Svarog's Dream

Very boring combat. That's why I refunded. I think I'll just stick to Grim Dawn. It's a shame, because it seems like the role-playing side of Svarog's Dream is rather advanced, with meaningful choices that shape the world and whatnot. Unfortunately, for an aRPG, combat is what truly counts, and I just don't see it here.

So I enjoyed this game and now I'm looking for something like it. There's a couple titles I'm looking at next, but although I enjoyed Svarog's Dream, there are some really tedious, annoying, and frustrating elements. The game has some elements that make it difficult, such as dying and reincarnating as a new character. Though you keep your level and typically have a reroll function, sometimes you die in the worst ways. Ways that aren't really your fault. For example, I came across a camp and clicked on a question mark npc thinking it may be a quest. Turns out, you can't exit the dialogue and they become hostile. I did this early on, died. No big deal right? It happens. I resurrected and had to go back for my gear and because of my low level, I kept dying. So that was a restart. Too many deaths do affect the game. One time, I had a dialogue pop up and I had to surrender an item to survive, but I couldn't read the text because if I did, spawned enemies rushing at me would kill me during the dialogue. I died countless times by kiting and accidentally clicking on a fox and doing a shooting animation (hunter) rather than running like I was. I died once accidentally clicking near a dead body and having the gear loot window pop up. I fast traveled and had combat before the screen loaded. I survived because my summons killed them, but it wasn't fun. Some enemies also have long range and can shoot you near or at the edge of the screen so you may die not knowing where an arrow came from. Besides that, there were other issues and bugs encountered, but most were fine. I lost a full set of gear because I entered the dlc island with a hired merc who I outfitted and he disappeared on the screen change, never found his body. I hired him again because there is a way to get npcs to spawn again, but full set of divine gear for a bodyguard down the drain. Also because the world refreshes on loads, if you have summons or shields, those disappear on load (not the hired merc oddly), so shield pots could be wasted if you used one and had to quit the game or reload for npcs sake. I did enjoy the story, but I do feel that sometimes the path isn't clear on your god chosen path. I was following the one god character and didn't realize his goals on the final quest and then last second, I beat the game differently, but I might've done the quest line differently if I would've realized it. Overall, I know my comment may seem like a mess and maybe my experience in this game kind of was chaotic, like the game sorta pushes the world to be. I enjoyed the classes, abilities, gods/goddesses, factions, the world itself. The game has a lot of thought behind it and honestly if you take anything from this review, its that the game is really worth the price with the dlc added. Just don't go in expecting easy or expecting the game flawless when it comes to some frustrations. No game is perfect and with the new character element here, its a solid idea to be adaptable and to be prepared to fail, die, restart a couple times until you find your balance. If you go in wanting a harder experience, choose "order" based classes. If you want easymode, chaos is the way once you identify the best mechanic to ride or use to your favor. First attempts I went full order, on my winning and final run, I went 50/50 at first and when I unlocked the third class, two thirds chaos classes because two particular classes complimented way too much not to take advantage of it.

What a GEM! Really wasn't expecting much from this game but man it really delivered! Don't believe the bad controls reviews the game plays fine if you're used to top down games. 10/10

I was sceptical at first, but damn.. This is masterpiece, 10/10 game. It Gameplay mechanic, ideas, Slavic mythology, story twist and choices.. just phenomenal

The question "Who am I?" was never meant to find an answer, but to remove the false sense of who you think you are. <3

A friend introduced me to this game because they knew I specifically like this style of ARPG. So I was biased to like it. However, this game far exceeded my expectations. It has interesting mechanics, a compelling story, and more character than it knows what to do with. It has ideas from many games I think perhaps it could be quickest described as titan quest + skyrim with roguelite characteristics. The first thing I noticed is the build system is very much in the vein of titan quest and grim dawn. You earn 3 points per level and spend them on two different class trees. The twist to that build system is that everytime you spawn in you choose a premade character with varied stats and special traits. When you die you have to choose from a selection of characters again, and if you feel it needed, you get a free respec after that choice. This gives you something of a guide in terms of how you want that character to build class wise. It makes for a system where what is the "best" build is circumstantial, as a character with say low intelligence and bravery (source of mana regen) is going to struggle to force a magic build to work. as an example my first character had great dex and peircing training and a bonus to theft so I ran them as a sort of stealth archer build. After their death and another quick interceding death I was given a character with special trait biased to summons so I respec'd entirely to take advantage. Speaking more to the death mechanic in relation to the story is where the games character really shines through. I found it super neat that the ideas of deaths and new game+ were not waved a way as merely part of a gameplay loop but instead are built directly into the story. Because of this the world never has a break in immersion. There is no pause in the narrative for game reasons the narrative and game are fully merged. The slavic myth setting is fun and refreshing as it is not so commonly explored. The games story is compelling with 5 possible endings (with the expansion) and multiple plotlines to get there. The world is very much alive and your actions directly, and in some cases indirectly, shape it permanently. Natural disasters will kill NPCs, Monster hunters will kill a side quest you ignored, and special merchants will wander the map. The only negative I can think of in my first 24 hours of play is that combat can be a bit clunky at times, as the game has a lack of polish in terms of visual effects and movement. I personally found some of the magic attacks from bosses hard to read for example, and a couple of my own spells it a bit tricky to follow at times. It sometimes feels like the combat was maybe imagined to be a bit slower than it was in terms of damage both from the enemies and yourself. You do start to get used to it just don't expect the flowy easy to follow combat of a AAA Arpg. In conclusion for the price tag I think this game has a great dollar value. What little it lacks in polish or visuals it makes up for with ambition and creativity in spades. I highly recomend Svarog's dream especially for people who like Diablo style ARPGs, and people who like choices matter gameplay.

This game certainly has a lot of charm, exploration is fun, mood is on point with music and overall athmosphere. It scratches that classic rpg itch with light crafting and lush forests. World is quite typical but has some interesting twists that keep things interesting. I really liked the core gameplay. Now the one problem is that the game defaults to iron man lite mode where dying causes consequences to the world. With this gameplay as default there should be very clear mechanics so you can count risk vs reward. In normal world this works but there are way too many bosses and dialog decisions that have gimmicky mechanics that are not communicated clearly and have grave consequences. So you will end up dying unfairly sometimes - not gamebreaking, just frustrating at times. I still definitely recommend this game for the mood and quite cool gameplay. It's not too long so if you have that rpg feeling but don't want a forever open world experience, this is it!