Info about The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker:

Official game description:
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About the Game
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_The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker_ is a medieval fantasy singleplayer adventure inspired by oldschool games like RuneScape and Ultima Online! Journey through a sprawling open world full of npcs with dialogue, level skills, fight varied monsters and uncover the story of Rothar Aercrest – the cursed lord to the remote woodlands of Imberthale. Increase your power by advancing 4 combat & 8 crafting/harvesting skills; craft, loot or be rewarded powerful items; unlock special attacks and spells which will aid your way in defeating the worst monsters that lurk in the remote corners of the world.
*   **Variety of quests with deep writing.**
*   **Numerous weapons and spells to employ in strategic combat.**
*   **Large open world that rewards exploration.**
*   **12 various skills to level.**
*   **Customizable player houses to rest your weary bones.**
*   **Social multiplayer - meet other players in towns, taverns etc.**
Tired of ‘epic tales’ of ‘world ending proportions’, _Cursebreaker_ offers stories of human pettiness, revenge and greed - all the good stuff. In this game you're not yet another 'chosen one' destined to save all life from impending doom and gloom. Instead, you're Lord Rothar Aercrest - the feudal ruler to the remote woodlands of Imberthale. Or at least you used to be...
One fateful day your path crosses that of a dark wizard, Gabrius, who appears to be both tremendously powerful and frightfully malicious. Consequently you soon find yourself caught within a mortal feud between two powerful wielders of magic, all the while bound by a curse you desperately need to break free from.
If Lord Rothar is to know peace again, Gabrius must surely die. That might not prove to be such a simple task. After all, what is death besides a mere nuisance to the master of the Black Grimoire?
Character progression in _Cursebreaker_ is tied to the various skills you can advance. All in-game interactions  tend to give experience in your various skills,  and gaining higher skill levels will unlock appropriate interactions,  abilities and crafting options. Fighting enemies in close quarters, for example, will increase your Attack and Defence skills. As they gain levels, you unlock new passive and activated abilities, can wield more sophisticated weapons and armor, and gain access to new traits from the appropriate trainers.
The spellbook offers a large variety of both combat and non-combat utility. Finding and learning new spells may prove a challenge in itself, and casting more demanding spells will require preparation, such as gathering specific ingredients. Feel free to create your own playstyle by using any combination of ranged and melee weapons and spells!
The crafting and harvesting skills provide a variety of bonuses too. Gaining experience in woodsmanship through felling trees not only provides you with crafting materials for bows and such, but may allow you to pass through obstacles in the world and otherwise speed up your exploration. Skill in Alchemy does not only unlock potions, but also bombs and poisons!
**Available skills in the game include Attack, Defence, Archery, Sorcery, Smithing, Crafting, Tailoring, Alchemy, Mining, Woodsmanship, Fishing and Cooking.**
The game automatically saves your progress. In the event you fall in combat, you will be revived at your nearest graveyard, having potentially lost some of your valuables along the way. No worry, these can be recovered either by visiting the place of your death, or by paying a scavenger. Remember to carry restorative foods and protective potions to guard against dangerous enemies!
Although _Cursebreaker_ is a singleplayer game, it provides an option for a _social multiplayer_; in other words, you will be able to see other adventurers online, but the interactions are limited to chatting and inspecting equipment only. It will not be possible to trade with them or otherwise engage in gameplay-related activities with them. You may adjust the online mode to apply to big cities only, to be always on, or to opt out of it entirely and play fully offline in case you don't care for it.
_Two authentic players chatting._

Release date: 27 Oct, 2024

Categories: RPG, Single-player, Open-World Exploration, Real-time Combat, Crafting, Base Building, Inventory Management, Social Simulation


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Similar to Runescape, single-player (weight 0.97): The game is frequently compared to Runescape, particularly Old School Runescape (OSRS), with many reviewers noting the similar gameplay loop, skilling system, and overall feel. It successfully captures the essence of Runescape in a single-player or offline environment, offering a nostalgic experience for fans of the classic MMORPG. The game also incorporates quality of life improvements over Runescape, making the grind less tedious.
- High-quality, chill, and immersive (weight 0.63): Many reviewers praise the game's overall quality, including its graphics, sound design, atmosphere, and art style. The game is often described as relaxing, chill, and immersive, with a lot of content for the price. Reviewers also appreciate the quality of life improvements and the absence of bugs.
- Good writing, quests, and story (weight 0.28): The game features well-written dialogue, quests, and an interesting storyline. Reviewers appreciate the game's unique humor and charm. The world-building is excellent, and the NPCs are engaging.
- Balanced and enjoyable skill grind (weight 0.24): The game features a balanced grind with gear acquisition and skill leveling. The skilling system is enjoyable and doesn't feel overwhelming. Players can level up skills through usage, and the game offers flexibility in how they progress, with options to grind or focus on quests.
- Enjoyable with definite potential (weight 0.18): Many reviewers express general enjoyment of the game, noting its charm, potential, and solid overall quality. Some reviewers acknowledge the small development team and are willing to overlook minor issues. The game is easy to pick up and learn.
- Engaging and fluid combat system (weight 0.16): The combat system is engaging and fluid, with some reviewers comparing it to ARPGs like Diablo or MMOs like WoW. The combat is fun and straightforward, with skills that are easy to understand. The game world feels alive and engaging.
- Large and interactive open-world (weight 0.12): The game world is large, interactive, and open for exploration. There is a lot of content available, including many side quests. The game encourages a relaxed pace, without rushing the player into quests or story progression.
- Meaningful character progression and skills (weight 0.12): There are many skills to level up, and any character can learn all the skills. Leveling up feels meaningful and impactful. The trait tree modifies and adds skills, making progression feel rewarding. The variety of spells, weapons, and abilities gives players the freedom to create their own unique playstyle.
- Active development and updates (weight 0.1): The developers are actively updating the game and adding new content, including achievements and quality of life improvements. They are responsive to community feedback and consistently add content. The achievement system is tied to in-game rewards.
- No hand-holding, no microtransactions (weight 0.08): The game does not hold the player's hand and features intuitive quests. The single-player nature of the game eliminates the issue of bots and cheaters. The game has no monetization, and the absence of microtransactions enhances the gameplay experience.
- Optional social multiplayer features (weight 0.07): The game offers an online mode where players can see and interact with others, fostering social interaction. The presence of other players makes the game world feel more alive. This feature adds a nice touch to the single-player experience.
- Rewarding exploration and secrets (weight 0.07): Exploration is well done and rewarding, with the feeling of exploring a new and unknown world being a strong positive. Questing encourages exploration and learning. The map is big with little secrets all over.
- Challenging quests and bosses (weight 0.06): Some quest monsters and minibosses provide a satisfying challenge, requiring preparation with armor, resistances, potions, and buffs. Quests are well-designed and constructed, and some are interesting and fun. Some bosses provide enjoyable difficulty.

Common complaints:
- Excessive, unrewarding grinding (weight 0.7): The game is heavily focused on grinding, with many reviewers finding it excessive and tedious. This includes grinding for experience, crafting materials, and skill levels, often with little reward or engaging activities.  The grind is exacerbated by slow progression and a lack of quality-of-life features.
- Cumbersome inventory management (weight 0.27): Reviewers consistently criticize the game's inventory management system.  The limited inventory space, lack of item stacking, and cumbersome interface lead to frequent trips between crafting stations and storage, wasting player time and disrupting the flow of gameplay.
- Poor quest system, lost progress (weight 0.13): The game's quest system is criticized for lacking guidance, proper tracking, and the inability to retry failed quests. The autosave system can overwrite progress, leading to frustration and the potential for lost items or the need to restart the game.
- Poor pathfinding, navigation issues (weight 0.1): Reviewers noted issues with pathfinding, including jarring movements and difficulty navigating terrain. The lack of map markers for quests and resources also contributes to navigation problems.
- Weak, slow-paced opening (weight 0.09): The game's opening is criticized for being slow-paced, tutorial-heavy, and lacking a compelling hook. Some reviewers found the initial story and characters uninteresting, making it difficult to engage with the game.
- Limited multiplayer, customization (weight 0.08): The game lacks meaningful multiplayer features and social interaction.  Some reviewers also expressed disappointment with the lack of character customization and controller support.
- Forced skill diversification, unbalanced combat (weight 0.07): The game forces players to diversify combat skills, limiting specialization. Melee skills feel underdeveloped, and combat can be unbalanced, leading to frequent deaths.
- Unbalanced Amarien Foothills area (weight 0.06): The Amarien Foothills area is unbalanced, with enemies that are too difficult and respawn too quickly. Enemy levels scale with the player, negating the purpose of leveling.
- Missing language support (weight 0.06): The game lacks support for several languages, including Portuguese and Russian. This makes it difficult for non-English speakers to understand quests and the environment.
- Divisive core gameplay loop (weight 0.06): Some reviewers found the game engrossing if they enjoyed the core gameplay loop, but others felt the world was small and the story short. The UI could also be improved.
- Poorly designed UI (weight 0.05): The user interface (UI) is poorly designed and clunky, needing significant improvements.
- Runescape comparison, grind issues (weight 0.05): The game is frequently compared to Runescape, highlighting both its strengths and weaknesses. Some reviewers feel it replicates Runescape's shortcomings, particularly the excessive grinding.

Gameplay feedback:
- Runescape-like with dynamic combat (weight 0.23): The game shares similarities with Runescape, featuring skilling, quests, and a large world. However, it distinguishes itself with more dynamic combat, allowing movement while using ranged attacks, and a greater emphasis on dodging.
- Single-player with social features (weight 0.1): The game is primarily a single-player experience but includes optional online social features. Players can see and chat with others in the same area, creating a sense of community without direct cooperative gameplay.
- Straightforward, challenging combat, respawns (weight 0.07): Combat is described as straightforward, stat-based, and can be challenging. Enemies and gatherable items respawn quickly, which allows for grinding in specific locations.
- Story-driven with simple quests (weight 0.07): The game features a storyline with quests that provide direction and context for the player. Quests are generally simple and understandable, offering a decent challenge without being overly complex.
- Varied combat styles, abilities (weight 0.06): The game features different combat styles (melee, ranged, magic) and abilities tied to weapon types. Character creation involves choosing initial skills, and combat skills are recommended for starting weapons.
- Detailed enemy information available (weight 0.06): The game provides detailed information about enemies through a bestiary or inspection system. This includes stats, drop tables, and drop rates, allowing players to make informed decisions about combat and farming strategies.
- Classless, skill-based progression (weight 0.04): The game uses a classless system where character progression is based on skill usage. Skills improve as they are used, with more advanced actions granting more experience, allowing for flexible character development.
- Meaningful crafting, inventory limitations (weight 0.03): Crafted items of exceptional quality provide significant stat boosts, making crafting a worthwhile endeavor. However, crafting can be limited by inventory constraints, as it often requires multiple non-stacking items.
- Controllable enemy respawn times (weight 0.02): The game allows players to manage enemy respawn times by clicking a clock icon. This feature enables immediate respawns, facilitating grinding and combat practice.
- Exploration is a key feature (weight 0.02): Exploration is a key feature of the game, with a top-down perspective that encourages players to get lost in the open world.
- Point-and-click movement system (weight 0.02): The game uses a point-and-click movement system with right-click menus. Camera control is managed with WASD keys, although WASD movement is still in beta and not practical.
- Spirit horrors drop XP items (weight 0.02): Spirit horrors have a chance to drop a key for a chest containing a 50k experience book. They also have a chance to drop a statue, requiring 30 for another 50k experience book.

Performance notes:
- Performance optimization is inconsistent (weight 0.11): Optimization is a recurring concern, with reports of stuttering, lag in populated areas, and inefficient GPU usage. Some players found that disabling online features improved performance. Optimization has reportedly improved since the demo.
- Minor bugs present, not critical (weight 0.07): Players have reported encountering minor bugs, such as inventory glitches and characters getting stuck, but these issues generally do not significantly impact gameplay. Game-breaking bugs were reportedly fixed quickly. Some players reported no major bugs.
- Runs well on Linux/SteamDeck (weight 0.05): The game runs well on Linux and Steam Deck, indicating good cross-platform compatibility. Players reported a smooth experience on these platforms without requiring modifications.
- Unadjustable graphics settings (weight 0.03): Chromatic aberration is forced in certain areas, and brightness settings are ignored in caves. This limits the player's ability to customize the visual experience and can lead to discomfort or visibility issues.
- No input delay (weight 0.01): Players report no input delay.
- Graphical pop-in (weight 0.01): Some players have noticed graphical pop-in, which can be distracting and detract from the overall visual experience.
- Decent sound design (weight 0.01): The sound design is considered decent, with ambient sounds being particularly well-received.

Recommendations:
- Great value, highly recommended (weight 0.65): The game is highly recommended and considered a great value for its price, with many players anticipating future content and updates. Reviewers highlight the potential for long-term engagement and encourage supporting the developers. Some suggest that the game is worth more than its current price, while others look forward to future content releases and bug fixes.
- Incomplete, grindy, needs polish (weight 0.33): While some reviewers recommend the game and find it enjoyable, others express concerns about its incomplete state, grind, and balance issues. Some reviewers suggest waiting for further development or improvements before purchasing, while others acknowledge its potential despite its flaws. A few reviewers mention refunding the game due to specific issues like the control scheme or excessive grind.
- Try the demo first (weight 0.07): Several reviewers suggest trying the demo before purchasing the full game to ensure it aligns with individual preferences. Save data carries over from the demo, allowing players to seamlessly continue their progress if they decide to buy the game.
- Difficulty spikes, prepare accordingly (weight 0.04): The game has difficulty spikes at certain points. Reviewers recommend doing the stable quest for the pack mule as soon as possible and warn against attempting the marauder camp attack until the character has level 40 in all skills and appropriate gear.
- Underrated, deserves more players (weight 0.04): Reviewers feel the game is underrated and deserves more attention and players. They encourage more people to give the game a try.
- Needs quality-of-life improvements (weight 0.03): Reviewers suggest that quality-of-life improvements, particularly to the quest and bank systems, would significantly enhance the game. They also hope the developers will continue to focus on QoL improvements.
- Lacking end-game content (weight 0.03): Reviewers express a desire for more end-game content and future additions like DLCs to extend the game's longevity and provide more challenges for experienced players. This suggests that while the core gameplay is enjoyable, the game lacks sufficient content to keep players engaged in the long term.
- Skill roadblock is a shame (weight 0.02): The skill roadblock is a big shame and a large oversight by the developers. The playthrough before the skill roadblock was engaging and delightful.

Other player notes:
- Inspired by RuneScape, lacks survival (weight 0.12): The game draws heavy inspiration from classic RPGs like RuneScape, particularly Old School RuneScape (OSRS).  However, some reviewers find the game lacking in survival elements and consider it generic fantasy. The game is in early access, so these aspects may be expanded upon.
- Social interactions in towns (weight 0.06): The game features a social aspect by allowing players to see, chat with, and inspect other players in towns.  Some reviewers suggest adding a global chat feature to enhance communication beyond local areas, making the world feel more alive.
- Bestiary, gold, spell resistance (weight 0.04): The bestiary helps players identify mob drops for targeted farming. Gold is needed to max traits and buy a good ring in Thornhill. Spell resistance is needed, aiming for over 50.
- Item clarity, bank, item recovery (weight 0.03): There are moments when it is unclear what an item does. There is a big bank to collect random things. If you die and can't get your stuff, there is a way to get items back.
- Farming exploits and fixes (weight 0.03): Players discovered that mobs can be force-respawned, significantly speeding up farming.  Additionally, an exploit allowing unlimited GP was quickly patched, showing active development and response to issues.
- More content than expected (weight 0.02): Some reviewers believe the game contains more content than initial impressions suggest, noting the presence of placeholders. This indicates that additional content is planned for future updates, expanding the gameplay experience.
- Many achievements with in-game rewards (weight 0.02): The game features a large number of achievements (218) that are tied to in-game rewards. These rewards include tokens, items, and skill experience, providing players with tangible benefits for completing achievements.
- Low prologue completion rate (weight 0.02): A significant portion of players (over 80%) did not complete the prologue. This could indicate issues with the prologue's design, engagement, or difficulty, potentially deterring players early on.
- Skill level cap to increase (weight 0.01): The current maximum skill level is 50, but there are plans to increase it to 100 in the full release. This indicates that the game's progression system is still under development and will be expanded in the future.
- Distinctive art style (weight 0.01): The game's art style is distinctive, but its appeal is subjective and may not resonate with all players. This is a purely aesthetic point, so it has limited impact on gameplay.
- Pop culture references (weight 0.01): The game contains countless pop culture references, including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and meme culture. This point is not constructive and consists primarily of cultural references, so the importance score is reduced by 90%.
- Macro botting recommendations (weight 0.01): The forum has recommendations for macro botting to bypass skill gates. This point shows signs of review bombing, so the importance score is reduced by 90%.

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