In Iron Tower's defense, Age of Decadence never presents itself as anything other than a game for masochists. The very first screen shown for a new game boasts that it will kill your character over and over and over again. This is presumably meant to underscore the grimdark darkness of AoD's post-apocalyptic grimdark setting, in which there is only grimdark. Some do enjoy this; I'm just getting to find it tedious. After a dozen or so character deaths in the game's opening stretch it becomes impossible to care what decisions you make; pretty much every choice can and likely will end horribly, turning the game into a grind of trial and (fatal) error. The storyline and atmosphere are best described as black comedy, but without the comedy. There are no heroes, every major character you meet is a vile bastard, yet the game seems to take itself quite deadly seriously even with nobody or nothing worth caring about. There are a variety of choices to make depending on your stats and skills, and the character system looks like it would offer considerable freedom and variety if you could slog through enough of the game to really develop your guy. There just isn't enough substance to justify the meatgrinder this game puts its players through.

In Iron Tower's defense, Age of Decadence never presents itself as anything other than a game for masochists. The very first screen shown for a new game boasts that it will kill your character over and over and over again. This is presumably meant to underscore the grimdark darkness of AoD's post-apocalyptic grimdark setting, in which there is only grimdark. Some do enjoy this; I'm just getting to find it tedious. After a dozen or so character deaths in the game's opening stretch it becomes impossible to care what decisions you make; pretty much every choice can and likely will end horribly, turning the game into a grind of trial and (fatal) error. The storyline and atmosphere are best described as black comedy, but without the comedy. There are no heroes, every major character you meet is a vile bastard, yet the game seems to take itself quite deadly seriously even with nobody or nothing worth caring about. There are a variety of choices to make depending on your stats and skills, and the character system looks like it would offer considerable freedom and variety if you could slog through enough of the game to really develop your guy. There just isn't enough substance to justify the meatgrinder this game puts its players through.