Eldrum: Black Dust - Text RPG

For fans of this series, this third installment plus it’s DLC R must plays. This is a proper sequel in some ways to red tide. If you’ve played the previous installment, you’ll find the same interesting continuation of the world’s story seeing some familiar faces, depending on what storylines you chose to play through previously and seeing sort of what the overall canonical story for the world is. The combat in this third game is slightly more nuanced or complex than red tide, but very similar the abilities part of the game are a great addition and the traits section of your character sheet gives you more opportunity in what type of fighter you want your character to be allowing you to choose more effectively what type of combat you are. It has all the same big and little choices that you see reflected in the ending of the game as the previous two installments did. The DLC is great. It adds more lore and a whole new location for you to explore plus some more story plus new gear and you might see again faces from other places you may know. I personally loved this game. Had a great time with it. Used to play a lot of RPG‘s, but then lost my eyesight recently in the last like three years so have had a lot of that taken away from me unfortunately but games like this have given me a taste of that again in a great way.

Black Dust delivered for me—someone unfamiliar with the previous games in the series and someone pretty demanding of storytelling in games. Story choices are immediately and consistently stat-and-build based. NPC interactions evolve based on choices and actions. And even seeming minor tweaks can and do result in major changes in outcomes. I strongly recommend. Like any game in this format, Black Dust also has limitations. Not every conceivable choice is available, and the third act feels a bit sudden and forced. In that third act, some big climactic fights become plodding and repetitive. On play through 1 1/2, I found myself wondering why I was wandering about with a stockpile of weapons and gems but nowhere to find meaningful upgrades (made it to Act Three on the first play through still wielding a 1 gold weapon from the second Pit fight, only to be presented with a full set of major weapon and armor upgrades!). But those are minor quibbles and I’m excited for further playthroughs to explore different builds and factions. Well done!

Choice-driven narrative branching is nothing new. There are a smaller number of text adventures that create a tiny, tight puzzlebox that unfolds into gorgeous alternative shapes on the richer basis of stat progression. Life of a Wizard and Choice of Robots are among these. Meshing this rare style into a proper RPG is a daunting challenge. Hosted Games’ Lost Heir series tried, but being led through moment-by-moment choices in a very long game with no saves is not amenable to exploring the possibility space. Eldrum addressed that problem in two ways. 1. You have free map movement, and can defer and even revisit many challenges as you progress your stats. Black Dust leans into this more heavily than previous Eldrum titles, and it’s deeply satisfying. 2. You have a deep stack of both manual and automatic saves, allowing you to rework recent segments until you’re happy with what you’ve achieved. That said, you certainly can’t get all the content in a single playthrough. But in one playthrough you can explore and improve enough of a subspace of a game that you won’t feel compelled to repeat your previous run with minor tweaks. You can allow your second (and third and…) playthrough to be quite different. The series’ combat system has always been ambitious. This iteration commits to training you on the different build options with dedicated puzzle fights in the pit and the arena. It works, and combat customization is a more balanced experience this time around. Although, I will say, the balance between gearing stats for a particular combat build versus for exploration/narrative branching remains a pleasing conundrum.