Baroque

Baroque is a marmite game: you’ll either love it or hate it. It’s a piece of interactive fiction genius and although the gameplay can be a little poor at times, the entire package is great and is well worth picking up if you enjoy a hard, dungeon crawler challenge.

It takes a certain type of person to plunge into a deep and randomly generated dungeon, but if you’re that type, Baroque is a very satisfying plunge.

A fiendishly difficult, randomly generated dungeon crawler that at times can be an incredible work of interactive fiction, and at other times, a muddled mess.

Baroque is an odd one, even by roguelike standards. It has all the elements of the genre that will put off 'regular' players – random dungeons, deadly difficulty spikes, loss of items and experience on death – but it also suffers from technical shortcomings that even roguelike fans won't enjoy.

You know us, we love to champion the odd outsiders, but Baroque drinks your praise only to then puke it in your lap. Horribly interesting. [July 2008, p.62]

Baroque is unique in concept but lacking in fun. That idea that you have to die in order to put the pieces of your life together is interesting and could work, but you still have to give the player a sense of direction and accomplishment.

Not a terrible game but if you want to be scared witless, go for Resi 4 instead. [Issue#22, p.78]

The only area in which the game satisfyingly realises the twisted ideas is in mental ailments. [July 2008, p.96]

Settle into the initially jarring pace of the game and it eventually becomes the sort of RPG that you simply play for the sake of playing, immersing yourself in the world and discovering its many surprises as you go. [Sept 2008, p.108]

Investing time and money into Baroque comes down to your tolerance for the genre - those experienced with ‘roguelike’ dungeon crawlers should find a lot of hidden depth here mixed in with an engaging story. For everyone else, Baroque is a more often than not, distant, vague and unfairly difficult experience you could probably do without.

Just in case you’re great fans of long journeys inside dungeons, almost no conversation and don’t mind restarting from zero every time you die…you can probably find it somewhat interesting. But the majority of players will turn their backs at this concept. [July 2008]

We love original ideas, but there's no point in crazy innovation if you don't nail the basics. [Sept 2008, p.80]

It's a real pity that there are so many parts of Baroque that don't work, because the title also features some innovations for the dungeon-crawling sub-genre.

It tries to be different but falls flat on its face. It's repetitive, dull and we doubt that you'd see out the first hour. Avoid. [Sept 2008, p.93]

If only the graphics were prettier, some better character customisation was included and the punishment for death had been significantly reduced, then Baroque could have been sitting smugly near the top of the Wii game chart, instead of floundering about in the lower regions.

The first twenty minutes of playing this game, I detested every second of it.

If a dungeon-crawler with mediocre graphics, terrible combat, annoying characters, and no story sounds appealing to you, then you should definitely run right out and buy this game.

If wandering through endless hallways and engaging in unsatisfying, three-move combat for countless hours with no indication as to your progress or your objectives is your idea of a good time, then Baroque will satisfy you to no end. If you find yourself tearing your hair out just reading that description, stay away…far away.

And so then, with forty long and irretrievable hours of my life behind me, I pressed the Wii eject button on Baroque for the final time. What relief! I promise you, pushing one little white button has never felt so good.

Baroque is the true Patience Game: it has more negative than positive points. And for the ones who get easily sick of these games, you'll try to throw Baroque out of the window.