Trulon: The Shadow Engine

The card-based combat system is a nice novelty, but everything is oversimplified and the setting and characters feel too clichéd and uninspired. A good base idea, but not developed enough.

Trulon: The Shadow Engine is an okay game and therein lies the problem. There are no major problems, but neither is there anything to distinguish it from any other RPG, so much so that it may as well be called "RPG Game". The card battle system starts promisingly; however, the interesting premise is not expanded upon in any meaningful way. With its increasingly tedious battles, the whole thing seems to lose steam towards the halfway mark leaving little desire to play the game to completion other than for achievements.

There is quite a bit I like about this game, with how well the steampunk/fantasy setting was portrayed, which was well supported by a great backstory that was easily seen in quips from NPC’s, and if you look online there is even more there via other mediums. However, I definitely didn’t enjoy walking into a house and having to restart multiple times because I thought it might have been a one-off. On top of that, the lack of available cards, the curved wall that I hit and was almost quite impossible to get over, combined with some graphical glitches, it brings the whole experience right down.

Trulon: The Shadow Engine is an impressively mediocre game. Not good enough to really encourage you to pick up at its current price point, but enough to say “maybe if it goes on sale”. The game isn’t bad, it’s just not as good as it could be. Maybe one day we’ll see a sequel with several improvements.

It’s a shame that Trulon: The Shadow Engine lacks a lot of polish, because at its core, it’s a pretty enjoyable experience.

Trulon: The Shadow Engine certainly looks ready to send gamers on an adventure, especially in creating a world full of fantastical beings, but that’s where the goodness ends in truth. The turn-based card combat system grows tired in no time at all – despite a decent array of enemies – whilst the difficulty spoils and subsequently halts progression through to the end.

Given some work, Trulon can be a worthwhile RPG. As it is, I can't possibly widely recommend it but I do hope to see a reworked version release eventually because there's definitely a lot of potential here.

Trulon: The Shadow Engine offers a fun adventure that is simple and full of things to discover. The combat system is highly original because it offers you the possibility to create your own tactics. Unfortunately the bugs and their poor balance between easy and high difficulty make the experience worse.

That was the end of Trulon for me, and I’d have to describe it, in total, as being the videogame equivalent of an ellipsis — it’s just an empty pause with no conclusion. Everything good about it is squandered by poor craftsmanship, and in its current state it should be avoided at all costs.