Recent reviews by Amanita

it hurts very good

my only complaint is that i can't say enough good things about it

witchy, bloody, very dynamic (due to both the physics interaction and spell customization) and most importantly, extremely painful in true roguelite fashion

you should buy it

normally i write lots of words when reviewing something, but simply put, this is the best release of 2018.

Buyer beware: The game is very clearly unfinished in lots of ways. Consider 'Early Access' before purchasing.

The game is reminiscent of a more lite version of Grand Theft Auto, or more accurately for GMod players, DarkRP. Overall it seems to be quite a solid game, with the lo-fi graphics actually beneficial especially to lower end users who don't have very good computers. For only having a single developer it seems to have a quite good track record of updates, updating at what looks like once per month on average.

What impresses me more is the development roadmap[brokeprotocol.com] for the game -- not because what it offers looks promising, but because progress is tracked well, and the goals seem very realistic instead of making over-ambitious promises. Don't get me wrong, ambition is good, but the developer seems to have a good idea of what's more important at this time.

Multiple times I found myself saying "oh ♥♥♥♥ that's cool" in response to multiple features, including being able to trade with bystanders, the fact that each of them have unique needs of their own, being able to intimidate NPCs, and the knockout/revival system.

Some things I'd like to see are the ability to rob apartments, so that there's a degree of having to defend your ♥♥♥♥ from players, or perhaps cops/rival gangs. I'd also like for police detection to be more complex, in that if there are no witnesses to a crime, the crime shouldn't be reported. Think Watch_Dogs style where you can spot civilians calling the police but you can put a stop to them. What else would be cool would be fluctuating prices of different objects, like weed suddenly booming on the drug market. Also make a different attachment slot for faces so I can wear hats with bandanas around my mouth.

My only complaints mostly concern the user interface. It looks janky and what one would expect a Unity product to look like. I also think the method of interaction is clunky (especially being bound to the middle mouse button by default) and that it could definitely user a better context menu. These however are not gamebreaking issues, and I can understand the developer not considering such things as a higher priority than addition of features to finish the game itself, and fixing bugs.



Overall a great project to keep your eyes on that offers a city RPG experience I haven't quite seen. (also it's $5. good luck beating that price tag)

This game is a very, very good breath of fresh air admist many other early access survival games. I've found myself repeatedly forgetting that it was even in early access because of how polished it is all around, and the price is unbeatable. It's like if STALKER and a version of DayZ that wasn't ass got slapped together, and the developers have expressed on the forum they seem committed to making a good product.

My only complaints concern the fact that human NPCs are too accurate and seem to never stop shooting if they can see you, without taking one break to reload. Other than that, I'd like to see more features such as perhaps a service such as traders being able to store vehicles to make it worth the trouble it is to get a car. What would also be cool are more enemies, either STALKER-like mutants or perhaps squads of NPC civilians/looters/neutrals roaming the map.

In addition, I find myself actually not getting mad when killed by unexpected or perceived unfair circumstances (OH ♥♥♥♥ BEARS or camping looters) as loot isn't that hard to get. One raid on Gorshovo had me loaded up with all sorts of guns and armor pieces.

Easy 9.5/10.

(civilians for life)

LOTS OF TEXT, SERIOUS REVIEW -- NO '10/10' JOKES HERE

Let me begin with this review that it being very cheap (only $7!) feels like I'm pirating the game, when you compare the quality to the price. I would pay $20 for this game and still get the same out of it, though if you want to pick up copies for friends (trust me when I say you'll want to after you get a taste) or if you're simply a cheapskate, and the below text appeals to you, you would be making a mistake not to buy this game.


This is easily the best game purchase I've ever made, and I don't regret buying it for around four other people within my first few hours of playing.

Like games such as Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Dwarf Fortress, and other roguelikes, though especially NetHack (which is renowned as the grandfather of every roguelike and video game RPG that exist), this game will eat you, chew you, spit you out, set you on fire, and then stomp on you; and that's on a good day, and usually only if you're playing with friends.
But like games such as Quake, DOOM, and other classic first person shooters, the controls are easy enough to get used to, while not compromising complexity or challenge.

Roguelikes tend to be represented by tileset based graphics like a board game, or letters/numbers/other characters to represent things in the game world. They're also turn based, and typically never multiplayer due to the turn based gameplay.

Barony violates these 'rules of the roguelike' with the following:

- can be played with up to 4 people (extremely important)
- a three-dimensional voxel graphic system (3D pixel-ish, but is still very aesthetically pleasing, and actually feels nostalgic with a 90s feel unlike your average game that uses pixel art graphics for no good reason)
- a first person perspective (as opposed to a board game look where you see everything from above)
- real time gameplay (roguelikes are usually always turn based)

There are probably other important roguelike rules I'm missing, yet, despite these changes, this game is the purest example (besides NetHack itself) of what a roguelike is, and is largely directly inspired by NetHack (not the same story, but definitely the same spiritually). These are not criticisms. The fact that Barony can manage these changes while still feeling like a true roguelike every step of the way is what proves it to be as good as I'm making it out to be. (in fact, these changes make the game easier for people to pick up and get into, but that's just my opinion)


In terms of what a classic dungeon crawling roguelike should have, Barony excels in such:

- death is permanent
- extremely hard and unforgiving
- extremely fun overall (in terms of actual fun, and Dwarf Fortress 'Losing is Fun!' fun)
- cryptic and doesn't make anything obvious (while every bottle of swirly orange liquid will do the same thing, it won't tell you what it does unless the effect itself is obvious, like invisibility -- only if you identified it through appraisal or a scroll of identify will it tell you what it does before you drink it)
- many levels, with randomized layouts that change every time
- is NOT simple, even though it looks like it is (you normally wouldn't expect eating too much to be a problem, until your character vomits and suddenly you're starving to death because your stomach is empty)
- lets you learn from your dying experiences so you know not to make the same mistakes -- this is very important, as death is a learning experience as opposed to you simply not being good enough or bad luck
- also is likely to make your death hilarious as opposed to frustrating
- near death experiences are also very fun (don't believe me? you will after you escape a minotaur)
- many different ways to play
- many secrets
- a lot more that i'm forgetting

In addition, Barony's co-op play is not only extremely fun, but somehow turns the death of every party member except you from horribly frustrating to uncontrollable laughter at the circumstances through which your friends died. It somewhat violates the permadeath rule in that the party heading to the next level respawns who died, but this is offset by the fact that you may not be able to carry all of the equipment that your friends had to return it, and that your chance of surviving long enough to get to the next level to revive them is as low as their chance not to die first was.

My only complaint is that even though I haven't beaten it as of the time of writing this review, and probably won't for a very long time, there doesn't seem to be that much content in comparison to NetHack as far as levels go (from my understanding of the game's insides, the shortest a game can be is 20 levels), and there could be more tiers of equipment beyond wooden/bronze/iron/steel (correct me if i'm wrong).

Condensed, here's what I think of the various aspects:

Graphics - 8/10 (this is probably because i'm biased toward old school voxel graphics, but if Minecraft is pleasing to your eye, Barony will be something your eyes will savor)
Sound - 7/10 (could be more realistic, but the sound effects do easily match the graphics, which are old school)
Music - 9/10 (very fitting, and very nostalgic)
Gameplay - 10/10 (see everything I wrote above)

As far as suggestions go, if the developers or anyone influential on the game's direction can read this, I would suggest more equipment, more enemies and maybe more bosses (skeletons are cool and all, but i'd love to see more), more levels, pretty much more everything if there's no plans to already. NetHack had an absolutely overwhelming number of enemies, items such as wands, weapons, potions (which were randomly generated in every playthrough! I would recommend having a system such as that, akin to Binding of Isaac's randomly generated pill effects), etc. Of all those, my main request would be more enemies. As a nice addition, perhaps sliders or difficulty/'complication' levels would be a good idea to either new or hardcore players, as too much can easily overwhelm a person (which NetHack does with no problem) and spoil their experience -- though balanced in such a way that it still remains true to it's roguelike roots.
All of this said however, the developers are already doing an amazing job, and the above are simple suggestions that I think, from my experiences of playing NetHack and other roguelikes, would greatly enhance the game. This may not reflect the vision of the developers.

Final Judgement - 10/10
If you like everything I wrote above, are tired of more casual games being too easy, want some more challenge, love NetHack and want something similar, love NetHack and want to play it with friends, or are just looking for the next RPG to sink your time into, get this game.

Or get this game anyway and see how many times you die in your first two hours. (My count: 43)

(also add me on Steam if you want someone to play this with!)