Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones Review: Sanity Is Overrated

Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones leans hard into the insanity of Lovecraft’s stories, creating a world that’s unpleasant in every way.

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When a developer makes a game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s writing, most players already have a sense of what to expect. There’s going to be a lot of talk about madness, some shambling horrors, possibly the odd apeman or fishman lurking about, some sort of spooky cult, and a general sense of foreboding and dread. Yet, a lot of Cthulu-centric games don’t exactly hit the right note of creeping evil, and thus it’s difficult to get sucked into the world because it simply doesn’t feel authentic.

Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones doesn’t have that issue, because it leans hard into the insanity of Lovecraft’s stories and creates a world that’s utterly unpleasant in every way, which is exactly what it should be.

Leave Your Sanity At The Door

Stygian starts with the city of Arkham essentially being sucked into hell, or purgatory, or some kind of nightmare dimension. The sun never rises, there are monsters and lunatics everywhere, the mob has taken over control, the only currency is cigarettes, and the few people who are unlucky enough to still be alive are either under the thumb of a boss called Wax Face or hooked on drugs or booze. Your character, who still kind of has their wits about them, has encountered a person known as The Dismal Man, who told them to come find him once everything turned to crap. At this point, you literally have nothing better to do, so you set out to track him down, and hopefully find some kind of solution to this rather uncomfortable situation.

This game is bleak. If you want a happy-go-lucky gaming experience, you’re not going to find it here. I’ve played few games that seem to revel in the nastiness of their world as much as Stygian, which is kind of nice because usually, these games don’t truly capture how terrible it would be to live in a Lovecraft novel. Games like The Sinking City feel dreary and sad, but I never genuinely felt like my sanity was on the line. In Stygian, it feels like every location is going to contain something new and disgusting, and that’s what a Lovecraftian game should be aiming for.

Choose Your Own Horrible Fate

Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones is a CRPG, and it’s aiming to give players a Call Of Cthulu-type of role-playing experience. That means when it comes to creating your character, it grants you a pretty large canvas to paint with.

You get to choose your gender, age, Archetype (essentially your class, like an Academic or Criminal), pre-nightmare occupation, belief system (like being rational or religious), and then you pump points into something that resembles Fallout’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L system, as well as some skill points. Everything you choose affects how you roleplay as your character, as well as the abilities you possess, and the interactions you’ll have within the story.

I ended up with a Materialistic Performer named Klippy McGooseberry, who was a Movie Actor who specialized in Speechcraft and Subterfuge, meaning I was good at talking my way out of trouble, and into more money (cigarettes) as well. It’s surprisingly deep, and I was shocked at how much these choices came into play as I went through the game.

Murder Shouldn’t Be This Dull

While there’s a lot of interesting roleplaying to do, the combat is a bit lackluster. It’s a turn-based affair, where you and anyone you come across who wants to join your party (usually because you’re paying them) face off against any mobsters, monsters, or madmen who get in your way. It plays out on a grid, each character has a certain amount of action points which can be spent on attacks or movement, and the turn order works similarly to the way it does in Darkest Dungeon. The problem is that it’s tedious, and if you’re outnumbered, you have to sit there waiting for your turn while enemies continually do health or sanity damage to you. It’s a real missed opportunity, as a more dynamic combat system would have made Stygian the best Cthulu game in ages, but instead, it drags everything down.

Don’t expect to find much color in the graphics here. We got a lot of shades of grey and brown, with some occasional flashes of other pale colors. The art style looks like something that could have existed in the 1920s and everyone looks like they stepped out of the opening credits of Cheers, if that show was about a bar trapped in a hellish netherworld. The character movements are a little flimsy, and everything moves with the herky-jerky motions of a Flash animation.

The sound design does a decent job of evoking fear, but a majority of the music and effects seem like they came straight off a playlist called, “Spooky Haunted House Tracks.” While they assist in making you feel uneasy, they tend to get a little repetitive as the game goes on.

A Nightmare Come True

Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones is very close to an ideal Lovecraft game. It nails the feeling of absolute despair that a world trapped in a neverending cycle of sadness and horror should have, and the character creation allows you to have an in-depth role-playing adventure. However, the combat system is so wearisome and slow that it brings everything to a halt, souring the entire experience.

If you’re feeling pretty good about life and looking for a way to drag yourself into a pit of sorrow, then there are few games better to help you along than Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones. Just don’t go in expecting a happy ending, or anything even resembling happiness.

3 Out Of 5 Stars

A PC copy of Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones was provided to TheGamer for this review. Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones is available on PC, Linux, and Mac.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/stygian-reign-old-ones-review-pc/