Aurora Dusk: Steam Age
- March 8, 2019
- Sylvain Harlaut
- 214h median play time
Get on Steam"Aurora Dusk: Steam Age" is a collaborative sandbox game that encourages players to work together to build a city and defensive structures. The game offers a variety of customization options, including character creation, magic spell learning, and technology upgrades from the Wood Age to the Steam Age. Multiplayer mode allows for co-op and versus gameplay, both online and in local networks, and characters can be kept and evolved from one game to another.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- Unique blend of RPG, strategy, and simulation elements with a focus on autonomous AI townspeople.
- Engaging gameplay with a persistent character progression system and a variety of skills to level up.
- Fun campaign and sandbox modes that offer replayability and customization options.
- AI behavior can be inconsistent, leading to uncoordinated actions and frustrating gameplay experiences.
- The game suffers from bugs and performance issues, including memory leaks and crashes.
- Limited control over townspeople and repetitive gameplay can detract from the overall experience.
- story96 mentions
- 10 % positive mentions
- 86 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The game's story features a fun and engaging campaign that gradually introduces players to its mechanics through a series of missions, although it is noted to be relatively short and at times tedious. Players appreciate the resource management aspect, where items carry over between missions, but some find the narrative lacking depth and the gameplay repetitive. Overall, while the story mode serves as a decent introduction to the game, it may not offer significant replay value beyond difficulty adjustments.
“There's a fun campaign with a story to follow that introduces you slowly to all the features of the game and expands the scope of what you're fighting with some different styles of maps and enemy attacks.”
“Either way, the campaign was a fun experience and the story was delightful.”
“The stuff characters say is worth reading if you're into the story and it all ties into the end of the game, which is nice.”
“The main story is fairly short and the challenge/survival modes are good but repetitive.”
“The main story is slow and tedious.”
“The story isn't that good, and killing wave after wave of enemies can get boring.”
- graphics62 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 81 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players noting that the 2D sprite art can be basic and rough around the edges, which may detract from the overall experience. However, some appreciate the unique art style and find it endearing, suggesting that the visuals suit the game's vibe despite their simplicity. Overall, while the graphics may not be impressive, they do not overshadow the engaging gameplay and customization options available.
“Interesting art style for the characters that pop up when they talk.”
“Its a good game, massive amount of work has gone into it and I really like the visuals and theme.”
“When I first looked at the screenshots I thought this was some sort of RPG Maker game but the graphics and animation are quite different and well done.”
“I passed it up for a while because the graphics didn't appeal to me.”
“Graphics are too basic; the characters themselves are okay, but the terrain and buildings are plain ugly.”
“My only complaint is that the graphic style is not to my liking.”
- gameplay48 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The gameplay features a mix of city-building, unit control, and AI customization, offering engaging mechanics that some players find enjoyable despite bugs and clunky crafting tools. While the core gameplay is considered fun and innovative, many reviewers note issues with polish and AI functionality, leading to a somewhat disjointed experience. Overall, the game shows potential for improvement, particularly if future iterations explore more cohesive gameplay elements.
“Gameplay revolves around building up a city (production buildings and defenses) to defeat an enemy base.”
“As for core gameplay, you control one unit or can control multiple and customize their AIs in a visual programming sort of way with weights for various tasks.”
“The gameplay is both engaging and refreshing.”
“About 1/3 of my gameplay was recovering from bug crashes.”
“I'm unsure if this was even intentional as this gameplay is basically non-existent in the campaign, which is a grindfest full of waiting on AI you didn't script to randomly walk to an empty spot to build something.”
“It is suffering from clunky crafting tools mechanics and many more quality of life failures.”
- grinding25 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game features extensive grinding, particularly in crafting and resource management, where players can level up various skills like farming and mining through repetitive tasks. While some players appreciate the depth of skill progression, others find the process tedious and the AI of townsfolk lacking, leading to a sense of monotony. Overall, it caters to fans of grind-heavy gameplay but may frustrate those seeking a more dynamic experience.
“The leveling process can get a bit tedious, and the campaign on higher difficulties will crush your computer's usable memory.”
“With there being no real need to create certain buildings or items to beat the mobs, it just feels tedious and samey.”
“Several maps I 'won' while I was busily sitting at home farming and leveling skills, the enemy waves crashing on the walls and being slaughtered by my dutiful townspeople, and the defensive towers and golems they built, and the mercenary units they recruited, without any interaction from me.”
- stability18 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting frequent freezes, visual glitches, and significant bugs that render it unplayable, especially during extended sessions. While multiplayer functionality seems to run better, overall performance issues persist, leading to a frustrating experience for players. Despite these problems, some users still see potential in the game's concept.
“So came back to this game after a while. It had some bugs before but was playable, but now it just freezes on the first wave every time in survival. Fix your game!”
“A laggy, boring, and buggy game that I think is a mobile game port. Can't even move the camera around properly, which makes it unplayable.”
“If you play for 5+ hours straight, visual glitches start making UI/game elements invisible.”
- replayability14 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 36 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
Replayability in the game varies significantly among players; while some appreciate the extensive sandbox modes and customization options that offer high replay value, others find the campaign's brevity and limited challenges reduce overall replayability. Many players enjoy the complexity and depth, suggesting that those who engage with the game's systems may find nearly infinite replay potential, while others feel it lacks incentive beyond achievement hunting. Overall, the game presents a mixed bag of replayability experiences.
“You also have sandbox modes where you can set up a wide range of factors to make it easy or hard and change game types to provide a lot of replayability.”
“Fun, addictive, high replayability.”
“Awesomely deep game, massive customization, almost infinite replayability. You can sort of run it like an idle game if you're willing to do some real heavy lifting with the AI programming. If you're into games with a lot of complexity, this one has it in spades for a graphically simple indie title. The intricacy of the systems is downright impressive.”
“There isn't much replay value, unless you're aiming to get all the achievements.”
“The game, however, is enjoyable for the story yet not really that replayable, outside of difficulty just getting more and stronger enemies per level.”
“The campaign is shorter than I would have liked, but multiple game modes more than make up for that with replay value.”
- music12 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally described as nice, but it heavily relies on typical RPG Maker tracks, which detracts from its uniqueness. While the overall quality is acceptable, reviewers feel that original compositions would enhance the game's identity.
“Music is nice, also the graphics if you don't zoom in too much.”
“If they made this game in RPG Maker, they did a really good job, but there's one last thing they need to fix to make it unique. The music is not bad, but if you normally use RPG Maker, you know that it uses RPG Maker music because of the music choices.”
“The game uses RPG Maker music. If they made this game in RPG Maker, they did a really good job, but there's one last thing they need to fix to make it unique. The music isn't bad, but if you normally use RPG Maker, you know that it uses RPG Maker because of the music choices.”
“The game uses RPG Maker music. If they made this game in RPG Maker, they did a really good job, but there's one last thing they need to fix to make it unique. The music isn't bad, but if you normally use RPG Maker, you know that it uses RPG Maker because of the music choices.”
“The music is alright too.”
- optimization8 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is a mixed bag; while it generally runs smoothly without lag, especially with a high number of NPCs, users report significant performance degradation when running AI in the background. Overall, many find the current optimization to be poor, detracting from the overall gameplay experience.
“The game runs smoothly, and I never experienced lag even with double the amount of NPCs at all times.”
“The game runs smoothly, and I never experienced lag even with double the amount of NPCs at all times.”
“However, at the moment it's also not very pleasant to play, being extremely poorly optimized.”
“I sometimes run it in the background with AIs I created, and eventually the performance becomes terrible.”
“There are some limitations to the AI even with the build order being optimized.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy of the game is widely criticized as a blatant cash grab, leading many users to advise potential players to avoid it altogether.
“Cash grab, stay away!”
“Cash grab, stay away!”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find the emotional aspect of the game to be heartwarming and humorous, particularly when unexpected moments of camaraderie arise, such as villagers assisting in building defenses. The blend of lightheartedness and the thrill of overcoming challenges, like defeating an invading army, adds to the overall emotional experience.
“I was building a tower to protect my windmill and left some stone lying about for that end. All of a sudden, I had three villagers helping me finish it. It was heartwarmingly funny and awesome, then it was hilarious when an army of undead monsters died for good trying to invade my farm.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find the humor in the game to be heartwarming and entertaining, particularly enjoying moments like villagers unexpectedly assisting in building projects and the comical failure of undead monsters during invasions. These scenarios contribute to a lighthearted and amusing gameplay experience.
“I was building a tower to protect my windmill and left some stone lying about. All of a sudden, I had three villagers helping me finish it. It was heartwarmingly funny and awesome, then it was hilarious when an army of undead monsters died for good trying to invade my farm.”
