Regions Of Ruin

The game is really fun once you get really good it becomes sort of repetitive as there's not really a story, but really fun to grind and play. Worth the sale price for a few good hours of fun with some youtube. Get the tavern and hire people it will help you progress faster. 10/10

Great little game!

Softlocked in Tutorial after loading back into it after noticing the price for the physician was cheaper there, broke the save

apples somtimes roll to the other side of the map

limited resources per map (e.g. Wood, which you can no longer collect after your storage is full, and it vanishes if you revisit the region)

also no downside to spamming the E key, if you really want to hide things don't make the best way to find things spamming E

Whack stuff, build town, pretty neat

👍

This one had a really really rough start on the steam deck, but I am glad I stubbornly returned to it and attempted to make it work. It sucked me in for about three weeks, and now that I am at the end, as much fun as it was, I am glad I'm about to be done.

The gameplay is rather simple: Sidescroller action RPG, you have a shield, a melee weapon, and can unlock a throwing weapon. 3 stats, 6 gear slots, 4 skill trees. You use food to explore the map, discovering new places to travel to, and after clearing them, you can send your workforces to harvest materials: food, wood, stone, etc. which you then use to build your settlement.

While I have a forge, I never actually forged something. Drops were just good enough, and while they aren't overly exciting (mostly just stats go bigger), one or two weapons had nice gimmicks. I never really ran out of materials, though I sometimes had to scout a bit to find more leather or food.

The quest log is more or less useful, leaning towards less. All entries get just listed one after another, and it doesn't mention where something happened. One of my map locations bugged out and had a permanent blinking quest marker on it, while at least one other just kinda. Vanished? I know I had a quest to help some dude across a chasm, but at some point, it was just gone. Was the quest giver killed? Who knows!

Speaking of, there are bounties which spawn once you accept them. I wasn't too amused to realize that those bounties take out friendly NPCs in those locations - especially as one of those locations had wolves I could have taken as followers!! NOT THE PUPPIES!!

Followers. Eh. Without a fully upgraded training ground, they just died on me constantly, and I was playing on easy. You also can't leave them at the camp, so I lost my doggo in a siege event. Sad.

While most areas focus on combat, there are a few containing puzzles. Especially the main quest "light the beacons" maps are heavy on the platforming. As someone who hates platforming, it wasn't super hard, but it also wasn't fun. The achievements were all pretty easy to get, and are not tied to the story in any way, all just numbers, so I was done with them long before the end of the story.

The controls take some getting used to. A and D move sideways, that's normal, but W is used to jump, which is not. S is used to go down platforms, but I was unable to go down ladders with it. Who cares, no fall damage, just jump off. I had to rebind a few keys to make it work without me wanting to rip my hair out.

I know this all sounds negative, but what can I say, I was having fun. This game had the perfect low effort gameplay loop I was craving, slowly making my progress across the map, just one more location, one more, one more. While not really gameplay relevant, the different biomes were nice, the pixel is art pretty, and I just had what felt like a constant sense of progression across the board. I don't see much replay value, but I got almost 24 hours out of a game for less than 5 euro on sale, and I think that's pretty neat.

Steam deck specific reasons I cannot really recommend it there (despite having played it on the deck):
- The launcher is annoying. All launchers are annoying.
- You have to crank interface size way down, because it does not play well at ALL with low resolutions, which makes navigating the map especially tedious. Everything is so small! At the start, every few minutes, I shrank it down another little bit because there was something cut off. Imagine my surprise when I found buttons to press in the corner of the map.
- I didn't give the actual controller support much of a chance, because nothing was explained, jumping was so weird, and I couldn't even figure out how to talk to a guy, and in the end, I just downloaded a much-used community layout and adjusted it for what I needed. I don't think I would have been able to play with either default controls or any of the existing community layouts.

★★★☆☆

Theres some minor bugs but nothing that ruins the game. Its different, and they thought a lot of things through. It looks cozy and its super fun.

Definitely recommendable. And unfortunately it's quite addictive ;D Go go Gameclaw Studio for the 2nd part!

The game may be based on familiar elements, but the whole style is unique. A bit like Zelda.

And please devs, look for real translators next time.
That would be worth it. Because the game is fine.

Addictive once you figure out how to not get slaughtered

Here's the thing about Regions of Ruin - it's like that mate who peaks too early at the pub. Starts off brilliant, proper exciting, but by the end of the night, they're just repeating the same stories and you're checking your watch.

The basics are quite good, actually. You've got these lovely little dwarves running about in their pixel world - and when I say pixel, I don't mean those rubbish mobile game graphics. We're talking proper artistry here. Building your settlement feels great, like being a shorter, angrier version of Grand Designs. And the dialogue? Actually funny. Not "oh, you're a dwarf, you must like beer" funny, but properly written stuff. Bit like my shows, except with more axes and fewer awkward silences.

But here's where it goes wrong - and trust me, I know about things going wrong, I've seen enough wedding speeches go south. Once you get decent gear, you're basically Thor with a beard. You're doing millions of damage, which is ridiculous. It's like bringing a nuclear weapon to a bar fight. Where's the fun in that?

The map's another issue. There are more locations than there are failed Hollywood remakes. At first, you're excited to explore, but after a while, it's like scrolling through Netflix - loads of content, but nothing worth your time.

They've even stuck in this pointless tavern mini-game. It's about as useful as a sunroof in a submarine. And some of the game mechanics are about as clear as Brexit negotiations.

What works? The art's lovely, the world-building's clever, and when you're not stupidly overpowered, the fighting's good fun. But it needs sorting out - the difficulty's all over the place, the companions could use more personality, and the quest system's about as reliable as a politician's promise.

In the end, Regions of Ruin is like a decent pilot episode that never quite figures out what to do with its second season. It's worth a look if you fancy a quick RPG fix, but don't expect it to be the next big thing. Like a New Year's resolution - starts with ambition and enthusiasm, ends with a shrug and "maybe next time."

Regions of ruin is a very fun small game that you can chip away at during your lunch break or whatever. There's also a DLC now which I did not get to play all those years ago, but it seems promising. I played through Regions of Ruin on my weak laptop as a 1st year university student way back in 2017. It was just me & 1 other person in the flat (almost everyone else had gone home) and we had a whole host of exams coming up (which I aced :D); Regions of Ruin served as a small, cosy break between revision sessions. It brings back memories.

Good

I wanted to like this game. The combat mechanics are frustrating and poorly thought out. I did not enjoy this.

Lots of fun and worth about 10 hours of play.

beautiful and satisfying in its simplicity.

A good little Indie game for the price.

The Stealth AI is surprisingly good. Better than in some AAA games that lay the focus more on it.
But once you get mercenaries you can mostly ignore combat. Which is a bit of a shame but you still have the exploring, base building, resource management and puzzles to entertain you.

Dumb fun hack&slash/platformer

May not have the depth and complexity that everyone wants from a game like this, but it's definitely got enough content to be worth the price.

Plenty of Regions to explore and Ruins to loot while you try not to get rekt by your enemies.

gg

Fun little game but there are alot of enemies that will stone wall and be very frustrating. Recommend constantly looking for better gear and using that shield big time. Completed the map. It does get pretty samey but I did have my fun.

But man those jumping puzzles some of which are pretty frustrating due to having to restart if you fall down and some maps will have 2-3 sections of jumping puzzles. Or Pillars that go vertical but do not carry you up and you sink below them is rough. While they are few are far between it is very easy to get frustrated with jumping sections.

The gear. Just stats really. More damage really or resistances, A few gimmicks but it as serviceable.

Overall I did have alot of fun and found all the pages and bought all the books and found and killed the final boss. I'd give a play especially if it goes on sale.