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| Sanctuary RPG - Black Edition by Mischief Maker 02/15/2015, 5:55pm PST | ||||
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| This review is ultimately going to be positive, but I'm going to start out very negative.
Sanctuary RPG is like an inverse Sunless Sea. The setting is poorly hashed out, the humor fucking sucks (let's just call back potatoes over and over again, callbacks are always funny!), the author is clearly a young atheist who wrote this whole unnecessary faith vs reason dynamic into the game with pamphlets that are the one thing that bring the gameplay to a screeching halt, and there's very little in the way of "I wonder what comes next?" to push you along. Holy fuck what I would give to merge the setting of Sunless Sea into this game's engine. Yes this game's engine, ASCII art and all, because if you're going to try and evoke Lovecraftian horror, it's better for the monstrosities to be vague and rely on the player's imagination to fill in the blanks rather than render Cthulhu in sharp detail (see: Magrunner). But unlike Sunless Sea the gameplay is fun, addicting, and there is absolutely no dead time. It's best described as a FTL mixed with the original Might and Magic and an action brawler. Maybe I should parse that in more detail: Like FTL, it's a windowed game that plays out as a string of random combat encounters with the chance to pick up equipment and boost various RPG stats between fights. It's like Might and Magic because because of its white text on black background aesthetic and keyboard hotkey controls (protip: it's meant to be played with your left hand on the home position and your right hand on the number pad) and turn-based combat. It's like a brawler because of the actual controls. In combat you have keys for light attack, medium attack, and heavy attack. Pulling off combos charges a power attack. While attacks are recharging they're replaced by a dodge/movement button, and you get a heal spell that zeroes out your combo counter (essentially a panic move). It doesn't take long to figure out the basic 1-2-3-3, 1-2-3-3, R combo to maximize damage output when things are smooth sailing. Things are rarely smooth sailing. There are a shitton of status effects enemies can pile on you that require interrupting your combos to deal with, super-attacks that you might want to save your power attack to counter in case a dodge is not available that round, and gobs of randomly generated enemy prefixes that can have severe effects on your strategy (like "nimble" enemies who automatically dodge heavy attacks). What's more, the different classes and races have various and sundry perks (And I strongly recommend reading the FULL perk list when creating a character) that can have all manner of effect on your strategy, like the Flammkin race has a chance of setting your enemy on fire every time you do a dodge/movement. Between fights you have access to a town full of merchants, a blacksmithing minigame where you create your own equipment, a tavern minigame where you make money by buying beer when it's cheap and selling it when it's expensive, and every single thing you do grants XP. What's more, the game's shitty graphics and primitive interface work to its advantage. While someone playing Sunless Sea has to drum their fingers on the desk impatiently as their little boat put-puts to the next port, in Sanctuary RPG the keyboard controls and no animations means the game moves as fast as you type. Don't want to read a cutscene? Hold down enter and it flies by in seconds. It's just a never-ending gobstopper of tactical combat puzzles with zero dead time. More often than not, when I die, it's because I'm zipping too quickly through the fights and wasn't keeping an eye on my HP. The old freeware version is available as a demo. The ASCII art is better in Black Edition, and the combat more complex. Recommended! |
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Sanctuary RPG - Black Edition by 02/15/2015, 5:55pm PST  I need a screen shot for this and we're good for the front page by 02/18/2015, 8:16am PST Yeah, if you're still looking for combat engine ideas, totally check this out! NT by 02/18/2015, 9:04am PST Yeah, if you're still looking for combat engine ideas, totally check this out! by 02/18/2015, 9:57am PST Don't frontpage! Nevermind! This game is obsolete! by 02/27/2015, 3:36pm PST I would not say Sanctuary is obsolete because some other game was released. NT by 03/17/2015, 9:02am PDT |
