Esoteric Ebb was provided by Raw Fury for review. Thank you!
Esoteric Ebb is one of the most unique games I've had the chance to play in recent times. With mechanics drawn from traditional CRPGs, mixed with a narrative-heavy story, it piqued my curiosity and succeeded exactly where it needed to.
The story is largely political in nature, although it does not directly compare itself to real-world politics. An explosion has occurred at a shop in the city during election week, and it's your job as "The Cleric" to investigate the cause and culprit. Is it someone with political motivations? Perhaps a terrorist attack? What ensues is an investigation across the city to track down the instigator while navigating the tense political landscape, with "fanatics" on both sides.
Esoteric Ebb is heavily dialogue-based. In fact, pretty much any interaction you have with the NPCs and the environment itself will be through dialogue windows, including the occasional "fight" you'll find yourself in.
Fortunately, this is the game's strongest point. The game has a unique approach to dialogue: each of your Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)-inspired abilities (such as Strength, Charisma, Wisdom, etc.) has its own personality in your head and will chip in with its own thoughts as you encounter situations and characters. This leads to humorous back-and-forth conversations between, for example, Strength and Intelligence, who are often at odds. The game, much like D&D, is heavily based on having enough points in order to discern how to approach a situation, which in turn unlocks additional dialogue options.
It's a very unique way of approaching the D&D ability system, and I love how it's done here, adding the potential for witty dialogue between the abilities, and also very clearly showing how your abilities are affecting your choices in the game.
Although Esoteric Ebb is a bit shorter than your typical CRPG (but still lengthy), it has a good deal of replayability, as you could focus on different abilities the next time, making your internal monologue change and opening up a host of other paths to follow.
The solid writing also carries through to the rest of the characters that you'll meet on your journey. The game doesn't have too many interactive NPCs, but they are well-written, and I enjoyed getting to know them. Most NPCs also have background information, enriching the lore further.
There aren't many downsides here, but as the game is based on the D&D ruleset, a lot of decisions do come down to a dice roll, something I'm not particularly a fan of. It takes one string of bad luck and failing a so-called "easy" dice roll that results in your untimely demise.
All of this is not aided by the fact that you are merely a Cleric, not someone designed for combat, which makes the combat feel weighted against us. They are mostly based on the premise of "surviving". While that's understandable, it can be frustrating to succeed several skill checks in a row, only to still die due to taking excessively large amounts of damage, which again, is determined by a dice roll. Rolling a natural 1 and instantly being killed also isn't a great feeling. This happened 3 times in a row against the same monster, forcing me to reload my save over and over.
I think what Esoteric Ebb is missing the most is difficulty settings, something to temper the challenging combat. Even if you die, whether you truly die or not is determined, again, by dice rolls, and if your luck is good, you can take incredible amounts of damage and still live if you roll good death saving throws, which feels rather strange.
Esoteric Ebb was Verified on Steam Deck before its launch, and it's easy to see why. The game supports controllers and 1280x800 resolution, while including accessibility options that enhance gameplay on the go.
As for performance, the game has a simple toggle between Low and High quality Shadows. Selecting High does cause somewhat frequent dips below 60, so I went with the Low option. It doesn't look too different, and while we still get some dips below 60 in very specific areas, it largely remains at 60 FPS.
Power draw tends to be fairly low, around 12-15W, but can drop even lower at points. Temperatures were also fairly low, around 65C. You can expect about 3.5-4 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 2.5-3 hours from a Steam Deck LCD.
I had an issue with the game resetting the quality to "High" each time I played. Hopefully, this gets fixed for launch, but you may wish to switch to "Low" if performance starts to suffer.
Esoteric Ebb features text and UI size adjustment, allowing you to easily read the UI on the Steam Deck when the UI Size is set to "Huge" (it is by default), and the text can reach incredibly large sizes, meaning even those with vision difficulties shouldn't have trouble reading.
There is also the ability to choose from several fonts and a colorblind mode to add text next to abilities that are usually only marked by color.
Esoteric Ebb is a tough game to pin down, but the closest I could describe it as is a CRPG with Visual Novel elements. A lot of burden is placed on the writing, and fortunately, the writing is really good. Almost all action is handled through the dialogue system, and the traditional CRPG mechanics work really well for conversations. As long as you can cope with the somewhat irritating combat mechanics and RNG, Esoteric Ebb is a fun time.
The game is also fantastic to play on the Steam Deck. We can't quite manage a fully stable 60 FPS, but given the game's nature, that's completely fine. The controls, UI, and text all work and display perfectly well on the Steam Deck.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was provided by Owlcat Games for review. Thank you!
cRPGs have been making a resurgence these past few years after their heyday back in the late 90s and early 00s, and now it's Warhammer's time to get in on the action. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader brings the legendary franchise to the cRPG genre, and you'll probably be left wondering why it took so long for a game like this to come about! A franchise famed for deep lore seems like the perfect fit for a cRPG, specializing in deep conversations and gameplay mechanics.
The story of Rogue Trader puts you in the role of... well, a Rogue Trader. After the ship you're on suffers a mutiny and the current Rogue Trader is assassinated, you are placed next in line to inherit the title and the ship. With your new ship and crew at your command, it's up to you to continue to explore the outer reaches of Imperium space and to carry on the legacy of your predecessors. It's a decent story, and the rank of Rogue Trader given to the player character means you have more freedom, rather than sticking strictly to Imperium guidelines.
The Rogue Trader (the player character) will always be in your party, but you can have up to 5 other party members accompany you on your journey, made up of officers from your crew and companions you'll meet along the way. Of course, if you are playing a co-op game, your friends can join you as party members instead.
Throughout your journey, you'll be given plenty of choices on how to handle certain scenarios. Do you want to stick close to the Imperium's strict rules, or would you rather show some leniency and mercy to gain the loyalty of others? They impact the game and how events proceed; if there's an immediate effect, the game will show you what that is. You might expect this from a cRPG, but seeing it used and executed well here is great.
While similar to a cRPG, the game's combat reminded me greatly of XCOM. Weapons have damage ranges that they can do, ranged weapons have a percentage to hit chance, and various environmental objects provide half or full cover from enemy fire. It's a great combat system that works well in this universe where ranged weaponry is common. However, it still has that old XCOM feeling of missing a 90% chance to hit the shot.
There are still melee classes, and they can function quite well even against ranged opponents thanks to some generous movement speed. It's quite common to be able to run across a third of a battlefield and do a melee strike all in one turn, meaning it's a good idea to keep ranged units back from the action and try and keep your melee units near the front, but ideally still in some cover until they can charge the enemy and do some high damage attacks.
Aside from these straight-up attacks, there are also abilities, which play more into the cRPG side of the game, where you can give your party members buffs or your enemies debuffs. Or just use some action points to unleash a powerful attack on your foes.
Regarding combat difficulty, the game leans toward the harder side. Even with Normal difficulty, you'll still need to think tactfully and plan your moves to win battles, especially when encountering tough bosses. The bosses were a bit of a bugbear for me, though, as they use game mechanics that aren't disclosed beforehand, such as regenerating all their health from environmental objects, resulting in losing if you don't figure out what you need to do immediately. Because of this, the game can feel a tad unfair at these moments, and you may need to "save scum" as it were to beat a boss here and there.
There is also space combat, which is a bit more simplified compared to regular combat, but does have some neat mechanics such as requiring your ship to move in a certain way, meaning you'll want to plan so you can maneuver your ship's shields and weapons to keep yourself safe while keeping enemy ships within your firing arc. It's still turn-based and takes place on a grid, so it's not a big departure, but it is a neat additional take on the combat.
The game's UI can be a little daunting initially, but the menus are quite functional once you've wrapped your head around the UI design. The progress tree for leveling up characters is shown in a circle. While it takes some getting used to, it's a great way to display the information, as once the circle has been filled, you get the chance to prestige into your next class to further your specialization.
The aesthetic of the Warhammer world is presented well here, with all its intriguing designs on display. Your ship essentially functions like a city in space, with open and luxurious rooms in parts, with the rest of the ship and a great deal of the environment being very utilitarian. Candles light the corridors and are strewn about. It would all look out of place in anything but Warhammer, but Rogue Trader pulls it off to keep a cohesive feeling game and allows you to immerse yourself in the world.
Rogue Trader does, however, lack almost any voice acting and is very text-heavy compared to something like Baldur's Gate 3. So you had better be prepared to do plenty of reading for this one. Fortunately, the font size is large and easy to read, even on a Steam Deck screen.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a solid cRPG. The storyline is interesting, and the game presents the player with choices that actually affect the game. The combat mechanics are solid, requiring proper planning and tactical thinking to succeed, and the game does a great job of making you feel like you are playing a role in the Warhammer universe.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader leaves a decent first impression on the Steam Deck. It supports the native 1280x800 resolution that the Steam Deck uses, so there are no black borders and great controller support for gameplay and the menus.
The game also has a default graphical setting for the Steam Deck, which appears to target 30 FPS, but you have to make sure you configure your SteamOS settings correctly to hit that target.
Set the SteamOS frame rate limit to 60 and no TDP limit.
The "Steam Deck Preset" chosen by the game seems to largely favor putting the game on Medium settings. However, if you set your SteamOS Frame Limit to 30, it tends to lock the game to 24 FPS in intense scenes, so we need to keep the SteamOS Frame Limit to 60 to get a 30 FPS experience. You can use the in-game frame rate limit to lock the game to 30 FPS and save some additional battery life.
Some environments may drop into the mid-20s at times, which you could fix by dropping one or two settings, like Shadows or Lighting, but I just powered through as 25 FPS is still an ok experience for a turn-based game.
Power draw varies greatly depending on the environment. In quiet areas, it can drop as low as 13W; however, in more intensive areas, it often reaches 19-20W. Temperatures also vary from around 60C-65C to up to 75C, depending on the area.
Because of this, you can expect around 3 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED and around 2 hours from the LCD.
Unfortunately, reaching 60 FPS is impossible on the Steam Deck, so we're stuck with a 30 FPS experience. Fortunately, cRPGs are still perfectly fun to play at 30 FPS, so we can tick Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader as a good game to play on the Steam Deck.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader has many accessibility options, such as the ability to disable blood/gore, auto-pausing when major events happen, and detailed tutorials on each gameplay mechanic.
It also features very adjustable difficulty settings allowing you to change things such as how beneficial cover is and the dodging chance of enemies etc.
There are also filters for those with color blindness.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader successfully brings the Warhammer universe to the cRPG genre. An intriguing storyline littered with choices for the player to make, coupled with the chance to play through the game with friends and an accomplished combat system that borrows from the playbook of tried and tested tactical strategy games, means that Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a game to look into for cRPG fans.
As for how the game performs on Steam Deck, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader runs pretty well on the Steam Deck. Its graphical preset holds 30 FPS for the majority of the time, and its good control scheme allows full control of the game without the need for the touchscreen or touchpads.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
