Realms of Arkania 3 - Shadows over Riva Classic Reviews

Good old Classic. May not be for those people that have never played it back when it released. Great to have it on Steam.

I remember this game from when I was very young, I would basically only use it to create characters and get to the first fight, not know how to progress beyond that point and then create a new game and repeat this process for hours and hours haha, good times.

at first, game is now more then 20 years old.. at second... best game I ever played... music is fenomenal, game design and combat system just wow... I love this game

i LOVED this game back in the days - couldnt make it to the end because of the well known bug in the queens hive. Watched the ending in 2016 and its glorious. Thank you for this game, its one of my nicest childhood memories.

This is pretty hard to play. But if you are 30+ years old and you found this in childhood, difficulties should not confuse you. The atmospheric soundtrack literally takes you back to childhood. Well-developed character development and an interesting world. Dozens of days, lots of detailed details like food, drink, supplies and camp - all this perfectly captures the spirit of old-school role-playing games. This is a great investment for hundreds of hours of your time.

Okay. First, this is an old-school RPG. By that I mean, anyone expecting modern bells and whistles will be VERY disappointed. Hardcore and old-school gamers will likely find it to be an engaging story with mechanics they may not be used to. I do suggest getting the entire trilogy at the same time, if you are interested.

For what reasons I love Realms of Arkania trilogy? For many; atmospheric music, great battles, really comprehensive development of the characters, great plot and climate of the nineties, when really great role-playing games were done.

Many years ago, when I was but a kid, one of my game CDs didn't work. So you could bring it back to the shop to exchange it for four other really old retro CD games that no one wants anymore. They were not originals of course, no one could ever afford them in my country. That was how I stumbled upon Shadows Over Riva. This was possibly the most complex game I've ever played at the time. Words like [i] tinderbox [/i] or [i] whetstone [/i] were not in my vocabulary. But somehow I had some fun making my party spend all day at the bathhouse and improving their swimming. Here I am now, after many years, reading through manuals and embarking on this journey from the first game. Of the three games, Shadows Over Riva is the one shining above them. What previous games has done faithful to the tabletop experience is abandoned for a deeper, more engaging story. Gone is the overworld travel of the previous games for a more linear story, which is actually better. You do not venture far out of the city of Riva, in fact you do not visit any other towns at all. It does make the city full of surprises and you don't feel as if you are noble heroes saving the world but instead just so happen to be in a bustling city with all their dirt, grime and sinister things waiting to happen. Learning to play Realms of Arkania is hard. It has a steep learning curve, weird names for spells, and sometimes very boring fights. However, what you will find is something very unique that lots of CRPG do not have, such as negative attributes. In this game you learn things the hard way, through trial and error. Like how I discovered having a witch in my party is totally useless and created a new character halfway through the second game. How weapons break and you should have a spare for each character. How some monsters can only be killed by magic or magic weapons. This game expects you to be smart, and it expects you to act so. If something doesn't work, try, try something else. The visuals in this game have definitely improved by strides compared to the predecessors. As I suspect that a lot of NPC art have been converted from a photo or directly traced. Pierce Brosnan, or Björk makes a cameo. A bit of a pop culture 'time capsule', so to say. Generally it was a nice experience talking to NPCs and getting tidbits of information about the comings and goings in the city. Strange events, mysterious developments, are abound in the city of Riva and it's up to your party to find out how each are inexplicably linked. Even if the story is not a masterpiece, seeing two of my fighters raiding and killing scores of orcs was still enjoyable. Overall, if you have the time, and the patience; because you will need some for progressing in the quest sometimes - You will find SoR not just a challenging RPG, but a very satisfying one. Read the manuals before you play, and if you get stuck, just look up online for a guide!

Here we go, third part of the Arkania tales.Your party of heroes arrived in a big city, Riva , from the first steps you will be pulled in the great adventure, the darkest mystery hides here and now only you can drop light upon it.No more miles of traveling, surviving in dry deserts or cold mountains, it is only city and surroundings, but dont think that crossing a street is easier then crossing a raging stream. If your heroes ready for new adventure Riva is open for you. A bit late , but i reccomend to edit - dosboxrealms3.conf - this file can be found in the game directory, few lines have to be changed: scaler=advmame2x ; cycles=18000 . scaler makes picture a bit softer and 18000 cycles looks like the optimal speed.

Of course it's an old game now, but classics will always be classics. Nostalgia comes to a great obstacle to review this game without being partial, but the magic and world immersion I experience when I play this game is something have never experienced in any other one. After 17 years and tons of RPG that surely have better presentation and even better story/quests/features I'm still waiting to a game that can absorve you as much as this one does. Can't say what is it, probably the amount of time you spend in it walking around the city, talking to everybody, suffering with and for your characters or maybe the care that was put to make each one of them human and unique (those positve/negative skills and that journal....); but sure that you end loving each one of the characters you created and feel that you shared the most amazing adventure ever with them in a world that you can believe and makes you feel that there's even much more than what you see in the game. Also difficult to not notice the amazing soundtrack. Sounds a bit midi nowadays, but it is still extremely effective. Prepare to beautiful melodies in woods, scary ones at dungeons, nostalgic songs at inns and some creepy tracks for that creepy levels where you just don't dare to keep walking and only think about going home.