Apollyon: River of Life

Apollyon is definitely esoteric — not only narrative-wise (that is expected), but also gameplay-wise. I've played over 15 hours, unlocked a few rare achievements, and still feel like that dog from the "I have no idea what I am doing" meme. In Cultist Simulator, figuring out the mechanics is a part of the game, and the game's reaction to your actions is clear enough to understand how the things work under the hood. In Apollyon, the feedback is too vague. Or I am esoterically challenged? I guess I should never dabble with occult things in real life.

If you enjoy struggling, suffering and the occult, then this game is for you. It is hard, you will die, you will struggle and you will lay awake in bed thinking on how to proceed. But man, is it worth it.

It is interesting, but for me ramming my head against a wall in an attempt to understand anything when a large part of the "difficulty" curve appears to be navigating down rapids in a rickety kayak blindfolded. Yeah, you can steer the boat but you're just as likely to steer into rocks as well as avoid them. I see that the intent is to have newer players guided by more experienced players in a "coven" through multiplayer which would be cool if anyone was playing the game. Unlocking things with only 1 or 2 "life points" when things can randomly deal 2 damage turn 1 is unfun and if there is a way to avoid this, the game does not actually explain it. As far as I can tell: If the game decides to end your run at any point, you're 100% dead.

As someone who loved Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours, this is definitely hitting the itch of 'I have no idea what I'm doing or what's going on but by god I'm gonna consort with demons' so, yea. Well crafted and a lot of fun and I can tell there's *tons* to pick apart here. Definitely well worth the money and a clear product of love and vision.

So, this game is hard. Staggeringly hard, mostly because the learning curve is insane. But also, I bought this game yesterday and played 15 hours so far. It's well written and clearly has a deep world. The storytelling is non-linear, so you slowly gather glimpses and pieces. But the moment I found a library and managed to gather up some lore .. glorious. The progression mechanic is peculiar, as you only save your progress when you finish a ritual (run) without dying. Getting some cool stuff and loosing it to death can be .. frustrating, especially in the beginning, as the starting character is a lot weaker than those you can unlock. But it also teaches you not to be greedy, keep an eye on how long it would take you to end a run in the case of success and when you successfully end a run with a new unlocked ambition or character clasped in an iron grip ... the success feels so very sweet. Where the ritual token placement was just guesswork and randomness in the beginning .. by now I know what to shift where to enhance my chances, lure out or prevent certain events. There is still much to do and I am excited. It reminds me a bit of cultist simulator/Book of hours storytelling. The part that irritates me a bit are the controls. You can shift the tokens with your keyboard, but cards need to be clicked be by mouse to open and close, which has started to be a bit painful and annoying. With I could forward with enter or arrow keys to be honest. I ran across a few bugs, which caused me to need to end a ritual because I couldnt progress. Luckily, it wasnt a run where I would unlock stuff, otherwise it would be much more irritating. But overall: I'd recommend it, if you are open to dig yourself in, put a note pad/doc on the side to take notes and get lost in an occult adventure. I already told some friends about it to try the coop.

Amazing rich world building! It spins something new out of themes all the way from occultism and astrology, to dungeons and dragons and physics. It's so fun to slowly explore this world and uncover how your actions on the table influence the story. I just finished playing the theme where you astral project into various fantastic locations and the suspense of trying to not lose your body, not summon a demon, and solve the puzzle before time runs out, was getting to me! It can take a minute to get your bearing, but once you figure out how some of the tokens effect the board it feels like you have an active hand in the narrative.

I highly recommend this for any who like a board game dedicated to the occult

Good game, a lot of reading so be ready for that. The screenshots seem to be from a previous version of the game. More than anything it feels like playing d&d, which I have fun with.