Another Star If You Tell Me What To DO!
Plague Road is a game written and voice acted by two of my FAVORITE online personalities: Conrad Zimmerman and Jim Sterling respectively, and they're the only reasons the game is on my radar. That being said: it has one of the most amazing, strangely gorgeous art styles for its characters and monsters I've seen since first installing Darkest Dungeon, a beautifully and hauntingly immersive soundtrack and a tactical, turn-based gameplay that keeps me coming back for more, even when I'm not sure I should. And that's the part where the game begins to crumble. Or rot, as may be more apropos.
The game opens with a violent plague doctor, complete with bird-mask nose, journeying to a city in need of curing. They are quickly waylaid and nearly killed by the horrific creatures that have overtaken the city and the countryside. It seems that more help will be needed. Help in the form of various classes of Survivors that the Doctor will rescue along their journey to The City. Engineers with their high HP and hard-hitting attacks, Witches with their various and sundry spells, Nurses to keep everyone afloat, Soldiers to balance the scales, and Peasants to...act as last resorts? That gets at the start of my problems: this game has a cursory tutorial and tells you NOTHING else about it.
HOW do you increase the power of your buildings? You "retire" characters to them. I knew that because there was a "Retire Character" option next to the bar that indicated each building had a level. If I hadn't played many games, especially games like these, I would have NO idea how that system worked. The various (four) landscapes are randomly generated? I wouldn't necessarily know that, let alone knowing where the herbs I use to generate new potions (both health and stamina) AND pass to new locations are generated from (they're earned in battle, but there's no indicator of how many are earned).
There's also no XP, so if you have unlocked the path to the final area, there's no reason to endure the many fights the game forces upon you since the enemies are faster, on the map, than you are. And have no indicator as to what you're going to fight. Likewise: the Survivors you get don't get any better (through medals next to their portrait, again, not indicated by anything in-game) the harder areas you farm them from...
So why is this game a 3 instead of a 2? Or a 1? At $20, I'd be hard-pressed to tell you. Honestly, this game has the misfortune of coming out alongside other titles that offer far, FAR more for the same price, but if you can get it at a discount...there is SOMETHING about this game that I can't seem to put down.
The barebones narrative, the gameplay that begins to make sense if you've played other games like it, the absolutely GORGEOUS art design and horrific narrative...there is SOMETHING to this game that only makes me wish it were better. And that would normally be a 2-star, BUT...the character and enemy designs are so unique, the music so sublimely excellent that I have to give it another star for sheer originality.
Sometimes it pays to put in a larger tutorial, or instruction manual, and sometimes a strong artistic aesthetic goes a long way.