GamesRPGThis Gothic-inspired RPG indie is shaping up to be my favourite hidden gem of 2024When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGThis Gothic-inspired RPG indie is shaping up to be my favourite hidden gem of 2024When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
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(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
(Image credit: Just2D | Deck13)
My first four hours inDrovaare spent roaming a depressing forest dotted with settlements and logging fields, and doing the bidding of various NPCs not much better off than I. Slaying poisonous rats and completing tasks nets me XP, which is spent not on a skill tree but with characters who can help me boost my strength or agility, or my specialisation with a two-handed weapon or a sword-and-shield, among others. No matter how many points (all of them) I pour into strength, I’m not really having an easier time with those rats, nor is any better weaponry within my price range—far, far from it, to be honest. Drova is a long, hard climb.
DROVA - Launch Trailer - YouTubeWatch On
DROVA - Launch Trailer - YouTube
DROVA - Launch Trailer - YouTube
Drova’s map isn’t massive but it’s really fun to explore. It’s dense with chance encounters, bizarre side missions, and mysterious locales that I’m sure I’ll need to revisit dozens of hours later. Best of all, Drova’s forking missions make the most of the expanse. Later, once I’ve secured all the iron ore I need to gain entry to the exclusive Remnants Camp, I’ve got to convince several of its upstanding citizens to give me access to aneven moreexclusive area of the Camp. I can opt to convince one of two authority figures and the available means of convincing them are many and varied. Perhaps I want to sneak into a loanshark’s house to steal their ledger, thus wiping the slate clean for a person who has the ear of an influential figure. Maybe I can alter the pre-ordained course of a corrupt arena fight in order to please a down-at-heel gambler. Or maybe I can just go rogue and kill a bunch of people while no one is looking.
While the combat seems unpromising for, well, hours, it does gradually open up, with an array of permanent abilities and one-use spell scrolls augmenting the scrappy slash-and-dodge rhythm of the scraps. People on reddit report that it’s possible to get extremely, game-breakingly powerful, which is almost as exciting to me as the multi-pronged outcomes of its narrative-rich missions. It’s a small looking game with a surprisingly massive scope, and it’s the first game I’ve played since Baldur’s Gate 3 that has made me say:What the heck, you can do that?Drova is on Steam.
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