geekstone

How in the world is one of the best games of 2023 free to play? This game is a throwback in all the best ways to early 80's role playing games specifically the Ultima series. The basics of the plot are the Land of Caldera has been under Eternal Darkness and a strange fog that causes madness, and you the lone hero will have to unravel what happened through lots of exploration, puzzle solving, dungeon diving, ship sailing, and monster killing of course. Under the retro graphics is a modern game with many expected features such as automatic note taking, a map you can mark and remove objectives from, and automatic saving. This game has an easy-to-use keyword system to talk to npc's(The only thing that might make it hard to use on the Steam Deck, since you will have to use an onscreen keyboard) and that is how you get a majority of your clues. At first it seems daunting but talking to everyone one you meet will start pointing you in the right direction. There are no levels per se, but you improve your character through spending devotion points to each of the five gods that will increase your ability for that god's attributes in addition to giving you other abilities and summons. There is a nice fast travel system by each of the 5 major towns and you will eventually open the world by getting a ship. The game also a bit of a rouge like in the dungeons. If you do you lose all progress in that dungeon but not the game. Finally, the combat system is simple but effective you can use ranged weapons or just bump into folks. The main mechanic is poise which acts like a shield and prevents damage while it is up and will recharge if you avoid being hit. In conclusion there is no barrier to play except you time and hard drive space, so give it a try and I don't think you will regret it.