Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
In Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones, the player journeys from a doomed Arkham into the depths of the Abyss. Create your own character based on 1920's archetypes and carve a path through a broken and mysterious world. Your desperate battle against forces beyond comprehension will haunt you until the end. Physical combat will be challenging, spellcasting will have dire consequences, and your sanity will be strained to the breaking point by unknown abominations. Sometimes the best solution will be to flee what lurks beyond the threshold. A hand drawn 2D world reflecting Lovecraft's themes of cosmic horror and dread. Enemies, environments and storylines inspired by Lovecraft’s iconic original works. Take part in quests inspired by your favorite stories and see them play out according to your own decisions and role-playing style. Choose from 8 main character Archetypes, each with its own origin backstory and specialties.
Game Discussion
Steam User 48
If you're looking at this game on sale and wondering if its worth it considering the mixed reviews, then I would say after a single 25 hour play through In my humble opinion this is a must buy if the below two things are true :
You Lovecraft and you enjoy old style point and click adventure games with turn based combat.
Yes its a bit clunky, buggy and obscure in some aspects and it does end a bit abruptly and feels unfinished sometimes but and its a big Shoggoth butt :
It just oozes with atmosphere, ambiance and Lovecraftian authenticity and you cant help but admire the ambition of it.
The art style, music, characters, dialogue, story it was really captivating for me and I just got caught up in it and became totally engrossed and was so happy to see pretty much all of Lovecrafts major works represented.
Unfortunately this game had some troubled development and it appears development is probably permanently ended which is such a shame but don't let that madness put you off feasting on all that has been laid before you.
Steam User 15
This is the best Cthulhu themed RPG I have ever played. Unfortunately, the publisher has no interest in finishing the game, and the developer lacks the means to do so. The Game is playable, and the amount of bugs (as far as I have encountered) is acceptable and none were gamebreaking so far. BUT know that there are quests that cannot be finished, plotlines that suddenly end, and the ending is "sudden" (It's not too bad, yet if feels that there is quite a bit missing)
The art design looks amazing and fits perfectly into the world design. Many letters and notes you find in the game have beautiful sketches, and the sanity system is a perfect fit for the Cthulhu setting. Story lines are inspired yet not copied 1 to 1 from Lovecraft's works, so you'll recognize stuff and elements, yet you will not predict the twitst behind the story too easily. The main story line can be finished in 15 hours (20 if you do side quests) and due to the awesome character creation the game is highly replayable.
As for the price, in it's current state it is my opinion that the game is not worth investing more than 5 Bucks (insert your own currency, since steam probably won't adjust anyways), since it's obviously incomplete, buggy and abandoned.
So, wait for a sale to buy the game, buying at full price won't motivate the publisher to invest more work into it.
Steam User 19
For over 30 years, I have been playing the desktop/pen and paper version of Call of Cthulhu and every video game version of Cthulhu I've played never recreated the same experience for me. Until now. I love the artwork. The character generation. Combat. Sanity loss. "Stygian" makes you feel like your playing the original Call of Cthulhu, almost to the point you can hear the dice rolling and the smell of pencil shavings. The only complaint I have is that the game really avoids spoon feeding the player to the point that the player can get lost easily. If a second "Stygian" game is created, I'd advise a little help should be given to the player. Like a good GM knows there should be a balance of fun and challenge to bring out the best in the experience. Other than that, the game is a strong thumbs up from me.
Steam User 7
The game is actually very short but it's very easy to mess up your game by simply not understanding the game's mechanics and using sub-optimal character builds. You can get away with only having a few points in a particular skill even in to the late game and five points in the subterfuge skill will unlock every chest in the game (it's pointless to put more points into subterfuge than this). I've seen reviews stating how useless speech craft is but speech craft can allow you to buy all the items in the artifact shop for cigs instead of barter and give you a discount in most shops without wasting a precious perk point. I rarely do a pros vs. cons but I feel I have to for this game as I'm afraid something more detailed will spoil the game.
Pros
-One of the best Lovecraft games ever made in terms of immersion. Everything is set in the 1920's and feels like it, down to the clothes, music, rampant alcoholism, smoking, and story telling.
-There isn't much music but what there is is good
-It's a creepy game with some genuine horror
-Losing your mind makes dialogue options far more interesting
Cons
-the game has a few strange and inconsistent glitches, like your clothes will sometimes de-spawn momentarily while accessing your inventory. Not a big deal in most places but there are areas in the later parts of the game where it becomes a problem.
-the sanity systems mechanics aren't fully explained. If you lose half of your sanity points your character will almost certainly lose their minds and develop a psychosis (the game does not explain this). If you lose all your sanity you will gain another bad trait (you won't die if you lose all sanity).
- Your character will gain tons of bad traits during the game and they are mostly unavoidable. This game is about managing a bad situation and in most games permanent debuffs of your character can be avoided while in Stygian your character will probably have a dozen of them by the end of the game.
-Cliffhanger ending
-The Tommy gun in Stygian uses .22 ammo
This game isn't for everyone but if you're a fan of Lovecraft's work then you will find something compelling here far greater than most other games and movies inspired by his work. Stygian might have it's flaws but it is an actually good Lovecraft game amongst a sea of bad.
Steam User 8
I love this game, It is absolutely not finished though:( and appears to be abandoned. The creators instead have started working on some dumb looking cat game IDK they were sooooo close to greatness with this I just dont get it, PLEASE, PLEASE finish this game!
Steam User 4
Basically the only proper Lovecraftian CRPG, unfortunately it's a buggy unfinished game that ends abruptly. Still, if you get it on sale, worth it. The potential here was amazing. This is the Lovecraft game we all need, but we don't deserve it.
If it was finished, for me it'd probably be a 9/10. As it is, probably have to give it 7/10 considering it's more like a proof of concept than a full game.
Steam User 6
Wish there were more Lovecraftian RPG's like this.