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An indie tactical RPG with an original class system, powerbuilding and skillshots galore and different endings based on story choices.
Story
It's a fairly typical RPG hero's journey. Chosen ones running errands in a junk heap, hometown gets attacked, mentor figures die, goes to big city... eventually fights God.
That said, the world-building is good and choices can lead to different endings. One major decision halfway through also decides between two branches of the main story that play very differently. It's written well and the game's art and environments help to flesh it out.
At some points it sounds like the character voices might have been reading from a script but to me voices are a bonus. The replay value for making different choices is nice.
Score: 7/10
Presentation (Graphics, Sound, UI)
The environments look good, whether it's a lush forest or sprawling industrial complex. I daresay the characters look good too from an art perspective. It's so refreshing to see long hair in a modern game.
The sounds are functional. This genre can get very hectic because there's so much going on when it's 4 characters vs an army, so I wouldn't expect anything crazy impactful. What's in the game works.
There is some jank. As of writing, turn off Screen Space Global Illumination because it causes strange dots to appear on characters. UI is a bit clunky, it's hard to compare gear in the shop screen but the devs are working on it. Character stats sometimes don't update when you increase their attributes, so you have to close and open the window. Also there's some conversation desyncs, occasional repeated lines and so on. Nothing major but don't expect AAA polish right now.
Score: 6/10 (may increase with future updates)
Gameplay
I played this exclusively in single player and the Tactical RPG part is done well. There's a lot of room for customization. Different classes, skills, faction gear, enchantments, party composition and more leads to lot of ways to gear and play.
Combat in Dark Envoy feels more like a Tower Defense or Survival Strategy game. When you trigger combat, enemies start pouring out from various reinforcement positions. Meanwhile, each class has different ways to control enemy movement, from setting up walls to floor hazards to skillshots. Bosses also create their fair share of hazards. There's a pause button so it puts a big focus on planning, both with character builds and tactics. There's a lot of ways to play, from making a traditional tank/healer/DPS party to a tower defense party to stacking specific enchantments to turn a character into a walking zone of death. Most enemies by themselves are one-note, but the variety comes from their composition and and terrain layout.
The classes feel strong in their own way and the gear system encourages creativity. I wanted the Guardian companion to continuously cast protective abilities and use area of effects to draw attention, and I could put casting-focused gear with Mana and Mana Regen on him, as well as a magic staff that builds mana on critical hits to do exactly that. A Ranger can be built both as a passive auto attacker or an active AoE or boss killer ability spammer. The casters can go with either a weapon user build, a magic build, a summoning build, support, heals and more. And there's item crafting and enchantments to give a character that focus.
At the time of writing, a patch broke quite a few abilities, but they will be fixed soon so I won't be deducting points for that.
Score: 8/10
Overall: 7/10
(Likely 7.5 or more after more issues are fixed)
I have to say the negative reviews have a point. This game is a gem, but still needs a bit more polish. I personally think it should have launched in Early Access instead of full release, but if you can look past the issues it's a fun take on the Tactical RPG genre, and quite ambitious for an indie studio, given the voicing and cutscenes where many other indies use still images with no voices.