Temple of the Abyssal Winds - Game Review

HookedGamers has the first review I could find for Merry Prankster Games Indie RPG called Temple of the Abyssal Winds. The site gave the game a final score of 2/5.

Temple of the Abyssal Winds harkens back to old-school computer RPGs, despite being an iPad port. The campaign runs on a system similar to Dungeon & Dragons. There are characters with six primary attributes to guide each die throw, a bunch of skills/proficiencies, and the combat runs on things like attack rating and armour class scores. Whilst it’s of the style of Bioware and Black Isle’s AD&D classics, Abyssal Winds is far more reminiscent of an old shareware game you’d unfortunately installed one afternoon out of desperation.

The game is split into chapters, the first of which is free. From the get-go the story is bland and formulaic, beginning as all fantasy must – with your quiet village being attacked and burnt to the ground. You’re confronted by someone called “Evil Lieutenant”, told that “there must be some force behind the violence, some evil wizard, or cruel warlord, or some such” and asked to aid the “Order of Light”.

The narrative is unsubstantial and dialogue between characters is brief. Plot points include running into a mad man in the forest who yells a line about destroying the world: should you kill him or let him live? There hasn’t been an awful amount of attention paid to the writing in the game, which is disappointing, as it was the lifeblood of so many old D&D inspired RPGs. Once you realise the plot is weightless and would be blown away by a light breeze, you begin to skip dialogue altogether. When all is said and done, there isn’t much to care about in the world of Temple of the Abyssal Winds.