty much getting together all your warriors and selecting "Charge" and "Maneuver" for offense and defense respectively. Trade is more or less just a random "Exchange one currency for another" mechanic, with a delay between the result. Diplomacy is especially simplistic, essentially boiling down to bribing other people to like you or begging them. The story is about uniting people for the common good: need I say more?
Easily the weakest part of the game is the heroquests, where worshippers propel themselves into an alternate dimension to reenact legendary deeds of their gods, in order to solve a problem relating to the quest(a quest about negotiating a conflict, for example, can end a "real life" conflict). You can read the myths in the game "Lore" section, but mimicking the myth doesn't always work, and heroquests can easily turn into a frustrating combination of Trial-and-Error Gameplay and Luck-Based Mission (selecting the right decision is only the first step. Things like magic preparation and quester skills affect the result too). One part of the Lore section talks about the "Lightbringers Quest", which is so big and complex it is divided into several sections, but you never get to play it.
Seeing as completing heroquests is necessary to win the game, it would have been a more smooth (if predictable) end to the game. In addition, reenacting this particular heroquest (which more or less ends an ongoing apocalypse) would logically destroy or at least defeat Chaos, bringing the greater cosmic story going on in the background to closure as well.
But in spite of all of this, I can confidently say that this is one of my favorite games, due to the art, immersion in such a detailed and thought-out universe, and the interesting and hard decisions it forces you to make. It's weird, it's flawed, and there's nothing I can compare it to. And that's just the way I like it.
PS. That "haunted stead (house)" event is comedy gold. I laughed when I saw that suing the ghost was an option. I laughed even harder when it worked perfectly.