Dark Envoy

Dark Envoy does many mechanics well. The crafting and enchanting systems allowed for a decent amount of freedom of choice. Watching a build that you designed come to fruition in combat is definitely one of my favorite parts about this game. The combat is fun as well, and gets much easier once you start to craft gear. It employs a careful balance of not needed to interact while dealing with trash mobs, but also requiring micromanagement when dealing with harder fights. The skill trees are all very well designed and allow for a plethora of strong combinations. It's just unfortunate that you can only pick 4 active and 4 passive abilities with 1 weapon ability. Personally, I'd rather be able to just pick as many as I desired. This game is actually fairly graphically impressive as well.
The story has been enjoyable as well. The voice acting can be a bit jarring at some points, but overall I think the cast did a great job. The dialogue could have definitely been improved upon for several characters. For example, certain characters have a sophisticated manner of speaking, but their actual words suffer from a weak vocabulary.
Lastly, this game has a crippling performance problem. For me, when I first boot up the game, it runs completely fine at 80-90fps. But once I load into a different zone, that fps gets progressively worse with each new zone. Oftentimes it dips into the 20-30 fps range. If this issue was fixed, everything about this game would be much better. Its hard to enjoy all the great aspects of this experience when your fps is constantly dipping. With the exception of its poor performance, Dark Envoy has been a highly enjoyable experience. There are also several parts that are extremely buggy. I ran into an unavoidable bug where one of your companions gets left outside of the door during the second to last bought fight. There was another bug where during the final boss fight, the main boss goes invincible for the entire fight and doesn't spawn any adds.

I really enjoyed the predecessor. The bad technical state makes this game deeply unejoyable. My PC is 4 years old and I had less than 10 hard crashs in that period. This game required a completely system restart 3 times in 90 minutes. Thanks, but no thanks. Sorry. :-(

I must say I really enjoyed this gem of a game. It kept me interested all the way to the end. There was a lot of combat, but thankfully, there is an option to let your team members do the fighting with only occassional direction from the player. I don't remember any other game with this excellent feature. There are real decisions that need to be made and require some thinking. The NPC's are excellent as is the voice acting and dialogues.
The only problem was everyone stuttered when speaking due to a bug or something. I just turned off the voice sound and just read the subtitles. I also wish I could make my character look older than a 20-something.
Due to the important decisions one needs to make, there is replayability. Crafting, enchanting, and the skill trees were excellent. Characters can be very custimizable, too. I was not surprised when I saw all the Polish names on the credits. I like most east European design studios. I'm thinking specifically of the Witcher, Metro, Stalker, etc. Next up is their earlier game Tower of Time. 80/100

I really want to give this a reccomendation, but the bugs are strong. I was doing challenges (arena style combat for rewards). It stopped displaying my 4 member even though they were in the fight (no skill bar, unable to use any skills). After I won the challenge, I saved and loaded to see if it would undo the glitch. Instead it undid all of the arena challenges i had just done. Rewards removed, xp, everything. Worth getting on sale, will be awesome if they ever actually make it reliable

Problem is I am 80 % done the game and the load times are 3 minutes plus at this point. It's ridiculous, if you are playing on insane.

Mobile game pretending to be a PC game. Automated, mindless combat, and the only engagement is bosses where you reposition to avoid attacks. No actual research or crafting, you just buy upgrades and gear with alternate currencies. Shallow half baked "story". Maps are just a means to get the player to walk around and collect resource nodes/loot chests. It's a mockery of a game. Developers have either forgotten or don't care anymore that a good game is one where you must constantly make interesting choices. Choices like kinetic combat engagement, consequential character builds, or actual exploration. Without that, you have soulless shells like this. I really worry about all the people who claim this is a "great game" and "really fun". Like... really? Have you ever played a good game before? I weep for the future.

This game is highly mediocre, it's not good or bad, the performance though i'd say is bad but good enough to be playable. The story is okay and so is the acting but nothing that'll make you go wow. Felt alright to play but as I got to Act 2 it started feeling tedious and long. I definitely won't be returning to this game. It's also best to get it on sale if you are going to get it.

The game itself is good, but the technical state is atrocious.
Constantly crashes and needs to be shut down via taskmanager. Playing more than one hour without crash is a near impossible miracle.

I really enjoyed their previous game (Tower of Time) and I really liked what I played of this game. But 3 hard crashes in the first 70 minutes means a refund has been requested.

enjoying the concept and style of the game. its good sure but its still ridiculous how many times you crash in this game even though the most recent update says they fixed alot of it.

3 hours - 3 crashes... 2 of which are within 20 minutes during the same reinforcement fight.

my PC is strong enough to run baldur's gate at maximum so its not my hardware.

Very fun tactical RPG for people looking for complex combat system. Customization options are varied so ypu can find something what you like.

I was just getting into Dark Envoy D.C, thinking "yeah it's not bad feels like a keepe..." HARD CRASH, give it a sec... "loading screen, okay let me end task through task manager..."Loading screen" eventually had to do a hardware reset on my pc; listen I'm not going to hate on the both devs and self publishers... it's just, sigh, your game is a refreshing change from the snakes and ladders development of the large raft of games, but a hard crash like that is worrying and to be honest there's other reviews and a forum chat about from one person who mention upwards of 5 crashes!? that is not good

I liked what I played, the combat is smooth, the tactical slow mode can in increased or decreased by percentage, it's satisfying to win a fight, the skill based combat system is wonderfully freeing just like Dragon Age 1, instead the hard lock-down of turn based combat like XCom2/Pillar of Eternity/BG3/Wasteland2-3, the loot system and character u.i isn't a faff/tedious to me this game is like refuge from arpg's when I'm worn out, with the lack [or is a full price remake of an 22 year old game...looking at you Baulders Gate: Dark Alliance, no... not the one Dev's were rushed to change from isometric to 3-D WotC which made the game completely trash] of what's on offer in this modern age.

The Story is...odd, very 90's anime, "the universe, a super dense material, naughty, hungry gods feasting on galaxies, and planet that gone under the radar of said gods, your planet's gone under radar, evil raises...and there's you🤔; it's on sale till the 21/4/2025 I liked the look of it but that hard crash...it was not good, not after 1.6 hours, I'm going to have a think. Event Horizon you really need to get this singular hard crash problem sorted. Got yourself a decent game here.

Very enjoyable tactical combat, reminds me of Dawn Of War 2 mode Last Stand

What kind of story is this? It is mundane, boring, cliche like a jug of 50 years old milk.
I am very disappointed.

ive had my eye on this title for a long time. Big fan of the genre, and i'll say this game scratches that itch but leaves a lot to be desired. the game play is fun, the story a bit weird and jarring sometimes. but the real time fights with bullet time was fun to play. i'd say 6.5/10

Random stutters and crashes, 2015 graphics with terrible aliasing.
And this is after"performance patch", seriously?
Was it even worse before?
What a let down...

It's a great game – I can honestly recommend it:

Combat – pretty intuitive and immersive due to the slow motion/pause mechanics, which gives you time but doesn't kill the enjoyment of real-time battle;
Graphics and animation – I can say they are impressive for an indie studio. You can see the heart that was put into this;
Level design – not bad at all. Locations, treasures, NPC's, opponents, etc., give you an outstanding experience;
Music and sound effects – nothing unusual, but keep a solid level;
Story – might be a bit vague, but the whole steampunk/fantasy world with fighting fractions is an effort that needs to be appreciated;
Characters and RPG elements—I really liked the brother-and-sister combination, which give you a family-like experience. Character levelling, crafting system, and upgrading skills are essential parts of every RPG, and they don't disappoint me at all.

Overall, I give it a solid 8/10

One of the Best Indie RPGs I’ve Played
For an indie RPG, this game delivers in every aspect. The combat is engaging, the world is well-crafted, and the pacing is just right. While it doesn’t have the complexity of Baldur’s Gate 3, it offers a streamlined experience that doesn’t feel shallow. The ability to pause and adjust combat speed is a brilliant touch, making it accessible for different playstyles. Whether you’re here for the story, the strategy, or the RPG mechanics, you won’t be disappointed!

This game is a dream for players who love tactical combat but don’t want the rigidity of turn-based battles. Slowing down time lets you plan your moves without pressure, and the variety of classes and abilities makes every battle unique. The steampunk-fantasy setting is refreshing, and the visuals are stunning. The progression feels rewarding, and the challenge ramps up nicely. If you love RPGs with deep mechanics, this is a great choice.

The game offers a fantastic mix of exploration, character progression, and tactical combat. The story choices feel meaningful, and while the game follows a linear structure, there’s enough variety in combat and customization to keep things interesting. The slow-motion combat mechanic is a standout feature, making fights both cinematic and strategic. Plus, the crafting and enchanting system adds another layer of depth. Definitely a must-play for RPG lovers!

8/10

This game brings together real-time strategy, RPG progression, and tactical combat in a way that just works. The world is immersive, and the game mechanics encourage experimentation. The ability to slow down combat makes it perfect for those who enjoy thinking through their moves without feeling rushed. If you're looking for something fresh that blends RPG storytelling with engaging mechanics, give this one a shot.

I played this game with my friend a little while ago and need to try it by myself. It's a bit addictive.

very nice little indie rpg.

nine hours into the game, so far so good

Cannot say too much about game itself, because I played only small portion of it.

Unfortunately looks like I joined the club of peoples for which game Freezing/Crashing in (from my perspective) random moment (of course, in middle of hard fight). So some combination of my hardware, software, drivers, game setting, equipment, action in game or current moon phase prevent me from an uninterrupted gameplay.

Regular game crashing is a no go for my book, so currently I consider game dropped.

I saw in some previous game review that developer plan to release a patch in April and address freezing issue. They asked for report from in game, so I booted game one more time and filled up a Report Issue, maybe its going to be helpful. I will give game another go if the issue will be addressed and hopeful I'll be able to finish the game (And write a proper game review, not review about game crashing -.-).

Best of luck for Event Horizon Team.

At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but after a few hours, I was completely hooked. The mix of steampunk and fantasy works incredibly well, and the combat system is a perfect balance of action and strategy. The ability to pause and slow down battles lets you adapt your tactics on the fly, which I loved. Exploring the world, upgrading gear, and experimenting with different builds kept me engaged for hours. A fantastic experience!

For about a year now the game has had a fatal bug where the game freezes up for no reason making the game unplayable.
The game is decent but for this bug that pops up during combat.

This game is an absolute delight for anyone who enjoys a mix of real-time action and tactical depth. The ability to slow down time makes battles feel strategic rather than chaotic, allowing for careful planning. The story is engaging, the characters have personality, and the world-building is solid. If you liked Tower of Time, you’ll feel right at home here. The progression system is satisfying, and the customization options keep things fresh. Definitely worth checking out!

After 100+ hours in BG3, I began searching for a replacement. And while Dark Envoy isn't on the same level, it certainly has the heart and brings a lot of fun.

The music is spot on, the setting and story are great. The character creation is deeply customization without being too complex (e.g. Pathfinder); with each class getting multiple sub classes the ability to further customize with enchanting. I think I spent as much time making character builds as i did playing the game.

The biggest issue I have with the game is combat can get a little stale with reinforcements. It can be a joy to set up a well thought out bottleneck and utterly ruin your enemies as they charge in and get ruined by your summons. The down side is after you do this, the game will often have a second, third or even fourth wave of reinforcements that will come in a random direction and completely throw your setup out of balance. This can be fun for a bit but can get annoying as the chaos of trying to deal with so many mobs becomes less about planning and executing as most RPGs are, and more into a more arcadey like gameplay that can get a bit stale. However, none of that takes away from a superb title that seems to get better with every update.

The game takes you to an interesting world that blends fantasy, steampunk and sci-fi settings. I have a conservative stance towards that kind of mixtures, but I must say that this one looks pretty cool and engaging. The combat system requires careful planning because the enemies can easily overwhelm you by making reinforcements. However, taking cover from the environment and the possibility of slow motion/pause (reminds me of the old Baldur’s Gate) come into help. The two main heroes are siblings, which makes this game ideal for a family or friend co-op. The game has some performance issues, but luckily, they are not significant. The ability tree, weapons, armour, enhancements, crafting, etc. – all that stuff is quite generic but enjoyable, thanks to the original setting.

A surprisingly ambitious, if somewhat uneven, attempt. Dark Envoy takes the core concepts of its predecessor, Tower of Time, and expands them into a sprawling world with a unique blend of real-time with pause combat and RPG elements. While it doesn't quite reach the same level of polished brilliance, it's clear the developers poured their hearts into creating something special. The world is rich, the character interactions are engaging, and the strategic depth is there. It's a bit rough around the edges, with some technical hiccups and a learning curve that can be steep, but underneath it all, it's a fascinating experiment that, much like Tower of Time, deserves a second look. If you're willing to overlook the occasional jank, you'll find a rewarding and distinct RPG experience. It's a flawed gem, but a gem nonetheless.

Introduction

For context, I started off as an engineer/adept combo, as that had worked really well for me in the demo. Long before I was done with the game I noticed I wasn't enjoying it, but that the game seemed to allow some builds I might just really enjoy, so I just kept playing to populate my mental wiki to plan my next playthrough.

I started over on the highest difficulty as two warriors, intending to play as three tanks and a healer with the enchantments that make you deal constant AoE damage based on your armor. The first thing to know here is that you spend a significant amount of time before you are actually able to enchant anything (in this case it took me 9½ hours of playtime on my savegame, not counting time lost to reloads), and most of that time you spend as only the two starting characters. I had some major hurdles to clear.

Now, for this part of the game I actually have great praise, despite my downvote. Playing as two warriors you might think it was just autoattacks and praying for good RNG and dreaming about bigger swords, but no, the battles have great tactical depth. You have four abilities, each with its own oomph, plus an environment with LoS objects and area effects that affect both you and enemies. You are limited by mana, so you can't just run from everything using abilities on cooldown, because you won't afford many abilities like that (plus mobs will of course shoot you), given you have a passive that gives you mana regen for actually hitting things. I had some very satisfying victories in the early game.

Anyway, I got the enchants, I crafted some sweet gear and enchanted it and found that the playstyle I had in mind did indeed work, and I beat the game with few major challenges. But, downvote. Why?

Reinforcements aren't fun

You engage some monsters, some red walls enclose the intended fighting area, and as you kill monsters, more spawn until you beat the encounter. This quickly gets tiresome, and I probably wouldn't have praised the early game if not for the fact there weren't many reinforcements to fight through there. Which also means, I wouldn't have enjoyed the lategame playing it like the early game either.

The worst part is the generous range of things. There are so many enemies hitting you from two screens away, which makes it annoying to gather and tank mobs. I would have much preferred a single group of enemies, no reinforcements, and a longer battle with them, all fitting nicely on my screen where I can act and react without wondering which continent I am getting shelled from. This is why I wasn't enjoying my first playthrough (I want mobs to be on my tank) but found the second one way more palatable (three tanks just throwing chains to pull all mobs to them).

The two almosts

Pausing the game almost pauses it. I don't mean the slowdown option, I mean it takes a few frames before it actually pauses, while animations smoothly freeze. It was a cool idea, good on you for exploring it, bad on you for deciding to keep it. Pause now means pause now.

Hold position doesn't actually hold position. Characters will still take a few steps to engage something. This is bad when there's some AoE effect you want the enemy to be in but not you, or vice versa. I had a particularly difficult battle in the early game that I nearly lost after fifteen minutes of tactical challenges because one of my characters decided hold position means almost hold position.

Optimizing gets exhausting

There are events that restock merchants and spawn random dungeons for you to explore, and you don't want to miss out on them, but that means constantly checking if you did trigger such an event (USUALLY it's just starting a new main story quest) and then reaping its rewards lest you overwrite them by triggering another. I once had a bonus dungeon despawn because I accepted a companion's quest.

Also, the random stats on gear. Now, I'm going to say biased RNG and you're going to say all the things I myself say to people who say biased RNG. So, in fact, I'll not say it, and just let you decide for yourself if all affixes have an equal chance of being randomed on crafted jewelry. Try to get an attribute bonus. I'd say get a specific attribute bonus, to make it worse, but actually the game design makes it fine to just get any attribute that is interesting to you and just move your points around to compensate. I can end on that good note - the game really benefits from how we can freely move stat points around (and skill points, for that matter).

Best indie rpg i've played since returning to pc gaming

I love Dungeon Siege. This game could have scratched that itch. I don't care about story, just having loot and fun stuff to blow up with mild tactics. But the game crashes. A lot. Like 90's Daggerfall a lot. I want to recommend it just so you buy it and the dev's can stay in business to fix the game... or make a new better game that doesn't crash. But that's not fair to you. Sadly, I can't recommend it.

Continuation of their previous game - Tower of Time - with some major enhancements. The slow/pause combat mechanic returns and enhanced character options enabling your personal touch on how you want to handle the encounters makes this a great game.

Don't waste your time on this.

okay i played it all the way through and it was just the most bland rpg ever. im not saying its bad it just lacks the flavor to get one into it. the ai can pretty much handle combat without you doing anything. the story filled with choices that clearly dont make a real difference are boring.

It is fine, but Tower Of Time was better.

It's not that it's a bad game, it's just that it's very buggy. Random freezes. Side quest missions that are supposed to be large maps, can be extremely small maps where there's a bunch of enemies right where you spawn in and you can go no further than maybe 15 meters. All this was really frustrating at times, which really made it a lot less fun to play.

what an absoluty god awful trash product freezes every 1m or so and it even locks your entire PC.

Utter trash devs stay away everyone

Extremly bare bone game i forgot to refund it

the game was okay, i didn't play enough to judge the game properly.
I did drop it because of performance issues, on my PC this thing plays worse than Baldur's Gate 3 when in the city, and this games doesn't look anywhere near good enough to be comparable to BG3.

Its good, lacking some mechanics like lock-picking etc more actiony than rpgy but it Really makes up for it with it's story and its charm. It's voice acted and the voice acting is actually good, entertaining and keeps you engaged. Thank you!

It tries to do a lot but accomplishes little: most story choices have little influences on story, and combat becomes "hit the non-grey button" at mid game - which all would be major issues if it was $60, but at the current price it's fine. You will enjoy it if you are a CRPG fan; it's just not something you will be remembering after a few months.

Fun game, with a unique mix of mechanics. Nice implementation of real-time with pause for more fluid and quicker fights

I think proper coop, with individual characters, would have made this game twice as good.

I'm not a fan of the slow-mo action, so literally playing without that and with characters on auto. Is fine, but is not that great - as you progress it turns more and more into "manage a team of heroes, their stats and skills, move them around", but when it comes to combat, you pretty much have to let them do their thing.

Beside these 2 negatives, they have nailed absolutely everything else, hence more reason is annoying that coop is unplayable not even as intended, nevermind better...

For reference, I am playing on the hardest difficulty and I prefer bone crushing difficulty in my games.

I am honestly impressed with how well the combat is designed in this game. I haven't played a fun unique take on real-time with pause like this since playing Aarklash Legacy. If you liked Aarklash, you would like this game.

I think this game is a big step up from Tower of Time. A game that I already loved and would highly recommend. One thing that I find huge is the combat is now done in the world instead of entering a combat instance. I am still pretty early into this game, but I can already feel how awesome it is going to be. I will try to update this review with more of the things I find improved as I progress.

I am super excited to see what is next from these developers and all the awesome things they can do for the unfortunately declining real-time with pause genre.

I like these developers as they come up with some pretty original ideas for their games, but unfortunately this game has the same crappy combat system that Tower of Time has, and I really wish they opted to go turn based instead. You just sit there while the combat plays out in agonisingly slow motion, spamming your default attacks at the enemies until they die. More enemies spawn periodically during the combat and it only ends once they're all dead. Most of the time you just spend waiting for your mana to slowly regenerate so you can use your special attacks, as your default attacks take ages to whittle down the enemies' health bars. There's little strategy involved and each fight just turns into one big tedious war of attrition.

On top of that, the story is very confusing. You get this short intro that harps on about some cosmic entities which devour entire star systems and then you suddenly end up creating your two characters who are this brother and sister duo who are treasure hunters or something and explore ancient ruins. You start off in some desert and end up having to find the entrance to some ruin but you're not even sure why. After fighting a few groups of desert scorpions and getting a feel for the combat system, you end up in some crazy combat against about 20 or so enemy soldiers who proceed to whup your intrepid duo silly until some high level elven druid lady or something shows up out of nowhere, single handedly saves your hides, then proceeds to disappear again once all the soldiers have been dealt with (?!?). You then end up exploring the ruins,battling a few raiders, then finding some or other object and heading back to your village. I basically got fed up and quit the game after getting some mission where the town guard sent us off to scout some nearby military camp and report back. No specific objectives - just scout the camp and report back. By this stage of the game, I had not found any companions, so it was still just the brother and sister travelling together. There were no other quests we could do so the only option was to travel to the camp, where we had to try and be stealthy somehow even though this game does not really support any sort of stealth gameplay. Predictably, we got spotted, and the two of us were quickly overwhelmed by enemies. I just uninstalled the game as I did not want to sit through any more of this tedious combat.

On top of that, I felt the developers tried to be too ambitious by introducing fully voiced cinematic cut scenes, despite the game's obvious limited budget. Almost all the characters have these weird thousand yard stares, some of the voice acting is a bit iffy, and the proportions of the arms on the male characters look a bit short. On top of that, the brother looks annoyingly like a younger Johnny Depp, no matter how much you try and customise his appearance.

Can't recommend this game otherwise due to its jankiness, dull combat system and the fact that it would constantly freeze when trying to exit to Steam. As I said before, the developers had a good concept for this game, but it's a shame the implementation was lacking.

It does not do anything better, but it does it in a way which is captivating, and light, still with challenge and Danger effect.
A Must have !