“The time has come to brace yourself for total weirdness,” warns one of the loading screens. Shortly after, you’re in conversation with a treeOperencia: The Stolen Sun
GATHER ROUND FOR A TALE OF TROLLS AND TILE GRIDS ROBIN VALENTINE
PUBLISHER ZEN STUDIOS / DEVELOPER ZEN STUDIOS / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £24.99/$29.99/AVAILABLE ON GAME PASS
back the fog of war to reveal tile after
tile captures the same magic those
original dungeon-crawlers were so
rich in, and the wonderfully strange
setting ensures there are always new
surprises to uncover.Grid lock
But it’s an experience greater than
the sum of its parts – none of the
individual things you do moment to
moment are that special. Combat
is pretty rote, its few interesting
ideas never really going anywhere;
ditto character development and
equipment. Puzzles at best are
serviceable, lacking the wonderful
‘a ha!’ moment of truly great brain-
teasers; at worst, they’re deliberately
obtuse or unclear, and in a few cases
desperately frustrating.
Even movement is a little off. Unlike
the original games of the genre,
you’re able to freely look around
as you would in any modern first-
person game – but your movement
is still restricted to sliding between
squares on the tile grid. The result is
an awkward halfway house that neverThere’s an admirable
purity to this RPG
throwback. Emulating
the old-school, first-
person, grid-based
adventures of yore
(the likes of Wizardry, Dungeon Master
and The Bard’s Tale), it’s unashamedly
a game about the joy of the dungeon
crawl. There’s no overworld, no hub
city, just dungeons. Big dungeons,
small dungeons, dungeons within
dungeons. Dungeons.
Repetitive? A little, but Operencia
does an impressive job at keeping
the experience fresh. While they’re
all essentially collections of puzzles,
turn-based fights, secrets and
treasures for your four-person party
to rifle through, each dungeon has its
own distinctive aesthetic and story
that makes exploring its depths feel
significant to your journey.
‘Operencia’ is a Hungarian word,
the equivalent of ‘a land far, far away’.
It’s the perfect name for a game with
the flavour of a folk tale told around a
campfire. Its characters are inspired
by the real mythology of Hungary, and
that’s reflected in a story that feels
deeply authentic despite being so
unfamiliar to an English audience.
It’s not your typical fantasy world,
and by the same token they’re not
your typical fantasy dungeons. From
cursed palaces to haunted tombs to
underwater castles, they feel more
fairytale than D&D, places with a real
sense of history, magic and mystery to
them that makes you want to discover
everything they have to offer.
That process of discovery is
Operencia’s greatest strength. Peeling
quite becomes comfortable. Despite
the game’s old school leanings, in this
case a little less nostalgia would have
been to its benefit.
There’s a kind of underdog charm to
Operencia. Clearly made on a budget
(characters, for example, only exist
as one unchanging 2D portrait), and
by a team known mostly for pinball
rather than fantasy adventures, it has
its share of rough edges. But at the
same time, what consistently shines
through is a genuine passion, both
for the purity of a good old-fashioned
dungeon crawl and for the mythology
of a culture rarely represented in any
medium, let alone games.
Anyone who spent their youth
exploring greyscale corridors or
rolling oddly shaped dice will likely
find something to love here. There
are even hints at what could have
been a true modernisation of the
genre. But disappointing quirks and
so-so systems ultimately undermine
Operencia’s otherwise ample charm. Qshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
An old-school,
first-person,
tile-based dungeon
crawler with
turn-based combat.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Weird and charming,
and lovely to lose
yourself in – but with
more than a few
rough edges.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Geeks who owned a
PC in the ‘80s;
fighting-men, magic
users, clerics and
spelunkers.“Each dungeon
has its own
distinctive
aesthetic”
OXM VERDICT
A pure, nostalgic
dungeon-crawler
that’s lovely to
explore – except
when it isn’t.7
LEFT The game’s
first dungeon is
a castle at the
bottom of a lake,
ruled by a
cursed king
transformed into
a huge frog. We
don’t advise
kissing him.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 091REVIEW