Caves of Lore, for Ultima fans, $10 [PC]

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Hipolito
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Caves of Lore, for Ultima fans, $10 [PC]

Post by Hipolito »

I heard about Caves of Lore from a recent episode of the Gamers With Jobs podcast. It sounded really great: an Ultima-like game with modern conveniences, an interesting plot, skills that improve with use, flexible character building, etc. And just $10 on Steam.

I bought the game and noticed right off the bat that something's missing: a manual! For those old-school RPGs, reading the manual from cover to cover before firing up the game was part of the fun and quite helpful in learning the game. A game as complex as Caves of Lore deserves a manual.

Still, I delved into the game and had some fun. It has pixelart graphics but modern-looking lighting and shadows. The music is decent and the writing is light-hearted. The turn-based combat takes place on a grid. The developer is one person who learned to code and released this game over the course of five years as a side project, which is quite impressive.

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Although my first hour of play was fairly smooth and fun, I'm baffled by the various menus and stat-based systems. The in-game tutorials are incomplete and buggy, as are the tooltips. I'm not sure whether to quit or just keep playing and have faith that I'll figure it all out.

The game was released two months ago and the developer is still updating it and listening to feedback. Since I've played for less than 2 hours, I could get a refund, but I'll probably just let the dev keep the ten bucks and try the game later when it might have the polish I need. Other people, though they acknowledge that a lot needs to be fixed and explained, have been playing this game to the end and loving it all the way. So some of you looking for old-fashioned RPG experiences may want to give it try.
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Smoove_B
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Re: Caves of Lore, for Ultima fans, $10 [PC]

Post by Smoove_B »

Hadn't heard of this either - thanks for sharing!
Maybe next year, maybe no go
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LawBeefaroni
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Re: Caves of Lore, for Ultima fans, $10 [PC]

Post by LawBeefaroni »

I played my first Ultima title without a manual. And it was designed to have a manual as a form of copy protection. I trialed and errored every control, keyboard shortcut, game mechanic, and all the spells. Just learning to play the game was a game in itself.

I ended up getting a janitorial job at a computer builder when I was 12 or so just to get access to their purchasing channels to be able to actually buy Ultima I - IV, which I think was the full series at the time.

To say Ultima put me on a path would be an understatement.

All that said, not sure I would have the patience to fumble through a game with no instructions today. But I'm intrigued.


Edit: looks like the dev is working on Steam Deck verification. I'll definitely give it a shot when it's verified.
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