Info about Barony:

Official game description:
You have entered the Barony of the vile lich Baron Herx!  
His curse has all but destroyed the town of Hamlet, and daring adventurers are the people's only hope. Prepare to face devious dungeons that demand your resourcefulness, wit, and vigilance.  
The dungeons are brutal; Full of vicious monsters and deadly traps, but legendary treasures, magical artifacts, spells and equipment will empower you throughout the adventure.  
Features:
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*   Put your skills to the test with perma-death, cryptic dungeons, and no handholding  
*   Cooperate with 1-4 players via split-screen, wireless play between Switch consoles, and the internet including crossplay with other platforms!  
*   Master 13 classes ranging from familiar warrior, wizard, and rogue classes to unique sexton, joker, and arcanist classes  
*   Conquer or be killed by surprises around every corner in a new dungeon every time you play  
*   Learn deep RPG systems with loads of loot and stats to analyze and synergize  
*   Discover and utilize tons of adventuring weapons, equipment, lore, spells, & legendary artifacts  
*   Haunt or help your party even after death by spawning as a ghastly ghost with spooky powers  
*   Experience ongoing free updates from an active team that loves the game and is active in the Barony community  
*   Go deeper with 2 DLCs offering alternate ways to play with new character classes and monster races which offer even more playstyles!
Barony is a love-note to RPG classics like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, & Daggerfall, created by fans of the classics.

Release date: 23 Jun, 2015

Categories: Roguelike, Dungeon Crawler, Cooperative Multiplayer, Character Progression, Procedural Generation, Real-time Combat, Item Management, Stealth Gameplay


- 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:
- Deep and complex mechanics (weight 0.96): The game offers surprising depth and complexity, with meticulously designed mechanics and systems that work together harmoniously. Players can discover new things even after extensive playtime, and the game rewards a slower, more methodical approach. The game emphasizes player knowledge and skill over meta-progression.
- Challenging, rewarding, and addictive gameplay (weight 0.86): The game is challenging but fair, with a high skill ceiling that rewards learning and adaptation. Overcoming obstacles and mastering the game mechanics provides a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. The difficulty enhances the enjoyment, encouraging continued play and character growth.
- High replayability and varied runs (weight 0.74): The game has high replayability due to procedural generation and varied content. Each run offers a fresh experience due to varied character builds and playstyles. The game offers plenty of ways to tweak your experience and keep each dive into the dungeon fresh.
- Enhanced by multiplayer with friends (weight 0.73): The game is best enjoyed with friends, enhancing the overall experience with cooperation and shared fun. Multiplayer mode is a key element, with options for local and online play. Playing with friends makes the game easier and more fun, opening up more opportunities than solo play.
- Diverse classes and races (weight 0.59): The game features a wide variety of classes and races, each with unique abilities and playstyles. This diversity allows for flexible character builds and encourages experimentation, contributing to high replayability. The class system is effective and doesn't restrict players to specific roles.
- Classic roguelike dungeon crawler (weight 0.26): The game is a roguelike dungeon crawler with a first-person perspective, reminiscent of old RPGs like Daggerfall. The game successfully captures the feel of old Might and Magic and N64 D&D games. The game is a mix of Diablo 1 and Dark Souls.
- Great art style and sound (weight 0.2): The game features high-quality sound design, including distinct sounds for different creatures, and a stunning soundtrack. The graphics have a charming art style, with a visually appealing voxel art style. The game has a unique vibe and a certain charm and calibre of detail.
- Dedicated developers and well-made (weight 0.19): The developers put a lot of love into developing the game, as evidenced by regular updates that keep things fresh. The game is extremely well made and worth the price, especially with the DLC. The game is still being updated, showing the development team's dedication.
- Ongoing updates and content (weight 0.14): The game receives frequent free updates with new content, including monsters, equipment, levels, and spells. The developers continue to support the game years after its initial release, indicating ongoing dedication and potential improvements. These updates enhance an already strong foundation.
- Meaningful DLC content (weight 0.14): The DLCs add significant content to the game, making them worthwhile purchases. The DLC classes feel very unique and interesting. The DLCs are cheap and worth the value of adding more content.
- Rewarding learning curve (weight 0.11): The game has a rewarding learning curve, with a solid tutorial system that effectively teaches both basic and complex concepts. The game becomes more enjoyable as you learn its complexities. The game is easy to learn but hard to master, providing a satisfying learning curve.
- Customizable difficulty settings (weight 0.1): Difficulty can be adjusted in the settings, allowing new players to tweak the experience. Players can disable features like hunger or friendly fire to reduce difficulty or annoyance. The game offers a lot of customization options.
- Humorous and silly elements (weight 0.09): The game has wacky references and funny achievements. The game has unexpected comic humour. The game features humor through cosmetics, over-the-top gore, and references, which doesn't detract from the overall atmosphere.

Common complaints:
- High, punishing difficulty; permadeath (weight 0.76): The game is brutally difficult, featuring permadeath, a steep learning curve, and unforgiving mechanics like instant-death traps (especially boulders).  Players frequently die, losing progress and requiring restarts, which can lead to frustration. Some reviewers feel the difficulty is overhyped, while others find it unbalanced and unfair.
- Inconsistent balance; relies on RNG (weight 0.11): The game's balance is inconsistent, with difficulty spikes and unpredictable enemy encounters.  Luck plays a significant role, and some reviewers feel the game relies more on judgment than skill.  Blocking can be unreliable, and the game can be easily cheesed.
- Shallow, unreliable melee combat (weight 0.1): Melee combat is shallow, simplistic, and unreliable, often boiling down to basic hit-and-run tactics.  Hitboxes can be unintuitive, and the lack of combat options like parrying or dodging makes engagements feel janky and frustrating. Some reviewers feel ranged combat is superior.
- Problematic, unintuitive multiplayer (weight 0.09): Multiplayer suffers from various issues, including inventory management downtime, connection problems, and unintuitive setup.  Experience point distribution can be unbalanced, and communication is limited. Some reviewers feel multiplayer is not worth the headache.
- Punishing, tedious hunger mechanic (weight 0.06): The hunger mechanic is a significant detractor, forcing players to constantly eat to avoid starvation.  This frequent need for food interrupts exploration and combat, leading to frustration.  The lack of a visual HUD element for hunger adds to the tedium.
- Limited inventory, slow regeneration (weight 0.06): The game suffers from limited inventory space and a weight mechanic that slows the character down.  Mana regeneration is slow, and potions are scarce, restricting magic use.  Limited armor choices and fixed stat progression restrict meaningful character builds.
- Repetitive, linear gameplay; boring (weight 0.05): The game becomes repetitive and boring due to linear level design, fixed maps, and a shallow leveling system. The absence of meta-progression diminishes long-term motivation. Some reviewers describe the gameplay as torture.
- Buggy, unstable; performance issues (weight 0.05): The game is plagued with bugs, including softlocks and crashes, that can ruin otherwise good runs.  Some reviewers find the Minecraft-style graphics off-putting. Performance issues can make the game unplayable.
- Frustrating, punishing Minotaur enemy (weight 0.05): The Minotaur enemy is a frustrating element, often spawning prematurely and acting as a timer that restricts exploration.  Some reviewers feel the minotaur's AI is designed to punish players for doing well. The minotaur's levitation ability feels illogical.
- Imbalanced classes and races (weight 0.05): There is a severe imbalance in classes and races, with many being useless and limiting viable solo builds.  DLC races have absurd downsides, making them feel unplayable.  Pet classes are frustrating due to poor pet AI and navigation.
- Frustrating, random deaths (weight 0.04): The reviewer experienced various frustrating deaths, including being killed by boulders, spiders, and gnomes.  These deaths led to rage quits and a traumatic fear of gnomes.  The reviewer also died from eating rotten rat meat.

Gameplay feedback:
- Core dungeon crawling gameplay (weight 0.25): The game combines roguelike and RPG elements within procedurally generated dungeons. Players explore, collect loot, fight monsters, and level up, with the goal of progressing deeper and defeating the final boss. The gameplay loop is typical of the dungeon crawler/rogue-like genre.
- Flexible character development (weight 0.15): Characters can develop diverse skills regardless of their initial class, allowing for flexible playstyles. Players can switch roles mid-game based on acquired items and weapons, reducing class identity to the early game. This freedom encourages experimentation and adaptation.
- Unique playthroughs each time (weight 0.14): Each playthrough is unique due to procedural generation, creating unpredictable and humorous situations. The game is a mix of roguelike and RPG elements, with randomly scattered lore within dungeons. The game constantly generates a unique story with each playthrough.
- Strategic item management (weight 0.09): The game features an appraisal system where players must identify items to avoid curses and negative effects. Item weight management is essential, as slow movement speed is a significant disadvantage. These mechanics add depth and require strategic decision-making.
- Supports solo and co-op play (weight 0.08): The game can be played solo or with friends in co-op mode, with difficulty scaling based on the number of players. Solo play requires careful planning, while co-op play can be more enjoyable and humorous. The game also supports split-screen for local multiplayer.
- Repetitive melee combat (weight 0.05): Melee combat involves repetitive block and attack sequences due to predictable enemy attack patterns. Dodging can be difficult due to enemy reaction time, requiring players to kite and abuse corners. The combat system is simple and easy to learn.
- Specialized merchant system (weight 0.02): The game features specialized merchants who buy and sell specific item types. Players can choose to play as a merchant, focusing on trading and selling items to NPCs. This adds a unique gameplay element and encourages party support in multiplayer.
- Varied combat approaches (weight 0.02): Combat can be approached in different ways, including dodging, high AC tanking, or using projectiles. Ranged combat and magic are effective for avoiding damage. The tanky route involves getting high AC and acting like it's a turn-based game.
- Difficult stealth gameplay (weight 0.02): Stealth gameplay involves sneak attacks followed by running and hiding to reset enemy aggro. However, stealth is currently difficult because enemies react too quickly and can instantly kill the player after the first hit. Stealth is useful regardless of class.
- Some lore is present (weight 0.02): The game has some lore, with a tome hinting at a battle with the devil for a chance to "live as a God."
- Localization via mods (weight 0.01): The game can be localized by subscribing to a localization mod in the workshop. To play with the localization mod, select "PLAY MODDED GAME" in the menu and load the localization mod. Start the game with the localization mod by clicking "start Modded Game".

Performance notes:
- Excellent optimization, broad hardware support (weight 0.09): The game is well-optimized and runs smoothly on a wide range of hardware, including low-end PCs, Linux systems, and Steam Deck. Some reviewers specifically noted that the game's lightweight spec requirements and simple graphics allow it to run even on older or weaker computers, with some comparing its resource usage favorably to other games.
- Multiplayer lag and desynchronization (weight 0.03): Some players have experienced severe lag and desynchronization issues in multiplayer, especially with high ping or when playing with others in different geographical regions. This results in teleportation, delayed enemy hits, and other frustrating issues.
- Performance degrades later in-game (weight 0.01): Some players have reported a significant performance drop in the second half of the game.
- Steam overlay issues (weight 0.01): Some players have reported that the Steam overlay is not working correctly.

Recommendations:
- Highly recommended, excellent roguelike (weight 0.7): The game is overwhelmingly praised as an excellent roguelike dungeon crawler with high replayability. Reviewers consistently give it high scores and recommend it to fans of the genre, citing its addictive gameplay and unique experience. Many consider it a hidden gem and a must-play.
- Worth buying, especially on sale (weight 0.54): The game is frequently recommended, especially when on sale. Some reviewers suggest waiting for a sale due to the price, while others believe it's worth the full price. Purchasing the game on sale is often seen as a good value.
- Mixed opinions on DLC value (weight 0.49): There are mixed opinions on the DLCs, with some reviewers strongly recommending them for enhancing the game experience and others suggesting they are not worth purchasing. Some reviewers recommend trying the base game before investing in the DLCs. The best classes and races are locked behind DLCs.
- Deserves more recognition/support (weight 0.07): Reviewers express a desire for the game to receive more recognition and support, praising the developers' dedication. They encourage others to support the developers and spread the word about the game, considering it a hidden gem that deserves a larger player base. Some reviewers also hope for future updates, expansions, and community mods.
- Boulders are amazing (questionable) (weight 0.01): One cluster mentions dying repeatedly to boulders and finding it amazing. This point is likely a joke or meme and does not provide constructive feedback.
- Nerf gnome mages (questionable) (weight 0.01): One cluster contains a request to nerf gnome mages and to kill all gnomes. This point is likely a joke or meme and does not provide constructive feedback.

Other player notes:
- Active development and community support (weight 0.06): The developers are actively maintaining the game with regular updates and community engagement, even years after its initial release. This ongoing support includes new content and quality-of-life improvements, showing dedication to the game and its players.
- Old-school graphics, gameplay focus (weight 0.03): The game features an old-school aesthetic that focuses on gameplay quality over graphical fidelity.  The visuals have a certain charm that may not be immediately apparent from screenshots, but contributes to the overall experience.
- Steam Workshop support (weight 0.01): The game has Steam Workshop support for mods.
- Item variety diminishes over time (weight 0.01): After extended playtime, the variety of items diminishes, with many items feeling similar. This can lead to a sense of repetition and reduced excitement in later stages of the game.
- Low first boss completion rate (weight 0.01): The low achievement unlock rate for the first boss suggests that many players struggle to progress beyond the early stages of the game. This could indicate a steep learning curve or high difficulty.
- Light is essential for navigation (weight 0.01): Light sources like torches, spells, and fires are crucial for navigating the game's dark environments. Managing light is an important aspect of gameplay.
- Data resets upon death (weight 0.01): The game resets data upon death or completion, encouraging players to accumulate experience (knowledge).

Emotions:
No emotions}