Llord
Novice
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2014
- Messages
- 9
https://www.tearsofadria.com
Hi All,
I've recently stumbled on this unique game and was having an absolute blast playing solo and with a friend. To my surprise, the game seems to be in complete obscurity with easily 30+ reviews on Steam and barely anything coming up when googling, which is a complete disgrace.
So I decided to try and get some more people familiar with it, but also see if anyone knows of the existence of similar games which I was unable to find but very much would love to.
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2561500/Tears_of_Adria/
Some screenshots to start:
Character screen with level-up options:
Combat:
Exploration map with town screen:
There are some videos on YouTube but a lot of those are from the development stage and have old ugly 2D portraits and icons, which since have been replaced.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because the game is so different and unique I decided that the best way to start describing it is by telling what this game IS NOT (but might have some resemblances)
1) This is not a story-rich game. There are no dialog-based choices.
At the very start of the game, you are given a main quest to find a Holy Stone and once you do - it is the end, barring a short final series of fights. There are a few different ways to acquire the stone, which I will not spoil. You will be able to take side quests, completing which provide money, exp, and items and change your reputation with the factions of the world. There are quest chains for those.
2) This is not an auto-battler.
All combats in the game are resolved automatically with zero direct control from the player. Once you engage in battle you have a bit of time to examine enemies, switch your gear around, and reposition your heroes and henchmen in the way you think gives you the best chance to win. Likely for most fights you will just start with the setup you have and will mostly modify it when you get new party members, levels and gear. But some more unique encounters will require a more tailored approach.
3) This is not a turn-based game.
Everything happens in real-time (although you can pause the game when playing solo, there is no ability to do anything once paused). You move around the map, visit towns, recruit heroes and engage in fights all in real time. While the fight goes on, the world is still moving, you can switch to the world map during the fight to see what is going around (but you won't be able to move). If another enemy is chasing you they will get to you and wait for their turn to fight. As you move over the map you will get chased by enemies if they spot you and decide to attack. This is where your party's scouting, stealth, speed and pathfinding skills will shine. You might have a powerful party, but struggle a lot because you move slowly, can barely see around the map, and get chased and ambushed by every pack of enemies in a huge radius around you.
If a fight is starting between armies of different factions as you are passing by, you could join the fight on the side of the faction you are in good standing with. Factions will from time to time send raiding parties against each other and can destroy each other's armies and settlements. In some cases, these raids happen as a direct result of a side quest that you completed.
The only way to heal and restore mana is to rest, resting takes time. It is fast in settlements and slow in the wilderness, it also decreases your stealth, so starting a rest might get you attacked by an enemy that previously didn't see you.
4) This is not a 4X or economic simulation game.
You only control a single party with up to 6 heroes and a bunch of henchmen (limited by your supply and leadership). You can own almost any interactable structure on the map, which will provide you with monthly income, as well as an increase to supply and faction reputation and certain unique bonuses. Any interaction with structure happens only when you are visiting it. You can outright buy any structure that belongs to a faction you are in good standing with. You can attack any structure that belongs to a faction you are in bad standing with. Destroyed structures can be rebuilt (cost about 50% more than buying) if you have a party member of the same race as the structure's original inhabitants. Rebuilding grants you ownership. You can sell structures that you own (albeit at a much lower price). You can add additional heroes and henchmen to defenses of the structures that you own (though this is mostly useful if you need to temporarily free the space in your roster, rather than actually trying to defend something). The highest barter skill in your party defines the buy/sell prices for structures and items (and the differences are huge!).
5) This is not a long game.
The first playthrough might take 5-10 hours especially if you will try to explore as much as possible before winning. The game is designed to be played many times. You are likely to quickly get your playthrough timing to 2-3 hours. There is an achievement in the game to complete it in under 1 hour which is not that hard once you learn the game enough and the strategy to achieve it does not feel too cheesy.
6) This is not a create-your-character game.
You start the game by selecting one of the pre-built characters as your main.
7) This is not a roguelike or rogue-light.
At the beginning, you only have 5 characters to select from. You unlock more by completing achievements. The absolute majority of those are characters that you can meet and recruit to your party during the game, but there are a few that are main character only (those are the most powerful ones). The system is DnD-like, but on levelup you are randomly given a choice of a limited number of perks from the whole pool (similar to HoMM, I guess).
8) This is not a procedurally generated game.
There is a single world map, all the major settlements and enemy encounters are located in the same places every game. But items in chests are placed randomly (following some patterns - some items can only be in certain regions of the map and only in certain levels of treasure chests), starting army compositions are somewhat randomized, and some side quests presence in the game is randomly chosen at generation as well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, what IS this game?
It is a fast-paced real-time open-world sandbox party-building rollercoaster, with the ability to play solo or multiplayer with up to 4 people.
You start as one character and can raise your party size to 6 (new slots open at level 2,4,6,8,10 of the main character). Other heroes are spread around the map semi-randomly, to hire one you need to have high enough persuasion and pay a hiring fee. Some heroes will also first require you to complete a quest for them. You can retire a hero other than your main at any point (they will stay in the place where you left them and can be rehired by yourself or other players if in a multiplayer game), you can also leave heroes in some structures you own, in that case they will be part of the defensive army for that structure and you can pick them back into your party for free.
Each character is defined by its origin faction (which gives bonuses and penalties to reputations with factions), alignment (influences quest availability, hiring of party members, can be prerequisite for items, skills and buffs), race (ability to enter these race cities, item prerequisites, buffs for a certain number of same-race members in party), class (available perks on level up), starting perks and 6 primary stats:
Strength gives a bonus to melee attack and defense, is a prerequisite for wearing heavy armor and using heavy weapons, and bypassing the attack speed limit for heavy weapons.
Constitution gives more hp, poison resistance and shortens stun recovery.
Agility gives a bonus to ranged attack, movement speed, dodge, and stealth.
Intelligence gives a bonus to magic damage and spells DR and (very important!) experience gain
Wisdom gives more mana, scouting for visibility range and detection of stealthed opponents
Charisma influences persuasion (for hiring heroes), barter and leadership (max army size)
There is a multitude of available gear, that has prerequisites, applies max limits on some stats, and has unique effects. There are item sets that give powerful bonuses. There is mining, and crafting, which is the way to get some of the most powerful items in the game. There are unique boss encounters.
This all leads to an amazing party-building experience and a fun gameplay loop.
And multiplayer is a total blast due to how faction and quest mechanics interact.
Hope all of the above will entice some of you to try this. Let's make this gem shine!
And if anyone knows a game that is very similar to this, please tell me. I need more of this!
---------
P.S. The BAD:
Saves work weirdly, basically all the randomized components of the game get re-randomized on load, so it is shit. But given that game doesn't usually last longer than a couple of hours it isn't a major issue.
Starting heroes vary widely in strength, so for multiplayer you will need to agree on some rules and handicaps if you want a somewhat balanced experience.
Hi All,
I've recently stumbled on this unique game and was having an absolute blast playing solo and with a friend. To my surprise, the game seems to be in complete obscurity with easily 30+ reviews on Steam and barely anything coming up when googling, which is a complete disgrace.
So I decided to try and get some more people familiar with it, but also see if anyone knows of the existence of similar games which I was unable to find but very much would love to.
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2561500/Tears_of_Adria/
Some screenshots to start:
Character screen with level-up options:
Combat:
Exploration map with town screen:
There are some videos on YouTube but a lot of those are from the development stage and have old ugly 2D portraits and icons, which since have been replaced.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because the game is so different and unique I decided that the best way to start describing it is by telling what this game IS NOT (but might have some resemblances)
1) This is not a story-rich game. There are no dialog-based choices.
At the very start of the game, you are given a main quest to find a Holy Stone and once you do - it is the end, barring a short final series of fights. There are a few different ways to acquire the stone, which I will not spoil. You will be able to take side quests, completing which provide money, exp, and items and change your reputation with the factions of the world. There are quest chains for those.
2) This is not an auto-battler.
All combats in the game are resolved automatically with zero direct control from the player. Once you engage in battle you have a bit of time to examine enemies, switch your gear around, and reposition your heroes and henchmen in the way you think gives you the best chance to win. Likely for most fights you will just start with the setup you have and will mostly modify it when you get new party members, levels and gear. But some more unique encounters will require a more tailored approach.
3) This is not a turn-based game.
Everything happens in real-time (although you can pause the game when playing solo, there is no ability to do anything once paused). You move around the map, visit towns, recruit heroes and engage in fights all in real time. While the fight goes on, the world is still moving, you can switch to the world map during the fight to see what is going around (but you won't be able to move). If another enemy is chasing you they will get to you and wait for their turn to fight. As you move over the map you will get chased by enemies if they spot you and decide to attack. This is where your party's scouting, stealth, speed and pathfinding skills will shine. You might have a powerful party, but struggle a lot because you move slowly, can barely see around the map, and get chased and ambushed by every pack of enemies in a huge radius around you.
If a fight is starting between armies of different factions as you are passing by, you could join the fight on the side of the faction you are in good standing with. Factions will from time to time send raiding parties against each other and can destroy each other's armies and settlements. In some cases, these raids happen as a direct result of a side quest that you completed.
The only way to heal and restore mana is to rest, resting takes time. It is fast in settlements and slow in the wilderness, it also decreases your stealth, so starting a rest might get you attacked by an enemy that previously didn't see you.
4) This is not a 4X or economic simulation game.
You only control a single party with up to 6 heroes and a bunch of henchmen (limited by your supply and leadership). You can own almost any interactable structure on the map, which will provide you with monthly income, as well as an increase to supply and faction reputation and certain unique bonuses. Any interaction with structure happens only when you are visiting it. You can outright buy any structure that belongs to a faction you are in good standing with. You can attack any structure that belongs to a faction you are in bad standing with. Destroyed structures can be rebuilt (cost about 50% more than buying) if you have a party member of the same race as the structure's original inhabitants. Rebuilding grants you ownership. You can sell structures that you own (albeit at a much lower price). You can add additional heroes and henchmen to defenses of the structures that you own (though this is mostly useful if you need to temporarily free the space in your roster, rather than actually trying to defend something). The highest barter skill in your party defines the buy/sell prices for structures and items (and the differences are huge!).
5) This is not a long game.
The first playthrough might take 5-10 hours especially if you will try to explore as much as possible before winning. The game is designed to be played many times. You are likely to quickly get your playthrough timing to 2-3 hours. There is an achievement in the game to complete it in under 1 hour which is not that hard once you learn the game enough and the strategy to achieve it does not feel too cheesy.
6) This is not a create-your-character game.
You start the game by selecting one of the pre-built characters as your main.
7) This is not a roguelike or rogue-light.
At the beginning, you only have 5 characters to select from. You unlock more by completing achievements. The absolute majority of those are characters that you can meet and recruit to your party during the game, but there are a few that are main character only (those are the most powerful ones). The system is DnD-like, but on levelup you are randomly given a choice of a limited number of perks from the whole pool (similar to HoMM, I guess).
8) This is not a procedurally generated game.
There is a single world map, all the major settlements and enemy encounters are located in the same places every game. But items in chests are placed randomly (following some patterns - some items can only be in certain regions of the map and only in certain levels of treasure chests), starting army compositions are somewhat randomized, and some side quests presence in the game is randomly chosen at generation as well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, what IS this game?
It is a fast-paced real-time open-world sandbox party-building rollercoaster, with the ability to play solo or multiplayer with up to 4 people.
You start as one character and can raise your party size to 6 (new slots open at level 2,4,6,8,10 of the main character). Other heroes are spread around the map semi-randomly, to hire one you need to have high enough persuasion and pay a hiring fee. Some heroes will also first require you to complete a quest for them. You can retire a hero other than your main at any point (they will stay in the place where you left them and can be rehired by yourself or other players if in a multiplayer game), you can also leave heroes in some structures you own, in that case they will be part of the defensive army for that structure and you can pick them back into your party for free.
Each character is defined by its origin faction (which gives bonuses and penalties to reputations with factions), alignment (influences quest availability, hiring of party members, can be prerequisite for items, skills and buffs), race (ability to enter these race cities, item prerequisites, buffs for a certain number of same-race members in party), class (available perks on level up), starting perks and 6 primary stats:
Strength gives a bonus to melee attack and defense, is a prerequisite for wearing heavy armor and using heavy weapons, and bypassing the attack speed limit for heavy weapons.
Constitution gives more hp, poison resistance and shortens stun recovery.
Agility gives a bonus to ranged attack, movement speed, dodge, and stealth.
Intelligence gives a bonus to magic damage and spells DR and (very important!) experience gain
Wisdom gives more mana, scouting for visibility range and detection of stealthed opponents
Charisma influences persuasion (for hiring heroes), barter and leadership (max army size)
There is a multitude of available gear, that has prerequisites, applies max limits on some stats, and has unique effects. There are item sets that give powerful bonuses. There is mining, and crafting, which is the way to get some of the most powerful items in the game. There are unique boss encounters.
This all leads to an amazing party-building experience and a fun gameplay loop.
And multiplayer is a total blast due to how faction and quest mechanics interact.
Hope all of the above will entice some of you to try this. Let's make this gem shine!
And if anyone knows a game that is very similar to this, please tell me. I need more of this!
---------
P.S. The BAD:
Saves work weirdly, basically all the randomized components of the game get re-randomized on load, so it is shit. But given that game doesn't usually last longer than a couple of hours it isn't a major issue.
Starting heroes vary widely in strength, so for multiplayer you will need to agree on some rules and handicaps if you want a somewhat balanced experience.
Last edited by a moderator:
