Tales of Maj'Eyal Review

Tales of Maj’Eyal is a roguelike game set in the fantasy world of the same name. Maj’Eyal is a diverse place, containing many fantasy races including elves, dwarves, halflings and humans which are each broken down to a number of subraces.

The beginning of the game is simple enough, creating a character. Players only have access to six races and seven classes, four of these classes are subclasses for fighter. While you might be prone to calling the game lazy it is anything but. The true brilliance of this game is that it makes you unlock classes by completing challenges in the game during one of your runs. To avoid spoilers, doing quests for NPCs, killing off major threats and even just random exploration can unlock new classes and races to play.

Maj’Eyal is a world of lore. Unlike most other popular roguelike titles, ToME (as it has come to be known by its fans) boasts a huge quantity of quality stories and adventures to be had. Much of the game’s story is told through NPC dialogue and finding ominous scraps of diary entries. As you learn the dark truth about Maj’Eyal you find yourself being pulled into the epic story that begins to unfold through your many unsuccessful encounters with the game.

ToME manages to make the loss of a character, and the end to a really successful run, feel not so bitter. The game uses the death screen to show you everything you have unlocked with the character who just died, leaving you with a satisfied (if still a little downtrodden) feeling of progress.

ToME has two major DLC; Ashes of Urh’Rok and Embers of Rage. One is a simple expansion, giving players more wonderful classes and races to unlock and granting access to an entirely new starting class: the Doombringer. Embers of Rage on the other hand grants players not only additional classes and races to unlock but grants them immediate access to the Orc race. Now, the major thing to note about the Orc race is that it has its own marvelous storyline with an entirely new perspective than those given in the main game.

Another thing to praise ToME for is customizability. Players can (and have) made add-ons for the game including; new quests, dungeons, classes, races and a myriad of other things. One of the many things players can customise is their character’s sprite. Though this may seem a petty addition to the game it makes for a wonderful run when your dwarf wyrmic (dragon nature mage) is running around Maj’Eyal looking like an awesome dwarf dragon knight or (more hilariously) a skeleton. The sheer amount of preset sprites means that players can choose to play a character that looks more serious, or ruin their immersion with some good old-fashioned nonsense.

ToME is a marvellous example of what a roguelike can be and so (even though I am not the greatest lover of roguelikes) I would happily grant this game a 8/10. The ease in which you can immerse yourself into the world is truly staggering for a roguelike and ToME’s random artefacts and bosses are fantastically interesting and give the game great longevity of play, even for the most hardcore gamers.