Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, First Impressions On Linux

Linux is highly lacking in decent 3D RPG games, and let's not even get into the near drought of MMORPG games, but Shroud Of The Avatar looks like it could fill the gap eventually. The reason we say eventually, is that the game is in Early Access, and they consider it pre-alpha.

One major point is that they seem to wipe characters and the world a lot, so do not buy into it if you want a stable experience.

Some thoughts
The Linux port at this early stage is for me quite solid, even alt+tab works flawlessly. A lot of games either crash, or don't have that option at all, so I love it already.

One minor frustrating point is the loading time between maps and inital loading time when entering the world is a little on the slow side, but they will work on that I'm sure. It's very early days for the game, so I have to remember that.

It's a very confusing game when you get past the basic tutorial with very little hand-holding, and it took me by surprise! I'm very much used to systems of NPC's giving out quests having some sort of massive exclamation mark above their head, or standing waving at me, but this game has none of that, at all.
You need to manually talk to people that look interesting to see if they have any work for you, or know anyone that does, and this is where it gets more interesting again. Instead of a dialog box with options, you can chat to the NPC to get responses from them. It can be a little confusing at the start, and it could easily put people off that are too used to the traditional questing systems, but Shroud of the Avatar is all about discovering for yourself.
You can say things like "how can I help?" to see if an NPC needs you to find something or do something for them, and while it's interesting to do, it can get a little annoying, but it seems they have thought of that, and you can click certain options in the chat area, so it's not too bad.

The combat system reminds me a lot of World of Warcraft and Knights of the Old Republic, as you just double click an enemy to fight them if you're close enough, and you can press specific keys to do special attacks. It's easy to do, and it seems to work pretty well for it.
The downside to combat is it seems impossible to tell if an enemy is going to annihilate you, as almost every enemy I've come across so far has sunk my health into oblivion.
It's also incredibly boring waiting to respawn when you die, as you turn into a ghost and have to either sit around until you respawn, or exit the area, and it just gets annoying.

I managed to pick up a quest that wanted me to travel to another town to see why they haven't been stocking us with ale, and after a good 10 minutes of walking around I eventually found the town on the "World Map". In this game you exit towns and are presented with a World Map to walk around on, and have random encounters. It's a nice idea, but frustrating to try and find anywhere without looking up a map in your browser. Town names don't appear until you're really close to them, so you can't really tell anything at a distance.
This then leads to the next frustration; try and find a particular building in a new town, there are no sign posts, no minimap, no nothing. I gave up trying to find the Inn at this new town, as almost every building I could find was a player-owned house.

It's an interesting game with a lot of frustrations, as most of my time has been spent aimlessly wandering around not knowing what the heck to do, or where to go. I do very much want to keep an eye on it and see where they take it in future versions, as this could be seriously good for Linux gaming, but sadly, it's just not ready yet.

I think it's safe to say I won't be taking a look at it again for many months.

Check out Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues on Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.