Recent reviews by Unexpected Pootis

In-game time 36 hrs at the time of review[bug with steam]






Vagrus is very interesting and addictive game. Feels like a truly polished, hardcore and unforgiving mix of Kenshi and Mount & Blade, with dice based action and heavy lore. Another not so famous game that heavily resembles my experience of this game is Starsector[Check it out, its pretty good].

Vagrus is a hidden gem that puts you at the helm of your comitatus and allows you to explore and thrive in this hardcore, post-apocalyptic world of the Riven Realms. First and foremost this is a sandbox game where you are the head of a travelling company or a comitatus, that can engage in trading, mercenary work and exploration. Depending on what your choice may be you can decide to do as you please. But keep in mind that the setting is a post-apocalypse and you’re not special, if you get in over your head, you will simply starve and die in the wastes to be reclaimed by the Acolytes of Ahskul as undead workers. Enjoy this ride, as its a long one.






So far I’ve managed to squeeze in roughly 2 runs of about 1000 days each in the main campaign and let me tell you, I am no where near finishing the game. I’d say I’ve just entered the middle-game. I haven’t completed the tutorial, as I wanted to experience the game without the training wheels and see for myself how truly challenging it is. After watching a couple of videos explaining the main mechanics and the game loop I started exploring on my own and trying to figure out what to do and how to make this game fun.
 It was a bit challenging at first, as if you’re not a fan of reading like I initially was, the game has no other way to communicate the world that you were dropped in and how to progress in this world. However, after about 10 hrs of gameplay and heavy reading the game’s atmosphere has captivated me and made me want to explore everything I could. So, I decided to focus my first run which was relatively advanced 1300 days, let’s say towards the middle-game on experimentation with the game mechanics. First I tried to explore the web and the game wiki, and to my surprise there is almost nothing on the game. Nobody has bothered to write up a guide or give this game a proper let’s play/tutorial where it delves in-depth on the game mechanics and lore. No all locations tab, nothing, just simply nothing. Some scraps here and there, but overall the game has to be explored by you and there is no easy way to circumvent it. Honestly it annoyed me quite a bit, but it was a blessing in disguise, as it allowed me to explore this unforgivable world on my own. Well, sooner than later my exploration lead me into such a ruin that I just decided to scarp everything and start a new run, as I’ve realised that I made some critical mistakes while exploring. 
With the obtained experience from the first run. My second run is much more successful and I’ve managed to get to where I was in the first save in roughly 200-300 days, which surprised me. I’ve understood some key aspects of the loop that I am going to share with you here, some things to look out for. As the game is unforgiving, but fair at the same time.

Also scum-saving is literally encouraged by the devs. If you look at the achievements, the game considers “iron-man” to be without manual game saves, aka. Player save slots. But still allows you to have the last day and last settlement slot, which saves a lot of pain.




First and foremost let’s talk about character progression. There are no experience points per se, but “insight” and that is gained by either exploring new places or completing major quests and milestones. I am not sure how limited it is, I mean it is bound to run out at some point, but honestly I haven’t had problems obtaining it.


There are two types of characters. 
First is you Vagrus, who is the leader of the comitatus and is the one giving orders and having a direct influence on the outcomes of the daily logistical challenges, combat and events.

Then there are companions who are your specialists or officers that supplement your skills and enter companion combat.


The main advice here is don’t waste your insight upgrading the attributes on your Vagrus, as it takes way more insight to do it this way. A much better option is to dump the points into companions who gain more attributes, for the equivalent amount of insight 


A bigger tip

 Here is some broken knowledge at least for the middle game so far. As you cannot respec your points at all (I haven’t found a way) don’t waste them on upgrading unnecessary attributes by the logic of the more the better. I found much more success in getting only the necessary attributes and optimising the companions for companion combat to do exploration in the middle game. Also deputies, resourcefulness and abilities OP





The main problem for your Vagrus that stops him from doing what you want him to do is the setting. Which is a post-apocalyptic wasteland with little to no food and pretty much only desert with various beasts, brigands and undead roaming the wastes.
 So, your job is making sure that anything you are planning to do is either profitable and can help you cover your losses. Or if you’re wanting to take risks, you have to accrue some cash as a safety pillow, so you can recover from any unfortunate events that come your way. But be carful not to starve, as there is no recovering from death.
Keep in mind that anything you want to achieve needs a certain amount of attributes and skills and you cannot make certain things profitable or reasonable to do if your build isn’t optimised for that.

For example, in my first run I tried the self-sustaining comitatus build, where I max my hunting and foraging skills and basically live off the land. That was great for the early game, but towards the middle game where I wanted to get a fully mounted party to traverse and engage in combat that backfired as it didn’t suit my build. 




There are two main types of quests.

Major quests that are pre-written and have a story-line behind them and tasks, which are short procedural tasks that net you some cash


 Early game the best way to net some easy sustenance is grabbing as many hauling quests as possible to a single location and essentially hauling goods back and forth. There is a skill for your Vagrus that can help with that tremendously use it to stack 6-7 tasks into a single location.





Trading is the primary way in which you will be starting your adventure, as it is safe and an easy way to acquire some early game cash. 
Nothing too crazy here, just look at the prices, figure out where to sell what and transport goods along.


 Always first load up on tasks to a location and then finish off with trade goods, as the profits from tasks are direct, while trading has offsets. Also tasks grind reputation





Exploration is a major part of the game, but it depends on what kind. You can explore settled lands, or explore unknown abandoned temples. The settled lands are a good way of making some trading and questing money while temples are high risk high reward depending on if you can manage to get out alive. 

Actual spoiler
 You can get rid of the curse of the undead by visiting a temple of Ahskul in Deven 



Combat can be high risk high reward, depending once again on your preparation and if you’re the one attacking. If you’re getting attacked it is usually not great, but if you’re the one raiding it can net you quite a bit of profit. 

Avoid at all costs in the early game without any gear and weapons.

 You have to stack a lot of defence to avoid unnecessary losses to your crew if fighting the living.

One of the greatest games of all time. So many possibilities. So much content. Solid gameplay. Your own story.

The game in its current state is an improved version of warband. It is playable and is quite entertaining, but not perfect. New patches are rolling out daily, which shows the dedication of the dev team. This is both good and bad, since each patch ideally needs a new save, so playing multiplayer is the way to go now, or playing on the easiest settings for quick progression. As for the quality of patches, haven't seen a dev team that listens to community feedback as much as this one. Had couple of problems with my own game, went to the forums found that I wasn't the only one, the next patch the problem was gone. The game in its current state doesn't have as many features as promised, but it is a clear step above its predecessor. If you don't mind switching saves frequently or playing in multiplayer play it now, if you mind wait for couple of weeks so devs can fix the current build and then start working on the big features. Thankfully these devs are not selling a half baked games as a full product and then sell the locked content as DLC, *cough* Paradox *cough*

It's a pretty decent game to be honest, nice free to play replica of DayZ, and also it runs on mac very smoothly which is nice for iMac gaming community

where is old version of a game ???