Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues
Out Now
About the GameWHAT IS SHROUD OF THE AVATAR?
Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is a multiplayer fantasy RPG and the spiritual successor to Richard Garriott’s wildly successful Ultima and Ultima Online games.
Shroud of the Avatar is about testing one’s character on a path filled with peril and tough decisions. Player actions carry meaningful consequences within the deep and persistent world of New Britannia by either upholding or breaking the Principles of Truth, Love, and Courage.
Shroud of the Avatar is developed by the veteran Portalarium team that includes Richard "Lord British" Garriott, the creator of the Ultima series, Starr Long, the original Director of Ultima Online, and Tracy Hickman, the author of the beloved Dragonlance Novels and Dungeons & Dragons modules.
KEY FEATURES
As a revival of the classical in-depth RPG, Shroud of the Avatar binds together many of the key features that made the Ultima series so popular:
- A far reaching story written in collaboration with celebrated fantasy author Tracy Hickman, where players are confronted with ethical choices based on Virtues and Principles.
- Multiple MMO gameplay features combined to offer a unique, shared online experience set within a persistent sandbox world.
- The ability to create a classless avatar allows for distinct play styles and uniquely specialized builds.
- Wide-reaching freedom to explore a living, breathing fantasy world enriched by a player-driven crafting and economic system.
- Players can opt to play solo or with friends, owning their own houses or even entire towns, and sign up and cooperate within various in-game guilds.
- Pay Once to Play with no subscription fees.
AVAILABLE PLAY MODES
- Single Player Offline: Enjoy the full game experience without the need for an internet connection. Recruit NPC companions to accompany you on your travels and aid you in times of need. Your online Avatar will not share the progress of your offline Avatar; you advance on different tracks through the story due to interacting differently with the world.
- Single Player Online: Play the game at your own pace while still being able to interact with the persistent works of other players, such as vendors, houses and player-owned towns.
- Party Mode Online: Explore New Britannia with your friends and tell new stories together. Interact with the persistent works of other players, such as vendors, houses, and player-owned towns.
- Multiplayer Online: Experience the vibrant world of Shroud of the Avatar and trade, fight, and converse with thousands of other players, all playing on the same server.
THE FUTURE
Portalarium is committed to roll out regular monthly content releases post-launch and will continue to collaborate with the players to further improve gameplay.
Steam User 9
This game looks and feels a little clunky but after giving it the benefit of the doubt I have to say it deserves a much bigger audience. I find myself getting pulled back in for more, and the freedom to play my own way and go where I want to go is a welcome change from the "tailored experiences" and forced group play that most other MMOs these days tend to lean heavily into. Yes, some towns feel like ghost towns or the works of a mad color-blind architect with a craving for attention but I've come to realize this is really just another side of the freedom that this game offers. The few veteran players I've ran into are some of the friendliest people I've met online, so I'll excuse the odd anachronism here and there in the name of fun. Oh and there are microtransactions, It's a free-to-play game, what did you expect? I have yet to find an aspect of the game that forces me to go down that road. After 75 hours, I think they've earned it so I might just make a purchase just for that.
Steam User 12
If you enloyed playing the old-time RPG games of the Ultima series, then I think, like me, you'll find this to be a more modern form of this type of game, even though it's styled as an MMORPG. Also, if you enjoy the "grind" of collecting resources to create your own in-game equipment, etc., ala Minecraft, then this game may be right up your alley! The interface isn't at all hard to get used to , either! Once you've got that "down cold", the game is a whole lotta fun, IMHO!!!
I'm an "old school" gamer, so it may NOT appeal to the younger audience, used to a different play style than the classic RPG, but i'd still give it a whirl...you might find you are an old-school gamer "at heart", too!
Steam User 7
Thumbs up for a Free Game.
Just played the Offline mode and it's a decent experience for nothing paid.
Although I got to a point where I was about to go on a quest and was looking down a dimly lit path with torches in the distance and it really wasn't that far into the game and I said "Nah, I've seen enough". If I paid for it, I'd probably be in the same boat as a lot of these other negative reviews. There is a lot of game for the low low price of nothing, sorry to hear so many others got duped by this experience though. There is a really good rundown on Youtube of the development and history of this game and that was enough to get me interested in trying it. Even though it's at this point 5 years past release, it's still a well put together game in some respects. Controls are good, UI is pretty nice, inventory navigation and interaction is pretty well done, the NPC interactions are rather easy to navigate as well and they interestingly added a chat style communication system which was new for me. Stylistically, it's kind of ho-hum. Nothing particularly feels stylistically unique, in some ways I like it, it's not too cartoonish and not trying to be all that realistic. It's somewhere leaning toward storybook realism. I would like to contrast it's style with Skyrim which is older but has a clear overall style to it. Where in that game you forgive the models and landscape for at times connecting to each other and breaking the spell of immersion. In this game, some of the textures are very well defined and quite realistic but the geometry doesn't match that aesthetic, it's obviously high resolution textures on very low polygon models. It's obvious everywhere you look and In Skyrim they do a good job of distracting the eye with foliage, this game does not. On max settings it still doesn't look thoughtfully designed.
In all I really liked the character progression, it was easy to level up and the auto-combat was a bit alarming at first, feeling like something was wrong, but I kind of liked it a bit, it felt more relaxed game-play and never felt pressured to continue, that is really what I liked about it, it truly has a casual feel to the game, even in a mission, it feels like I could have sat idle while in the middle of the game-play and came back and been all good to continue where I left off. A lot of these styles of games feel like an endless grind to reach an ever-moving goalpost but this felt like a stroll in the park. Which I think would have been perfect if it just visually was more impressive.
I feel like I've already played enough to where I could never load another session, but I like that it's an option in my games library if I just want to take another dive out of curiosity.
Steam User 9
For a Free to Play game you can not go wrong.
Just so you know I crowd funded this a long long time ago.
It's not bad... it's not what we were expecting, but it's not bad.
I've returned to it off and on over the years whenever
I need that old school feeling in a game.
Steam User 5
Decent.. nothing like what it used to be with the Ultima Online genre. ITs more player run rather than really adventuring. Towns are more player housing that actual quest fronts.
Everything is pay to get for the most part.
Shame really in regards I was really wanting an Ultima Online experience again after so many years. But since Richard Garriott sold off the rights to Ultima Online, t
Steam User 7
I love this game and I would recommend it to anyone that likes this kind of game play.
They are still adding features and different monsters to work with. Lots of quests, they even added treasure hunting. SO maps you find and clues from objects allow you to find the treasure, after you dig it up of course.
There is a little bit of a training and learning curve, but worth it in the end.
Steam User 3
Coming into the game blind I thought it did a lot of stuff really well. I can understand the hate it got from being over hyped and not meeting its stated promises.
But I didn't know any of that and gave it a try. I wanted a tab targeting old school mmo that was not a themepark fetch quest and that's what I found. Unless the game get worse or there is no endgame I would probably recommend trying it. To really see what the game has to offer you have to get to the point where you build skill decks and can mess around with more of what the game has to offer.