Age of Decadence is an old-school CRPG. Think of a mix between Fallout and Stargate with a Roman flavour.

It has a pretty good story set in a post-apocalyptic setting that feels like Roman Empire in ruins. You start as a nobody in one of the six roles offered to you: a mercenary, a merchant, a loremaster, a praetorian (something of a knight-diplomat), a thief, an assasin, a drifter, and a grifter. Each of these roles favor certain playstyles, character builds and starting reputation with the factions in the game.
As you progress, you soon discover that the game is harsh and unforgiving, that backstabing and trickery is common, that selfishness is rewarded and kindness is punished, and above all - that you are not an all-powerful hero. You join the power game and choose sides, advancing your skills, influence and trying not to get killed. As you play you discover bits and pieces of information about the ancient technologies and a mythological war of the past that lead to the current state of things. Eventually, you need to make a major decision that will determine the future of the mankind.

The AoD has all the elements of a good RPG, but the problem is that it doesn't entirely succeed at puting them together well.

• It has a good overall story, with detailed lore, well written dialogues, attention to details, but at the same time there are some pretty major things that felt unpolished. The major characters are quite unremarkable and bland and all of the endings are kind of the same. The factions are kind of the same, too. They differ in their priorities and approach, but they all are after power. Everything is presented in a detached and impersonal manner. The mythological element is very strong in this game and it overshadows everything else up to the point that the end game might make meaningless everything that you did before the final quest. As a player character I take on quests and make decisions, talk with NPCs and participate in fights, but at the same time it felt like my character is just a sidenote in someone else's story. I guess what I'm trying to say is that AoD felt more like a choose-your-own adventure novel than a CRPG, because of how predetermined and restrictive the story progression was. It's restrictive up to the point that it's not even possible to roleplay your chosen archetype consistently. Finally, the ending is abrupt and the end screens, mostly, present the same or very similar results, just replacing the names of the key characters.
  
• Combat is hard. The odds are often not in your favour. Not because you are outnumbered, but because there are very few opportunities to invest in your stats and equipment, so that you have just enough power and resistance to survive a fight. The investment in the combat skills comes at the expense of non-combat skills. But, if you don't invest in the non-combat skills, you miss out on a lot of content. If you invest too much in the non-combat skills you might not survive a fight that is inevitable once you fail a skill check.
  However, I liked that there is a great variety of weapons with their own advantages, disadvantages and strategies. The same goes for armour, although I didn't like that it's not possible to craft every helmet in the game. You can also utilize poisons, acids, nets, bolas, fire and potions in the game.
  It is possible to become an unstoppable butcher in the game, but there's a very narrow path towards that level of combat prowess.
  The game emphasizes that you don't have to take on every fight. The thing is that depending on the order of your quests, equipment and stat allocation, often, fighting is not even a realistic option. You just have to skip some fights and quests to make it through the end.
  
• The game has some replayability. There are different factions quests and quests with different possible outcomes. But mostly the replayability is achieved through restrictiveness. A lot of content and lore is hidden behind stat walls. And I really don't like it. I am fine with trying different factions, but I'm not ok with huge chunks of the story being hidden from me only because I couldn't persuade an NPC or didn't have enough crafting skill to fix a mechanism or enough lore to figure out an ancient text. I think the game lacks alternative exploration paths.
  
• As to the game world itself, I think it's cool that the devs chose some lesser used themes such as Roman Empire and Middle East for the overall atmosphere. But the world felt empty, static and soulless. The atmosphere was in the text, but it was not on the maps. The maps felt disconnected from the overall story. The world around you felt like an empty decoration, offering very poor immersion.

However, in general, I like the game.

I recommend Age of Decadence, primarily, to patient fans of old school RPGs like Fallout and Planescape: Torment, who don't mind the hard combat and restrictive quest progression. For everyone else, I recommend playing this game with minimal use of console commands or mods that increase skill point yields. No matter how you feel about the restrictive gameplay, it's still worth to try the game for its general story.

My overall rating: 7/10

[b]Age of Decadence[/b] is an old-school CRPG. Think of a mix between [b]Fallout[/b] and [b]Stargate[/b] with a Roman flavour. It has a pretty good story set in a post-apocalyptic setting that feels like Roman Empire in ruins. You start as a nobody in one of the six roles offered to you: a mercenary, a merchant, a loremaster, a praetorian (something of a knight-diplomat), a thief, an assasin, a drifter, and a grifter. Each of these roles favor certain playstyles, character builds and starting reputation with the factions in the game. As you progress, you soon discover that the game is harsh and unforgiving, that backstabing and trickery is common, that selfishness is rewarded and kindness is punished, and above all - that you are not an all-powerful hero. You join the power game and choose sides, advancing your skills, influence and trying not to get killed. As you play you discover bits and pieces of information about the ancient technologies and a mythological war of the past that lead to the current state of things. Eventually, you need to make a major decision that will determine the future of the mankind. The [b]AoD[/b] has all the elements of a good RPG, but the problem is that it doesn't entirely succeed at puting them together well. [list] [*]It has a good overall story, with detailed lore, well written dialogues, attention to details, but at the same time there are some pretty major things that felt unpolished. The major characters are quite unremarkable and bland and all of the endings are kind of the same. The factions are kind of the same, too. They differ in their priorities and approach, but they all are after power. Everything is presented in a detached and impersonal manner. The mythological element is very strong in this game and it overshadows everything else up to the point that the end game might make meaningless everything that you did before the final quest. As a player character I take on quests and make decisions, talk with NPCs and participate in fights, but at the same time it felt like my character is just a sidenote in someone else's story. I guess what I'm trying to say is that [b]AoD[/b] felt more like a choose-your-own adventure novel than a CRPG, because of how predetermined and restrictive the story progression was. It's restrictive up to the point that it's not even possible to roleplay your chosen archetype consistently. Finally, the ending is abrupt and the end screens, mostly, present the same or very similar results, just replacing the names of the key characters. [*]Combat is hard. The odds are often not in your favour. Not because you are outnumbered, but because there are very few opportunities to invest in your stats and equipment, so that you have just enough power and resistance to survive a fight. The investment in the combat skills comes at the expense of non-combat skills. But, if you don't invest in the non-combat skills, you miss out on a lot of content. If you invest too much in the non-combat skills you might not survive a fight that is inevitable once you fail a skill check. However, I liked that there is a great variety of weapons with their own advantages, disadvantages and strategies. The same goes for armour, although I didn't like that it's not possible to craft every helmet in the game. You can also utilize poisons, acids, nets, bolas, fire and potions in the game. It is possible to become an unstoppable butcher in the game, but there's a very narrow path towards that level of combat prowess. The game emphasizes that you don't have to take on every fight. The thing is that depending on the order of your quests, equipment and stat allocation, often, fighting is not even a realistic option. You just have to skip some fights and quests to make it through the end. [*] The game has some replayability. There are different factions quests and quests with different possible outcomes. But mostly the replayability is achieved through restrictiveness. A lot of content and lore is hidden behind stat walls. And I really don't like it. I am fine with trying different factions, but I'm not ok with huge chunks of the story being hidden from me only because I couldn't persuade an NPC or didn't have enough crafting skill to fix a mechanism or enough lore to figure out an ancient text. I think the game lacks alternative exploration paths. [*] As to the game world itself, I think it's cool that the devs chose some lesser used themes such as Roman Empire and Middle East for the overall atmosphere. But the world felt empty, static and soulless. The atmosphere was in the text, but it was not on the maps. The maps felt disconnected from the overall story. The world around you felt like an empty decoration, offering very poor immersion. [/list] However, in general, I like the game. I recommend [b]Age of Decadence[/b], primarily, to patient fans of old school RPGs like [b]Fallout[/b] and [b]Planescape: Torment[/b], who don't mind the hard combat and restrictive quest progression. For everyone else, I recommend playing this game with minimal use of console commands or mods that increase skill point yields. No matter how you feel about the restrictive gameplay, it's still worth to try the game for its general story. [b]My overall rating: [u]7/10[/u][/b]