In recent years, RPGs seem to be seeing an uptick thanks to games like Baldur’s Gate 3. The next one hoping to get critical acclaim is Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent, a game based on a board game much like BG3.
After playing through what’s on offer for the game, the game comes off a little strange. There seems to be a hyperfocus on combat and not much else, and while that’s not a major issue, it is something that becomes very apparent.
I did enjoy my time with the game, but there’s a lot here that feels like they wanted to make a simplified version of D&D, and not in a good way. It is based on the board game Descent and the most recent entry from the series Descent: Legends of the Dark, so that might be a contributing factor.
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What is Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent?
It’s a turn-based tactical RPG where you’ll gather a crew of heroes to attempt to save the realm by going through several missions and four different campaigns that all form into an approximate 20-hour story. You’ll be able to level up heroes and make them stronger while also leveling up abilities and acquiring new gear in an attempt to make the perfect team to take on any challenge.
Every character has unique mechanics and skills to learn and utilize in and out of combat. It does still have initiative and some of the usual turn-based things you’d expect, but because it’s a tactical RPG, there’s grid-based combat. Every attack, ability, and item operates using this grid and some simplified mechanics.
Each of the four campaigns is divided into five individual missions. All the missions and campaigns can be played individually, but still operate as one long story. This makes it so you can have a player drop in and out after completing a mission. Each mission has its own map and its own treasures and puzzles to hunt down.
I did enjoy my time with the game, but there’s a lot here that feels like they wanted to make a simplified version of D&D, and not in a good way.
It works very similarly to playing a one-shot session of D&D, but you can string those one-shots together to make something more interesting. When you finish a mission and prepare for the next one, you’ll have the ability to purchase items and abilities from the shop or upgrade some equipment in the forge.
Whenever you’re ready for the next one, you can select your group and head out. For almost every mission, you’ll need to have one specific character in your party, and some missions have secrets that only specific characters can find. Every mission will work basically the same, and you’ll move from fight to fight until you defeat the boss or complete the final condition of the mission.
Simple Systems for a Simple Game
The game clearly is trying to simplify a majority of the best tactical RPG games down to their essence by removing a lot of the nitty-gritty that makes them complicated. There’s just one problem: that nitty-gritty is what most players play those games for. Pulling back the depth in terms of gameplay is an interesting idea, but ultimately detracts from what makes the genre so beloved.
I’ll start by stating the most obvious issue: you cannot interact with your heroes outside of missions. There is no way to get to know them on a deeper level outside of doing some optional stuff during missions or playing through their specific missions. This means you’re unlikely to get any real sense of whom these characters are beyond the story.
You cannot go to camp or talk with them while exploring, like in most of the best RPGs, and any information you get will be mostly vague. It just feels very strange to have a game centered around heroes where you never really interact with them. It is very much like a TTRPG where they mostly operate as an extension of the player, but in a video game setting, it just doesn’t work super well.
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Beyond that, the game doesn’t have any really complex systems outside of combat. There are no armor or weapon slots specifically, and instead, you’ll have item slots that increase as you level up. This means you’re essentially forced to choose between an overall boost or a consumable, which does simplify things, but majorly detracts from what you can do.
Puzzles aren’t all that complex either, and neither is exploration. If you want a straightforward dungeon crawler, then it’s great, but if you want an RPG to dig into, you’ll find it lacking. Many games have an issue with too much complexity, but here, there’s almost none outside combat, which makes it feel like everything just exists to shuttle you from combat to combat.
Combat Shining Through
Combat is the best part about the game, and despite how simple it can be, there’s actually some amount of depth. It’s still turn-based, but you’ll get three Action Points (AP) for each turn. These are used to move, attack, use items, and activate ultimates, meaning that how you utilize them will determine your success.
Every character, including yours, has an amount of defense or guard, and using abilities that play into an enemy’s weakness lowers that guard, making damage improve significantly. On the flip side, hitting them with something they’re resistant to will make that guard go up, doing less damage on the next attack.
It’s the most interesting part of the game as you discover how the characters’ skills and abilities interact with one another. For instance, Veshi has an ability that, when active, causes enemies to have reduced fire resistance based on how close they are to her. Keeping her close to Kharaz and letting him fire breath a bunch of enemies in a cone will make them all significantly more susceptible to damage.
It was genuinely so much fun to see the interactions play out and find new ones that just tore apart enemies. I can imagine that coordinating this with a group of friends can be really fun and lead to some wacky moments. Regardless, even when playing alone, it just scratches that itch of discovery really well.
Combat is the best part of this game by a mile; nothing in the game even comes close to being as solid as combat. As you level up and play through missions to unlock new skills, combat only gets more and more interesting. It felt very clear that combat was always put first as a necessity, and everything else became ancillary.
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A Mediocre Story and World
Part of the problem with this is that I’m not familiar at all with the world this takes place in. Perhaps that’s why I never really felt a deep connection to what was happening, but more than that, there’s no way to immerse yourself in the world. The missions are short, and there are virtually no NPCs to chat with and learn about, so everything just revolves around finishing the mission.
I don’t usually like to criticize writing because it can be very difficult to live up to the writing of the games we know and love, but this was just not good. A lot of it felt very reductive and just uninteresting as you made your way through the levels, and it is serviceable, but it feels more like you’re playing with a first-time DM who is still learning the ropes.
It was genuinely so much fun to see the interactions play out and find new ones that just tore apart enemies.
I want to make something clear before I go off on a tangent about the writing, because I think it’s important to highlight that part of the problem is the general setup of the game. Since you don’t have a camp or anywhere to learn about the characters, they’re basically forced into exposition, dumping things that just feel totally out of place.
In the tutorial alone, one of the characters, Myria, will literally tell you to your face that she won’t talk about how she’s connected to a person you’re currently hunting down. Not even five minutes later, she is just spilling her guts in a way that feels unnecessary. Basically, you can immediately get the vibe that she doesn’t want to be associated with this person, and she’s ashamed of that association.
It feels like something that you’ll find out a bit later and maybe get some reasoning about her backstory, but as soon as you run into the guy, she just lays it all out there. This pretty much happens continuously throughout the game, as there’s no way to get nuanced information since you have to figure everything out before the mission ends.
Closing Comments
Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is a very middling RPG that does some things right but most things wrong. Making a game that can be consumed in bite-sized chunks so you can easily play with your friends has a lot of merit, but it seems like, along the way, things got a little lost. You can’t get attached to your team because you’re not spending time with them outside the missions. Most of the game revolves around combat, which is fantastic and very enjoyable, but past that, things feel very dull. The writing is serviceable, but the game just isn’t set up well enough to give you something to invest in beyond individual missions.
Review Score: 7/10
Reviewed on PC
|
Pros |
Cons |
|---|---|
|
Interesting and engaging combat. |
Minimal RPG mechanics outside combat. |
|
Solid performance with minimal issues. |
Limited interaction with characters. |
|
Easy to get into. |
Game design that limits deeper narrative enjoyment. |
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Author: 360 Technology Group
