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Lords of Xulima RPG Released For Linux, A Little On The Buggy Side

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Numantian Games has just released the Linux version of their fantasy RPG and it looks fantastic, so we decided to give it a go and tell you what we think.

Some thoughts
The first thing I noticed is that the Linux version isn't quite as smooth as it could be, but it's not hitting a low of Dying Light levels of performance. It performed well enough for me to get into the game, and enjoy what I could play of it. I do hope they work a little more on the OpenGL side of it in a future patch as you do notice a bit of stuttering here and there.

Sadly, I did encounter a number of bugs, so let's get them out of the way first:

First bug I encountered is that doing ALT+ENTER stops you from being able to bring the game back from the window, but this could be a Cinnamon desktop issue. If others could check to confirm the issue that would be great. ALT+TAB seems to work fine though, so not sure what's going on.

Also, just as I finished one of my first longer battles and quit the screen showing my earnings, the game decided to crash to the desktop, and that made me very sad after such a tight victory for my team.

When I finished exploring the top area of the first map, I decided to exit the bottom of the first village, and in doing so the game crashed and played my footstep sound over, and over, and that was it. Not the best experience to start the game with really.

It creates a "My Games" folder in your /home, and stores some saved games and configuration files inside, not a bug, but an annoyance when games don't respect proper data directories on Linux. Games polluting my /home folder with other folders does get annoying. I've seen reports that this was mentioned to them during the Linux beta, but not fixed.

Now, onto the good parts...

The interface is simple, and easy to learn, and the game won't completely hold your hand, so you are free to explore the world. This is good, as I like to do a little exploring without being specifically told what to do.

It's a real RPG with lots of text to read from conversations with people, and a story to piece together yourself. I like it a lot, as the story so far seems easy enough to digest.

Combat is turn-based and easy to figure out, you have the portraits of each character and enemy down the right side of your screen, and when it comes to one of your characters you simply choose what action wish to take. It's simple, looks good and most importantly it's really fun to be in combat, but don't try to fight the town guards straight away like me, as they will kill you, all of you.
The only bit about combat I didn't get at first, is that I could hit the same enemy 4 times in a row, then they were suddenly able to block every single part member. That seemed odd, until I studied the options a bit better, and one of your options is to parry which can help block attacks until that characters next turn. That option is especially useful when characters are low on health!

The game mixes up the combat in two different ways, as you have your general exploration with enemies you can see and avoid, but if you decide to walk around hostile areas, the events become random. You do get options though, so it doesn't simply thrust you directly into combat. You can try to avoid it with a certain level of success, or hide using power points if you have enough. It's interesting to mix it up like this, and it actually helps to keep the game interesting.

When you come up against something that is locked, the lock picking mini-game is quite interesting and reminds me a little of Minesweeper, and I always like it when developers try something new to make lock picking interesting.

Something a fair few RPG games forget is to allow you to easily compare statistics of new weapons and armour, but luckily Lords allows you to simply right click over an item to compare it, and when I am able to do things like this easily, I love it!

Overall, I think it's an interesting RPG to have on Linux, and with some performance updates and highly needed bug fixes it will be fantastic, but due to the performance on Linux and the extremely annoying crash-bugs it's not quite perfect. I wouldn't recommend giving it a try just yet due to the numerous issues I encountered. It's shame, as I loved what little game-play I could get until it crashed each time.

About the game (From Steam)
Lords of Xulima is an original Fantasy RPG set on the mythical continent of Xulima, where Gods and humans once walked side by side. Become the Herald of the Gods and travel to an uncharted land to fulfil your mission of restoring balance in the known world.

The Linux version is available right now on Steam, but it shouldn't be long before the GOG version is up. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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10 comments

Keizgon Feb 3, 2015
Thanks for checking this out. I added this to my wishlist when I seen it. Hopefully when my budget allows it I can give it a play-through when things are hammered out.
PublicNuisance Feb 3, 2015
I'll keep my eye out for the GOG version. Thanks for the heads up. The developer responded to my emails kindly which I value a lot.
Donkey Feb 3, 2015
This actually looks kind of interesting and I've added it to my wishlist. If the bugs and performance issues gets the attention they deserves I will most likely buy myself a copy. Thanks for the review.
Liam Dawe Feb 4, 2015
They replied to all of my issues, and are looking into them.

I've discovered yet another crash bug that prevented me playing, so I really wouldn't get it yet :(
Pit Feb 4, 2015
Sounds like a buy. Just have to wait til it GOGs ;^>

And yes, the MyGames folder thing is a MAJOR annoyance also in my eyes....
Bumadar Feb 4, 2015
Liam

might be a dutch thing, but when somebody says "we give it a go and tell you what we think" but is talking about himself... its something royalty does, they talk about themselves as we :) but maybe its normal in English, I just notice it a lot and wonder about it
Liam Dawe Feb 5, 2015
Quoting: BumadarLiam

might be a dutch thing, but when somebody says "we give it a go and tell you what we think" but is talking about himself... its something royalty does, they talk about themselves as we :) but maybe its normal in English, I just notice it a lot and wonder about it
It's a writer thing, something the Linux Voice higher ups mentioned to me when writing for them is they prefer "we" over "I" (I can't remember why!).

Personally, I need to get out of doing it on GOL, as I prefer my posts to be personal, since they are from me and not a collection of people.
rvolland Mar 10, 2015
I had some issues with actually launching the game. I have a GTX970 with the latest drivers and a monitor resolution set at 1680 x 1050.
When the game initially launched I had a mostly black screen with strange 3D artefacts. Once I found the Configuration.txt file I changed Vsync to True and the game launched properly. However it still has 'widescreen' black bands above and below the playing area.
If you have Steam Overlay enabled, the box in the bottom right hand corner of the screen is not overwritten!
hagabaka Dec 26, 2015
I bought it recently and have been really enjoying it. The visible and wandering enemy system really makes exploration both exciting and not too stressful. And the art and music are very beautiful.

I bought the GOG version first and had to do some tweaks before it ran on my 64-bit Arch Linux. Then I noticed it was on discount at Steam and has Workshop support so I bought it there too. The Steam version worked out of the box and also reused my old saves.
Avehicle7887 Dec 26, 2015
Quoting: hagabakaI bought it recently and have been really enjoying it. The visible and wandering enemy system really makes exploration both exciting and not too stressful. And the art and music are very beautiful.

I bought the GOG version first and had to do some tweaks before it ran on my 64-bit Arch Linux. Then I noticed it was on discount at Steam and has Workshop support so I bought it there too. The Steam version worked out of the box and also reused my old saves.

Glad you're enjoying the game, I finished it last week and it's been a great experience. Has a few rough edges but it's nothing bad overall.

If you want a small performance boost in game, you can go to the settings folder and change this line at the bottom: <Simple name="MaxTexureMemory" value="128000000" />

It improved the performance quite a bit for me and also reduces the frequency of crashes/freezes (the game has a memory leak).
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