This game, well... I waited a long time to leave a review. I put a lot of time in this game and I love it, I loved the community and I enjoyed my time here.

It pains me that I'm leaving this review, because it means an exit- an end. One that I didn't really want to face.

Sins of a Dark Age struggled, lack of marketing is - in my opinion - the reason it wasn't able to stay up. I wrote an entire guide for all the quests that were available when I played, I updated it with the new content when it came out - but I wasn't blind, I knew it wouldn't stay up. For a long time the peak wouldn't go above 28 players, and a lot of these were invisible, unknowns but the community was tight knit.

Then we were told that Developement would be ceased For those that actually read my review. Developement is over, what is there is all that will remain, less and less people will even see this. Maybe if you all found it before something could've come off it, but now. Don't bother.

I'm a veteran of Dota 1/2 and League of Legends. I say this not to brag, but to let those of you know that this review is critiqued by a person who has been playing this genre of game for years.

NOTE:This game was originally put out in an Alpha state to help test some of the mechanics and fine tone the game, and it has caused a mixed review setting, but I can tell you NOW as of May 2015 the game is well made, and a worthy entry into the MOBA genre.

Let's go over some of the pros and cons for this game!

As of May 2015

PROS:
• It has an extremely customizable matchmaking system. You can have five different search "playlists" which can be customized heavily. Want to have a solo playlist with EU friends? Make it. Want to have an unranked playlist to practice or get quick games in? Covered. Want a PvP ranked playlist? Done.
  
• Like smartcast? Normal cast? Quick cast? They more than have you covered. Within the keybinding settings is an option to not only do individual heroes, but each individual skill. Want your heroes ultimate to be quick cast while your hero's Q be a smartcast? You can do that. It's a fantastic piece of user interaction that is done better than basically every other MOBA.
  
• 5v5 matches include a special series of world quests that happen every 8 minutes. These world quests are objectives that can be completed by EITHER side in a competition style format that can FORCE teamfights, and/or give one side an advantage. The enemy team getting more kills then you? Try to level it out by working with your team to complete the world quests before the enemy team and start regaining ground. Quests can include things like transporting a chest across map for bonus gold, or ones that give special items to disable towers.
  
• The business model. The business model in this game is exceptionally well done. Hate grinding for months to get all the champions in league? Don't worry, all heroes are available from the start similar to DOTA, and the main venue for money that this game gets is through cosmetic skins. Unlike many other F2P games you can not simply buy power.
  
• Like playing a support, but hate never getting any gold to buy items? There is a percentage of gold share in this game similar to how Dawngate worked. Supports can gain gold by assisting in kills, assisting in quests objectives, and doing lethal / non-lethal damage to creeps.
  
• There is a gear and crafting system which utilizes recipes and materials gained from matches. The gear works in similar way to runes in LoL, with some special pieces slightly changing the effects of a specific heroes abilities. The crafting system also applies to skins, so if you gather the recipe and related materials for a skin you can simply craft it to use. Retired skins that are no longer sold can be sold on the steam marketplace.
  
• The community is exceptionally nice, and there is an in game system that rewards respectful players. I've seen developers and community moderators online quite often in the general chat to talk with, and it shows a great commitment to their work.
  
• Twitch is integrated directly into the game, and if you go to the menu via Escape you can link your twitch account directly to SODA. With it enabled you can view your twitch stream chat while in game, amongst several other useful features.
  
• A try hero mode can be played while waiting for your match Queue to pop. It allows you to warm up with a hero you'd like to play, or just mess around with various tactics versus an AI. It's a useful tool and a good way to pass the time!
  
  CONS:
  
• There are currently 20 heroes. This is something that can be expanded with updates as more characters rollout, but it is a relatively slim selection compared to what MOST MOBA players are used to.
  
• There are currently Frame hitches that will happen during games. Developers are working on a patch to fix these problems, but as of right now there are many people suffering from frame rate issues.
  
• The inventory system in your profile can at times feel harder to navigate. Especially at later levels as the icons are quite large, and by the time you hit level 10 or so you will have a lot of various materials.

In Conclusion:
Sins of a Dark Age is a very well constructed MOBA that combines a lot of liked elements from the MOBA genre, and provides an effective way to come back with the use of team work. Especially when quest objectives and their respective rewards can really change up your plan in the game. E.G. If you complete the quest to gain the tower disable ability it is a smart time to push, whereas if you get the item to slow enemies it would indicate a heavy usage on ganks and team fights to be successful.

The game offers a lot of fantastic player options, user interface improvements, and gameplay that rewards teamwork without making it always needed. You can still solo Queue and do great with a public team. Especially when your teammates all know to help with objectives, but it will reward teams for being well coordinated and communicating well.

All of this with the price tag of : FREE means that I can easily recommend this to ANY MOBA player or people looking for an introduction into the genre. It encompasses MOBA aspects expected by veterans of the genre, and it can successfully introduce new players to the genre.

Good game, but it is literally dead and the devs have even said that they're leaving the project.
It's a shame.


EDIT: Here's the link with their statement about stopping development.

Im one of those, who enjoy a lot of different MOBAs.

This one is amazing for what it does! The REAL Free 2 Play model they have adopted here is outstanding! Heck you can even get the skins for free! Im just hoping that they will be able to sustain the business with giving you so much stuff for nothing!

The stuff that you could compare to League of Legends rune system, is instead much more RPG themed, with items and such, but in theory it does the same stuff. But it feels a lot different.

The 5v5 mode which looks a lot like the ones your used to in other MOBAs, is A LOT different because of having objectives in the form of random quests that happens every now and then, which rewards the team that finishes it. It many times becomes a battle and balance between the teams on who wants it the most. Which puts a lot of tactical depth to the gameplay that feels very unique and is what makes this game stand out the most!

The 2v2 is really fun, fast and actionpacked. I have never enjoyed single lane gameplay before, but in this game it is awesome fun! Try it out, specially with a buddy, or heck with 3 other buddys you can do custom 2v2 and have a blast!

This is also the first ever game I seen that SPONSORS anyone who streams the game! LIKE REALLY! From in game you can giveaway in game chests to your viewers as long as they have signed in to their twitch account from the game menu. And since its F2P that is so easy for them to do. In return they can upvote your stream from inside the game, through witch you as the streamer gets rewarded with chests and items. This thing is something every game dev should look at and think about. This is how you support the twitch community on a passive way where everyone benefits! Best initiative I have seen from a developer when it comes to supporting streamers.

Give this game a go! Its amazingly well and totally worth! This deserves a lot more spotlight and should be one up there competing with the other MOBAs imo!

Hello guys,
After few days i can share my experience about this game :)
I really enjoy my time playing here, the community is good and friendly, but with low player base its normal, later when this game will be free to play and more people will join, it will be the same as every other game. But atm the community is really good, Developers are active, and playing with us too. Will talk about low player base later.

- The fight mechanics are similar to league of legends, but here you can't auto attack with A + left click, but besides that the spells and movement works the same.
EDIT: you can make attack move by pressing T. Thanks Ekko Tek :p

- Editing hero: its similar to LoL again, you can costumize your hero attributes, and make your own item build and use gear items to gain more good stats. It's like the mastery system in LoL, you gain +1 attribute point each time your player levels up. You will get some gear items from the chests you gain when you start, and later you have a chance to get other gear items as reward for first win of the day, or maybe you can get them for playing games too, not sure about that sofar i only got materials and Recipe for skin :)
I like the hero editing here, better than the mastery system in LoL. And it feels more like rpg'ish :)

-Crafting: you can craft skins, gear items, Lores from materials, you can get materials from daily first win of the day, and rewards after match.
EDIT 2015.01.03.: You can get random items by leveling up your "Virtue level", even have a chance to get Skins, recipies and the other cool stuffs :) This kinda an inspiration to be nice to others ( which should be a common thing ofc ), and play nicely :) But at this moment the community is nice and helpful anyway :)
Means you can get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and good stuffs without paying anything, but needs time :)
This is similar to Dota 2 stuff, but there you dont need to craft :) They are tradeable, so you can sell them on steam market, and get the ones you like :) They have different rarity: trash, common, uncommon, rare.

-Glyphs: these are like summoner spells in LoL, BUT you can choose them ingame, and they are different. They got 3 levels, and you can build one Glyph 2 different way :) This is a very good feature that i really like, more variety. And you can have 2 different Glyph spells.

-Itemization: there are a lot of items you can choose, all of them fine. Many situational items and basic ones you need.

-Ingame Quests: there are many ingame quests that gives your team money reward or other special buffs. They have very random sequence each match. They are very challenging especially when you play vs players :)
So teamwork is very important, just like in every other moba game :p

-Matchmaking: you can search for 2 matches at same time! this is a really cool feature, especially when the game will grow later :) finding a match will be very easy. At this moment it's not really effective, due to low player base, but it will be fine.
EDIT 2014.12.31.::::: Also new players don't have to worry about "veterans" will have advantage vs them, because they are higher level ( means more attribute points to spend ). When you get matched with a lower level, everyone gets reduced their attribute points to the same level as the lowest player have. This helps to make the game more balanced on stats :)
EDIT 2015.01.18:::: Since last patch the matchmaking has changed. Now you can search more than
2 matches at same time :)

So overall the game is really good as it's only beta / early access, only need some fixes, and increase the player base :)
I am trying to make parties to go a fast 5 vs AI, so if you feel like to practicing like that, add me on steam and we can play together.

I would recommend this game to every moba lovers, Dota 2, LoL doesn't matter both player can feel comfortable here.
There are many key giveaways for this game on different sites, just search for it, and try this game out. Or if you feel like to donate go for it, the game is not that expensive anyway, and i would say it's worth :)

If any newcomer want's to try and got questions, add me on steam and i will try to help if i can. And we can play together practice against AI.

EDIT:
I am also streaming the game when i got time ( because im working ) and playing it. You can find me at http://www.twitch.tv/azta1212


UPDATE::: For latest patch notes / updates check in here
http://steamcommunity.com/app/251970/discussions/7/

Peace :)

As Ironclad’s latest project and an entry to the Action Strategy genre, Sins of a Dark Age combines Intense Multiplayer Team Battles with Dynamic Tactical Combat. Also, the RPG elements are symbiotic with the Enthralling Gameplay and Precision Crafted Dark Fantasy atmosphere for a Fully Immersive Experience.

The Realm Quests open up a variety of new Strategies in each round for great Replayability, yet the continuity required to hone your skill and adapt to the enemy’s maneuvers and tactics is maintained.

A comprehensive Loot system is implemented in a way which encourages players to fight until the end of every match. The recipes and crafting materials obtained are used between matches to create Hero Enhancing Gear and Premium Content for free for added depth in customization.

The variety of highly detailed and unique skins is plentiful for each Hero, and they all fall within the realm of Thematic Consistency. The Tailor Made Sound Effects and Superb Voice Acting effortlessly strengthen the characters and environment, while the Ambience and Epic Music bring the ruthless world to life.

The engine and game are created by one team from the ground up ready for full Steam integration. Because of this, the interface is Efficient and Intuitive, and the gameplay is easy to learn but remains a challenge to master.

Several of the game’s features are not yet implemented, but it plays far beyond my expectations of an Early Access title. With ongoing polish, new content oozing in, and unmatched Community Interaction from the development team, this opportunity should not be missed by anyone. There are bugs to iron out in the current testing phase, but with the amount of good content already in, unlimited access to all Heroes, a great community, and the bonuses included in the Early Access Bundle, I find Sins of a Dark Age to be well worth the $5 investment, especially knowing it gives me the means to have an influence in the design
process.

First things first. I am a public volunteer moderator of the forums on this game. So this review will obviously be biased, but I will attempt to be as fair as possible.

Some background: I am a fan of Sins of a Solar Empire. Once I heard about Sins of a Dark Age, I signed up for the forums. Commander mode came and went, and the beta came out December 2012 or so (around that time.) I was not a big fan of MOBAs at all at the time. I had been a new player and had some terrible experiences with some other games. I sort of shrugged my shoulders and took a hiatus from the genre.

I came back to Soada after 7 months. I had gotten over my beef with other MOBAs and tried it out again. In my second post of Soada's forums, developers personally greeted me and remarked on my feedback. The forum environment was friendly, the game appealing to me, and I was having a blast. I started out just fighting bots. My previous MOBA experience had scarred me against playing against humans. But even against them I was finding myself enjoying the mechanics of the game. I really liked the quest system. It was a neat alternative to the traditional method, and it was sort of a descendant of the Commander Mode.

Eventually Soada came to Steam, and I've been hooked ever since. I started playing against humans, and I even got to play with the developers! It's pretty neat playing with the guys who made Sins of a Solar Empire! (Vasari Loyalists for life!) I am still a fan of League of Legends and Dota 2, but Soada just appeals to me more. I like the dark fantasy setting. I like the mythological creatures and heroes. It is more consistent in tone and theme. The hero design looks grounded in reality and more real than some of its cartoony competitors.

I like the heroes. I think they are cool looking and play great. There are 19 of them at the moment, so it's a lot easier to play them and get a feel for them. League and Dota's rosters can be overwhelming to new players. 100+ heroes and 45 minute matches adds up over time! Quite the commitment! Even though the cast of heroes is smaller, I like them more than some of Soada's competitors. I'd rather have 19 heroes I know and enjoy than be overwhelmed by 100 heroes that I've never played before.

The game has been constantly upgraded these past few months. Character changes, quest updates, new item art, bug fixing, you name it. I feel part of the community. I feel like my feedback is heard, and some of these players are both fantastic teammates and formidable rivals!

Are there any cons? It's a work in progress. Entire systems have been changed in these few months. There was a time where it was more like League of Legends with purchaseable heroes. There was Iron and Crowns, much like Riot Points. It's now truly becoming its own thing. It's technically a MOBA along the vein of League and Dota, but has its own identity. Perhaps "action strategy" may be more fitting since more and more ideas will separate it from the pack and make it truly unique!

I can see this game appealing to fantasy fans. Dragon Age, DnD, etc. The art design, lore, and setting are right up that alley. Table top, pen and paper fans too.

Even hardcore MOBA fans of its competitors might get a kick out of it. I like Dota and LoL, but I don't feel attached to it as much as I do Soada. Would I feel this same way if Ironclad didn't make this game? I don't know. I just know I have a fun time playing it, I feel valued to the community, and it can only get better!

:)

Ealry Access review:

Positives: The community is great! The devs and mods are awesome and frequently play! The gameplay is unique, and the graphics/artwork is continually improving with each update. The selection of heroes is becoming more diverse. The questing system is awesome and adds ways for the game to change quickly. The devs always listen to your suggestions and issues and do their best to implement what they can. The item system and RPG element is well balanced and only getting better. The new jungling system is a huge improvement and the new Duel modes and vs AI modes add more ways to play when not many people are on. It will be free-to-play soon, and is NOT a pay-to-win game.(thank god, or jeebus, or flying spaghetti monster or whoever you praise)

Negatives: The population is low except during peak hours. Seems to be optimization issues with older systems.(common for early access games)

This is the first online game I've enjoyed in many many years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftBUQBiq9lo

This game has been in the beta since 2012, probably main reason why it took so long them to launch was that their original publisher stopped supporting the game and these guys eventually wanted to use steam as their platform (Everyone seems to do this; Infinite Crisis, Games of Glory, Primeworld & Strife). Ive had seen the progress of the game from first reveal so i can compare the different states of the games pretty well.

Lets start the review with listing some of the problems in the game – first one being that the graphics are heavily outdated compared to the MOBA competition we have today, landscape/terrain seems pretty dead and flat for most part and textures seem to be okayish.

The game suffers bit of lack of playerbase but that might be now fixed with the current surge of population coming to the game. During at peak hours there seems to be atleast 100-300 players online and ive seen it go low as 50. During worse times there were hardly any people in so you had to play bots for most part (Back in start of early access in steam & 2012). You have an option to play 2v2, which is comparable to ARAM mode from League Of Legends, which probably fills lobbies faster on more quieter hours.

The better parts of the game is of course its soundtrack, while its no match for League One, i think its still very solid Medieval/fantasy soundtrack which fits very well in overall theme of the moba. I do also like the loot/chest system to an extent, except the part when you start opening chests and hope RNG gods for good lot (I don’t like the gambling aspect of the game really).

As always want to wrap up a Positive/Negative breakdown, so people get their TL;DR version.

Positive Aspects

- Solid soundtrack, which is above most of other competition in moba space
- Glad to see more games use chest/loot systems
- Not very hard basics, easy to get into for most part
- Quest Objectives & Day/Night System

Negative Aspects

- Graphics aren’t good as they should be in todays standards
- Low Playerbase might lead to high que times and eventually games demise
- Very cost Skins for the Heroes compared to their worth and competition prices
- Requires more Characters and more complex characters to master
- Lacks some real Unique standpoints which would make it stand from the crowd
- As overall verdict, i think there are better options out there who want change from League or Dota

As you may or may not be aware, SoaDA's main selling point is probably the quest system. This is handled very well by the game designers, as not only does winning a quest give your team some form of bonus - stronger minions in lane, a debuff applied to the enemy when you attack them, enemy minions that die in your vicinity returning as skeletons to fight for you, amongst others - but winning 2 out of 3 quests will give your whole team a boost to your stats, giving you a very nice edge in team fights.
The quests' issue order change, too, from game to game, giving SoaDA a very nice replayability value, as you will find your approach to the gameplay dynamically changing depending on the quest issued and the enemy's handling of said quest.

The day/night mechanic, and its design to make the nights a scarier, more dangerous counterpart to the days, will give an extra dynamic to your playstyle. The brushes - moonblooms, I believe they're called - will more lush and in more places at night, your hero's vision range is reduced, and creeps in the jungle become more aggressive and dangerous.

Graphics- and design-wise, this game takes a dark fantasy approach that everyone I've talked to appreciates much more than the all-too-prominent cartoon design of all-too-many mobas out there. The lore immersion, too, is simply impeccable. You will find many tidbits here and there - be it through hero quotes, out-of-match items or merchant quotes - that will give you the feeling that the SoaDA world is so much larger than the little we see. How could they not, if upon buying Orza's Soul Net in a match the merchant tells you "Keep in mind that Orza's soul was the first one captured"?

Now, is the game right for you? If you want to try something different than the popular mobas out there, the answer will most likely be a resounding yes. This game plays out very differently from the first-generation mobas and takes a different approach to evolve the gameplay from other second-generation mobas. You are bound to appreciate the breath of fresh air to the genre.
This game's pace is slightly slower than its counterparts. This allows for more in-depth strategies/tactics, so it will definitely appeal to the strategists/thinkers out there. But, if you are looking for a fast-paced non-stop action game, then I'm afraid that you may have come to the wrong place :)