A true role-playing adventure. Set in the icy Staglands, this party-based CRPG has you take the role of a trapped god on a perilous journey across a beautiful, deadly peninsula.
Mixed
202 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Y | — | Y |
If you like playing weird indie crpgs, this is right up your ally, sure it has its hick ups, but so do most indie crpgs.
You gotta love exploring new lore, new ways the combat works, etc.
I am a type of player that enjoyed Mars wars logs, this, Underrail, etc, more then Baldurs gate 3 (bg3 is a great game, but its everything that I have already seen, done better), games like this are weird, and full of lore and different gameplay mechanics that makes it fun for me.
Do it...
Если вы прожженный любитель рпг и не чураетесь джанка, то эта игра станет для вас открытием. Разработчики отвергают многие аксиомы жанра и дают взамен что-то по настоящему свежее и захватывающее
Overall it had its flaws but it was using its own rpg ruleset in a completely new world so some growing pains are to be expected and I can't wait for the full release of the 2nd game in this world
Everything is fukken clumky.
Интересная игра хз никогда описания не писал) нравится играю что еще надо
Amazing call back for fans who loved 90's infinity engine crpgs
Epic game.
Nah. I get wanting to make your game "old school" and stuff, that's why I bought it, but it shouldn't mean it's clunky, buggy and just plain tedious. Targeting sucks, my characters can't remember the order I put them in, the pathfinding is weak, terrible save/load times, just plays like a brick in general. And I get the "our game is difficult" gimmick, after having my whole party wiped out by a fox (oh, wow, yeah, super difficult, super oldschool) I managed to familiarize myself with the combat/spell system to the point of semi-confidently exploring and killing goblins and bandits and whatnot, but it's just tedious. That's not how you do "difficult". The overall vibe is artsy-fartsy "we think we know what an RPG is but in reality we don't" kinda deal, at least so far - looks like the RPG element is limited to the mechanics and build porn. The dialogues seem flat and meaningless, no amount of "what ho" can fix it. So far I regret spending money on it, I'll give it some more time but I don't think it'll get any better.
What ho, duck
Painfully hard, old-school, open world CRPG that demands memorization, extensive note taking and exploration to make any headway. The mechanics and lore are completely unique to the game world (based loosely on the Transylvanian bronze age) and if you don't look at every-damn-thing in the first few maps, you are going to absolutely suck at life until you figure out what you missed.
This game doesn't hold your hand at all, but does thoroughly enjoy kicking you in the teeth. The premise is super simple too: you're a god with a wicked hangover that just wants to find their keys and go home. This is exactly how games should be made. It's awesome. Play it.
5/5 crop goblins agree.
#coxmaddox
6 hours in, the game bugged out and was ruined. Don't waste your time.
Great atmosphere!
I finally decided to sit down and give this game a go. I love most crpg games I play including many indie ones but this one really does not draw me in. The maps are too large in many of the zones with many empty spaces. Majority of these spaces lead to no treasure or hidden areas. The combat is ok but the mage option really isnt there so it just leads to bows or light weapons dominating the dps.
I find the explore where you want when you want to be fun but a lot of the mechanics of the game are not properly explained even in the online manual. Like you want higher nobility if you want to talk to squires and consuls or have them see you as someone of their status. I have tried old school crpgs and enjoyed most of them but I guess this one is just not for me. Its pretty unforgiving and if you arent keeping track of what people say expect yourself to get lost. I was planning on playing the sequel/expansion but this game didnt really give me hope that I would enjoy the other one. I do wish the devs the best.
Hardcore! I understand why this game is so divisive. Having read the manual, and having spent a LOT of time quick loading I feel like I'm beginning to get my grips with this game. So-far-so-good!
If anyone is wondering, this game does work on the steam deck. The notebook is a bit cumbersome without a keyboard, but the game plays smoothly with some buttons mapped to keys
This game is very special and lot´s of fun once you learn how to play it (not that difficult). I don´t get the mixed rating score. It´s a 9/10 for me.
This game is too hard. It does run. Isometric RPG
Very interesting game. Its unfortunate that the devs dropped a ball on this game and decided to left it in its current state.
Serpent in the Staglands is a very good, traditional CRPG. It took me a while to get a handle on the game's mechanics, but it was worth it because the game was well made.
I heavily relied on the Steam guides written by other gamers. The guides helped with the learning curve quite a bit.
I've spent so much time in this game, it would be hard to put it in words why I absolutely love it. But I'll try anyway.
First off, it's a relatively small game (don't be intimidated by my playtime) - I think you can get through it in 10 hours without pushing yourself, and you can definitely speedrun it in less than a hour.
Story is unique and engaging, there are three possible endings depending on your actions in main- and side- quests and there are some choices to be made.
Game world is atmospheric, beautiful and, dare I say, cozy. You can explore it as throughout as you want and you'll always find something interesting. Sound and music are very nice.
Combat is fun and has some very interesting tweaks to it and unique cast system. There are many skills, spells and abilities to choose from and you can build your party (almost) any way you want and be successful in combat and exploration. Game has some exploits, but in my opinion they make it even more fun and explorable. Devs still to this date patch it though.
Clearly a lot of love were put in this game and although there are some bugs and unpolishness to it, all in all it's a great experience.
I love this game....but it's not that good either. I'll certainly never finish.
Basically, SITSL has all the trappings of an amazing CRPG...it's atmosphere, premise and opening are incredible; it's music is especially lush, and the game's balance is nice too - not to simple, not too complex - so it's foundation really promises a lot.
But the developers just didn't give the player enough game to make the most of that. The combat promises a lot, but ultimately ends up being very repetitive, and the world is full of trash mobs and pointless NPCs. It feels huge, yet empty and vapid at the same time. In fact it almost feels like an Alpha build.
I recommend it just to experience that atmosphere at intro though. Just wow at how good it is, I've not been so drawn into a game by it's intro in years. It's worth playing, but I'll be amazed if you finish it. The developers desperately need to take the foundation and make a fuller fleshed out sequel.
Blood Coocoon is your friend. Once I started buffing my tanks, the game's combat got WAY EASIER.
SITS is a hard one to fully recommend because I know a *lot* of people will bounce off the initial difficulty bump. It's deliberately archaic in a lot of its design choices - quests are never marked, you have to write your own journal, reading the manual is more or less a hard requirement, magic works really weirdly, and altogether that's an understandably off-putting prospect for a lot of folks. Playing it feels a lot like playing Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale for the first time in that it's easy to miss extremely important items and info, and even scrub-tier enemies will absolutely kick your teeth in at 1st level.
HOWEVER, it also features some absolutely beautiful, moody, grungy pixel art, the atmosphere in the game is so thick you could chop it with a sword, and I'm finding learning all of its bizarre idiosyncrasies really rewarding. The game trusts you explicitly to figure stuff out on your own, and I think that's a real strength. It's also a whole-ass CRPG made on a shoestring budget by just two people, and frankly that in itself is an incredible achievement.
I also find the undirected exploration, complete lack of handholding, requirement to keep your own journal and slow, careful pace the game demands to be hugely compelling. It ranks up there for me with Morrowind and STALKER in terms of atmosphere and pacing.
If any of the negative reviews posted on here put you off, then it might well be that the game just isn't your jam, and that's fine. However if you're like me, and got drawn in by the moody pixel art and promise of a freeform, weird and atmospheric take on classic CRPGs, and can put up with some jank and an initial high difficulty spike, I would urge you to check this out.
The combat is awful and the graphics style is so ugly it's hard to look at without eye strain.
Fantastic game, very surprised it's mixed.
Great game, great classic vibes, I'm still playing through and I'm having fun learning this game, it can be very challenging.
i really want a hd version, ngl
Very sad to write this review, but this game is simply not worth time and money, and even though it's full of good ideas, it's unfinished, unpolished, and unrewarding experience. I won't mention the lack of balance and crazy difficulty early on among the negatives. after all, it's clearly part of the old-school appeal. But if you are looking for a big rich world, an interesting setting, intriguing characters, and a plot that challenges you and makes you think -- this game has NONE of that.
The writing is amateurish and minimalist, with almost no choice of options. Locations are empty, NPCs are very bland. Many quests are broken with NPCs not reacting to progress and simply restarting their dialog again when they see you.
The plot of the game gets explained to you by the corny fantasy villain in the end, and you will likely find yourself locked out of the "good" ending because you followed one of the quests wrong, and the game isn't good at keeping track of things.
Yet, the amount of effort this game will take to complete rivals the juggernauts like Disco Elysium, Planescape Torment, and Fallout 2. There is no automatic journal(write your own notes), you don't know where the towns and locations on the map are(even though you are a literal God), and very often your progress will be barred by puzzles with no hints.
Unfortunately, after playing this I feel as if I played a really bad tabletop RPG, the richness of the plot is hidden somewhere in the DMs head and the story depends entirely on you being a hopeless fool with no agency, who gets duped at every turn and falls headfirst into traps. Also, don't forget to follow quests for completely no reason, because there is simply nothing else to do.
Sad fact is, the developers confuse "hard-to-get-into game" with being "a smart game", or a "deep game." Don't be fooled.
Many thanks to this blog: http://crpgrevisited.blogspot.com/search/label/Serpent%20in%20the%20Staglands
The only reason I even managed to get through the game, and also some of the things in the game can only be learned from this pdf (https://serpentinthestaglands.com/builds/Erleins_Handbook.pdf) which is in addition to this manual (https://serpentinthestaglands.com/manual/) that you are expected to read before hand.
I really tried to love you, Serpent in the Staglands.
Man this game is a disappointment. The art style and lore hold such promise but to play it falls short. While the pixel style is beautiful it also makes it quite difficult to parse through items. Art style is important but it shouldn't be at the expense of functionality.
The spell system is interesting with a character needing to channel a spell, making it a risk/reward function however with the way combat works one party member will basically always be healing someone. There look to be some cool spells to try but you'll mostly be using the healing cocoon one.
As someone who likes retro style CRPGs and real time with pause combat this combat misses the mark. It's either too repetitive with uninteresting enemies or incredibly frustrating with limited strategic options. Many of the systems are incredibly opaque and make you having to fight against the interface instead of the game itself. With many great and underrated RPGs and CRPGs out there, I would skip this one despite it's great premise.
I [i]really[/i] wanted to love this game. The atmosphere is great, the art is fantastic and only enhances the gloomy world your thrust into and how oppressive it all [i]feels[/i]...and then you realize that every single battle that you encounter, you [i]will[/i] reload and return with the appropriate strategy as you have to know the battle before going in. There is very little flexibility in the beginning so you can easily get railroaded into playing the way the developer wanted you to play, not the way you want to.
Have you ever bought a game because it was on sale and didn't bother to look at the reviews? Yeah? Same here. Which is why I have this game. Generally I love these squad-based isometric fantasy games. I grew up playing games like this. And this game has a unique setting. But if you read some of the other reviews you will probably not start a play-thru of this game. It has some real problems: too many fetch quests, overwhelmingly hard combat, bugs, unrewarding exploration, no real choice. A fool doesn't learn from the mistakes of others. Don't be a fool. Buying this was a mistake.
1) Combat is obtusely hard. Much harder than Darklands or any other 90's rpg, and I've played them all. Even Age of Decadence had easier fights for combat builds. It's possible to cheese almost all of them by edging forward and carefully luring only one enemy at a time, but this is pretty much exploiting poor enemy AI and damages immersion. Unlike Darklands there is also no 'knocked out party member that can be revived later' mechanic - party members that go down are dead forever, with no resurrection mechanic.
2) Areas are very large, mostly empty and the party walks very slowly. Map mode zooms out only slightly and still requires a lot of scrolling to look around the map. Overall experience thus has way too much empty walking. I would say this was the real enjpoyment-killer - those 40 hour playthrough times are probably three quarters walking. In Darklands there are rare maps requiring walking slowly across a large map in a similar manner; these are commonly regarded the worst parts of the game. In Staglands this is the entire game.
3) Characterizations are pretty much empty. Only three or four NPCs in the starting temple have something interesting to say, with everyone else having two or three lines of responses and then nothing more - the named NPCs have interactivity as poor as unnamed ones in other RPGS.
4) Poor sound/music design. Music frequently suddenly switches to another track - eg ambient moody to busy crowds with no transition at all - for no perceptible reason, spells have no sound effects whatsoever.
5) Interface is remarkably clunky, despite looking pretty. The number of clicks to assign a skill or stat point is silly; dragging an item to another item's slot does not swap them, have to manually move to empty slots one by one; a whole class of magic requires typing in a three word command every single time you want to cast a debuff on an enemy.
I understand the game is made by a two person team, but a lot of these are not due to needing too much effort to implement, but poor design choices. Hopefully their future efforts will have less rough edges. Till then i'm going to play through Darklands for the fifth or sixth time.
Beautiful pixel world and UI designs in a tasty 1990-flavored package. This game celebrates the culmination of 1980s PC role-play technology and uplifts it as relevant to our age.
These devs get some pushback, especially with their latest creation, Mechajammer, but I for one am quite a fan of their work so far. I am willing to overlook the bugs in order to experience the worlds they build, which are lovingly hand-crafted, if not thoroughly play-tested.
Serpent in the Staglands est un excellent jeux de rôle.
Je le recommande à tous les amateurs du genre.
Il s’agit d’un RPG en temps réel avec système de pause, qui se veut très rétro. Ceci est complètement assumé. Il s’inspire des jeux vidéos du même genre du début des années 90.
Le scénario est assez inhabituel. On est loin des classiques du genre. Le joueur incarne un dieu piégé dans le monde des mortels. Il ne sait pas qui l'a piégé ni pourquoi. Il va errer et explorer le monde de Staglands (d’ou le titre du jeu).
L’univers dépeint ici est relativement sombre, et empreint de méchanceté. On est ici face à un jeu assez mature.
La direction artistique est vraiment très réussie je trouve. Les décors, les sprites des personnages, les portraits de nos compagnons, sont très réussis et collent parfaitement à l’univers du jeu.
Le jeu met en scène plusieurs races, avec de nombreux conflits entre elles (présent et passé).
J’aime vraiment le fait que l’on ne soit pas dans un univers classique et générique de la fantasy. L’univers est propre au jeu et les factions distinctes rendent le jeu unique. C’est vraiment pour moi un gros point fort du jeu. Les ennemis rencontrés sont également très bizarres, à l’image des personnages.
Du point de vue du gameplay, on pourra incarner un héros et des compagnons qui sont issus des différentes races, qui sont toutes très différentes. Le jeu propose au début un système de création libre pour vos personnages. Pour chaque race disponible, trois archétypes sont disponibles, la encore très différents, ce qui multiplie les possibilités. Une alternative possible est de démarrer l’aventure avec un seul personnage, puisque tout au long de l’aventure, vous aurez la possibilité ou non de recruter certains compagnons croisés sur les terres de Staglands. C’est une option tout à fait viable car les recrues dans l’aventure sont très intéressantes et ont quelques pièces d’équipement. C’est même l’option que je recommanderais pour une première partie.
Ensuite, Serpent in the Staglands repose sur une mécanique d’exploration. Vous errez dans un monde qui vous est inconnu, à la recherche de réponse. Vous pouvez vous promener librement. Le jeu ne vous prends pas par la main. Vous ne disposez pas de journal de quête. Vous n’avez pas de marqueur sur la carte vous indiquant ou aller. C’est volontaire. Vous êtes libres. C’est une grande richesse du jeu.
Du côté de l‘équipement, en plus des traditionnels épées, dagues, haches, masses, arcs, arbalètes... le joueur va pouvoir manipuler quelques armes inhabituelles comme le fouet ou les élixirs (des potions dans un sac sont employées comme projectiles). L’équipement (casques, capes, boucliers, …) a une influence sur le visuel des sprites, c’est plutôt sympa.
Les sorts et compétences sont eux aussi inhabituels (effets de certaines attaques magiques, polymorphisme, etc...). Certaines combinaisons fonctionnent bien ensemble.
On sent clairement que le jeu trouve son inspiration dans le jeu de rôle papier. Les statistiques sont d’ailleurs exprimées sous forme de dés (comme dans un jeu de rôle papier : 4d2, 3d6...). Personnellement, j’aurais même aimé que les développeurs poussent le détail pour avoir un log plus détaillé permettant de voir l’ensemble de nos jets de dés. Le log qui nous est fourni est assez succinct pour des raisons évidentes de lisibilité.
Le début du jeu est un peu difficile car les personnages sont peu équipés (la mort est définitive), mais aisément surmontable. Passé quelques heures de jeux, avec un groupe plus mature et mieux équipé, les combats deviennent alors plus simples.
Pour ce qui aurait pu être amélioré, je pense que l’interface aurait pu gagner en visibilité, en ajoutant par exemples des tooltips. Je pense notamment à certaines statistiques d’équipement ou de personnage. Après, c’est rien de rédhibitoire. En réfléchissant un peu, on a toutes les infos nécessaires.
Le jeu fournit par ailleurs un manuel qui contient des infos intéressantes, à la fois sur l’univers et sur certains aspects du jeu (statistiques personnages, pièces d’équipement, etc.).
Ensuite, il n’y a pas de doublage des voix. Le jeu est réalisé par une équipe réduite et avec un budget limité. Honnêtement, pour un jeux de role, pour moi, ce n'est pas franchement un problème. Certains trouveront donc cela moins vivant côté ambiance sonore.
A noter que je n’ai rencontré aucun bug dans le jeu. Le jeu est bien fini, ce qui est très appréciable.
Le jeu est vraiment très intéressant et très riche, tant par son univers que par ses mécaniques de jeu. Il me rappelle Baldur’s Gate.
Au final, je recommande vraiment Serpent in the Staglands à tous les amateurs de jeux de rôles. C’est un jeux qui fait réfléchir et qui se démarque vraiment des productions habituelles.
I played the the entire game of Serpent in the Staglands it's a pretty neat game.
My only real complaints would be that there's still a lot of bugs in the game that can sort of steal your overall joy from the game. Like that sometimes when you save or change areas arrows/bolts disappear completely from your character or party members inventories and then you end up in combat and just die because well they aren't shooting anything.
There's also the problem of certain quest items need to be in your inventory or quest people will basically think you're a stranger or idiot because you don't have them but the game doesn't really tell you what's what. I don't know if that's part of their "We're an old school game!" philosophy or what but it just sort of felt stupid because there's limited inventory space and trying to keep everything that might be important when it is probably useless.
My annoyances on that stuff aside I still liked it a lot, I spent about 70 hours in the game, which sounds like a lot (Because it is) but i restarted halfway through because I was an idiot and second guessed my character I made so I was like i should restart. I'd definitely recommend giving the game a try if you like older style RPGS but just keep in mind it's not perfect but I enjoyed my time playing it quite a bit.
Buggy mess with dog controls. Empty world with repetitive missions.
Best load screen simulator I've ever seen. The learning curve is brutal in this game and I believe I spent more time quick saving and reloading the game more than actually playing the game. Get into a fight, die, reload, die, reload, win, proceed 5 steps into the next fight, die, repeat. It would've been nice to have a tutorial or some sort of introduction to this game/world. Instead your thrown into the deep end and just expected to figure it out. Shame it looked like a lot of work went into this game.
Serpent in the Staglands is a party-based RPG in the style of the classics, like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale. It's a challenging game that doesn't hold your hand, but that's not a bad thing.
The game's art style is reminiscent of the DOS era, but fairly modernized. I really enjoyed it and it gave the game's heavily dark atmosphere and omnipresent sense a danger a very realistic feeling.
The Staglands are a realm of peril. Here, a common animal like a fox can be a challenge for an under-geared party, and each decision you make must be one of care and thought. Take care of your party, because if you lose someone, they're gone for good.
The game's difficulty is present from the beginning. You are thrust into the game's world with hardly any knowledge of what to do, and are armed with a kitchen knife. You must gather companions, make notes on where to progress, and always try to improve your skills and strength as a whole. If you pay attention to the story, you'll always know where to go, but some of the puzzles are incredibly outlandish, almost requiring a walkthrough.
I really enjoyed the game's feeling of growth. You start with nearly nothing, and by the end of the game, are wearing the best equipment, which gives a fantastic sense of progress. Additionally, the game uses a point system for its skills, so you can level your characters and pick skills any way you want, which is really nice. A healer that wears heavy armour, an agile fighter that dabbles in curses, or even a linguist that loves crossbows... all of these characters are possible to make. Despite this, you never feel your characters are overpowered or strong, since you'll face enemies that can make short work of you, even at the end of the game. I believe this aspect keeps the game interesting and challenging.
The game does contain a few bugs that have persisted for years. Bows are incredibly buggy, and your arrows will often be wholly consumed by the game when entering a new area, for example. I didn't have this problem with bolts or flasks, though.
To conclude, I enjoyed my time with Serpent in the Staglands. It can be slow and clunky at times, but the story is interesting and the gameplay is fun and rewarding, once you get into it. Definitely give it a try.
This game could have been good, but it's just not finished. And it's completely unbalanced. You'll find your entire party being killed by 1 wolf early on. And later, unless you keep groups of mobs alive so that you can farm them - and I mean you have to pick off a couple of mobs in a group, get the XP, then save and reload - do that about .. 4000xp / 2x50xp / mob = 40 times :/ just to go up 1 level, so that maybe you have a chance at even hitting an ice wolf before it kills your 5 party members. Unless your do that farming, the game will suddenly grind to a halt, because the mob level just sky rocketed and you can't go any further.
Ignore the "Mixed" review for this game. A lot of people get frustrated with it because it is so hard. Once you get yourself used to the game and its mechanics you can really get into it. Pretty vast game so far, very unforgiving. Very satisfying. This game does not hold your hand or help you, take a few minutes and read the game manual, it will help you out a ton. Enjoy.
I like the atmosphere but its way too hard. the weakest enemies will kill you easily and money is way too tight. you just end up with a full party of almost dead characters in the first 30 minutes with no money to rest at the inn or buy potions to heal. This could have been an amazing game but its not.
This game is a buggy mess. My character sheet would reset all of my stats to zero, set my level to zero and stopped tracking experience points. War Book kept saying that I had two skill points to spend but no way to spend them. Magic is unintuitive and doesn't work without other party members. Not a great state for a game to be in that been on the market this long. Give it a pass.
Great game with intriguing narrative and character development, but seriously, there are some things that actually progressed in a good direction since 90s video games: UI. That forced oldschoolyness really hurts the game in this regard.
Came on a rec - someone said this game was the closest to a modern Darklands and I have to agree.
If you're up for this sort of complicated, obfuscated, difficult sort of game, this is a real treat. A time period (bronze-age) that I wish more fantasy was set within, an interesting world, history and lore, good art direction (even if some of the buildings look a bit modern), lots of cool systems such as incantations, runic magic, spells, herbology.
You will die a lot at first. The start of the game really has you scrounging around and quicksaving like crazy, and the combat can be a bit hard to course-correct once things go south with the large delay that any sort of healing comes on. There's also permadeath (unlike most crpgs that use similar mechanics to dnd saving throws) so I've honestly had to save, and load a lot. The loading screen doesn't take forever, but with the number of times you'll see it moving from place to place this might be an annoyance.
Despite these bits, this is exactly the sort of game I wish there was more of. I'm sad I didn't even know about this game for so long, and I'm really glad to have found it.
I sort of like this game. Your time might be better spent elsewhere, but if you are looking for an idea of a modern version of old school rpg this almost hits the mark. More flaws than good points, many of these features will be lost on older players more used to modern titles and younger players will see the game as a horrible experience. Those who hated the 'old school rpg' but played them because they lacked other options will be less than impressed. I find it a niche title that I personally have played off and on for long enough to justify the purchase.
If you are looking for the next big rpg, this is not it. If you are looking for something outside the box of mainstream, here it is.
I'm shocked that this game's score is is so blah. It's difficult for the first hour, & leaves you to figure everything out on your own, but at five hours in it feels like a pixelated Baldur's Gate. It's been fun, too, just slowly getting the hang of how to fight & explore; how to set up a decent party & make some coin; & there are secrets hidden everywhere that I've thoroughly enjoyed discovering.
The plot's interesting, too -- [spoiler] you're basically an honest-to-goodness god who, for a reason as yet unrevealed, has been trapped in the land of your worshippers. You're now as vulnerable to injury as they are, yet you have to walk among them disguised as a merchant to figure out what the ♥♥♥♥ has happened to you. I loved talking to the acolytes at a temple dedicated to my honor -- like Jesus strolling into a Christian church today & chatting with various members of the congregation while dressed as a care salesman -- & listening to them innocently talk about me. I'm excited to see where this goes. [/spoiler]
If you love Balder's Gate & Icewind Dale, seriously, give Serpent in the Staglands a chance. Those classic games had a pretty sharp learning curve too, but were embraced for it. Staglands almost makes me feel like I've returned the past & am a kid again figuring out how to play isometric RPGs for the first time.
This game is a no-go area.
Positive points:
-the art
-the story
-Negative points:
-the UI doesn't help any bit, I can't go with a poor UI
-combat is so poorly presented
It is poorly designed & not properly fleshed out. The game tries to impress the potential buyer with the ' no hand holding ' aspect. When playing the game, player will be spoon fed with information as to where is the next destination. Complete with a map. Just wander aimlessly on the world map & player will encounter all locations even if prematurely. The recruitable characters player encounter mostly are there for filling the roster. Only 1 has a story. The recurring bug of losing arrows/bolts still happens despite the makers statement that it was fixed. This is game breaking when it happens at the start of the battle. Most of the battle skills & magic are not very helpful. Exploit regarding traps reappearing as player re - enter said area still happens. I cannot in good conscience recommend this.
(Played on linux/nouveau)
Ever told yourself that a game is so ugly, its price has to be justified by excellent gameplay? Apparently I did, in a moment of weakness and clear stupidity. Of course the gameplay is terrible; development is a team effort.
You start out in a large building, which is full of nothing to do. When you manage to find the exit, wherever you go, you are aggroed by mixed mobs of wolves and foxes. Which makes so much more sense than, say, giant rats, in the mind of a clueless urbanite. Anyway, it's a complete countryside infestation. Your health keeps going down, while combat doesn't become remotely interesting. When you finally give up on exploration of the gardens and agree to stick to the quest-related private road, it's too late: you can't survive the next Isengrim / Reynard couple.
Put simply, when the early game should focus on explaining its abstruse mechanics, instead it trains you to use cheese tactics to overcome its RNG. When it should hook you, it bores you.
A great example of incompetent design.
Try it if you like to spend more time online than in the game's world.
The thing has an inverted learning curve.
I had this game sitting in my library for a while, tried playing it years ago and wasn't patient enough back then. Several years later, now that I'm older/wiser etc, I have fallen in love with this game. It's the closest I've felt to playing something like Darklands or an old school RPG. Yes there are some things missing from that type of experience such as lockpicking, sneaking etc but if you just allow suspension of disbelief and immerse yourself within the setting, it's great. I love having to write notes for quests, already have tons of ideas about how I would have went about my game differently, debating starting from scratch just to do so, but it's rare I find an RPG nowadays that can hold my attention (other than ARPGs).
If you didn't grow up with these types of games, this game may seem unplayable to you, though if you're patient and just enjoy the ride, it's really something special
It is a good game, but the developers stopped working in it so there is some bugs unfixed.
Full of BUGS, you can´t put skills on your character, and sometimes the atributes become all zeros.
Oldschool fantasy setting without hand-holding of any kind makes Stagland something rather more cerebral than your other run of the mill rpg. I enjoy the pixellated gfx and the story flows well enough for a thumbs-up. File under 'mythos' alongside Thea, and that's a rough indicator of whst to expect, with a Cudgel +1 of Baldur's Gate thrown in for good measure.
Definitely worth a go if you enjoy old-school RPGs of pre-Baldur's Gate era. The game takes some getting used to, and the first character you create will probably end up scrapped after a couple of hours of gameplay, as you learn the mechanics and the "do"'s and the "don't"'s. But for a game made by just two people, the amount of content is pretty amazing: there are unusual mechanics to explore, the puzzles are challenging, the combat is fun and the story is quite solid (if somewhat poorly presented at times - but hey, made by two people).
A few things to remember:
1. Magic is useless in combat. Don't bother trying to create a combat mage - just go with a party of 4 fighters and a healer. Trust me, it's still fun, and will save you a lot of frustration.
2. The only two stats that matter to a fighter are Strength (damage) and Perception (hit chance). For everything else, there are combat skills (for example, Agile Fighting for Dodge chance), which are more efficient than dumping points in other stats.
3. Likewise, the healer only needs Occult (not even Intelligence, although adding some points there will let you get to the 3rd tier spells sooner).
4. You can use spells even if you have 0 points in them, if your combined Int+Occ are high enough to unlock that spell tier. This is extremely useful, as there are several points in the game where you must cast a certain spell in order to advance (although all these points are optional).
5. The game doesn't hold your hand by tracking quests and story: Read through stuff, make notes, and you'll be fine.
Feels lacking. but its still cute and an rpg. qol and controls could be still polished, the dev released a sequel but hasnt came back to this game which is understandable but a bit disappointing
Serpent in the Staglands is by no means a perfect game. There are bugs. There are problems with difficulty. But the beauty of the game shines through in the atmosphere of the pixel art world where you’re not held by the hand to the very end. There are many towns, dungeons, and areas to explore in this land that take shape as plains, forests, lakes, caves, among other things. Where you go, who you talk to, and what actions you take are all up to you to decide. This game offers no quest tracking or marking. You have to do that yourself with a trusty journal that you can write in. The progression system is also very flexible since it is classless, which can offer some very unique gameplay scenarios. It’s also a breath of fresh air to play a magic system where there’s no mana or cooldown required. Only the time to cast your spells without being interrupted. I also enjoyed the few puzzles that presented themselves on the trek through the story. I sunk a good 80+ hours and overall was very satisfied with the experience. The one thing that I hope they improve on in this game or next is the balancing of character builds. I made each of my characters use the same “werewolf” build about 20-30hrs into my playthrough, which allowed them to deal significant amounts of damage while at the same time dodging pretty much all damage. In any case, if you’re on the fence about this title but you love RPGs and party based combat, don’t hesitate to pick this title up. Cheers!
Like the cloaks of Corem, fair at first glance but thin and feebly woven upon closer inspection.
I managed to skip most of the games content by going straight to Rumin, talking to some spicer which seemed an irrelevant sidequest, but ended up stabbing right into the main story that I hadn't undercovered anything about, then through tactically baiting enemies several levels above me using shimmering scales and blood coccoon to survive, I took most out one by one and went from level 5 to level 11 in two hours before somehow ending up at the end - which is bugged.
I still like the game somehow, the magic system is a very interesting one and took some getting used to. I'm only recommending the game because it tries to do the classic RPG in new ways - not that it succeeds, but it tries.
Like many other people who weren't born yesterday, I miss the good old days when games were real deal and required you to actually do something. I mean, come on! Modern games tell you exactly where to go and what to do. Heck, there are things like quick travels and now and then you can even pay real money to become the death incarnate. Personally? I find all that extremely boring. I mean, sure, modern RPGs look cool. But all those boring walks, meaningless and long voiced talks, and stuff like that bore me to death. And it looks like I'm not alone, because [b]Joe Williams[/b] and [b]Hannah Williams[/b] decided to make an old school game and claimed it to be “a true role-playing adventure”. Naturally, I bought it and... instantly fell in love with it. Unfortunately, the cake turned out to be a lie. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
When you start [b]Serpent in the Staglands[/b] for the first time, it feels pretty awesome. A charming old school graphics, strange atmosphere, FMV elements and unique skills (like linguistics, for example), mixed together with the mystery-like story? Sounds perfect. Unfortunately, the more you play, the worse it'll feel. First of all, this game is hard. And not in the exciting way. A common fox can brutally rape you here and then spit on your corpse, laughing. You exit the starting area – you die. Just because some animals passed by. Even if your name is [b]Chuck Norris[/b], you'll just suffer here. Especially at the beginning. Technically, it was supposed to be hard to make use of so-called “smart pause” feature. Like it was in [b]Baldur's Gate[/b], [b]Icewind Dale[/b] and the others. The problem is – the balance is so awful here that this game will literally make you want to rage quit after just a few screens.
Talking about [b]Baldur's Gate[/b]. Even though visually [b]Serpent in the Staglands[/b] will probably remind you of it, the truth is – it's nothing like that. Well, aside from the fact that the story will turn out to be a disappointing [b]Baldur's Gate[/b] rip-off that will end in the most unsatisfying way you can ever imagine. Gameplay itself doesn't feel anything like the famous [b]BioWare[/b]'s game. Instead, it feels a lot like much older title – a game called [b]The Faery Tale Adventure[/b]. [b]The Faery Tale Adventure[/b] was released in [b]1987[/b] by the American company [b]MicroIllusions[/b], and included [b]17,000[/b] screens of terrain. Which, at the moment of its release, made it the biggest game ever made. You probably asking yourself why you've never even heard about that game, right? Well, that's because... it kind of sucked. Sure, it was huge. But it was also empty and confusing as heck. And that's kind of what [b]Serpent in the Staglands[/b] does. Only instead of being big, it [i]pretends[/i] of being big. It has somewhat big world map, but there are only eight places to visit. That's it. Eight freakin' places. And those aren't that big either.
Sure, the game had a chance to become a cute little something. Unfortunately, the [b]Williams[/b] family decided to make it feel longer. How? Well, by two things that pretty much killed the entire thing. First – there's no way to see the locations on map before you'll bump into them. Not even after you'll learn about them from NPCs. The only way to find the place is to waste a lot of time walking through the map, risking to get killed in random encounter and hoping to blindly bump into something useful. Obviously, that's a bull. But wait, there's more. See, in this game there's no quest log. [i]At all[/i]. And the goals are so laughably unclear that you'll want to cry. Sure, like I've said at the beginning of this review, it was the idea to make it old school, but looking for clues in the world with no proper map or goals? It's a joke. It's like saying “go somewhere and do something”. [i]Where to exactly?!![/i] That's the biggest question in the game. Here's an example. At some point of the game you'll learn that there's some sort of hidden shrine that you need to visit. You find it, you discover the fact that the person you looked for is dead a-a-and... that's it. No hint about what to do next, not a single living soul nearby, nothing. What to do next? Well, take a guess. And that's, ladies and gentlemen, what this game is all about. Taking guesses.
And guess what? To make things even more “fun”, the game is also pretty slow and comes with the long loading screens. Also, all NPCs look the same. Thanks to that, it reminds me of another RPG series - [b]Heath: The Unchosen Path[/b] / [b]GoldenLand[/b]. The pace and frustration are pretty similar here, only even in those Russian titles it wasn't nearly as bad as it is in this game. I mean, seriously. To beat [b]Serpent in the Staglands[/b] all you need to do is to accomplish a bunch of (very) basic tasks. Go to a certain town, talk to the NPC there, find a secret shrine, discover the truth there, visit one town, then another a-a-and... that's it. The end. And I'm not even kidding or exaggerating here. That's the entire main story. The problem is – to do that, you'll need to grind a lot (like I've said, despite the fact that you're playing a deity here, you'll be owned by everybody, again and again) and do a lot of optional stuff. Which will be slow, boring and pretty annoying since you'll need to take all the notes by hand. Unique skills make things a little bit more exciting, but those just sink in the sea of pain this game will cause.
So... yeah... No matter how charming this game look, it doesn't feel as good as you'll probably expect it to after the first few minutes of playing. Way too many things went way too wrong here. I do like the idea of proper exploration, but playing [b]Serpent in the Staglands[/b] is like trying to find the black cat in the dark room. Blindfolded. You'll waste a lot of time, you'll feel a lot of frustration and you'll probably end up severely scratched, but you won't feel any satisfaction in the end. A proper old school experience is one thing. But frustrating nonsense that just loves wasting your time and confusing you? That's totally different something.
Devs said they'd bring Steam features like achievements and cloud; they never did.
This is a game made for a specific type of person who is into old-school CRPGS. I recommend it if you're into the following:
-Great atmosphere.
-Complex system (if you don't learn how damage dice rolls are calculated you're not gonna have a good time).
-Challenging.
-Great storyline.
-Old school mechanics (you need to type up your journal entries yourself. I love this, but you're not going to remember what you need to do if you forget to write it down).
This is definitely for more diehard CRPG fans you are particularly sadistic. I also feel it's targeted at an older audience who grew up with these elements. But give it time! When it gets going, it really gets going.
Mój Panie, obawiam się, że nie znajdziesz bezpiecznego sanktuarium w krainie do której podstępem Cię ściągnięto.
Witaj w apatycznym świecie pogrążonym w chaosie. Jest w tej grze coś co mi się niesamowicie podobało.
Kiedy podróżujesz przez ten mroczny świat zapomniany przez Boga. Napotykasz na coraz to kolejnych lunatyków. Rządne mordu bestie. Nawet w wydawałoby się bezpieczniejszych zakamarkach można odnaleźć potwory które rozszarpią Twoją drużynę na strzępy. System walki i budowa postaci są dobre - w zasadzie to jest niesamowicie dobra.
Jest pełno walki. To jest bardzo dobry hack and slash. To jest bardzo dobry rpeg. Większość zadań pozostawia Cię z jakimiś mglistymi wskazówkami jak je ukończyć. Musisz sam wszystko spisywać bo nie ma, żadnego spisu misji. Ciężko przewidzieć kiedy Twoje uczynki się na Tobie odbiją. Ciężko powiedzieć, które informacje są istotne więc trzeba starać się spisywać wszystko. Czasami kończysz z odrąbaną głową kobiety za którą wyznaczono nagrodę ale nawet nie wiesz kto tą nagrodę wyznaczył. Ty tylko wszedłeś do jej domu gdy ścinano jej własnie łeb. Czasami jest możliwość uniknięcia walki, jeżeli spełniasz jakieś wymogi, jesteś filozofem? Dominatorem? Szlachciem? Albo potrafisz się porozumieć tylko tyle. Trup ściele się gęsto, Zabijamy ludzi, biesy i różne bestie z którymi nie byliśmy w stanie uniknąć walki. Poznajemy ich imię tylko po to aby zostawić za sobą kolejne ciało. To umiejętności decydują czy w ogóle jest szansa na jakąkolwiek rozmowę.
Duży świat. Pełno tajemnic. Masz cel dowiedzieć się kto Cię tu ściągnął i po co. Jesteś bóstwem uwięzionym w śmiertelnym ciele. Ale szybko zapominamy o tym i zaczynamy eksplorować ten ciekawy świat. Spisujemy coraz to ciekawsze informacje. Zwiedzamy jaskinie, Najmujemy pomocników. Znajdujemy zagadki których nie potrafimy rozwikłać. W zasadzie po prostu znajdujemy coś i nie wiemy co to. Wiemy tylko, że ten magiczny krąg ma moc którą można jakoś wykorzystać.
Mamy udawać kupca a biegamy po ruinach przebijając się przez hordy przeciwników. Wojnę można wypowiedzieć dosłownie wszystkim. Puszczając z dymem całe miasta jeżeli ktoś zamierza tak grać. Oczywiście prawdopodobnie ściągnie to na siebie dość szybko negatywną uwagę.
Ale właśnie przez ten brak pomocy - rozwiązywanie ciekawostek tego świata jest tak satysfakcjonujące. Każda nowa lokacja kryje w sobie jakieś dziwy. Eksploracja jest ekscytująca w tej grze. Ciągnie do tych jaskiń, grobów, piwnic, bagien.
Kupił bym jeszcze raz. Polecam tą grę. Nie sądziłem, że napiszę kiedykolwiek recenzję na steamie.
This game is NOT too hard. Easy to find little hacks and personal strategies to face enemies and puzzles: it's trial and error and it feels rewarding after some time. Every difficult aspect is manageable: it is not gratuitous, but essential to the nature of this game. That nature is EXPLORATION, CHARACTER and REWARD. A template to role-play and tell yourself a story.
The Staglands are open and punishing until you punish them, and it feels good because you learnt and persevered and survived. Save often. Especially when you think your party is comfortable. Think outside the box, quicksave, and try something. Heal yourself. Magic is powerful and particular. Exploration means thinking about your spells, taking notes, and somtimes talking to animals, becoming invisible. Save again. Assume the worst is ahead, yet it can be imprisoned or turned to stone.
If you're really stuck, look for clues on the web or ask a question in the forums: there is some help, not a lot, but enough. More updates could really make it better, but in the meantime, I will play it more
Serpent in the Staglands starts of with you, the Moonlord, trapped in a mortal body.
With very little info you set out throughout the Staglands in order to put the pieces of what happened together.
From the get go the story pulled me in, I really liked the mystery and the continuous search for clues to figure out who trapped you and why.
Being in mortal form also strips you of your powers as a God and this is a very refreshing take on the genre: you're not the typical hero which everyone asks for help, you're just a peasant which most people ignore.
The game is very old-school with no Quest log, markers, etc. There's just a Journal in the form of a Notepad which you can use to take your own notes, and believe me, this is highly required!
The game brings a lot of unique/novel ideas to the table, to name a few:
- Aptitudes which allow you to react with the world differently. For example a linguist can speak with certain creatures where else only combat would be an option. Someone skilled in Philosophy can read certain texts or figure out info about enemies etc
- A book of Incantations which literally requires you to type in the Incantation using the actual name of your enemy. This powerful tool allows you to weaken enemies or even refill your arrows etc.
- Runes which require you to translate them. This can then be combined with the Incantation book to for example open secret tombs.
- 'An imp in a jar' which can steal attributes from your companions and give them to yourself ...
- A ring of flowers which magically traps a fairy. You can remove the spell to get to the fairy ... to then eat the fairy and gain an attribute :)
The game is full with these kind of unique things which really add to both the mystery and the fun.
I also liked the concept of skills and magic:
- Skills (like shield bash) don't need to be spammed like in other games: you can select 3 skills and those are used automatically during combat.
- Magic doesn't use casting points but instead requires what other games call concentration i.e. when you cast a spell you have to maintain it, so you can't spam multiple spells.
This way of handling skills and magic makes the combat more interesting since you really have to consider your positioning and spells before starting combat.
Some reviews mention that the game is too hard, specifically refering to being killed by a fox at the start of the game.
While the game is definitely not easy, especially in the beginning, you just have to play it tactically.
Pick-off enemies one by one, weaken them through incantations, use summoning horns, use the Vykin shield when available to charm them etc.
On the negative side I have two specific points:
a) The graphics ... Some people call this 'pixel art', I have a hard time calling it art. In several cases I missed something due to the graphics not being clear which is quite frustrating. The devs did provide an option for more smoother graphics, but this to me looked even worse.
b) The fact that there is no log or anything, requiring you to take your own notes is fun, however in several instances I had the feeling I missed something. It was difficult to follow or to understand why something was possible/not possible. For example, at a certain point I had to enter a military camp but was attacked on sight. Due to this I wiped out the entire camp, including the Captain (since there was no other option). Only much later did I figure out that that Captain was part of the story and that there was a way to get to her without a fight (a way I missed due to the graphics). Because of this I missed part of the story which makes it even harder to put the puzzle together.
I played the game for about 35 hrs which got me to level 10, but at that point I felt I had botched my story so I didn't continue after that.
Overal I really liked this game, it's a refreshing take on the genre, although it has some quirks as specified above.
If you're into RPG's and like to figure things out on your own without your hand being held, then this is something for you!
How does this game only have 117 reviews? Very good old-school CRPG that does a lot of things well. Only played a handful of hours but that will quickly go up. Lots to see and do and reminds me a lot of the first time playing Baldur's Gate. Recommended!
Отзываюсь положительно только потому, что я получил, что ожидал. Кривая старая рпг с изюминкой. Она кривая и в целом так себе, но при этом не настолько, чтобы вызывать полное отвращение, под определённое настроение во время приступа ретрохандры подойдёт. Иначе - лучше пройдите мимо.
Как и в любой старой кривой рпг, центральная задача игры - её сломать. Продраться через тернии мутного хардкора, бьющего тебя по лбу на каждом шагу, до ситуации "всех порву нафиг". Игра с этим справилась. В том смысле, что ломать её было интересно. Боёвка заставляет задуматься, примитивная тактика танка+лекаря не работает, умения есть интересные и пространство для размышлений есть. В начале героев рвут даже лисички, чего уж о бандитах говорить. Магия доступна сразу, что хорошо, потому что, как в любой порядочной кривой рпг, качать многие вещи здесь бесполезно - дадут только милипиздрический +1 к максимальному значению рандома. Иногда вообще доходит до маразма типа 2d(1dX) - то есть дайсы со случайным числом граней. Доступность заклинаний тут только в плюс, посмотреть эффект можно и на нулевом уровне, а некоторые и в таком состоянии нормально делают своё дело (если атрибут прокачан). БОльшим ресурсом является не прокачка заклинаний, и не мана (которой вовсе нет), а невозможность применить их все - тут очень мало заклинаний, которые кастуются и потом можно делать что-то ещё, большинство поддерживаемые, а просто костуемые очень быстро перестаются действовать.
Поломка системы нашлась в особой магии сложения дайсов одного характера, то есть если есть бонус к чему-то 7d1, а есть 1d5, то вместе они дадут 8d6. Ляпотааа, с открытием этого жить стало сразу веселее (но не до скучного легко). А вот когда я начал минимизировать задержку атаки - тут уже по концу игры прошёлся паровым катком. Но так и должно быть в уважающей себя кривой старой рпг.
Понравились какие-то морские губки в виде частой лесной растительности.
Техническое исполнение настолько же смешно - игра периодически подлагивает при смерти врагов или ещё каких таких действиях. Некритично, но просто смешно. Сила юнити... Хватает глюков, при загруке автосейва после вступления первого персонажа у него исчезли все снаряды. Ещё есть неработающая способность, но она по описанию читерская, поэтому норм. Ещё есть меч, у которого описание кнута и его настоящие параметры узнаешь только после экипировки...
Игра недлинная, кроме основного сюжета можно ходить по городишкам, занимаясь мелкой торговлей и зачищая живность. При низком качестве текста в игре даже плюс то, что тут слишком мало сторонних разговоров, прямо говорят что купить/перепродать и кого убить. А то бы совсем наскучило играть. А вот сама канва сюжета тут прикольная (тут идут спойлеры, но вы наверное всё равно играть в игру не будете):
Мы играем за бога луны. Который в день весеннего равнодействия и фестиваля в свою честь обретает человеческий облик и кутит на фестивале. И вот, после очередной попойки он не может вернуться назад, что-то ему мешает. Оказалось, что... на очередной из прошлых попоек на переспал с какой-то дриадой, дриада родила и померла при этом. Мамаша дриады, будучи при этом богиней порталов, заблочила портал нашего бога, зная что он в этот день будет кутить. Сама при этом тоже померла, а вот её внучата (детишки героя) решили использовать это в свою пользу, чтобы... уговорить своего папаньку луной вызвать приилив и затопив конкурирующий город. Если в конце попытаться отказаться, то тебя УГОВОРЯТ это сделать. В смысле скажут, что ты сам нехороший, вот смотри, сколько всего нехорошего сделал, а ещё убивал бандитов, напажавших на тебя, вместо того чтобы просто оставлять их без сознания! И у тебя остаётся только один вариант диалога "А ну ок, я такой же говнюк как и вы, помогу вам".
И вот эта последняя фича могла бы быть офигенно круто сделанной, если бы не сопливое морализаторство (много чего вполне разумного делать почему-то плохо, там не только бессмысленным геноцидом героя попрекают), делающее достижение хорошей концовки сомнительным удовольствием.
This game is... odd. It was made to look and play like an old CRPG back when the genre was being resurrected, which it now successfully has been. Now all that is left is to judge it by the actual quality of it's mechanics, and there is plenty of good comparison material around.
With such a look, the game just fails to come through at so many points. Multiple basic UI features are lacking that you would expect in a new or old CRPG, you can't speed it up, you can't preview the names of items or NPCs with any button, there is no actual map, and the game doesn't pause when you open any kind of menu. Already with that, going in with a clean perception it gets soured, but further weirdness ensues.
The game tries out a lot of new and weird mechanics, ones that would maybe work if introduced to a steady, familiar and most importantly functional foundation, but instead the search for familiary is a pit-fall of disappointment. Far too many odd design decisions are made and far too many fall flat on their face. Very odd skill tree with focuses such as "nobility" and "woodworking", strange, unspecific, yet somehow very basic character classes, myriads of strange gameplay mechanics like "warhorns", chanting tomes you need to memorize a new language to use, crests that let you control mobs, imp glasses for respeccing. They are all creative ideas but are spread so randomly and unevenly across both their level of rarity and functionality that it just ends up being easier to ignore than use.
Those unique systems can, or rather could have worked however. If they just didn't happen to be based on already terrible core systems, and a very confusing game-world. The combat is horrendous, broken and utterly basic. Your characters are far too fragile and can get wiped out by a single wolf. Now you might think "Oh well, that's fine, I just gotta be careful right". No, because no amount of care is going to save you from these mobs, no path following the game's intented design or anything along a respectable gameplay strategy. No, your solution, your only solution, is cheese. Attack a mob with one character, run away with them with the others attack it, that's the best way to kill mobs. Since there is no disengage mechanic, this is the safest way of doing anything. Either that, of BURN through your healing resources while you tank absurd amounts of damage with characters that shouldn't be there.
Now onto the world. It's interesting, it's fascinating really. Clearly a lot of crack went into it's design, clearly a lot of creativity. And I can applaud the art-team for a job well done.. mostly. Maybe "job well tried" would fit better. The world is very interesting, and very unique. However, uniqueness causes confusion, and to alleviate that you need proper explanations, proper visualizations. The game has none. The art-style is almost minimalist, you can't really make out any facial details on anything. This is mainly due to the pixels, however this simply leaves 50% of everything on the screen up to be fulfilled by your imagination. Now usually, in a traditional, recognizable fantasy world, this is fine. You can picture how an elf looks like, how a traditional fantasy village is, how some ogres of goblins look, what a dwarf is. No problem. But this isn't that. It tries to mix all these things up just enough for them to be interesting, but ends up doing it just enough to be confusing. There are purple elves, weird bat creatues, things with tattoos and honestly, you can't tell who is the supposed to what. The forests are mushrooms, the towns have no floors. Everthing is weird.
And that's how I'd describe the whole game. Weird. Awkward. Unfitting and because of that, unenjoyable. Perhaps, by pushing trough, you can eventually force these systems together. Make them work. But there is just so much friction, such a slow pace, and so many awkward systems that it builds this barrier to entry, not of difficulty or complexity, but just sheer lack of interest. One that is very likely simply going to prevent you from enjoying the game.
For you kids too young to remember, this is what RPGs used to be like. It was terrible.
See, back then only nerds like me played PC games. There was no WoW or Fortnite or Battlefield, and all the cool kids were busy drinking beer in the park, listening to Van Halen and having unplanned pregnancies. Computers couldn't do anything good anyway and just using them was a huge chore, so nobody except nerds would bother with it.
The market being what it was, designers didn't really have any incentive to add user-friendly features or do things like explain how the hell their games worked. I guess they figured if you were playing a game like this to begin with then you were probably a weirdo and didn't have anything better to do than dig through your inventory and draw maps by hand.
This game kind of reminds me of Ultima 7, except that Ultima 7 was a much better game and came in a cool black box with a thousand 3.5" floppy disks and a bunch of extras, like a cloth map and other random stuff. Can you believe that, the way games nickel and dime us now? That was back when Richard Garriott used to LARP as a medieval king for some reason. Do you guys even know who that is? Am I just talking to myself here?
The point is, if you were bored during this little talk then you probably shouldn't play this game.
Even if you do remember all that stuff, there's just no reason to put yourself through that anymore. They've made a lot of RPGs in the last 30 years. Just find a normal one that has journals and maps and a story and doesn't have a bad attitude about helping you.
Seriously, I've been playing this thing for a long time now and I still don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing. I think they expect you to explore the world and figure it out, but the world is so dull that I don't feel like doing it. The combat is dull. The abilities are dull and mostly useless. The people are dull. The towns and quests and locations are dull. The loot is dull. Reloading constantly is dull.
Talking to ducks made me laugh, though; I'll give them that.
You can find more indie game reviews at [url=https://oddlittlegames.com] oddlittlegames.com [/url] or visit my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34514756/] curator page. [/url] Thanks, and enjoy!
Great game, interesting atmosphere, lots of character customization, deserves more attention!
A little rough around the edges but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Recommended for old school RPG (hardcore) enthusiasts.
RPG très ordinaire ...
Wow, check out the webpage for this game before buying. There is a huge amount of online content, including a great manual, videos, and game demos for all builds, including linux. It will get you really excited for the gameplay, even when you have already purchased it.
It's a very cool game. Really neat graphics and atmosphere. The gameplay mechanics are fun enough and never too in-your-face or hand-holdey.
Very good game. I bought this game along with Torment Tides of Numenera on GOG (I'm a fan of the original Planescape) and in Serpent in the Staglands I have more immersion. I can feel more this setting, where I am an avatar of the lunar god. I like old-school approach to statistics in cRPG.
Para aqueles que tiveram a oportunidade de jogar games de 1990 como The Immortal do nes,ou Dark Seal dos arcades, sentirão uma nostálgia imensa nesse jogo, sem falar na arte, música e desafio que o game apresenta que o torna único nesse estilo de jogo nos tempos atuais. Menus e ítens bem elaborados, sistema de combate estratégico, onde vc pausa, pensa, escolhe os melhores ataques, magias e posiciona seu grupo. Pena não ter uma tradução em Português, mas se vc tiver uma noção básica de Inglês já dá pra se virar.
Wow....
I am really surprised this game has a "Mixed" rating.
I had a blast playing through this game.
There is a kitchy style to everyhting.
No it is not perfect. Im ok with that.
It was different and fun.
There are some lingering bugs but nothing game breaking.
If you are on the fence, looking for something different to try, give it a shot.
This title deserves way more love.
On a side note! below is my review I tried to post immediately after release when I beat the game.
At the time of writing it it wouldn't post for some reason! Cheers!
----
Ho there, Spicer! 9.5/10 on this gem. Would spend many more emeralds for such fare.
Having just beat the game once I am already planning my next party and play-through.
Positive things that stood out:
-Ambiance: The art, lore, and music / sound really hold this game together. Everything from the equipment, towns, monsters, peasants, and natives. It all screams Staglands and I really enjoyed those screams.
I felt that essential desire to simply "explore". I did not complete quests for powerful items or EXP
but simply to see more of the Staglands. Once I became too powerful the game still held my interest with this aspect.
-Combat: A good bit of fun indeed. Not to many items, so you focus more on your skill builds and party
synergy. Enough to offer diversity though and even some magic ones here and there.
Character magic starts weak but becomes quickly powerful with proper planning / learning. You must play
around a bit when you level up to find what works for you and what you enjoy.
-Story: Not overly complicated and subtle but enjoyable. The story Intrigued me from the get go and I looked forward
to watching it play out. From the story setup at the beginning of the game to how those facts and seamlessly woven
into the narrative.
-Only a little hand holding: Honestly, I wished this game was a little harder. After the initial hurdle of learning it nuances manually through some small trial and error, you will become most competent in all manors of survival. Do not get me wrong! The tool tips offer you 90% of the information required to make intelligent decisions. You need to strive
for that other 10% though and therein lies some magic. The game could use a bit more stretch and longevity in some EXP pacing. You will speed through the middle levels of your characters, but boy what fun it was teaching yourself what works in getting there.
Aspects that need work:
-Bugs that are already being cleaned up but use multiple save files in case you run into one that is an issue.
-Storyline cohesiveness: multiple times I would find aspects of plot progression before or after I had interacted
with other story elements that were not progressively implemented. I.E. You already know "so and so" isn't really a
merchant because you have a journal entry in your inventory saying so that your characters are clueless about when you talk to so and so for the first time. It's news
to them. This is somewhat sloppy and could use some cleaning up.
-Rigid Ending(s): You're choices throughout the play-through affect how the ending turns out... regardless of
how you feel it should. You are not given a choice of how you respond to the final conflict, with a final choice that is chosen for you by the npc and you i.e. your main character based of of your actions throughout your journey. Personally, I do not like my characters descisions/ reactions chosen for me. This does encourage replaying the title in search of new endings but is a somewhat backhanded slap to this face after spending 30hours to get to the last moments of your epic struggle.
Overall Impression: 9.5/10
I was expecting this game to bring some of that Baldur's Gate magic but in a new setting that did not feel
like a cheap imitation. Serpent in the Staglands delivered the experience with more aplomb then expected. As you say.
-> [Walk away]
Interface is pretty bad... wasnt sure what to do and got killed by a fox in the beginning lol.
very surprised with this game, it doesn have the vices that modern games have today (include here those new "old schools" games, aka Pillars of Eternity), you dont need to stop and read the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bible to know wtf is going on, nor a npc will throw a book your way just because you asked about the "news"
its a wild developt game in the likes of Baldurs Gate 1 with an excellent plot and well constructed game world (with game rules and magic), i love the fact that magic itens are very VERY rare and not every place you explore need to have some ♥♥♥♥ at the end to "reward" your character (one of those modern games mentality if you wondered for a example)
loads of npc to recruit, some of those with interesting backgrounds, this game is a good example that you dont need a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of text to build some interesting npcs to join your party, for ♥♥♥♥♥ sake.... 97% of those npcs doesn't even have text besides the inicial dialogue to recruit. Sometimes, all you need is a good portrait and a nice background...
Hate graphic style.Unfriendly.Totally unreadeable.Hate it.
For a two-person team, this game is downright impressive. The setting, quality of writing and Transylvanian atmosphere paticularly shine.
Some unfinished quests and lack of reactivity left me with a bitter-sweet feeling, though. As entertaining and atmospheric that SitS can be, I cannot but think that this game could have been so much more with a little bit more time and money.
I would strongly encourage every RPG lover and even every gamer yearning for a taste of the innovative and the unconventional to give it a spin and thus support the devs.
Congrats Hannah and Joe! You can be rightly proud of what you achieved with your first game.
Oldschool. Lembra Ice Wind Dale, tem que ter paciencia para aprender, traduzir com calma a história, porém é bacana.
couldn't get into it..
I really wanted to like this game. It has interesting graphics, old style CRPG game play, promised difficulty and a good dark atmosphere.
The main problem is the combat mechanics. I don't mind that a fox can annihiliate your entire party, its a matter of just changing your tactics (the first Baldur's Gate was similar), but the combat system is a mess and its hard to see whats going on.
Sometimes it doesn't matter if the controls are crap as long as it has a great story (Deadly Preminition, most Final Fantasy games) however this one doesn't have that going for it.
Unless the game is on sale for €3 or less, I'd avoid.
Excellent CRPG, writing in your own journal is a nice touch and combat is fairly easy to grasp once you get the hang of it and pick up a few pieces of gear for your party.
The spell system is strange but not bad, having acess to all those spells clutters up your quick spell command and a large portion you may not even use. Crafting such as potions coe about with little to no explenation but reading ite descriptions and such you'll get an idea.
Good setting a Lore, nothing overly crazy but it's comfy if not foreboding. Taking my time with this one, if you enjoy old CRPGS give this one a try nothing mind blowing but it ropes you in.
Serpent in the Staglands has very nice pixel graphics, good music/sound effects, and fun puzzles, but suffers from too many inconsistencies for a thumbs up recommendation.
While some of the elements that make it more difficult are welcomed (no journal, no waypoint, no real guidance at all unless you read into everything and make notes), the combat, bugs and ending ruined the experience.
I played the game as "good aligned" as I could. I helped people, I didn't soul bind, I only attacked people who attacked me (although the combat seems to like making "neutrals" hostile when you're fighting an enemy, for example, when fighting the slaver guards the slaves began to attack me, and no, there was no splash damage to make them hostile, everyone was using melee).
With that being said, when I got to my big ending the game pigeon-holed my dialogue options into being some big time murdering, immoral mortal slayer that wiped out towns, soul binded my companions and ran the staglands red with blood... so my only choice was to - (see bottom of review for SPOILER). Pretty pathetic for the time I invested to be forced into a choice I didn't want to make.
Another issue was the gameplay. The game lags in combat sometimes at the start of every turn. Bad to the point I had to pause, and re-click my spell selection or who I was attacking because it didn't register. This could be an issue with my computer, but I highly doubt it since I played Divinity 2 with no problems and other higher level graphics game. When you're walking on the world map, if you pick a location on the other side of said map, your little icon man just moves like a homing missile to the nearest location... even if its behind you. The saving and loading is also buggy, as sometimes you'll save outside of the field of view of enemies, lets say three of them, and then you'll reload only to see five of them and they are instantly chasing you down.
All said and done, these are issues I could live with, but the poor ending that did not reflect my game choices was the nail in the thumbs down coffin. While they've made a visually aesthetic game, I wouldn't dedicate the time to it unless you got it for under $10 and are willing to deal with lack of polish.
SPOILER
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[spoiler]Drown an entire town so I could go back to my moon palace.[/spoiler]
************************************************************************
The idea is great, but the implementation is poor.
The entire game revolves around you kiting your tank around while he's being healed, and there are more than a few bugs that the developers will not address because they abandoned the game.
Also using pixel art doesn't mean you can just have sloppy, undefined art, look at Fallout 2.
I like the atmosphere and environment though.
No tutorial and zero guidance or quest system. I understand the idea of the retro look; I love it in many games. The the resolution is too low to work for an isometric RPG. And it's stupidly hard to kill anything. My party of three has died more than once trying to kill a single fox. Suggests to me that this game was not fully thought out.
doesn't launch-seems it doesn't like windows 10
Strrraata czasuuuuu!!!
While I thoroughly enjoyed this, understand the following:
[olist]
[*]There is a plot, but it's relatively thin and you will not be guided through it very well.
[*]There is a manual - reading it is mandatory to understanding what in the high hell you need to do to survive in the game.
[*]This was clearly made by a small team. There are bugs and holes in the experience, including some items that feel unfinished, and some payoffs that feel underwhelming. If that frustrates you, if you cannot bear the presence of some "jank", then look elsewhere.
[*]I found the ending to be relatively disappointing. Enjoy the experience and focus on that, do not focus on the payoff.
[*]It is punishingly difficult and at times outright unfair until you decode what is required of you to succeed. Save [i]incredibly often[/i] and do not hesitate to Google solutions if you absolutely hit a wall. However, the game isn't that popular so don't expect to find all the answers out there :).
[*]A notebook is mandatory. A real, in-meatspace notebook. There is an in-game journal but I found it clunky to interact with. There is no automated quest log or journal. Clues, diagrams, codes, magic words, quests, important bits of information... this game feeds you tiny clues with no flashing lights around them, no fanfare, no bells and whistles. Write it all down. Embrace it. There are logic puzzles to solve as well. Overall I found this aspect of playing the game to be extremely satisfying.
[/olist]
I Kickstarted Serpent in the Staglands, but didn't get down to playing it until just this past week. Boy was I missing out, this game is fantastic. Doesn't hold your hand and frequently kicks your butt. It's pure delight.
I suggest you instead play Baldur's Gate, or Pillars of Eternity, or Geneforge, or practically any other isometric RPG.
Serpent in the Staglands falls behind most other games in its genre mainly in that it doesn't offer you many real choices about how to handle problems. For example, early in the game you might find yourself crossing a bridge, only to have your identification papers stolen by an urchin child.
At this point, you have two choices:
1. Try to cross without papers, which means fighting the guards and possibly everyone else on the bridge.
2. Hunt down the urchin's elderly guardian and kill him to get your papers back.
Most games would let you have some other options. Maybe you could bribe the guards, or find another way accross the river, or do a sidequest for the old man in exchange for your stuff. Supposedly, the game has programmed in an option for you to pickpocket the guardian using the game's Linguistic magic system, but I couldn't make that trick work. So the only options you have are to murder a helpless old man or brawl with the cops.
The game is full of moments like this, where a complex situation devolves into slaughter that probably could have been avoided. That wouldn't be such a big deal, except the combat system in this game is very unforgiving. Magic is nearly useless except for healing, and even that becomes less helpful by the endgame. The game includes a sizeable numberof skills that have few or no practical applications, and you don't get enough points to spare on experimenting. And there are a lot of hidden puzzles that can only be solved if you have the promotional pdf, Erlein's Handbook (not included in the Steam version of the game) or you trawl the internet for answers.
This game COULD have been good, but you'll see once you're out of the first few areas of the game that you have few options and all of the options you do have lead to pain.
For all of it's flaws (and there are quite a few), Serpent in the Staglands is one of the best RPGs I've played in years. The world contains no elves or dwarves, all of the spells are highly original, and there's no overwritten Bioware nonsense. Many people will hate this game, but there's simply too much fun exploration to be had for old-school RPG fans to pass it up (and this is coming from someone that hates real-time with pause combat).
The combat system in this game is just not fun. It's all kiting and healing to get anything done.
Overall I think it's a good game.
I love the custom journal. No handholding. I personally enjoyed the story some may not. I liked it.
Personally, I liked this game and where it was going. I liked the story, the God powers, the Baldur's gate style party and rules, the finallity of your actions. Yet my friends, the average gamers, didn't like the vast amounts of reading, rough graphics, and so so audio. So I would never make the recommendation to the average Joe. If you like reading, if you love Baldur's Gate and can forgive bad graphics for great content, then this game may be suitable for you. The races, spells, and lore, are very...unique. I actually disliked them. I would have preferred a more traditional Tolkien approach, but this game is the imagination of a nice couple. It's their tale. Just, preferences I suppose. If you find yourself interested in a unique story, a brand new world to play through, then jump on in, but it's going to be rough and it is possible you may not like all of the content being offered to you. Still, this is a nice game and a solid attempt for what it is.
This game reminded me why open world rpgs are the ultimate medium for fantasy. The wonder of an unknown World, open for exploration, filled with lore and smaller, dramatic stories and emergent, player-driven storytelling.
Do buy, great value!
So... Not sure if I liked the game or not. If you were waiting for a more direct answer I'm sorry.
The thing is, this is a so so cRPG.
Do you really love cRPG's? Just wait for at least 10% off and then buy the game!
You don't? Then forget about it.
The game has bugs, but they won't waste your experience.
It is somewhat hard, but not as much as people are saying (just avoid tough fights and return when you're stronger).
The story is not bad but is far from being great (at least it is original or so I think). The art is ok. Playability is... meh.
Only reason I keep playing it is because I like to get new levels and equipment (and I'm tired from work so I deserve a little time doing nothing).
Good
Enemies respawn around you upon reloading a saved game, so... don't ever reload? This game is broken.
