Info about Dread Delusion:

Official game description:
The world is broken. Its surface seethes with an undead curse, while humanity clings to flying continents in the sky. From mushroom forests to undead mausoleums, strange places and people await you. But will you find a way to heal this world - or seek power and profit for yourself?
Uncover a rich, interactive narrative through the game's quests, or pick a direction and explore by yourself. Carve your own path.
Towns offer a needed respite for a weary traveller to sleep through the night, trade goods, accept quests and speak with the locals.
A keen mind or charming wit can prove just as useful as a sword; and your decisions will shape how the story unfolds.
Welcome… to Dread Delusion.
Key Features:
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*   Embark on a world-spanning quest to decide the fate of the land
*   Build your character to face challenges the way you want. There’s always an alternative to combat: charm NPCs, pick locks, harness forbidden knowledge and more…
*   Explore a world full of unique characters, creatures, challenges, and treasure
*   Use Smithing and Alchemy to upgrade equipment - turn a rusty blade into a Master Crafted Clockwork Sword.
*   Gameplay inspired by classic RPGs of the 2000s
*   Wield a variety of powerful spells and potions to bend reality to your will.
*   Join or Oppose various Factions as they pursue their own goals
*   A beautiful retro 3D aesthetic

Release date: 14 May, 2024

Categories: RPG, Open-World Exploration, Choice-based Narrative, Character Customization, Crafting, Single-player Story, Faction Management, Environmental Storytelling


- 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:
- Evokes classic RPGs; Morrowind-like (weight 0.96): The game evokes strong nostalgia, frequently drawing comparisons to Morrowind and other classic RPGs. Reviewers praise its focus on exploration, unique world-building, and emphasis on player choice, capturing the essence of older titles while incorporating modern improvements. The game's ability to create a sense of wonder and discovery is a recurring theme.
- Exceptional world-building, lore, and writing (weight 0.91): The game features exceptional world-building, lore, and writing, creating a rich and immersive experience. Reviewers highlight the unique setting, well-developed characters, and thought-provoking themes. The game's ability to draw players into its world and make them care about its inhabitants is a major strength.
- Meaningful choices, impactful consequences (weight 0.88): Meaningful choices with real consequences are a key feature, impacting the story, characters, and world. Quests often present difficult moral dilemmas without clear right or wrong answers, forcing players to consider the implications of their decisions. This emphasis on player agency adds depth and replayability.
- Unique and appealing art style (weight 0.83): The game has a unique and appealing art style, often described as retro or PS1-inspired. Reviewers praise the visuals for their creativity, atmosphere, and ability to create a distinct identity. The sound design and music also contribute to the game's immersive atmosphere.
- Rewarding and incentivized exploration (weight 0.79): Exploration is consistently rewarding, with players discovering secrets, loot, and lore. The game incentivizes thorough exploration, making the world feel alive and full of surprises. The absence of hand-holding and reliance on player curiosity are key elements of this rewarding exploration.
- Unique and interesting game setting (weight 0.75): The game features a unique and interesting setting, often described as bizarre, surreal, or alien. Reviewers praise the creativity and originality of the world design, which sets it apart from more generic fantasy settings. The world's distinct atmosphere and lore contribute to the overall appeal.
- Exploration rewards loot and upgrades (weight 0.72): Exploration is rewarded with loot, gear, and upgrades, encouraging players to thoroughly explore the world. The game provides a good variety of items and spells, allowing for character customization and build optimization. The distribution of loot is logical and meaningful.
- Compelling story, well-written characters (weight 0.14): The game features well-written characters and a compelling story. Reviewers praise the dialogue, plot, and overall narrative quality. The writing effectively conveys personality, emotion, and depth, enhancing the player's connection to the game world.
- Visually stunning Oneiric Isles (weight 0.04): The Oneiric Isles are a visually stunning and memorable location, featuring unique designs and a strong sense of atmosphere. Reviewers praise the world's beauty, strangeness, and the way it encourages exploration. The isles are well-utilized, with distinct societies and compelling stories.

Common complaints:
- Combat too easy and unrewarding (weight 0.55): The game's combat is frequently described as too easy, simple, and unrewarding. Many reviewers found that enemies pose little threat, have basic AI, and are easily exploited, leading to a lack of challenge and making combat feel pointless. Some reviewers noted that the addition of a 'hard mode' only increased enemy health, making combat tedious rather than more engaging.
- Uninspired and repetitive quest design (weight 0.52): Many reviewers found the quests to be uninspired, repetitive, and lacking in meaningful choices or consequences. Fetch quests, excessive backtracking, and simplistic quest design are common complaints. Some reviewers also noted that the main story feels generic and less engaging than the side content, with limited impact on the game world.
- Underwhelming and weak magic system (weight 0.49): The magic system is often described as underwhelming and underpowered compared to melee combat. Many reviewers found that offensive spells are weak, scarce, and acquired late in the game, making them less viable than melee attacks. Some reviewers noted that the limited mana and lack of spell upgrades further diminish the usefulness of magic.
- Tedious and frustrating navigation (weight 0.14): Navigation is often described as tedious and frustrating due to the lack of a map, limited fast travel options, and unclear directions. Many reviewers found that the absence of a map early on and the late acquisition of the airship lead to excessive backtracking and wasted time. Some reviewers also noted that the compass is inaccurate and the map controls are clunky.
- Repetitive and monotonous music (weight 0.1): The game's music is frequently criticized for being repetitive and lacking variety. Many reviewers found that the limited number of tracks and constant looping become grating over time, detracting from the overall experience. Some reviewers also noted a lack of environmental variation in the music, further contributing to the monotony.
- Buggy and unpolished (weight 0.09): The game is frequently described as buggy and unpolished, with reviewers encountering various glitches, softlocks, and technical issues. Some reviewers also noted graphical shortcomings and optimization problems, further detracting from the overall experience. The constructiveness of this point is low because it lacks specific details.
- Shallow RPG mechanics and progression (weight 0.07): The game's RPG mechanics and character progression are often described as shallow and lacking depth. Many reviewers found that character builds have little impact on gameplay, with limited customization options and a lack of meaningful specializations. Some reviewers also noted that stats and skills feel mostly useless, with progression often gated behind specific skill checks.
- Unforgiving and arbitrary save system (weight 0.03): The game's save system is often criticized for being unforgiving and arbitrary. Many reviewers found that the autosave feature discourages risk-taking and the respawn points are arbitrarily chosen, leading to frustration. Some reviewers also noted that the game only has one save slot, further exacerbating the issue.
- Frustrating and random lockpicking mechanic (weight 0.03): The lockpicking mechanic is often criticized for being purely random and frustrating. Many reviewers found that increasing the lockpicking skill only allows carrying more lockpicks without making it easier to open locks. Some reviewers also noted that the arbitrary inventory limit on lockpicks further exacerbates the issue.
- Poor writing and translation quality (weight 0.02): The game suffers from poor writing, machine translation, and an excessive amount of dialogue without voice acting. Many reviewers found the dialogue to be uninteresting, padded with fluff, and difficult to read due to the font choice. Some reviewers also noted that the lore is unappealing and the storytelling relies on raw text descriptions.

Gameplay feedback:
- Exploration is core gameplay element (weight 0.13): Exploration is a core gameplay element, often involving puzzles, platforming, and skill-based obstacles. The game world is designed to reward exploration with loot, lore, and access to new areas.  Some reviewers noted the lack of quest markers and reliance on player navigation, while others appreciated the freedom and sense of discovery.
- Exploration-based, non-traditional leveling system (weight 0.08): The game uses a non-traditional leveling system based on finding "Delusions" (glowing skulls) through exploration and quest completion, rather than gaining experience from combat. These delusions are a finite resource that are used to upgrade stats, which in turn improve skills and allow the player to pass checks. This system incentivizes exploration and quest completion, while de-emphasizing combat.
- Meaningful attributes influence skills (weight 0.06): The game features RPG mechanics with four main attributes (Strength, Guile, Wisdom, Persona) that influence skills like lockpicking, dialogue, and combat.  These attributes are used to overcome challenges and access hidden areas. However, some reviewers found the stat system to be not very meaningful, and that gear provides better attribute boosts than leveling up.
- Limited weapon and combat variety (weight 0.04): The game features a limited variety of weapon types, with basic melee and ranged combat mechanics.  Some reviewers desired more weapon variety and offensive spells. The combat is more about augmenting the core experience of exploration rather than being the main focus.
- Simple crafting for gear upgrades (weight 0.03): The game includes a simple crafting system that allows players to upgrade gear and create potions using gathered ingredients.  Crafting materials can also be used for house upgrades. However, some reviewers found that crafting is limited and that materials can be scarce.
- Evokes classic RPGs (Morrowind, King's Field) (weight 0.02): The game is often compared to classic RPGs like Morrowind and King's Field, with similar mechanics and world design. Some reviewers felt the game successfully emulated the old-school RPG style, while others found it to be more similar to King's Field in terms of combat.
- Limited character build customization (weight 0.02): The game offers some character customization through items, rings, and trinkets that modify attributes and enhance playstyles. However, traditional character builds are limited due to the small number of stats to raise.
- Limited fast travel options (weight 0.02): The game features various fast travel options, including portals, magic mirrors, an airship, and spells. However, fast travel is often limited to specific spots and may require completing quests to unlock.
- Lockpicking via dice roll (weight 0.01): The game features lockpicking as a gameplay mechanic, often implemented as a dice roll. Some reviewers found lockpicking to be easily overpowered, while others preferred the dice roll mechanic over a minigame.

Performance notes:
- Performance issues: stutters, lag, freezes (weight 0.07): The game suffers from a variety of performance issues, including stuttering, frame drops, lag, and freezes, especially when loading new areas or transitioning between zones. These issues occur on both high-end and low-end hardware, as well as on the Steam Deck, indicating optimization problems. Some reviewers suggest adjusting view distance or other settings to improve performance.
- Intentional PS1-style graphics (weight 0.02): The game employs a PS1-era graphical style, featuring wobbly textures and low-polygon models, which is an intentional artistic choice. Some players appreciate this retro aesthetic, finding it fitting for the game's atmosphere, while others find it visually unappealing or overwhelming. An option to disable or adjust the intensity of these effects is available.
- Inconsistent Steam Deck performance (weight 0.02): The game's performance on Steam Deck is inconsistent, with some players reporting smooth gameplay and others experiencing significant issues. Some players recommend specific settings adjustments, such as capping the frame rate or disabling certain features, to improve performance on the device.
- Repetitive and limited audio (weight 0.01): The game's audio, particularly the music, suffers from repetitiveness due to a limited number of tracks and ambient sounds. Some reviewers also noted a lack of variety in combat sound effects and limited voice acting, which detracts from the overall immersive experience. Music tracks occasionally overlap.
- Quest progression bugs exist (weight 0.01): Some players have encountered quest-related bugs, such as quests stalling due to early objective completion or bugged buildings preventing quest progression. These issues can disrupt the intended gameplay flow and require workarounds or waiting for patches to resolve.
- Large contiguous map, impressive draw (weight 0.01): The game features a large, contiguous map with an impressive draw distance, allowing players to see far into the distance, even from inside buildings. This technical achievement is particularly noteworthy for an indie title and contributes to the game's sense of scale and exploration.
- Airship issues reported (weight 0): Some players have reported issues with the airship, such as it disappearing or the unadjustable draw distance causing navigation problems. These issues can be frustrating for players who rely on the airship for exploration and transportation.
- Inventory causes FPS drops (weight 0): Some players have reported that the game's frame rate drops significantly when opening the inventory. This can be disruptive to gameplay, especially during combat or other time-sensitive situations.

Recommendations:
- Unique world, story, exploration (weight 0.45): The game is highly recommended for its unique world, engaging story, and rewarding exploration, often drawing comparisons to classic RPGs like Morrowind and Skyrim. Reviewers emphasize the immersive atmosphere, well-written lore, and thought-provoking choices, making it a must-play for fans of the genre. However, some suggest tempering expectations regarding gameplay depth and combat engagement.
- Narrative and exploration focused (weight 0.39): Many reviewers suggest that the game is not for players seeking challenging combat or deep RPG mechanics. Instead, it is best approached as an adventure game or walking simulator with a focus on narrative and world-building. Some reviewers note that the combat is simple or even stale, but that the world and story are worth experiencing regardless.
- Flaws exist, needs polish (weight 0.09): Despite its strengths, the game has flaws, including bugs, lack of polish, and shallow gameplay. Some reviewers feel that the game should still be in early access or that it needed more time to be finished. However, some reviewers still highly recommend the game despite its flaws, considering it an impressive scope for a small team.
- Great value for price (weight 0.09): The game is considered a great value, especially when purchased on sale. Many reviewers feel that the game is worth the full price, but recommend buying it on sale if unsure. Some reviewers even suggest that the game is worth more than its current price tag.
- Not for combat-focused players (weight 0.07): The game is not recommended for those looking for a strong dungeon-crawler or challenging combat. Some reviewers feel that the game is an imitation, copying only the surface-level aspects of its inspiration and lacking substantial content. Some reviewers also feel that the game is boring or that it fails to deliver on expectations.
- High replayability potential (weight 0.05): Many reviewers express a desire to play the game again, either to experience different choices or to explore more of the world. Some reviewers recommend a pacifist playthrough for a second run. However, some reviewers are unlikely to do a second playthrough unless a significant update changes the game.
- Fun, creative, old-school indie (weight 0.02): The game is considered one of the most fun indie games played on Steam, perfectly encapsulating old-school video game fun and creativity. This suggests that the game offers a unique and enjoyable experience that stands out among other indie titles.
- Desire for sequel/more content (weight 0.02): Many reviewers express a strong desire for a sequel or more content set in the game's universe. Some reviewers hope that the developer will create a sequel that builds upon the game's formula, potentially with more advanced leveling and perks. Some reviewers also hope to see more games, or other media, set in this universe.
- Mixed or tentative recommendations (weight 0.01): These points reflect mixed or tentative recommendations. Some reviewers are switching to positive reviews but with reservations, while others express disappointment or request refunds. This suggests that the game's quality and enjoyment can vary significantly depending on individual experiences and expectations.
- Recommended for retro RPG fans (weight 0.01): The game is recommended for fans of old-school RPGs, particularly those with a PS1 aesthetic. This suggests that the game's appeal lies in its retro presentation and nostalgic feel, rather than its modern gameplay mechanics or graphics.
- Easy completion, adjust difficulty (weight 0.01): The game is considered easy to complete, with achievements obtainable in a couple of playthroughs. Reviewers suggest increasing the difficulty for a more engaging experience. This indicates that the game may not provide a significant challenge for experienced players.
- Consider Lunacid for better combat (weight 0.01): Reviewers suggest Lunacid as a comparable game with better combat and polish. This indicates that while the game has its strengths, Lunacid may offer a more refined and challenging experience for players seeking deeper gameplay mechanics.
- Must-play RPG, save frequently (weight 0.01): The game is considered a must-play for serious RPG fans, but its technical state may require regular save backups. This indicates that while the game offers an astounding RPG experience, it may be prone to technical issues that could disrupt gameplay.
- Play blind for best experience (weight 0.01): Reviewers recommend playing the game blind and exploring each area thoroughly to maximize the experience. They suggest avoiding spoilers and guides to fully appreciate the game's surprises and discoveries. This approach enhances the sense of immersion and allows players to form their own unique interpretations of the world and story.
- Weird, philosophical, alien world (weight 0.01): The game is highly recommended for those seeking a weird and imaginative alien world with a philosophical tale. This suggests that the game's unique setting and narrative are its main selling points, appealing to players who enjoy unconventional and thought-provoking experiences.
- Retro presentation, streamlined design (weight 0.01): The game is appreciated for its combination of retro presentation and streamlined design, appealing to those seeking nostalgia or something new. This indicates that the game offers a unique blend of old and new elements, catering to a specific audience with its retro aesthetic and modern gameplay sensibilities.
- Highly recommended, worth the cost (weight 0.01): The game is highly recommended based on the overall experience, exceeding expectations and being worth every penny. This suggests that the game delivers a satisfying and enjoyable experience that justifies its cost.
- Good, inspiring, memorable experience (weight 0.01): The game is described as good, inspiring, and memorable, leaving a positive impression on players. This indicates that the game offers a worthwhile and enjoyable experience that resonates with players long after they finish playing.

Other player notes:
- Distinct retro, low-poly visuals (weight 0.06): The game features a distinct retro aesthetic, often compared to PS1/PS2-era graphics, with low-poly models and textures. While some appreciate this nostalgic style, others may find it off-putting. The visual style is a key element of the game's presentation.
- Ambitious indie title, limitations (weight 0.05): The game is recognized as an indie title made by a small team, which explains its limitations and scope. Reviewers appreciate the developers' efforts to fix bugs and add quality-of-life improvements post-release. The game is seen as ambitious and made with passion, despite its flaws.
- Thematic, choice-driven narrative (weight 0.03): The game is set in a post-cataclysmic world with floating islands under a 'Neuron Star', exploring themes of totalitarianism, dogma, and identity. The story involves conflicts between factions, gods, and the player's role in shaping the world's fate. The game emphasizes player choice and moral judgment.
- Open-world exploration focus (weight 0.01): The game emphasizes open-world exploration and secret hunting. The world contains bizarre creatures and hidden locations. The game features a journal and map, with a compass available for purchase.
- Control and visual options (weight 0): The game offers rebindable controls and supports 5-button mice. Visual effects can be toggled on or off. Motion controller support could enhance the VR experience.
- Unfinished, empty areas (weight 0): Some areas of the game, particularly the Clockwork Kingdom, feel unfinished and contain empty spaces. The ending lacks music, and some scenes are presented as text adventures, indicating a lack of polish. This point reduces the score due to lack of constructiveness.
- Abstract thematic elements (weight 0): The game suggests that knowledge itself is an illusion. The title and level-up system lack a clear thematic connection.
- Premature release concerns (weight 0): Some reviewers feel the game was not ready for release and may be a marketing ploy for funding. This point shows signs of review bombing and lacks specific details, greatly reducing its importance.

Emotions:
No emotions}