Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness Review Summary

Authentic Old-School CRPG Experience: Players consistently praise the game for faithfully capturing the essence of classic CRPGs like Baldur's Gate and Pillars of Eternity, offering familiar gameplay mechanics, isometric design, and a nostalgic feel. It's seen as a spiritual successor and a love letter to the genre.

Solid & Improving Game Quality: The game is generally considered solid, fun, and enjoyable, especially for a debut title from the developers. Many note significant improvements since release, with good graphics, music, and a promising system, making it a worthwhile experience.

Engaging Story & World-Building: The narrative is described as interesting, engaging, and well-written, with a plot that draws players in, particularly after the initial chapters. The world-building is also highlighted as solid and immersive, contributing to the overall experience.

Detailed Character & Party Management: Players appreciate the detailed character creation, diverse dialogue options, and the ability to play good or evil with distinct paths. The companion system is also well-received, offering interesting characters with their own quests and opinions.

Unique Greed Morality System: The game's distinctive 'Greed' morality system is a standout feature, influencing player decisions, party dynamics, and the world. It's praised for its intriguing twist on traditional alignment and its impact on the narrative.

Excessive and Frequent Loading Screens: Players report extremely long and frequent loading times, often consuming a significant portion of playtime (up to 30%). These issues are exacerbated by small map areas, constant transitions, and a perceived increase in load times during longer play sessions, severely disrupting immersion and overall enjoyment.

Shallow and Unpolished RPG Experience: The game is criticized for its overall mediocrity, lacking the depth, polish, and engaging mechanics found in comparable RPGs. Reviewers found the world, story, and character progression to be shallow, uninspired, and often feeling like an unfinished product.

Weak and Unengaging Story/Pacing: The main story is consistently described as bland, unintriguing, and unoriginal, often relying on generic tropes. Pacing issues, an incomplete narrative, and a lack of meaningful character development contribute to a disengaging experience, with many plot threads left unresolved.

Repetitive and Uninspired Quests: Side quests are frequently criticized for being repetitive fetch tasks, lacking depth, and having little to no impact on the main story or other quests. Companion quests are also noted as being dull, abrupt, and poorly integrated, contributing to a sense of chore-like gameplay.

Game-Breaking Bugs and Technical Issues: Players report numerous bugs, including game-breaking ones that prevent progression, especially near the end. Other issues include characters getting stuck, items disappearing, and general lack of polish, indicating an unfinished state even years after release.

Real-time with Pause Combat: The game features a tactical, party-based, real-time with pause (RTwP) combat system, reminiscent of classic CRPGs. Players manage formations, target priorities, and short action bursts, with combat rounds occurring in 5-second intervals.

Custom Ruleset & Character Building: The game utilizes a unique, custom ruleset, blending elements from Pillars of Eternity and AD&D 1e, rather than standard D&D. Players can create characters from 5 races and 13 classes, with multi-classing options and a logical attribute system, though character development for combat and non-combat skills is noted as limited.

Unique Greed System: A distinctive 'Greed' morality system tracks player avarice, influencing game dynamics, factions, and quest outcomes. This system is more complex than traditional reputation mechanics and significantly impacts the core gameplay.

Party-Based Mechanics: The game includes a robust party system with five characters, offering cohesion bonuses, passive abilities, and a separate 'party XP' bar with perks. New characters join as the game progresses, enhancing strategic depth.

Adjustable Difficulty & Speed: The game offers various difficulty levels that can be changed at any time, with 'normal' being demanding and 'hard' considered balanced by some. Players can also speed up character movement and turn progression for faster gameplay.

Minor Bugs and Glitches: Most players encountered only minor, non-game-breaking bugs, such as occasional inaudible footsteps or slight pathfinding issues. These were generally infrequent and often resolvable with a simple reload, indicating a relatively stable core gameplay experience.

Game Stability and Crashes: Some players experienced significant instability, including frequent crashes (every 20 minutes) and softlocks, particularly around Chapter 4. There were also reports of the game freezing when alt-tabbing during initial loading, requiring a force-close.

Mixed Performance and Optimization: Feedback on performance is mixed. Some players report good overall performance with stable frame rates and no excessive GPU heating. However, others criticize poor optimization, noting high GPU temperatures even in menus and a general need for better optimization in future patches.

Recommended for classic CRPG fans: The game is highly recommended for players who enjoy old-school isometric RPGs, particularly those reminiscent of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Pillars of Eternity. It caters to fans of the genre looking for a similar experience.

Wait for sales or future updates: Many players advise purchasing the game during a sale, suggesting its current price might be too high for its content or state. Some also recommend waiting for further patches, DLC, or content updates to improve the experience.

Hope for sequels and future content: Players express a strong desire for sequels, DLC, and continued development from the studio. They believe the game has potential and hope future installments or updates will expand upon its world and mechanics.

Mixed reception, cautious recommendation: Player sentiment is mixed, with many recommending the game with reservations. While some find it a solid experience, others suggest it lacks zest or innovation, advising potential players to manage expectations or try other CRPGs first.

Support the developers: Several players encourage supporting the small development team, either by purchasing the game (even at full price) or by expressing good wishes, hoping it enables them to create more content or sequels.

Indie Game with Limited Resources: The game is a Kickstarter-funded indie title developed by a small, new studio with limited financial resources. This context helps explain some of its rough edges and design choices.

Functional Graphics & UI: The graphics are described as low-tech, functional, and simple, adequate for immersion but not contemporary. The UI/HUD is noted to resemble Pillars of Eternity with a Baldur's Gate theme.

Mixed Initial Reception: Players have a mixed view of the game, often noting it feels 'undercooked' or 'rough around the edges' at launch. However, many acknowledge its potential and appreciate it as a first attempt from a new developer, with some finding it surprisingly good.

Ongoing Development & Support: Despite its release, the game is still actively being improved by the developers. Players appreciate the team's responsiveness and commitment to polishing the game, indicating a 'made with love' approach.

Rich World & Tonal Variety: The game features an immersive world afflicted by war, conspiracies, and a greed curse, with player choices potentially impacting its fate. The environments, quests, and music offer a wide range of tones, from jovial to grim.