Recent reviews by Candesco

First of all a little warning: this ain't the same like Legend of Grimrock, an other indie title where you can set up a party. You don't move the characters yourself here. It's more like the Eador games, in terms of gameplay. With the exception that this is a rpg (eador is strategy). So expect here alot of interactive pages instead of a world where you can move yourself. It's more a visual novel with some mechanics (like equip stuff). If interactive pages bothers you and you rather want to make the action yourself, then skip this game.

Loren is at first sight an interesting game. Rather then the hero itself you take the role of a servant (or more a slave actually)
That will be either a human male or an elven female. After you have chosen one of those you then choose a class. A little complaint here. You can choose between warrior or thief. No option of chosing a mage, which is a bummer.
You can then go to the castle or shop already, but main thing is the saving of the queen. So you soon leave. That's where the story begins then. It is divided into acts. You first begin in act I and the mainquest is saving queen karen. There are sometimes also some sidequests and you will also run into random encounters (which i know myself from neverwinter nights II). You also meet other people on your way and some of them will join your party. A good thing i find is the choices you have to made. At a certain moment you got into trouble and 2 partymembers offer each a solution. So which way do you go?
The choice changes how the story will continue. You will encounter this more. Often there is also an option of how you will react on a situation. You then have the choice of joking, friendly and forceful. Sometimes also romance, which happens often at places where a bed is (tavern for example). It reminds indeed a bit to the later action games like Mass Effect.
And although it are only 3 options the outcome is different. I don't agree that this is tedious. It's just part of the game. That it doesn't always turn well makes it more interesting.
Going to the next destination goes through a map, which reminds to neverwinter nights or the king's bounty games. But here you also have the option to going to a camp. At the camp you can talk with your party, including your master. This is actually very similar to the taverns in NWN or the campsite in Dragon Age:Origins.
The combat here goes in turns, much like the King's Bounty games, only you don't have here a field. Instead just a page.
There is one thing that bothers me. The claim of being hardcore and keeping old school rpg's alive with this game is a bold claim and also not true. Don't get me wrong, Loren the amazon princess is quite a fun game. But it's not the same like alltime classics as Planescape:Torment and Baldur's Gate. it's even not the same as Neverwinter Nights or Legend of grimrock.
It ain't much hardcore. Still, i don't think that casual players will like it, as it ain't casual either. You have to think sometimes, especially when it comes to fighting. And probably casual players don't like numbers and that you have to allocate them.
If it's worth it's price? From what i see so far i think so. And it's cheaper here on steam then on the site of the developer, which ask €5 more. I think €19 ain't bad, if you keep in mind that Eador: Master's of the broken world is also around that price and managing games like Football Manager from sports interactive cost even triple the price, while that one is just spreadsheets.