I am a beta tester and max level patron, here is my review.

What to expect: The spiritual heir to Fallout 1, in Rome - Extrordinary praise.

Vagrus clearly was born out of decades of actual gaming. It is not a product, it is an honest to god labor of love. In a world where video games are commodities to be "assembled" and sold, Vagrus might be the realest fantasy game you ever play. Give it a try, you might lose yourself in it.

I recommend Vagrus without reservation, but bear the following in mind.

Main Points:
1. Immersion is superb, dialogue is poor. For writing, set your sights to 4/10 and let it wow you.
2. Not woke.
3. Moderate learning curve, then you glide and the game slaps.
4. Indie game visuals - Has visionary beauty but also some New Grounds Flash art.
5. Occasional minor UI bugs, just reload.

Overall: If you like fantasy, love to read, and do not mind a minor bout of struggling to learn, you should give Vagrus a try.

To the Devs, one writer and GM to another, I admire you. Your courage, persistance, and love. I was recently really sick and pretty much straight binged Vagrus. Thank you for this. The game has grown well over the last few years. Good luck, good health. Lets see where Vagrus goes!


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Also to the Devs.
All of these are your choices in your world. These are my feelings. You dont need to explain to me.

I cannot put my finger on it but the game does not feel especially "Post Apoc" or "Roman." In fallout there is an increadible juxtaposition between ancient treasures of plasma and power armor confronting the world of savagery and abandonment. "The Ancient Flame of the old world" is a constant pervasive theme. You don't know where, but somewhere the old world is alive and you can find it. Consider the level "The Glow" in fallout 1. (In my opinion, The Glow, in proper context, is the best mission in the fallout canon) You enter the glow, you solve the horrible puzzles of the ancient world that you barely understand and you leave a changed man, in armament and in knowledge. You knew exactly their power, what they were working on, what and why they dreamed, and you returned with a small, yet very real ember of the ancient world in your hands.

At no point in Vagrus does your character ever really "Get your hands on" the old world in knowledge or in equipment. The Sunken Tower is entirely obtuse, You leave knowing nothing concrete. Aside from Salt Mine I cannot think of any wonderous, *grand* things the old world was dreaming to *actually* do, how they planned to do it, andwhy. Nothing... wonderous. and the [Mine with Dragons] (though superb) leaves you with nothing in your hands. Its in no way personal, its just a show. "We built a grand college to study.... magical stuff" Ok.... like what were you gunna do at the college though? Did you have a grand plan to build a steam space ship and colonize the galaxy? An magical self-building acquaduct? Did the ancient empire do anything amazing? What were their dreams? ... what was lost? What were the Empire's leaders on the cusp of accomplishing when it all went to ♥♥♥♥?

The ancient romans IRL had some pretty nifty tech, clockwork, steam engines, chemicals we still dont understand. Magical Romans would have full golem armor, flying armor, "UFOs", "Plasma" rifles, Sentient Armor, clockwork tanks, Crystals doing unimaginable things, I was really hoping for a "The Glow" moment in Vagrus and it did not come, though [dragon mine] was amazing. In vagrus, as opposed to fallout, the old world is truly, for the character, gone. It is a blurry, already looted haze. The Reaver's Tectum dungeon though virgin, did not have any high fantasy magical relics (for me), no martial wonders. All of these are your choices in your world. These are my feelings.

Furthermore, with the Apoc, there is no apparent "Jury Rigging" in Vagrus. Maybe the setting is wrong. But There is not much "strapped together" stuff in vagrus. The tribals do not seem to use any ancient stuff in unusual ways as in other apocs. Obviously, theres a dozen reasons for this. But aside from some statues, elven ruins, and some intense story telling you do not really ever visually see the apoc. There is no rivet city, Barter Town. I know its been a millenia, but it largely feels like its gone.

Lastly, I wanted to say... in my opinion it doesnt feel... roman. ...All of these are your choices in your world. These are my feelings. You dont need to explain to me. ... Putting aside the DLC where you go to turkey, Perhaps 40% of the game you are running around with tribals in the desert. I dont feel I interact with any distiantly roman vibes. Politicians, Imperial Legions... etc. The questline with The Reaver's Questline was an amazing taste of what I am hungering for. Maybe you are not going for rome-punk. Fine. I think its your biggest untapped vein.

I guess I hope you do a Xeryn (Thats the imperial capital right? or am I mistaken and thats the name of the emperor?) DLC or something and knock it all out of the park. Hopes, dreams, and loot of the old world. Perhaps in a perfect world you do a perfect hydra DLC that tackles the emperor, his best men vs the apostles and also tie in the dreaming elf queen?

Maybe in the next life haha. Cheers. Thanks again for your dedication to your game, guys.

TL:DR - Vagrus is 60% choose your own adventure book, 30% trade simulator, and 10% turn based rpg. A desolate dark fantasy world filled with elves, dwarves, orcs, mutants, and dinosaurs, the writing draws you into the story in a way often reserved for full length novels.

The game play loop consists of 4 main parts. Move on the over world map ->camp to manage your caravan -> enter a location-> Buy/Sell trade goods, explore, Pickup Quests -> Back to the over world map and onto the next location.

In between these there will be branching quest lines, random events, tactic battles against outlaws/beasts. You slowly begin to learn the trade routes that are profitable, leveling your character, and begin assembling a band of misfit companions each with their own lengthy story line to follow. As the game warns the first few runs will likely end in a death-spiral as you learn to manage your caravan stats and funds to reach the next milestone. Overextending often leads to starving in the desert wastes or your crew revolting, ending your run. However once the core gameplay loop clicks, the game shows its full potential with a base game that can easily take 60 hours to complete, and while portions of the map are locked this is slowly being addressed with content DLC. The most recent of which, Sunfire and Moonshadow, adds another 30 hours of content for the main story alone.

The Pros -
-Writing
-World building
-A core loop that will keep you going back saying "Just one more turn."
-If you love reading then this is pro because there is ALOT of it.

The Cons -
-Minor UI bugs when playing on Steamdeck.
-Sound in game is very minimal, what is here works well but quantity does not match the extensiveness of the game.
-If you hate reading then this is con because there is ALOT of it.

SteamDeck Users:
I played this game from start to finish on handheld. With its presentation being mostly text based, the battery life on deck was phenomenal and aside from the occasional UI bug, the experience was everything I could have hoped for in a handheld game.

yes.