Review: Ash of Gods: Redemption

Ash of Gods: Redemption , the debut game of the domestic studio Aurum Dust , headed by Nikolay Bondarenko (before that he led the development department at GameNet for six years ), was immediately christened Russian clone The Banner Saga . So by and large it eventually turned out - albeit not in everything as good as the original, but also very interesting.

Why clone? Well, first, immediately striking visual similarity of both projects. And although the authors say that the art is inspired by the works of Ralph Bakshi , classical Disney animation and the projects of the famous Soviet studio Soyuzmultfilm (for example, The Snow Queen ), one glance at the videos and screenshots is enough to understand where the legs grow from . 

Secondly, Ash of Gods: Redemptionin many respects it is built practically on the same, "Bannersar" mechanics. In the center of it is actually a visual novel - with numerous characters, long dialogues and the need to constantly make important decisions. Complement its elements of survival, as well as turn-based tactical battles, which you need to deal with in between making decisions and reading kilometers of text. 

We move around the global map, face random events that require a choice, stop in large settlements (or break camp), where you can bargain in the shop, talk to key characters and participate in the management of the unit - to attach someone to magic jewelry , raise the level of fighters and spend time and resources on healing wounds. Does not it look like anything?


The plot itself, on which the main emphasis is made, is clear, does not repeat the events of The Banner Saga, but is also twisted around the approach of the next Ragnarok. In this case, the world under the name Terminus happens about the same as that experienced by Captain Shepard and his team in Mass Effect - another Harvest begins, when Reapers appear almost a thousand years on the stage and begin to mow all life. Only the action takes place not in space, but on the ground where the Middle Ages are mixed, steampunk, magic and the devil knows what else. And as Reapers are not intelligent ships, but strange long-haired creatures.

At the center of these events were three different, but equally important for the history of the character. The retired captain of the royal guard Thorn Brenin, along with his daughter and several soldiers, flees from the Harvest and seeks to save his own child. The wandering scribe and healer Hopper Rowley, along with a couple of companions, follows his heels, realizing that Thorn and, especially, his daughter can be the key to saving from the disaster. A professional mercenary Luo Feng, with the beginning of the Harvest, throws the employer and tries to get to the native Clan of Shadows with a fight. Behind the hero was a crowd of armed, but beautiful maidens, whom Lo Feng freed from bondage.

Action, as expected, constantly switches between the key characters, somewhere they intersect and again go through their forks. And everything would be fine, but in Ash of Gods , unlike The Banner Saga , there is a lot (especially at first) of superfluous, full of water and fairly trivial written dialogs through which one has to literally scrape around trying to get to something really important. 

Many secondary characters are sparingly and in many ways secondary. There are young people who listen to our advice, and old friends who will definitely hit in the back at the most inopportune moment. There is even a prince hiding under the mask of an ordinary soldier.

And many more questions are caused by the game world itself. On us without preparation we throw out a bunch of incomprehensible names, names and events, but do not really explain anything - there is not a built-in code, like in RPG from BioWare , nor useful hyperlinks, as, for example, in  Tyranny.

With the combat system is about the same situation. It seems that much has been learned from The Banner Saga , there are many interesting nuances, the mechanics are quite solid - but not all and not always works well. 

Fighters of different classes (archers, soldiers, murderers, hammers, priests and so on) walk around cells and use unique skills. In this case, as in the works of the studio Stoic , we are allowed to beat either directly on health, or on energy, which also serves as additional protection. Stripping the entire yellow strip, you can deal critical damage on the red, that is, on hit points. 

Moreover, for the use of many strong skills you have to pay not only the same energy, but also your own health. This unique feature of Ash of Godsideally makes you act thoughtfully, and not "spam" powerful attacks. 

However, in any case, losing the fight and finally ruining someone from the wards is very difficult. Pav on the battlefield, they are critically injured and finally sent to the realm of the dead, only having shoveled four such "skulls." And to treat critical wounds can be in the cities and during the night, having spent on this ridiculous amount in strixes - this is a resource that protects from the harmful effects of Harvest. In the early version, it accumulated slowly, and was spent quickly, and it really could deliver problems. But in the final degree of complexity in this sense have been reduced.

n Ash of Gods: Redemption fully shortcomings, but it is the best thing that ever happened to the Russian game development since the "Space Rangers" and King's Bounty . Yes, taking as a basis other people's mechanics, studio AurumDust by and large has not managed to bring in them something really own, important and qualitative. Yes, the battles are not enough complexity, but after all, in further updates you can enter a hardcore mode. Yes, the work of the author of the script, the writer Sergei Malitsky , is not attributed to the best samples in the world of fantasy.

Rate: 7/10