Oh boy this won't be easy to write.

First of all, get this game. It's cheap and it's relatively low time investment; you aren't signing up for spending thousands of hours perfecting a build in an ARPG here. Second, prepare to get into the deepest, most well-written mess you'll ever see.

Svarog's Dream is an action RPG. You gain levels and choose abilities. You gain attribute points as you use certain abilities, or as you engage with the world in a certain way. The movement system and interaction is familiar to anyone who has played an ARPG before. There are now twelve individual classes to focus on; you pick two and build your character off of that. Classes are grouped into "Order" and "Chaos", but there's no need to stick strictly to one or the other. Combat is as challenging as you want it to be - you can always pick off mobs one by one, or pile them up to get kills faster.

The moment to moment gameplay is joyful. I've tried a caster and an archer and had a good time with both. Melee is a bit harder to get going - you'll go through potions quickly - but all the styles play very differently. The animations are lovely. For a two-person team, I expect one sword swing. The game mixes it up between several (and a shield bash) for autoattacking. Looks great. I spent my first playthrough ignoring the water, only to discover that they've animated a swimming cycle and you can literally cross the continent.

The story shocked me with its depth. I read a lot, and any time someone claims a video game has a "great story" I'll admit I inwardly roll my eyes. The end of this game hit me hard and I'll leave it there. Yes, there are typos in the text, too.

I can't say the game is perfect. Many skills are obviously just bad. For example, the Fortune has an ability that causes a random ability from any tree to fire. This can be an ability with a cast time. So your melee character suddenly stops moving, hangs out for a while. Dead. The UI also needed more bake time - the weird interaction between separate bags is just awful. Right click can use, equip, place, sell, or move to another bag. There are no context clues that give you an idea of what's going to happen. Thank goodness they implemented buyback.

Overall this is an amazing video game. Taken just on the gameplay merits, it's just fun. Add in the story and you have something really, really special here. I look forward to what's next from these devs.

(Maybe a way to automate potion production later on?)

Nice game. About 15 hours gameplay with good amount of RPG character building options.