Tales of Maj'Eyal

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 68 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 68
  3. Negative: 16 out of 68

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  1. apexio
    Sep 21, 2013
    10
    ToME is an amazingly detailed, immersive world to explore. Dungeons aplenty to fight your way through (it's hard!) and tons of great loot. The classes and combat are well balanced which makes for lots of different playable classes that can go all the way to the endgame.

    Replay ability is paramount here. You can have 100 adventures and still be finding new items, monsters, spells,    ToME is an amazingly detailed, immersive world to explore. Dungeons aplenty to fight your way through (it's hard!) and tons of great loot. The classes and combat are well balanced which makes for lots of different playable classes that can go all the way to the endgame.

    Replay ability is paramount here. You can have 100 adventures and still be finding new items, monsters, spells, even classes, all the time.

    Every few months I search for actual, quality games to play. 99% of the games I try don't meet my criteria and aren't worth playing. ToME is the 1 in a million that I will play for years and remember my whole life due to the uniqueness of each experience in the game. I rank it up there with the original Zelda from my childhood.    … Expand
  2. jayseesee
    Dec 21, 2013
    10
    I've been an avid supporter of roguelikes since longer than I care to admit. Some are hit, some are miss, but the genre always keeps me coming back. I have to say though that ToME definitely hits the nail on the head for that fine balance of enjoyment and difficulty.

    Most rogue-likes that I've played seem to confuse arbitrary difficulty for actual difficulty. Having to memorize what    I've been an avid supporter of roguelikes since longer than I care to admit. Some are hit, some are miss, but the genre always keeps me coming back. I have to say though that ToME definitely hits the nail on the head for that fine balance of enjoyment and difficulty.

    Most rogue-likes that I've played seem to confuse arbitrary difficulty for actual difficulty. Having to memorize what critters have what attacks, and knowing exactly which corpse to eat to get past level 25 is not fun, nor is it difficult (other than finding the information). ToME is surprisingly fair for a rogue-like, if you die, 95% of the time, it was your fault, and you can figure out exactly what you did wrong, or where you went wrong. The difficulty is in the tactics.

    Blending the line between rogue-likes and other games, the traditional game-mode is Adventure, which gives you a certain amount of lives as you level up. This is a wonderful feature, as you can recover and learn from past encounters, and give them a try to tackle again. The game seems to be balanced around this mode, but you CAN give Rogue-like a try, which is one life and one life alone. There's even achievements for each style of play!

    Speaking of achievements, there is a plethora of achievements for each game mode and certain hidden actions, both character and lifetime specific. This gives you goals to work for, if you are that style of player, and will keep even the most fervid of achievement-hunters active for a VERY long time. Some achievements can even unlock new classes, races, and skill lines for you to try!

    As far as class and race selection, there is very nice spread of classes that all have their own flavor, feel and play style. Even among single classes, there's different ways you can play them. A fire based Archmage will play VERY differently from an Arcane, Ice, Lightning or even multi-element specialist. The unlocking process also keeps your choices lower at the beginning, which makes for a more relaxed set of choices, and lets you hunt down when you want to introduce more complexity into your game.

    The modding scene for this game is very robust and quite a few members of the community have introduced some GREAT mods that really add to the enjoyment and replayability of the game, not that it suffers any even on its own. Some of those mods have even gone on to be incorporated into the base game on their own.

    All in all it's a wonderful game that I keep getting sucked back into! Definitely worth a try for any fans of the genre.    … Expand
  3. scorchio36
    Dec 23, 2013
    10
    This is the best rouge-like I have ever played. It has such a huge world to explore. Ton's of customization. Tons of great loot. Replay ability is excellent. There is just so much to do.
  4. sowizard
    Dec 28, 2013
    10
    This continually updated roguelike features an incredible depth of tactical turn-based combat, and a huge variety of character types that can be made, so there's always a fresh challenge. Definitely the best roguelike I've played to date by a long long way.
  5. Euphoria58
    Dec 23, 2013
    10
    TL;DR Tales of Maj'Eyal (or TOME) is a very well-built and versatile game that appeals to many turnbased RPG/strategy audiences, not just your standard roguelike junkies (like me). Try it out.

    I definitely recommend giving TOME a shot, especially considering it's free off of their main site at http://te4.org/ although the 'free' copy doesn't net you the Stone Warden class, cosmetic    TL;DR Tales of Maj'Eyal (or TOME) is a very well-built and versatile game that appeals to many turnbased RPG/strategy audiences, not just your standard roguelike junkies (like me). Try it out.

    I definitely recommend giving TOME a shot, especially considering it's free off of their main site at http://te4.org/ although the 'free' copy doesn't net you the Stone Warden class, cosmetic features (such as a wider range of character sprites and even beards on dwarven females), and Exploration mode for those who don't like the idea of losing their character to a limited life count.

    For people not familiar with roguelikes, the genre is capitalized by a few strong features: Permadeath, turnbased combat, randomly generated content, and dungeon crawling. Some games, such as FTL, Rogue Legacy, or Binding of Isaac, are often called roguelites, because they feature some roguelike elements while bringing in flavors from other genres.

    TOME is definitely a pure roguelike, although it has different things to accommodate those who aren't diehard fans fo the genre, but to start I want to get into the features that roguelike players will appreciate.

    First, the game features an auto-explore button (default key is Z) that will literally run around the entire dungeon for you, exploring any crevice you haven't discovered yourself, and stopping the turn after a monster is found or when you are injured. Although it comes with the immediate disadvantage of losing a turn to a monster attack, this allows you to get past the 'easy' parts of the game relatively quickly after you know how to deal with them.

    This amazing feature is bundled with another, to ensure you're reaching your skill level of play as soon as possible: Dungeons that are too easy for you automatically teleport you to the final room, where you can skip several floors of almost worthless loot and monsters that grant barely any EXP, so you can get straight to the climactic fight with the dungeon's final boss.

    The game also features a cloud storage system for your save files off of an online account that syncs save files across every computer you have. This does not, however, make the game online-only, but instead means that when you access the internet you can play the same save file across multiple computers without having to manually transfer the file.

    The few classes you start with offer a lot of choice to the game:
    The Berserker dishes out massive damage with equally massive weapons.
    The Bulwark plays defensively, using a sword-and-board fighting style to tank and dish out damage.
    The Archer uses bows or slings and excels at taking foes out either at range or with deadly traps.
    The Arcane Blade, my personal favorite, combines his choice of melee combat style with arcane forces, allowing him to dish out devastating physical attacks and powerful elemental abilities on the same turn.
    The Rogue uses his stealth and traps to take out foes while remaining entirely unnoticed. Just remember to take off your light sources, as they'll give away your position quickly.
    The Shadowblade functions the same way the Rogue does, but uses the arcane arts as a utility to assassinate his targets.
    Finally, the Alchemist and his trusty golem sidekick are your starting magical powerhouse, using arcane magic to rain down destruction on their foes.
    The classes I've listed are only about a quarter of what you can play ingame, but most of them are locked. Each class provides a unique way of playing the game, each with his own special powers and abilities. There are also unlockable races as well. I'd tell you more, but the 5k character limit won't allow me to do so, and I don't want to spoil the game to everyone reading this.

    For beginners to roguelikes or more casual gamers, the Adventure game mode gives you multiple lives instead of your standard 1* present in most roguelikes, and the Exploration game mode allows you to play the game from start to end without fear of a permanent death. TOME also comes with something an unfortunately large number of roguelikes lack: a tutorial. The tutorial is actually pretty comprehensive compared to other roguelikes that take a half-hearted shot at teaching you how to play, meaning you aren't going into the game entirely clueless.    … Expand
  6. Ginetti
    Aug 4, 2014
    10
    My need to commend this game is the reason I created an account here.

    I have been solidly addicted to this game since I purchased it three months ago from steam. Easy to get to grips with but it also contains so much depth.. this is a game you'll continue to come back to over and over again. The classes range from your typical rogue, warrior or archmage to things like Oozemasters,    My need to commend this game is the reason I created an account here.

    I have been solidly addicted to this game since I purchased it three months ago from steam. Easy to get to grips with but it also contains so much depth.. this is a game you'll continue to come back to over and over again.
    The classes range from your typical rogue, warrior or archmage to things like Oozemasters, alchemists and many many more.
    If you like deep rogue-likes, or have always wanted to try something a little deeper, I suggest you give this a go. There's a great community online which is always ready to offer advice, and you can chat with people via the in-game chat as you play.
    Try it. Become addicted. Profit (but loose sleep;)    … Expand
  7. keefbaker
    Feb 8, 2014
    10
    Absolutely brilliant. An old school turn based rpg in a roguelike form but with all the boring bits removed. Superbly designed, almost infinitely replayable, detailed, challenging and cheap.
  8. IamMeeks
    Dec 27, 2013
    9
    Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME) is truly one of the best Rogue-like games I've every played. This is coming from a guy who started with the original Rogue on floppy disks years ago. I even beat that game multiple times. That was freaking hard in a world without the World Wide Web to go look stuff up on. Yes I'm old, thanks for reminding me. Over the years, I've played nearly every Rogue-like gameTales of Maj'Eyal (ToME) is truly one of the best Rogue-like games I've every played. This is coming from a guy who started with the original Rogue on floppy disks years ago. I even beat that game multiple times. That was freaking hard in a world without the World Wide Web to go look stuff up on. Yes I'm old, thanks for reminding me. Over the years, I've played nearly every Rogue-like game that has come out. Many have featured new ideas, while sticking with the basics. Only one other that I can think of reached the levels of greatness similar to this (Ancient Domains of Mystery or ADOM, and that one was long ago in the days of Muds (again, I'm old... stop picking on me!).

    ToME truly takes the best of all Rogue genres and blends them into one masterpiece of a game. The story and lore in the game are amazingly detailed. If you aren't into that (like my wife!), it doesn't matter. You can hack and slash (and die) your way through the game with little problem. There are tons of race and class combinations. Insane amounts of items. Lots of hidden easter eggs. There are plenty of reasons to replay the game for as you unlock new content all the time. Plus the game is very modable! What is there not to love?!?

    I pretty much never give out 10's in my reviews as I believe games can always be improved. ToME still has a few minor bugs as any game this huge and open does. DarkGod (the creator) is very fast at fixing them when found though. I wish there was a tad more variability in the early levels as there is almost no grinding allowed in the game. Early dungeons are pretty much always in the same places, and starting your 20th character can be a little boring in the early levels due to this.

    I tend to rate a game's value on entertainment time versus cost. If I spend less than a dollar per hour playing the game, I feel my time was worth it. I've lost track of how many hours I've put into this game. Probably over 100 now. I think the game currently runs around $6 on Steam, and I donated $10 to the game back in the early stages of Beta. I'd say this is one of the best values for a game I've ever had (right up there with FF Tactics Advance for me). Go buy it! Now!    … Expand
  9. Defeat
    Jan 14, 2014
    10
    70+ hours put into the game, and not even close to a win yet. Guess I kinda suck at it, but hey....it keeps me coming back for more. Something few games do.

    Huge world to explore with a well written lore to discover, cool classes, races and talents with more of everything to unlock....best roguelike in ages for me. If you are even remotely into this kind of game, do yourself a favor and    70+ hours put into the game, and not even close to a win yet. Guess I kinda suck at it, but hey....it keeps me coming back for more. Something few games do.

    Huge world to explore with a well written lore to discover, cool classes, races and talents with more of everything to unlock....best roguelike in ages for me. If you are even remotely into this kind of game, do yourself a favor and try it ... for free.

    Yes, this is, and probably will be the one and only review on this account, but not because I get something out of it. Usually, I'm waaaay too lazy to bother. But this game deserves it.    … Expand
  10. Mixoplix
    Jan 7, 2014
    10
    I just stumbled upon this gem of an RPG. I have been blown away by the amount of content and customization in this Rouge-like game. This is my first review of a game here on Metacritic because I was so compelled by my enamor for this genre and the sophistication that the indie developer Darkgod have put into this project. There are countless choices for class and customization ofI just stumbled upon this gem of an RPG. I have been blown away by the amount of content and customization in this Rouge-like game. This is my first review of a game here on Metacritic because I was so compelled by my enamor for this genre and the sophistication that the indie developer Darkgod have put into this project. There are countless choices for class and customization of character...Pets, Clones, Magic, Armor choices, Classes, Adventure styles, Play styles, and so many other customization options really allow you to make the ultimate RPG AND there is chat to speak with others that are currently playing. This game has been out for a while, but recently became available on Steam (which was a great move for them.) When many of the MMO's lately are boring, this is a breath of fresh air.… Expand
  11. Damascus
    Feb 16, 2015
    6
    Verdict: Ok game, for what it tries to be.

    ToME is all about character-building and fantasy combat. It delivers well enough on the first account, with interesting choises and hard priorities. The combat becomes repetitive after a while, but it's ok until it gets booring. ToME does not deliver an enganging story, personalities or anything of interest beyond combat and    Verdict: Ok game, for what it tries to be.

    ToME is all about character-building and fantasy combat. It delivers well enough on the first account, with interesting choises and hard priorities. The combat becomes repetitive after a while, but it's ok until it gets booring.

    ToME does not deliver an enganging story, personalities or anything of interest beyond combat and character-building. Nor does it attempt to.    … Expand
  12. bigsilverhotdog
    May 5, 2016
    2
    I've been genuinely trying to love this game for weeks and I've finally given up. I love COTW and I like roguelikes in general but after 60+ hours of gameplay I've realized that TOME is utterly pointless to bother playing with such poor difficulty scaling and random "gotchas" that ruin every single attempt to progress or even have fun.

    A roguelike is supposed to reward critical    I've been genuinely trying to love this game for weeks and I've finally given up. I love COTW and I like roguelikes in general but after 60+ hours of gameplay I've realized that TOME is utterly pointless to bother playing with such poor difficulty scaling and random "gotchas" that ruin every single attempt to progress or even have fun.

    A roguelike is supposed to reward critical thinking, strategic preparation, and careful planning. TOME does not. It simply kills every character that does not follow an extremely linear build path AND gets extremely lucky with the RNG AND is played very accurately and with prior knowledge of most of TOME's gotchas. Maybe that's your interpretation of roguelike, but it's not mine. In several games I had impossible battles blocking progress (once as early as the newbie area). Not difficult battles, impossible ones that were generated in such a way that my character could not possibly do enough DPS to progress or was artificially prevented from escaping, and progress was therefore essential to simply continue the game. Rod of Recall? Please girlfriend, you can't hide bad design that easily.

    I can't believe people waste their time on this sort of utterly banal stat tracking/dot connecting, because I find it more than tedious: I find it personally insulting that the developer wants to waste my time this way AFTER he took my money. It's worse because the developer constantly advertises DLC on the main menu (sold on a 3rd party site you must pay cash to convert to fake game currency) and nags you if you don't create an online profile so the game can phone home every time you do anything.

    All TOME did was waste my time while making me think that some fun was just around the corner. If I'd just keep at it a few more hours maybe the next char wouldn't get 1-shot from unseen offscreen. If I built my warrior just a bit better, a room of impossibly high lvl ice giants wouldn't mind lock me, preventing me from leaving the zone.

    Nah. Deleted.    … Expand
  13. Claytality
    Jun 18, 2015
    8
    Tales of Maj'Eyal is immersive. I often found myself playing for more time than I anticipated. It is VERY deep, but if you want a shallower experience you can choose a simple class and simply hammer away at enemies. I don't understand why it is rogue-like, I found it far too difficult that way so I played on infinite lives mode. I felt there was too much to lose when playing with aTales of Maj'Eyal is immersive. I often found myself playing for more time than I anticipated. It is VERY deep, but if you want a shallower experience you can choose a simple class and simply hammer away at enemies. I don't understand why it is rogue-like, I found it far too difficult that way so I played on infinite lives mode. I felt there was too much to lose when playing with a fixed number of lives.

    Really good for the price. Can sometimes feel a little slower than other RPGs since it's turn based strategy. Played 60 hours on it, could have played 100 easily.    … Expand
  14. Kalasanty11
    May 25, 2016
    9
    One of the greatest and most addictive games I've played in my life. Classes not balanced? So what? It even doesn't have multi, so balance is not that big of an issue. You can treat classes as "yet another difficulty slider", as one of the fans noticed.
  15. eddparsons
    Dec 27, 2013
    10
    A roguelike that is actually quite like rogue for the modern times. All the addictive gameplay you expect with decent graphics, music, sound, interface, integrated chat, lots of race/class combinations to play and hundreds of talents to use.

    I love this game. According to the te4.org website I have spent 40 day(s) 2 hour(s) 53 minute(s) playing this game and I don't regret any of it.    A roguelike that is actually quite like rogue for the modern times. All the addictive gameplay you expect with decent graphics, music, sound, interface, integrated chat, lots of race/class combinations to play and hundreds of talents to use.

    I love this game. According to the te4.org website I have spent 40 day(s) 2 hour(s) 53 minute(s) playing this game and I don't regret any of it. Nuff said.    … Expand
  16. jclaiborne2007
    Mar 12, 2016
    0
    If you like crude and antique, then this is for you. The patcher is the worst for any game ever made= broken.
    Character classes have 0 balance. The same dungeons on a horrible scheme are used over and over.
    Once this game hit steam it was adios to ever seeing any real improvements. Here come the cheesy expansions, none of which I will ever buy until the core game gets some serious work.
  17. gateslol7
    Jan 2, 2014
    10
    An absolutely INCREDIBLE game. The sheer replayability and customization available are mindboggling. If you're a fan of roguelikes, in any way shape or form, you need to get this game. There is no reason to not spend $8 to download this on steam (or if you must, for free! from the website) because you will easily get HUNDREDS of hour of play out of it.

    The graphics, music, and sound    An absolutely INCREDIBLE game. The sheer replayability and customization available are mindboggling. If you're a fan of roguelikes, in any way shape or form, you need to get this game. There is no reason to not spend $8 to download this on steam (or if you must, for free! from the website) because you will easily get HUNDREDS of hour of play out of it.

    The graphics, music, and sound effects are fresh and great for a roguelike. The combat is multifaceted and the exploration, randomized environment, and wide variety of quests, sidequests, unlockables (new classes, etc.) will have you daydreaming about this game even when you're not playing.    … Expand
  18. seewen
    Jul 29, 2015
    10
    This game is an amazing turned based RPG. It took me some times to acclimate to graphics, and to learn the basics.
    Already 500 hours played. Awesome !
  19. YukiSaya579683
    Jul 15, 2016
    0
    The Game Is Too Spooky! There's Too Many Skeletons, Creepy Crawlies and ect!
    :Screams with Spirit Escaping Soul:
    The Game Reveals Itself Similar To An Dark Period. Not worth myself playing.
  20. Vectis99
    Oct 24, 2018
    5
    Tales of Maj'Eyal is tedious, repetitive, clunky, and bloated as a game, feeling as if it is barely held together by sloppy stitches. It is also visually an atrocity with an average plot. However, it makes up for this by presenting an enormous amount of long term strategic content and options to players, allowing for serious sessions of pondering and theorizing about optimization, values,Tales of Maj'Eyal is tedious, repetitive, clunky, and bloated as a game, feeling as if it is barely held together by sloppy stitches. It is also visually an atrocity with an average plot. However, it makes up for this by presenting an enormous amount of long term strategic content and options to players, allowing for serious sessions of pondering and theorizing about optimization, values, and synergies. Overall, Tales of Maj'Eyal can be a magical experience at times, but all of its appeal is encompassed by the long term strategizing and not the short term tactical rewards.… Expand
  21. Wooble6208
    Jun 30, 2019
    10
    Brilliant I love this game. If you like roguelikes, nethavk, angband, or any of its variants or just rpgs in general, you must try this

Critic Reviews

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No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. GameGrin
    Jun 16, 2017
    80
    Though I personally don't enjoy roguelikes, ToME is a marvellous game with bundles of class and race options that give the game an astounding amount of replay value. Coupled with the amazingly interesting lore and map design, ToME draws you in time and again.
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  2. USgamer
    Dec 17, 2013
    100
    Deep, complex and infinitely satisfying, Tales of Maj'Eyal is the pinnacle of the fantasy roguelike as it exists in 2013.
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