ROGAN: The Thief in the Castle
- July 5, 2019
- Smilegate Entertainment
- 3h median play time
Get on Steam"Rogan: The Thief in the Castle" is a stealth action game where players assume the role of Rogan, a cunning thief. Explore a vast, interconnected castle, sneak past guards, and solve puzzles to uncover the castle's secrets and treasures. With a focus on emergent gameplay and multiple solutions to obstacles, every playthrough offers a unique experience.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features stunning graphics and a beautifully designed medieval environment that enhances immersion.
- The story is engaging, with a decent plot that keeps players interested as they navigate through the levels.
- The gameplay mechanics, while simple, allow for enjoyable stealth interactions and the ability to distract guards using various objects.
- The game suffers from significant bugs, including NPCs freezing and inconsistent guard behavior, which can disrupt gameplay.
- Movement controls are clunky and can lead to disorientation, with issues like teleportation causing nausea for some players.
- There is a lack of interactivity and replayability, as players cannot revisit levels or utilize a proper inventory system, making the experience feel linear and limited.
- graphics52 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game are widely praised for their stunning visuals, impressive character design, and detailed environments, often described as some of the best in VR gaming. However, some users report issues with low-resolution textures and a lack of extensive graphics customization options, leading to a mixed experience regarding visual clarity. Overall, while the graphics contribute significantly to the game's atmosphere, there are concerns about performance and occasional blurriness that detract from the experience.
“The graphics are incredible and the animations are impressive; I do recommend it, but it's best to buy it on sale as it feels overpriced by today's standards.”
“Graphically, everything is spick and span and beautifully finished, with a lot of attention paid to the environments, medieval architecture, and other details.”
“The graphics in this game are amazing, some of the best in VR gaming, although there were a few low-resolution textures that were not often on important objects.”
“Extremely blurry graphics even on 1080ti.”
“The graphics are PSVR level blurry, with no real graphics options to toggle.”
“Character design is cool, but the whole game looks like a blurry mess even on the high graphics settings (GTX 1080).”
- story44 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 66 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The game's story revolves around a thief who becomes embroiled in a quest to help a knight named Victoria clear her name after being framed for murder. While the narrative starts slowly, it gains momentum and features interesting plot twists, though it is criticized for its linearity and some awkward dialogue. Overall, players appreciate the engaging plot and character dynamics, despite some gameplay mechanics feeling outdated.
“The plot is you are a thief that has gotten tangled up in helping a knight (Victoria) clear her name after being framed for murder.”
“Overall, the story is great and has a fantastic ending with a really nice plot twist thrown in there.”
“Story: I don't want to spoil anything, so all I'll say is that although the story starts a bit slow, the longer you infiltrate the castle, the more and more interesting it becomes.”
“The game is one big tedious room after another looking for trinkets that don't progress the story at all.”
“Eventually, I stopped caring at all about finding any of the loot and just tried to finish the story as fast as possible.”
“The only problem is that the story and script are straight out of nonsense B-movie territory.”
- gameplay43 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a mix of enjoyable stealth mechanics and simple, straightforward tasks, such as sneaking past guards and using objects to distract or incapacitate them. However, many players noted inconsistencies in guard behavior, a lack of depth in mechanics, and a linear structure that can lead to repetitiveness. While the graphics and overall atmosphere are praised, the gameplay experience is often described as basic and in need of more polish and variety.
“The bigger part of the gameplay is sneaking and staying undetected.”
“The mechanics are simple to understand and the gameplay feels quite fluid with little interrupting the flow.”
“Gameplay is an interesting mix of stealth and arcade, each level you must sneak through avoiding detection while also finding evidence, getting keys, or defeating guards.”
“One of the main mechanics is that you can throw objects (mostly apples and potatoes) to distract guards, but it would be seemingly inconsistent how guards would react.”
“While some of the game mechanics and layouts seem to need a bit more polishing; I wish you could interact with the environment more; for example in some areas you need to knock out guards with candlesticks; and they are somewhat hard to find; but there are literally all sorts of practical things lying around that you could use to knock out a sleeping guard.... but I guess that adds to the challenge; but it loses a bit of immersion for that.”
“Gameplay is light, there's not much going on, hide, steal, find an item, move to another place.... there could be some intense moments, but overall the game is not challenging at normal difficulty.”
- atmosphere8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The game effectively captures the essence of a thief atmosphere, with detailed graphics and sound design that enhance the immersive experience of navigating an old castle. While some mechanics, like wall glitches, can expedite progress, they do not detract from the overall tension and excitement. However, the lack of music may limit the depth of immersion for some players.
“There are just not many games that capture the thief atmosphere nowadays, but this game nails it right out of the gate.”
“The graphics are really good, and the atmosphere is exactly what a thief game should have.”
“In my opinion, the graphics are very nice and detailed, and the atmosphere of an old castle is very well done.”
“The game's atmosphere is pretty dark, but when you accidentally put your hand or head into a wall, the screen instantly turns bright white, and there's a text in front of you saying that you'll be teleported to your previous place in 5 seconds.”
“It lacks music to add to immersion and atmosphere.”
“It is not a kind of 'thief VR' if you expected that, because game elements are very basic, but the 'thief atmosphere' is reason enough for me to keep the game.”
- optimization6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is mixed; while some players report satisfactory performance on mid-range hardware like the GTX 1080, others note issues such as blurry textures and limited graphical fidelity. Despite these concerns, many users experienced no significant performance problems, indicating that optimization may vary based on individual setups.
“Playing with a GTX 1080, no performance issues so far.”
“Unlike a lot of other reviews, using a Rift S, I experienced no graphical issues, nor performance issues.”
“It's some kind of 'stealth' walking simulator (on the only path available, no choice on where to go), poorly optimized, textures are blurry when they are 2 meters ahead of you and the hood reduces the FOV.”
“Optimization looks fine, tested on GTX 1080 - i7 4770k.”
“Game looks fine, performance is fine.”
- music4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally well-received, with players appreciating its quality and fitting aesthetic. However, some reviewers noted a limited selection of songs, which detracted from immersion, and pointed out issues with the dialogue, likely stemming from translation challenges. Overall, while the sound effects and voice acting were praised, the music's impact on the game's atmosphere was seen as lacking.
“The audio was really good; the game has great music.”
“The music was nice and fitting with the aesthetic of the game.”
“The voice acting was also very good and professional.”
“The sound effects and music lack the depth needed to enhance immersion and atmosphere.”
“There is a noticeable absence of music that could contribute to the overall experience.”
- character development4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviews highlight strong character design and graphics, with many players appreciating the visual aspects and voice acting. However, there seems to be a disconnect, as some feel that despite the impressive aesthetics, the depth of character development may not fully meet expectations.
“Character design, graphics, voice acting, and story are pretty nice so far; loving it.”
“The graphics are great, as well as the character design and environment.”
“Textures are pretty good, and character design is definitely superior.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game has been reported to have stability issues, including buggy gameplay, scaling problems, and inconsistent stealth mechanics, which detract from the overall experience.
“The game still has issues; the scale seems a bit off, stealth can be a bit iffy, and it can be quite buggy.”
“Buggy gameplay.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -150 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Overall, the game has limited replayability, with players suggesting that the addition of challenge modes could enhance the experience and encourage further play.
“The game offers various challenge modes that significantly enhance its replay value.”
“There are multiple paths and choices that encourage players to experience the game again.”
“The dynamic gameplay elements ensure that each playthrough feels fresh and engaging.”
“Little replay value.”
“Maybe some challenge modes to give it replay value.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding in the game to be tedious, as it involves navigating through repetitive rooms in search of non-essential trinkets. However, some appreciate that this approach allows for quicker progression compared to other games, like Skyrim, which require more extensive grinding.
“The game is one big tedious room after another, looking for trinkets that don't progress the story at all.”
“Grinding feels like a never-ending chore that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.”
“The repetitive nature of grinding makes it hard to stay engaged with the storyline.”
