Skald: Against the Black Prioryis without question the retro-est game I have played.
High North Studios dark fantasy adventure is a devoted recreation of role-playing from the primordial days of home computing.
If it threw back much further, you’d need to visit a university to play it.
Skald: Against the Black Priory review
Skald is a good game.
I want to say that up front and unambiguously.
It’s a tightly crafted, moodily written RPG that makes atmospheric use of its Commodore 64 aesthetic.
We’ll get to that in time.
For now, there’s a ship to wreck.
The garish 8-bit colours heighten the caricature-esque character art.
The pulsing, buzzing soundtrack rubs like sandpaper against your nerves.
The dithered pixel art pressed against the inky black background oozes with grim personality.
Lovecraft isn’t weird anymore, folks!
Other cults are available!
The noble cleric, the grizzled mercenary, the roguish pirate, etc.
Given the condensed nature of the game world, exploration is fairly rewarding.
I was less thrilled by Skald’s combat.
From a more tactical perspective, Skald does reward careful assembly of your party.
Nearly everyone else fell into supporting roles.
My cleric would heal him.
By the time I approached the Skald’s end, however, I’d grown weary of fighting.
Skald places significant emphasis on character positioning.
Alongside these harder problems is that question what exactly does Skald bring back from the nostalgia mine?
Skald: Against the Black Priory accessibility options
Adjustable description fonts.
Adjustable text background colours.
General difficulty configs (narrative, easy, medium, hard, custom).
But is that enough for me to declare Skald a game youmustplay?
A copy of Skald: Against the Black Priory was provided for review by Raw Fury.
