Decay of Logos Review

Decay of Logos Review (english) – Action roleplaying game with Zelda and Souls elements in test

Welcome to the Zap zockt Decay of Logos Review. The new single-player action role-playing game Decay of Logos should be mixed with Dark Souls elements (soulslike) & a touch of Zelda, it will be released for PC, PS4 & Xbox. I’ll show you how fancy the ARPG is, how well it plays & help you with your decision if to buy Decay of Logos or not?

This post is available as text here, but there is also a YouTube video (German voice-over, subtitles in many different languages). So you can choose how you like to enjoy it.

Decay of Logos Review Video:

(German voice-over, subtitles in many different languages)

Decay of Logos Review- Intro

Hi there, here’s the Zap. In this episode, I’d like to introduce you to the action role-playing game Decay of Logos. I will show you what the game is about and how it plays. And then give you the information you might need to decide if it’s a game for you.

Decay of Logos – Release and Price

Decay of Logos is developed by Amplify Creations of Portugal and distributed by Rising Star Games. Since both are rather small companies, I would classify it as an indie title. This review is based on the Day1 patch version.

In the pre-release version, there were some problems why the game got some bad ratings in tests based on the pre-release version. But with the Day1 patch, it gets a lot better.

The game was made available to me free of charge by the publisher in advance, for which I am very grateful, but this will have no influence on my rating. My viewers and readers have the highest priority and deserve my honest opinion. That’s why I always try to rate as if I paid for the game.

The game will cost 19.90 € on all platforms, the PlayStation release took place on 27 August. On August 30th Steam was released for Xbox and PC. There will also be a Nintendo Switch version, but it has been postponed until September.

Decay of Logos — Game Type

Decay of Logos is a single player action role playing game with a very strong atmospheric design. You play the elf girl Ada, whose home village was destroyed and who sets out on adventure together with her faithful companion and mount, a white moose.

The roleplaying part is very classic. You collect equipment to improve the heroine, rise in levels, improve character values and slowly become stronger, so that the not insignificant challenges in the world of Logos can be mastered better.

Graphics, Engine, Technology, Sound

The game is based on the Unity Engine. So many teething troubles, which smaller Indiegames with their own engine often have, are not so common here.

The graphics of Decay of Logos are not super high-end, but I’m sure it will captivate you with its very own charm. The characters are detailed, chic animated and also the surroundings are very varied.

Some textures could be sharper and more detailed. Some menus might be easier to use. Some animations still feel a bit slow in tempo, others are a bit fast. But these are small problems, which can be improved even after release. More about this in the later chapter on the state of the game.

The sound of the game is enormously good for such a small studio in terms of noise and ambient ambience. Also, the music pieces that play from time to time are very pleasant to listen to and only a little elevator-music-like. Unfortunately, speech output is very rare and then only in English. But at least everything is with subtitles and completely provided with German lyrics, and these are also excellently translated.

Story and Charakter

There is a fixed character, the young elf Ada. At the beginning she has to watch her whole village being annihilated and burned down. So she sets out to find out who is responsible and, of course, to get revenge.

Ada doesn’t have to go alone. She is accompanied by a white deer, whereas the game in English speaks of Elk, but the model looks more like a springbok. Anyway, this animal is at the same time companion, mount, can help with some switch puzzles and also carry things for us.

But the animal is very shy and nervous. For us to really benefit from it, it has to be fed with a certain type of berry and petted every now and then, otherwise the animal refuses us to sit up.

Let me say so much about history, the old king is dead, and his sons are fighting over the supremacy and inheritance of the throne. That’s all I’m saying because I don’t want to bring spoilers.

General Gameplay

Decay of Logos is an action role playing game. It describes itself as a mixture of Zelda and Dark Souls. The game is not a pure Open World roleplaying game, but offers a lot of wide and open areas with many hidden secrets, so you don’t feel too much like in a tube level.

Beside the partly crisp fight there are also many secrets to discover. Small puzzles, hidden secret door with extra loot, climbing games, sections where you should better sneak than fight. And then there are also more difficult and challenging tasks, such as a gate that you can’t open until you’ve found the levers in 2 completely different places.

There are caves, secret passages, winding temple ruins and dungeons, so-called arx, which also offer particularly difficult challenges and puzzles.

Here the game offers a lot of variety. And the level design is really appealing and both visually chic and playfully interesting.

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Gameplay – Fighting and Combat

In battle, the closeness to Dark Souls desired by the developers is revealed. Each combat action consumes our precious endurance, which only regenerates slowly.

We have light and heavy blows at our disposal, we can duck, jump, block. And the opponents are sometimes very fast and some hits cost half a life bar. Dodging and, if you have a shield, blocking helps enormously here.

In addition to numerous normal enemies and many different variants of them, there are also boss battles at key locations. These bosses have their own attacks and require special tactics.

Health Points and Saving

When our scarce health points go down, the few healing potions one can find help only minimally. Especially since we can carry a maximum of 5 potions with us, after that the belt is full, wearing more is not possible.

There are also shrines to discover that refresh our lives when we meditate on them. And then there is more or less the improved shrine version, the camp.

Ada can also sleep there to get rid of the constantly accumulating deductions from the character values. But sleeping can be dangerous, attacks at night are not so rare.

Both variants, camp as well as shrine, are thereby also our only possibility to save. So it is absolutely necessary to visit these places again and again. Especially if you go into a cave or enter unknown areas, because there are plenty of possibilities to die.

Why the game for two almost identical processes, needs however two different places, and which function almost the same but nevertheless differently? That’s a bit confusing for me.

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Role-play and Character Stats

Our little elf is determined by her role-playing values, which we do not improve ourselves. According to the developer, our stats improve according to what we do in the game.

So if we fight a lot with enemies in close combat, the strength increases, if we often get beaten, the defense. And when you learn to cast spells later and use that kind of fighting a lot, it increases your intelligence, and so on.

It is also interesting to note that not only you become better when you climb a level, but you also constantly improve your values in between. With almost every fight, our initially very weak elf gets a little stronger.

In DoL the weapons have a damage value and also an indication of how much endurance a blow with the weapon costs. In addition to the durability, there is also the possibility that weapons cause fire, poison or stun damage.

At the same time, armor pieces have a defense value and also resistance to fire, poison, or stun damage.

When we die and through every strong attack on our character, we also get deductions from our values. However, we can regenerate this by sleeping in camps.

Scope of the game

The developers say that the story has about 10 hours playing time if you are very determined. But there is a lot to discover to the right and left of the main roads. And if you look there, there might be a few more hours in the game.

But since I like to look into every corner and look at all the secrets, I will probably need much longer. Because I already have 14 hours of testing behind me and am still a long way from having played the game halfway through.

And once you’ve played through the game, Decay of Logos offers a so-called NewGame+. This means that you can restart the game with your existing character and get heavier opponents and a better loot.

Condition of the game

Decay of Logos has received some very bad reviews. The big American site IGN gave the game a 4.5 out of 10 rating. This rating was based on a pre-release version, with worse balancing and even more bugs, so I think this rating is unjustified with the version I have now.

After the Day1 patch that came out for Steam on August 30th, the game got a lot better. Before that, I had a lot of problems getting along in the game, because sometimes you were dead faster than you could say One-Hit. In this new version, the entry into the game is a lot smoother, and you can collect some equipment and increase your character values before you mess with the more fierce opponents. And if you’re stuck there, you can still go back and level with the previous monsters if necessary.

There are still some construction sites in the game. The game currently only runs on the PC with Windows 10, the number of supported game pads is still limited. Very rarely, it crashes or gets very jerky after a long playing time, especially if you take a break and the game stands still.

Then the handling of some menus is still a bit clumsy, and also the steering of the Elk companion is a little bit like steering a heavy boat with a drunken captain. The relationship between Ada and her Elk is put into the foreground at the beginning. But apart from some small puzzles that you have to solve together with the animal, the Elk is at the moment mainly a wandering storage box, not so much a helpful companion. Amplify still has some work to do here.

But contrary to some reviews released before the Day1 patch, Decay of Logos is now a playable adventure. It does have some frustrating moments here and there, for example when it crashes and the last save is ages ago, but it now runs much rounder than before and the game fun is absolutely there.

Opinion and Conclusion

Dying from time to time is normal in role-playing. And if a game is based on a relationship to Dark Souls, then it’s a bit more often. Therefore, don’t be discouraged from dying, behind the rough facade hides a beautiful, epic role-playing game. If dying doesn’t bother you so much, Decay of Logos will take you on a challenging and exciting journey.

The game itself is beautiful, and the atmosphere is great. Fighting and balancing are a lot better with the Day1 patch, so it’s still easy to die, but there’s a good chance that with practice and some perseverance you’ll make progress.

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The design of the world is for my taste somewhere between good and occasionally even phenomenal. There are numerous small hiding places, switches, bouncy passages and small corners where you can still discover a little more.

Also, the told story is really interesting, here you are not sent to kill 5 rats, but you enter as a small weak elf in the middle of a corrupted kingdom, and have to get along with the surroundings first.

Decay of Logos also has an interesting approach to how the story unfolds, because in the beginning there are no quests at all. There are a few tutorial stones, a few NPCs that tell you stories by the way, and so-called echo crystals that deepen some details as text.

But otherwise, you have to explore and find out for yourself what’s going on and how to get ahead. At least this gives me the feeling to really explore a strange world, and not to be guided through the game with a carrot hanging near my nose. I like this approach very much.

Decay of Logos – Rating

I try to consider in this evaluation that the game is from a small Indie team and also the price with 19.99 € is located in the rather lower middle range. Here we might as well lower the expectations a bit. And my test is based on the PC Steam version, so I can’t give any information about the performance, the graphics or the handling on the consoles.

I think you get a lot of value for the price asked. If you like action RPGs with puzzles and exploration, and you don’t give up frustrated if you die 2 times in the same place, then Decay of Logos is worth a trip.

I give Decay of Logos an 85% base rating for graphics, level design, inventiveness and the generally nice atmosphere in the game. Then you have to take the current state into account. And even though Decay of Logos has received some initial improvements, it still needs more polishing and fine-tuning. And until this work on the game is finished, I’ll deduct 10% for bugs, clumsy controls in the game as well as in the menu, and other trifles.

This results in an overall rating of 75% at this time, one day after release. Every further update could improve this rating, so have a look at the update history of the game.

Outro

How do you like what you’ve seen of the game so far? Did it make you want to go on a journey with the elf Ada? Write me your opinion about the game on the ZapZockt community Discord, and also feel free to comment on my videos. You can find more gaming news, reviews, and guides regularly here on the site and on my YouTube channel.

And then have a great day, take care, ciao ciao, your Zap.

Sources and Links:

Dev Page: http://amplify.pt/
Homepage for the game: https://decayoflogos.com/
Steam-page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/759570/Decay_of_Logos/
Dev Twitter: https://twitter.com/amplifycreates

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