評論

• gamedeal user

  Dec 18, 2022

  Ruzar is a cookie cutter dungeon crawler with little appeal. You play someone unimportant forced to fight as a gladiator and then sent to some mountain range of some sort to retrieve the Life Stone: At best a metaphor for the money you just spent purchasing the game. Ruzar does not offer anything original. This is down to the story itself. A family member lost in a dungeon hunting for some treasure. There is nothing more to it than this sentence. The game has a grand total of 3 dungeons, maybe 4 if you're generous on the count, 3 skill trees to develop and a limited 11 types of monsters spread thin across all these areas. The mechanics are your basic crawler left, right, up, down, side steps left, side steps right, attack and wait for cool downs on skills. Add some secret buttons, sliding walls and the usual pit falls, which you must explore at all cost, and this is practically a copy of Grimrock or Eye of the Beholder made on a college budget. The game plays fine. On a sale, it plays great for a few hours. With a limited feature set and basically a nothing story about nothing however, it's undoubtedly a cash grab scheme. I can't recommend this game. It seems to be over-exploiting achievement hunting, but again, there are just too many bugs on triggering those to be a sophisticated successful scheme.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 4, 2015

  I was really impressed with this game the moment I started playing it. It's something between LoG and MMX which I loved both so it's not suprising that I'm very pleased with Ruzar-TLS also! Pros: -NPCs -Quests -Shop(s) with different approach than usual -Hard when you begin and before you start figuring out elements of the game since there is no holding hands from the tutorial aside some basics -Nice and easy UI that helps you in combat, etc. -Interesting and promising skilltree -Well thought of using stones/torches etc in the game without going to inventory first and needing to place them in hand to use them -Pretty layouts and monsters(so far that I've played-level 3) -Smart system of teleporting and memorizing spells -New features like fire camps that help you to...wont say because it will be a spoiler -Some features with no knowledge of their usage and how will affect the game like some Dark Stones which are not activated as of yet in this part of EA Cons(that dont affect my super positive opinion but rather are suggestions towards improving the game furthermore): -Not visible hp/mana/xp points on main screan but only bars without numbers -Not hp points or bar for monsters makes it harder but I prefer to have some idea of how tough they are(there is a bestiary that gives you detailed information on enemies but after you have killed 17 of each kind, at least thus far) -During selling/buying you dont see your character and his equipment but only your stack that's available for selling -There is no user friendly comparison between items to buy/sell or items you loot and your equipped gear(definetelly this part of the game NEEDS immediate improvement) -Not automated stacking of the same stuff like potions -No mini map but then again I believe now it's maybe better this way even though in the beginning I wished for it in order to stop pressing M for map constantly -Since there is only one main character, there should be customization of his portrait just for the fun of it -Enemies feel way too slow after the first encounters and when you are in the wide open easy to avoid and strike them -Some glitches in the graphics and it is "pain in the ass" when trying to push buttons on the walls which dont respond immediatelly or well -Not enough content for EA about only 20% judging from what I've read in forums and I CRAVE FOR MORE right now -Easy and not enough puzzles in the first 3(actually 2 not counting the first one which is tiny) levels That's it for now that I have pretty much cleared level 3 and waiting for new content from the devs. Overall impression for Ruzar-TLS is that with some balancing and minor improvements on UI/gameplay will be up there, if not higher, with my other favourite RPG/Dungeon crawlers. WELL DONE devs, I fully support you and expect you to improve your little gem based on the community's comments/suggestions!
• gamedeal user

  Nov 24, 2015

  Genre - Retro Dungeon Crawler RPG I am a child of the 80s and one of the first games I really got into was Dungeon Master so I might be a bit biased. I was also a fan of the Eye of the Beholder games to a lesser extent and the more recent Legend of Grimrock games. I put off buying this game, but after a craving I thought I'd give it another look. As the developer seemed active on Steam whilst considering, adding a new option after I fed back a bad review about snow effects giving headaches. I thought I would get it at full price and give it a blast. I have only put a few hours in thus far, but I went to bed at 1.30am on a school night after getting hooked yesterday. You only play one character but there is enough customisation to make the development enjoyable. The puzzles so far have been logical and the monsters seem to level up with you. I am still picking up some of the game mechanics like only being able to memorize spells next to a portal stone and have discovered a few minor bugs but his is still an alpha version, and as long as you save they are not game killing. If you enjoy these sort of games and have a space in your life, this is definately worth looking into. I am just glad these sort of games weren't wiped out by the Doom/Quake age, as I think the mechanics are still enjoyable.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 5, 2015

  I usually do not write reviews so I will be short, but I wanted to support the developer as I think he is doing great. If you liked Grimrock, you will definetely like this one. The game is fun and not that pricy. It has a few bugs, but they are fixed on a daily basis and you actually see the support answering all the community questions and helping solving problems which seems very rare nowadays.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 23, 2015

  TL;DR: Its not quite as good as LoG 1/2, but its still good. Graphics and ambient sounds are nice. One thing, the female voice's "oof" when you get hit bugs me, especially when you get hit with a DoT and it "oof"s every second. MAJOR flaw is theres no alternate weapon sets, making ranged weaps useless - you actually have to go into inven and re-equip everything to switch ranged/melee, suicide since the game doesnt pause in-menu. Combat & magic is simple, the magic system is just a click to cast, instead of runes or whatnot. Still, in a genre that hasnt seen many decent games recently, Ruzar is a breath of fresh air and worth picking up. Longtime fans of the genre will enjoy it, but its also accessible to new players of the genre. ______________________________________ Long review in which I compare Ruzar mostly to LoG and DM- the two major standouts in the genre I was born in 1981. I grew up playing turn based and realtime grid dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master, the Wizardry series, Might and Magic, and so on. Unfortunately, with the exception of Legend of Grimrock 1/2 (which I had minor issues with, see below) the genre of realtime grid crawlers has been pretty much neglected. Not much of note coming out. Ruzar, fortunately is good. Not *quite* as good as LoG, but a good game nontheless. The graphics and ambient sound are awesome. For instance, in the mountain level, you really feel like you're wandering around in a windswept lonely maze on a wintery mountain. Combat sounds are exactly what you'd expect, sword swings, spells wooshing, and a "ugh" or "oof" type sound when youve bumped into walls or get hit. Enemy sounds are cool, spiders chitter and spit, armored skeletons groan and clank about. Every enemy so far has noises that you'd expect that type of enemy to make. The gameplay is familiar to anyone who plays RT grids, and one thing I like personally: (deserves a little bit of explanation so here goes)...You can get away with not constantly & precisely step-dancing. See heres the issue. My left hand is partially paralyzed. My *one* MAJOR problem with LoG 1/2 was the fact that the enemies were so tough & fast you had no choice but to stepdance constantly, accurately, and quickly. Going toe to toe with most of the enemies from the midgame on was sheer suicide, even on the easier difficulties. You couldnt even take a few hits. Not so good if you are only using your index finger on a paralyzed hand without much spatial relation. Ruzar doesnt have that problem. The monsters seem a bit faster tham the oldchool ones like DM but not as relentless as LoG although the AI is decent enough to do things like try and come at you from the side, and dodge out of the way when youre step-dancing. I saw people mention they didnt like the slower pace, but for me its awesome. People who really really enjoy the greuling tactical stepdance might find it not as fun, though. It does have a difficulty level, but I have yet to see if that improves the AI or just makes each monster tougher. The story's pretty simple so far (as most grid realtime crawlers are), but not bad. There is an NPC that you can talk to with a shop (also some interesting backstory, you know who she is if you read the intro story), with a storage box nearby for all your extra gear - pay to unlock slots. First is 10 for 1 silver. Thats cool. Theres also a teleport mechanism so you dont have to backtrack all over hell and high water to get to the shop & storage. I'm looking forward to seeing more NPCs to add to the story. There appears to be quests as well. Now about the levels. They are your typical grid-dungeon puzzles such as riddles where you have to drop an item, "run through here quick to avoid traps", walk in the correct pattern to open the door, find the secret button, put a rock on the pressure plate and so on. They are beautiful, and very large, but it seems like theres not much going on so far. Enemies here and there, and a few items. I'm expecting it to get crazier as I progress. Theres a good automap with a nice note feature, as well as the ability to move while looking at the map. Note that in Ruzar going into the char sheet or map does not pause the game, like DM. I like how the audio works, similar to LoG diferent enemies make different idling sounds. You can hear them off in the distance and know when youre approaching. Since you only have 1 PC, combat is a simple matter of clicking your weapon/cast icon to attack or your quickbar to use an item (or hotkey - thats a nice feature, theres a hotkey for everything!), and I do miss LoG and DMs 4 party/2 hands each system. Ruzar is much simpler in this regard. The magic system is simpler than either DM (still the all around best skill/magic system IMHO), or LoG. It runs very similar to the combat, click the cast button to cast. You can switch spells on the fly by clicking the spell's icon as well. Theres a magic/melee toggle you can hit to switch back and forth (and a hotkey), they arent on the same UI. To learn new spells find magic scrolls, and you must memorize them at a "binding stone". Then you have them in your magic list. You can also unmemorize them at the stone as well if youre full up. The menu UI could be better. My absolute biggest complaint is that you cant have an alternate weapon loadout (at least AFAIK, correct me if I'm wrong), say a) a crossbow and b) a dagger and shield that you can switch with a keypress. You actually have to go to inventory and double click the thing you want to equip. Thats fun when you've got a sword AND shield to equip and theres a skeleton 5 feet away trying to tear your face off. When coupled with the no-pause-in-menu, its just annoying and makes it so ranged weapons are pretty much useless, unless you want to go running ridiculously far back when youre out of ammo and then run all the way back to the fight with your melee loadout equipped. its much easier to step-dance in melee than ever used a ranged weapon. One of the things I didn't like about LoG was the "static class" system. Unlike DM, fighter types couldnt use magic. No having your fighters gain mage levels by casting light over and over, or your back row chucking swords to gain ninja levels. Ruzar is more like DM, you can specialize, or be a jack of all trades. However, runs off an XP-from-kill system like LoG so just throwing stuff and casting fireballs at walls does nothing (ahh, the memories of flinging cheese all over). It does have a lightweight skill tree starting at level 5 to specialize your char more. I like that. Overall, Ruzar is worth playing. Its not quite as epic as LoG or DM, but its good and if you consider yourself a fan of the genre, pick it up!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2016

  This is a nice game, good for a single playthrough, but it doesn't live up to the much older legends of grimrock. Aside from the many bugs, it lacks much of those games depths. This game is mostly linear, the quests are simple minded, simply walk through a single area, solve the same *puzzle* many times over (either kill all mobs in a room and retrieve a lever, or kill al mobs and retrieve a key) and move to the next predetermined area. This game also lacks the many puzzles that were a very strong point of older and similar games. And to top it all off the information on many game mechanics is often missing.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 19, 2016

  I enjoyed this game very much, it's tough in places, easy in others... lots of old school dungeon crawling here, levers, hidden buttons, fires to rest, a store keeper, quests, spells, bows, crossbows, melee swords, staffs, and shields. You earn points as you level to distribute among stats and skills via a tree, your inventory is restricted to weigh limitations, which you will find presents the choice of placing scarce points in to carrying stuff or killing stuff without dying. You have ONE slot for spells and earning more can be tough, changing spells is also tougher than just choosing, you must be in the right place to adjust spell slots. Enemies are not very smart and do fall for the Dungeon Master two-step method, so if you pay attention and don't get cornered most fights are easy. As you can tell, if you liked the Grimrock series, Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder style games, you'll find some fine moments here.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 14, 2016

  This game was exactly what I was craving. A basic dungeon crawl with some puzzles and enough story to keep you going. Don't look at this as a big time AAA production, but for what it is, it's well done. I'm an old school gamer so graphics don't matter that much. They aren't bad but nothing that hasn't been done better by older titles. The ambient effects and monster sounds are quiet good and add suspense to the exploration. The game length was a tad short , but that's OK as so many RPG'S try to out-epic each other, and Ruzar doesn't feel the need to do that. I'm looking forward to a sequel, and seeing what the developer adds to an already solid platform.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 30, 2016

  I have just completed the game and highly recommend it if you like dungeon crawlers like Grimrock. Read my full review here: http://crpgrevisited.blogspot.se/2016/11/ruzar-life-stone-review.html
• gamedeal user

  Dec 3, 2016

  This game is the reason Steam needs a "meh" button. So, I'm just gonna lay it bare, of course I compared it LoG as I played it. Some might think that's unfair, but it's on the same store for about the same price and both games are competing for your time. As a whole, this isn't a BAD game. You just have to decide what you're looking for. TL;DR it's like Grimrock with a few niggling issues. Nothing to completely put you off from the game, but after one hour I decided I'd rather be playing something else. Pros Its sound design is quite good. The character portraits are nice, the artstyle is very Magic the Gathering. The enemies don't do that scream-in-your-face jumpscares that Grimrock does. Which, I did like in Grimrock, but I'm sure some people will prefer this. The NPCs fit pretty well into the game and are nice to have The interface is fine, it's a little jarring at first, but you'll get the hang of it quick Starting outside is a good touch Cons Poisoning doesn't give you any icon by your character and the damage happens so fast you'll die quick. The portals are a little hard to see There's a LOT of paths, hallways and corridors that have no point. No enemies, no items, no traps, no progression. Some of the traps rely on you knowing exactly how they'll fire and at what pace to dodge, if they can be dodged I didn't work it out. The game's loot much more heavily relies on shops rather than finding things. To me, this adds backtracking Character creation is a littttllleee lacking. You get your stats to distribute and select your portrait. You unlock a skilltree later, but I would've liked to see perks.