Not for everyone, but a great dungeon crawler that doesnt get the attention it deserves.
Baroque is not for everyone. Definitely not.
This game is difficult, immensely long if you want to do everything, and plays quite alot different from much anything else out there at the moment.
And as was said elsewhere on the site here, it might not give the best first impression to new players, due to how it essentially drops you in the gameworld without much knowledge of anything you must do, and then proceeds to blow you up multiple times.
That having been said,
Players who can perservere through that initial bit will find a rare gem that has unfortunately been overlooked many times.
Baroque is something of a Rogue-style dungeon crawler.... This means randomly-generated dungeons filled with traps and monsters, a bazillion items, some of which can blow you to bits if used in the wrong way, and some really nasty death penalties.
The basic concept is simple; after waking up, you are told by the ArchAngel that the only way to atone for a then-unknown-to-you sin you have committed in the past, is to travel to the bottom floor of the mysterious Neuro Tower, and deal with what you may find there.
This of course isnt so easy, as the tower is chock filled with traps and monsters whose only goal in life is to rip you a new one.
In fact, once you're in the Tower, there are only 2 ways out of it: Reach the bottom and achieve your goal, or die trying.
Baroque, by its very nature, is a game that requires a really huge amount of playthroughs if you want to "beat" it, or even moreso, if you want 100% completion.
This is part of it's design, as a "Rogue"-like game.... it isnt designed just to be played through once.... it's designed to provide a unique challenge and experience every single time.
Even reaching the bottom of the tower is definitely not the end of it..... chances are, in order to fully finish the storyline, you'll have to accomplish this feat multiple times..... and certain events will cause the tower to have more and more floors in it, which just get more and more dangerous and difficult.
Combat for the most part is fairly simple..... You'll generally have a sword of some sort equipped, and as you'd expect, well, you just hit the monsters with the sword, while doing your best to avoid their attacks.
You can also throw any item in your inventory at them, to cause damage or various other effects...... almost all items will have a "throw damage" value, and perhaps a special effect if they are flung at the various monsters you will face, giving each item more possible uses than it may seem at first.
This is one of the nice things about the gameplay here.... the items, and how they are handled.
The game forces you to make all sorts of choices regarding the many, many items you will find on your travels.... which ones to use, when to use them, when to save them, should you throw them, give them to the CurseBringer Angel to try and combine into something new.....
There are hundereds of items in the game, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anything that doesnt have some sort of use to you. Find a seemingly useless piece of equipment that's outdone by something you're already wearing? Try chucking it at a monster for some free damage, for example. There are items of every type imagineable, from healing to buffs/debuffs, to large explosive spell effects, to things that are just plain bizarre.
Items can have all sorts of bizarre effects, some of which will have very obvious uses, some of which will be a bit more cryptic, but have lots of potential once you figure out what exactly you can do with them.
And these items, unlike those in many RPGs, are not meant to be just "hoarded" and never used..... you'll find that as you go along, you'll be using quite alot of them to survive all the dangers you come accross.
Sometimes though you'll come across unidentified items..... items where you know what type it is (like a sword or a bone or armor), but the name and effect of the item is unknown to you until you either use or equip it, or find a way of identifying it.
This can be one of the frustrating parts of the game.... it's entirely possible to find an unidentified item, go to use it, hoping it does something that might help you, and instantly die because it explodes or something. Among other possible negative effects.
And of course, when you die, you lose *everything*, levels, items, equipment...... the only things you can possibly keep, are things you send back to the Outer World via the various Orbs located on certain floors (which can send up one item each). And even then, the number of things you can send is very limited.
So, actually reaching the bottom floor of the tower isnt anything easy at all.
Though, you are given an Angelic Rifle each time before you enter.... The only gun in the game, it can instantly destroy any enemy in a single blast, but only gets 5 shots, which you may at times need for certain story-related purposes. That can be a life-saver, but it's best to only use it if you have to, and even then, well, only five shots there.....
And even once you DO reach the bottom floor..... well, that's still not the true bottom floor...... there IS further to go after that, if you can meet the cryptic requirements for each extension of the Tower's length.
Aside from the actual gameplay,
The graphics are a mixed bag.......
The game is very atmospheric, sufficiently spooky and messed up, sort of along the lines of something like Persona 3 in it's sheer bizarrity..... but the game does go slightly overboard with it's "fuzz" filter, the draw distance isnt as far as it could be, and overall, it is a little outdated.
Personally, I think the game looks fine, but in technical terms, those are the issues that it has.
Overall, what you see *is* very fitting and such, but not going to be on par with many recent titles.
The soundtrack for the game is very nice....... it seems to always be perfectly fitting for wherever you are, and might tend to get stuck in your head a bit. Actual sound effects are pretty basic.
Overall,
The graphics arent perfect, and the gameplay is a little strange, though it really works out well once you get into it enough to fully understand the game.....
The combat will seem a bit simple at first..... particularly against single enemies..... but when things start to get more interesting, the combat fits the game's style perfectly, and is actually quite a bit deeper than it looks.
The difficulty is very definitely up there, and something that could potentially turn off alot of players from something they might otherwise enjoy.
And of course, it is a bit repetetive by it's very nature..... prepare to fight the same enemies over and over again 10,000 times if you're gonna seriously play through this one.
Despite those flaws though..... which are actually rather minor, and often times possible to overlook entirely once you get into the game enough.....
This is actually a very good, enjoyable title with huge amounts of replay value, good atmosphere, and gameplay that, while confusing at first and definitely frustrating, works out perfectly once you learn it.
It might not seem like much at first glance, but give this one a fair chance..... it'll stick with you if you let it.