Vagrus - The Riven Realms

i failed shortly after the lengthy tutorial. In Story Mode. How often does that even happen?

It was a pity as the lore and story were really good. Maybe I would play this if I have tons of time on my hands to juggle all the game mechanics.

I should have downloaded the demo first. Lessons learned...

I am a beta tester and max level patron, here is my review.

What to expect: The spiritual heir to Fallout 1, in Rome - Extrordinary praise.

Vagrus clearly was born out of decades of actual gaming. It is not a product, it is an honest to god labor of love. In a world where video games are commodities to be "assembled" and sold, Vagrus might be the realest fantasy game you ever play. Give it a try, you might lose yourself in it.

I recommend Vagrus without reservation, but bear the following in mind.

Main Points:
1. Immersion is superb, dialogue is poor. For writing, set your sights to 4/10 and let it wow you.
2. Not woke.
3. Moderate learning curve, then you glide and the game slaps.
4. Indie game visuals - Has visionary beauty but also some New Grounds Flash art.
5. Occasional minor UI bugs, just reload.

Overall: If you like fantasy, love to read, and do not mind a minor bout of struggling to learn, you should give Vagrus a try.

To the Devs, one writer and GM to another, I admire you. Your courage, persistance, and love. I was recently really sick and pretty much straight binged Vagrus. Thank you for this. The game has grown well over the last few years. Good luck, good health. Lets see where Vagrus goes!


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Also to the Devs.
All of these are your choices in your world. These are my feelings. You dont need to explain to me.

I cannot put my finger on it but the game does not feel especially "Post Apoc" or "Roman." In fallout there is an increadible juxtaposition between ancient treasures of plasma and power armor confronting the world of savagery and abandonment. "The Ancient Flame of the old world" is a constant pervasive theme. You don't know where, but somewhere the old world is alive and you can find it. Consider the level "The Glow" in fallout 1. (In my opinion, The Glow, in proper context, is the best mission in the fallout canon) You enter the glow, you solve the horrible puzzles of the ancient world that you barely understand and you leave a changed man, in armament and in knowledge. You knew exactly their power, what they were working on, what and why they dreamed, and you returned with a small, yet very real ember of the ancient world in your hands.

At no point in Vagrus does your character ever really "Get your hands on" the old world in knowledge or in equipment. The Sunken Tower is entirely obtuse, You leave knowing nothing concrete. Aside from Salt Mine I cannot think of any wonderous, *grand* things the old world was dreaming to *actually* do, how they planned to do it, andwhy. Nothing... wonderous. and the [Mine with Dragons] (though superb) leaves you with nothing in your hands. Its in no way personal, its just a show. "We built a grand college to study.... magical stuff" Ok.... like what were you gunna do at the college though? Did you have a grand plan to build a steam space ship and colonize the galaxy? An magical self-building acquaduct? Did the ancient empire do anything amazing? What were their dreams? ... what was lost? What were the Empire's leaders on the cusp of accomplishing when it all went to shit?

The ancient romans IRL had some pretty nifty tech, clockwork, steam engines, chemicals we still dont understand. Magical Romans would have full golem armor, flying armor, "UFOs", "Plasma" rifles, Sentient Armor, clockwork tanks, Crystals doing unimaginable things, I was really hoping for a "The Glow" moment in Vagrus and it did not come, though [dragon mine] was amazing. In vagrus, as opposed to fallout, the old world is truly, for the character, gone. It is a blurry, already looted haze. The Reaver's Tectum dungeon though virgin, did not have any high fantasy magical relics (for me), no martial wonders. All of these are your choices in your world. These are my feelings.

Furthermore, with the Apoc, there is no apparent "Jury Rigging" in Vagrus. Maybe the setting is wrong. But There is not much "strapped together" stuff in vagrus. The tribals do not seem to use any ancient stuff in unusual ways as in other apocs. Obviously, theres a dozen reasons for this. But aside from some statues, elven ruins, and some intense story telling you do not really ever visually see the apoc. There is no rivet city, Barter Town. I know its been a millenia, but it largely feels like its gone.

Lastly, I wanted to say... in my opinion it doesnt feel... roman. ...All of these are your choices in your world. These are my feelings. You dont need to explain to me. ... Putting aside the DLC where you go to turkey, Perhaps 40% of the game you are running around with tribals in the desert. I dont feel I interact with any distiantly roman vibes. Politicians, Imperial Legions... etc. The questline with The Reaver's Questline was an amazing taste of what I am hungering for. Maybe you are not going for rome-punk. Fine. I think its your biggest untapped vein.

I guess I hope you do a Xeryn (Thats the imperial capital right? or am I mistaken and thats the name of the emperor?) DLC or something and knock it all out of the park. Hopes, dreams, and loot of the old world. Perhaps in a perfect world you do a perfect hydra DLC that tackles the emperor, his best men vs the apostles and also tie in the dreaming elf queen?

Maybe in the next life haha. Cheers. Thanks again for your dedication to your game, guys.

TL:DR - Vagrus is 60% choose your own adventure book, 30% trade simulator, and 10% turn based rpg. A desolate dark fantasy world filled with elves, dwarves, orcs, mutants, and dinosaurs, the writing draws you into the story in a way often reserved for full length novels.

The game play loop consists of 4 main parts. Move on the over world map ->camp to manage your caravan -> enter a location-> Buy/Sell trade goods, explore, Pickup Quests -> Back to the over world map and onto the next location.

In between these there will be branching quest lines, random events, tactic battles against outlaws/beasts. You slowly begin to learn the trade routes that are profitable, leveling your character, and begin assembling a band of misfit companions each with their own lengthy story line to follow. As the game warns the first few runs will likely end in a death-spiral as you learn to manage your caravan stats and funds to reach the next milestone. Overextending often leads to starving in the desert wastes or your crew revolting, ending your run. However once the core gameplay loop clicks, the game shows its full potential with a base game that can easily take 60 hours to complete, and while portions of the map are locked this is slowly being addressed with content DLC. The most recent of which, Sunfire and Moonshadow, adds another 30 hours of content for the main story alone.

The Pros -
-Writing
-World building
-A core loop that will keep you going back saying "Just one more turn."
-If you love reading then this is pro because there is ALOT of it.

The Cons -
-Minor UI bugs when playing on Steamdeck.
-Sound in game is very minimal, what is here works well but quantity does not match the extensiveness of the game.
-If you hate reading then this is con because there is ALOT of it.

SteamDeck Users:
I played this game from start to finish on handheld. With its presentation being mostly text based, the battery life on deck was phenomenal and aside from the occasional UI bug, the experience was everything I could have hoped for in a handheld game.

9hrs in and I've only scratched the surface. Great worldbuilding

great game!
Pros:
1) fantastic story driven game play that is very open world and lets you discover the secrets at your own pace
2) engaging combat (two forms which mixes it up well) that i still feel like I'm mastering
3) so many things to do and explore. feels like you are actually exploring a wold not going down a set course

Cons:
1) slow start, the tutorial is extremely wordy to the point that it feels like you are being told how to play a game for the first time but also leaves things out that i later figured out that i kinda felt should have been mentioned

once this ball gets rolling its a fantastic game already 60ish hours into the game and i feel like im just scratching the surface (im also playing very cautious and slow so some might have gotten much further in that length of time but thats what makes this so great, you really can play at your own pace/explore)

There's a lot to explore in this dried up and unforgiving world. If you like games like Sunless Sea and can throw away your morals to carry a little more cargo, the Riven Realms may have a place for you. There's rich lore aplenty with dozens of colorful characters to meet on the winding roads across the land. I found that there was always something interesting to discover, and always a new way to die.

Game with 0 balance.
During the fight they can give few waves (from 3 to 6 characters in each) of enemies against your 3 characters without any ability of heal.

Game is kino and immersive combat is janky and imo i should be mauling these enemies and not getting murked by some low level scrubs. Game also crashes after combat dont know what causes it but it happens every so often

Good Book

Pretty hardcore, but the core loop is very satisfying once you learn the map & get some trade routes flowing.

A really unforgiving game. Challenging is an understatement. It is really fun when you learn how to farm money consistently and get over the fear of travelling long distances.

So far so good. I did have 1 crash during the early bits of the tutorial, but the writing was engaging enough that it didn't phase me.

It's fun and engaging, but have your save game ready. It's very much a trial and error game. Even the tutorial is brutal. Customization is really fun and there's always two or three different ways to solve any problem they throw at you.

Nice game

Much deeper and far more interesting (lore) that I expected. Price is steep for the Praetor edition but got it on sale. Very good (and tough) so far!

New to Vagrus. I just completed the prologue/tutorial. I really liked the story/lore/world building so I found all the reading added to the fun of the game. I liked the mix of trading/questing/fighting, not too much in any one area. I am also impressed with the continued support and additions the dev's have created for the game.

Interesting type of game. RPG

Love and hate it so far.

Giving it a thumbs-up though, as the game and store page seem to do a fair bit of warning regarding how brutal the game can be. By brutal, I mean be prepared for lop-sided fights, and game over via consecutive rng checks that fail even though you've very high (game's verbiage) chances of success.

Pros:
- Choices shape your story experience
- World is interesting and the story decent

Cons:
- RNG results that can quickly sink a game when failing consecutively
- A couple annoying little bugs, where I've had to exit the game after a portion of the UI seems to get stuck and the center/story part becomes unresponsive (while I can interact with everything around it)

I love this game. It took a few tries for me to get anywhere in the story without getting stranded in the wasteland, but I'm deep into my current play-through and loving every second

The game is utterly immersive. I have yet to reach the new DLC area and have lost 62 hours exploring the world. Yes, it is a little disheartening when you find out that you can't visit everywhere on the map - but I believe the intention is for the team to unlock the whole map over time. Let these Devs cook. Plus, there is already SO MUCH CONTENT and juicy LORE in this game.

If you love falling asleep to Warhammer 40k lore videos, this is the same kind of world-building but you're awake and reading. The world is harsh and out to kill you. Drop an edible and marvel at the writing.

I had this game on GOG did 100 hours on it and then bought it on steam for a fresh playthrough and to be able to have it on the Deck.

This game simply opened my love for the Fantasy genre.
The setting is fresh, grim and with no concession. Every story lines are beautifully crafted and I easily have several dozen of memorable quest that I can remember fondly.

The world is the real antagonist here and everything is set for killing you and you caravan. Therefore you have to plan your travels wisely and it really helps the caraven gameplay to thrive.

The lore is so good, I spent hours reading the codex and trying to know more about every little details.

Companion quests are long and really original

This game is just a gem...And I want more of it

Very unique game that pulls you into a masterful story telling world.

Just scratched the beginning of the tutorial in 11 hours, so not too much happened... But it's worth for the story alone. Finally a text which doesn't want to be funny or trendy or appeal to a broad or casual audience (uhm... BG3...). Strongly recommend to anyone who likes "serious" complex/difficult games and who dislikes Hollywood films :)
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Ok, so after 29 hours of gameplay I lost the tutorial, but now I can give a more educated feedback:
9/10.
Pros: everything.
Cons: Graphics! The images are very repetitive. And it is slightly immersion breaking, since for example the text descriptions give very good account of the different pubs but the image attached is the same pub. It's not an issue in eg.: Stellaris, but here it feels out of place in case you are reading the text and not skipping it. The art style is not exactly the best either, many figures sort of look like undead or heavily rotting or deformed whereas they are just simple human being dirty. Would be better to just remove images from places where they do not belong and somewhat broaden the art palette. AI generated images could help a lot, I mean I personally wouldn't mind if most of them are not hand drawn, but I can understand some don't like this approach. So altogether would be nice if the developers could put somewhat more effort into the "graphics department".

Compelling story, great art.

if you're serious the game will match that

Do not buy play Demo first before buying.

The setting is quite unique and fresh!
The gameplay can be quite hard unti you get the hang of it.
All in all a nice ordeal.

I want to like this game. It's something akin to star traders frontiers, but on a planet, with good exploration options. But...but...

So, you start in the middle of a vast continent, marked with roads and cities, all enticing you to explore them. To build up your resources and make the long journey. But, your first indication is that you can't go south, this way is blocked due to event. OK....maybe that will open up. And then you make it to the center of the map, and venture east. But then you hit an event wall there. OK...OK. Then you venture north, there's this enticing city on the northern coast, a good ways away. And, as you get towards there, once again, and event pops up. "Sandstorms." You need to turn back.

So, then you look online, and you understand that NONE of these areas will open up, or are actually available. Despite a vast map, you're basically locked into 10% of it. You'd already basically explored the entire map.

That I believe killed my excitement.

Really love this game!

Scratches the itch for being transported to another world and going on an adventure of exploration into the unknown. Wander the wasteland Vagrus. Highly recommended. If you like games like Caravaneer 2 you will love this.

I played early access and then full version.

And this game really does not feel like a flushed out experience and developer is releasing dlcs while the main game feels like bare bones.

Loved the caravan concept but it in my opinion falls flat, usually its not about trade but finding an easy exploit route where you can make big cash and then do what you please.

Starting towns got a lot of text and lore but some magnificent and interesting things you find on the outskirts are bare bones, very little interaction with the world really.

Quest are very generic but what is expected of a caravan.

Combat is unforgiving but there are definitely ways to improve it.

Overall cash grab of something that would been something really unique and enjoyable 4/10

And maybe it would improve but most likely all the improvaments will be behind a paywall.

Fun, story-driven rpg. It's not what I would call high octane (go find yourself and action rpg if that's what you're after) and it takes a bit of getting used to but IMO it's definitely worth the effort.

Fantasy Roman over the road trucker simulator

The Riven Realms is an underrated indie masterpiece that blends rich storytelling, and brutal survival mechanics. The writing is top-notch, with choices that genuinely impact the stories. Its resource management require careful planning, rewarding those who embrace its complexity.

Incredibly fun and detailed game set in a harsh world! A bit to taste, but god I'm so excited for more of this. I can foresee myself playing this for a LONG time

its just kinda boring, do trade routes, and fight in really basic battles. Like if you enjoy running back and forth between like 3 towns over and over for hours at a time you will like this game, but I can't think of anyone that applies to. Lore is kinda interesting but the gameplay is just not strong enough to warrant going out and finding said lore. and its often very tedious, like explore one tile of a ruin and get a permanent debuff to your caravan that can only be removed at a handful of locations, its super obnoxious.

I'm playing free play and the hard mode/intended version of the game. This is my first playthrough of this game.
It was kinda hard at first. And i cut it pretty close, and had to limp to a city a couple times and turn a few tight corners.
But now i got 4 beasts of burden, decent gear, and enough armed men and mounted men to wreck house with any encounter i find...

It's a great game with an amazing and inspired world with a clear vision.

That being said, there is a lot of reading.

As long as you read, the game just drops victory in your lap, it literally explains how to win. So, seems hard, can be in the beginning due to unknown systems. But is like learning to ride a bike. When you know it, you get it.

I dunno for now, but it seems replayability may be rather low. I do read everything that pops up, but imagining having to read it again feels rather mind numbing, so. Consider that a factor, this is probably a one time play game. But makes up for it with literal hundreds of hours of stuff to do and explore and people to meet.

8/10, trading numbers give happy chemicals.

if you are any fan of fantasy (especially the detailed and 'Realistic' kind) than you have to give this game a try, i loved it the moment i saw the store page and cant recommend this game enough.

One of my favorite games of all time!

It's a game that really rewards you for engaging with the story and has a ton of lore and world building for those that enjoy a deep, rich history to be discovered. It's clear the writers put a lot of time and care into the game. The unique setting is perfect for those who like brutality in their fantasy. I've already put so many hours into this game and I keep finding new and interesting things that keep me engaged and keep the game fresh.

There is a learning curve and lots of reading, but it's essentially a text based adventure game so don't expect lots of flashy visuals.

Love the rich world and the unforgiving gameplay meshes perfectly with the world your caravan is exploring. The gameplay is very different, but it reminds me of the sunless games. Very well written.

Excellent deep and thoughtful game.

Great game, reminds me of sunless sea but even better and more varied with its quests, companions and types of combat.

Amazing game, amazing story telling. The ambience is immersive and the music just go so well with the setting.
Do not buy this game if you do not like reading or hard games. This game is punishing and has pages and pages of texts.
If you like slower pace games where you get immersed in a strange and harsh world and you just take your time to read and decide the next steps for your caravan, this might be a gem for you.

To companions are great. There's a good amount of customisation through character and companion progression and caravan management.

Must buy +++

Wonderful game with a unique setting, if you are ok with a lot of reading and are interested in a carvan management game ( there is much more to it than that) this is right up your alley!

I love this game. The writing is good and the art really fits my taste. I especially like the world-setting and I also like how you are expanding the playable map one by one. The only thing I hope can be different is that this game can be turned into a traditional story driven cRPG instead of a open world merchant simulation game. What I meant is that I want to see some true endings for many of the stories in this game. It's just that a lot of quests including the companions' ones are left in a cliffhanger. Hopefully you guys are going to make another game in the future with the same world setting.

The game is exactly what it looks like,
if you were intrigued by the trailer and by what it says on the store page, you should get it.
If you played Battle brothers, Sunless sea or Sunless Skies, and enjoyed the aspects of caravan/crew management, having to travel across a map and manage dwindling supplies and morale from one job to the other, evaluating risk reward constantly, then you will enjoy this game too!
I will say though, I spent a few hours going through the prologue/tutorial, It felt okay, but I knew I wanted to invest some time learning the game.
After the tutorial finished, it tells you and even tells you go start a proper sandbox game. That's exactly what I did and Now I'm HOOKED. The quality of writing and gameplay now that I'm in the main game feels much better.
I feel like I've got a firm grasp of how the game works now after the tutorial, so I can take in information and make hard choices.
I feel like the quality of writing and world building is drawing me in.
This is the closest we get to Dark Sun in 2025

Fantastic game with one of the most beautifully well made and well realized worlds I've gotten to be a part of in a long time.

It most evocatively captures that stark, alien bleakness of Morrowind and thats captured in the writer's unflinching adherence to their own world building and narrative.

Ive seen lots of complaints about the game being hard, unfair or too challenging and I strongly disagree with those claims. It is a ROLE-PLAYING game. Immerse yourself as a Vagrus, live like you would if you were a part of this world and you'll find it its challenges to be beautifully immersive.

Good game

good

Try Demo before buying. It is a good game but with very iffy taste.

Things I don't like:

Game incentifies hustling while providing you with WALLLLS of text. You either tune your brain to hustle (and completely ignore walls of text unless there is a price tag somewhere along the lines) or tune into RPG element (and then your progress basically turns to a halt, because you read and read and read and then you execute an action).

Lots of text becomes obsole second time around, but there's no visual cue to read lines, I forget about it, click it and wham - nothing - I just robbed myself of time.

Companion combat is... I don't know, I usually don't do it, it feels like lacking depth.

Caravan combat actions are laughable most of the time: Well I can make your median outcome worse, but I can very slightly increase your chance for crit success if you click me! Gee, thanks, I'll stick to makeshift barricade, that actually seems to shift numbers in a meaningful way.

It's that kind of slog that stops being funny for an adhd brain, because rewards are hardly noticable. After a bit of learning the ropes and hustling I could afford a bigger caravan, awesome! More space, more packages to trade! I dipped my neurons in dopamine sauce and crunched like crazy. Then I have learned I can buy an outpost only if I could deposit few hundreds bross. Awesome! New kick. Then I have learned that to buy an outpost I have to grind that incremental game of hustle which would be a fine goal but 'sides hustling there's only fighting and both start to feel repetitive after a while. No problem, you say? Do some quests? Yea, a lot of them are fetch quests, with mulitple stages even.
Problem is, to get the goods and haul my a*s back to Lumen or whatever sh*thole my questgiver is in, I have to always map a meaningful route with supplies, trade and factions quests along the way to earn back for those supplies and then some. That is fun to do like fifty times in a row, yea, after that it's just another chore and rewards are meager compared to a good single faction fetch.

Some visuals are... well I hate Harvak, ok? I hate his little mantis appendige, it freaks me out.

Incentive to travel is actually stiffled out: I wanted to travel further and see some actual woods right there on the map. No no, vagrus, you pitiful f*ck, you stay right here, there's some ISSUE and we cannot let anyone out all around the border. Wanna travel? Go to Avernum - Uh oh... what?! Avernum is the same sh*thole as Deven or any other sh*thole I wanna see some fu*king dragon people you twisted f*ck of an imperial guard!
Perhaps you can get there in DLC or later in the game, but oh well, that's a little too late.

Things I like:

Very, very cool and unique settings.

Hustle is real, feels good (at least for a time).

Game IS unforgiving. This no f*cks given attitude is rare and refreshing.

I can scribble my own notes uWu.

I can f*ck up Harvak and I will.