Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat Early Access A-RPG Recommendation: Shadows

I'd like to recommend this game, a hidden gem I discovered:
Shadows - Heretic Kingdoms

It's a little Early Access gem, sequel of Kult, Heretic Kingdoms, a game famous for being fun but for having also a tricky system.

It has a very unique plot in an unique universe, you are a Demon of the World of Dreams, summoned by a mage and warned of an unknown danger that could destroy everything, then unleashed. it has a very unique party system made of reanimated souls as "puppets".

I personally see in it the potential to be the new cross between Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment.

The pros:
-exceptional Voice Acting
-unique story, not boring and captivating
-promised full moddability, not like Skyrim, which was full of hardcoded things
-15 characters each own with their unique story (final version), right now there are 4 and, honestly, I see that until now they have kept their promise
-deep combat mechanics, extensible by the use of mods. an ARPG which differentiates between "miss" and "block" is a win-win.
-vast areas: tested them, and the full world is supposed to be even bigger, despite not being an open-world like TES. it's similar to the first Baldur's gate
-VERY pretty graphical style. it's very nice and detailed, and the places you visit are all unique and flavorful.
-Uses Ogre3D, a very good engine, and open-source to boot.
-Unique setting, which is not boring and has a very interesting backstory.
-Developers are nice and, while they do not ALWAYS answer, at least they read contributions. Sometimes they even agree.
-Majestic Ost, fully orchestrated.

The cons:
-It's an Early Access. those who dislike it know. I don't, but others do.
-annoying skill system: no matter how hard I have told the developers, they still have not changed it. It is very similar to League of Legends, which I personally find superbly annoying and unrewarding, others might love it.
-Static world: do not expect a dynamic world like Skyrim, despite its bugginess. This could be improved at a later relase though.
-No place for thieves: no stealth\lockpick\thievery mechanics, confirmed at least for the time being.


If you get it, let me know please and I hope to see you on the Steam boards.
Post freely if you have questions, too.

Do you know if there will be a disc release that does not require Steam?

I loved (Love!) Kult: Heretic Kingdoms. It's a terrific game. But there's no way I'm getting anything that requires Steam.

it will probably be on GOG.

Thanks

If you get Shadows EA now, you'll get KULT for free when it gets released on Steam.

It looks all nice, might even try it when i finish exams and waistland 2, is it rly worth getting ?

I would love to see this community share this game too.

I also want to say that the first expansion AND the original game are included in the game, if you buy the EA.
Please, spread the word, if you can :P

Aye, I have EA for this game and is worth it. They just added a small (well alot) of content but in addition to the added content they added a lil tutorial that connects to events in Kult.

It's shaping up to be a great addition to the series. I was very worried at first, I couldn't tell if this was a bad spinoff with Diablo like mindless loot grinding but i'm glad I took the risk, I was wrong.

I am happy about that. it's amazing!