Pendragon, fiction and roguelike | Review

Roguelike, turn-based strategy and a strong narrative imprint: as odd as it may seem, this is precisely the mix behind Pendragon, the new title of Inkle, a studio famous for Heaven's Vault and 80 Days, which rests its foundations on the myth of king Arthur and the events of the knights of the round table. A fascinating setting, accompanied by a disruptive style, which promises to give hours and hours of play to all those who give it a chance and will have the desire and patience to immerse themselves in the mountain of lines of dialogue drawn up for the occasion. But is it really worth it?

We reviewed the game with the following PC:

GPU: RTX 2070 Gigabyte MOBO: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-F RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB DDR4 3200MHz CPU: Intel i5 8600k SSD: Sabrent SSD 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Keyboard: Corsair K70 LUX Red LED Cherry MX Brown Mouse: Fnatic Flick 2 Headphone: Logitech G930 Monitor: Samsung C27HG 70 Quad HD 144Hz HDR

To the rescue of Arthur

Just like Inkle's previous titles, also in Pendragon the narrative aspect takes the stage, with this peculiar roguelike that tells us about the last days of the Arthurian myth. The evil Sir Mordred has in fact set fire to the lands of Albion, putting the brave King Arthur in check. A decidedly hot situation, which we will be called to resolve in the role of some of the most famous characters of the events of the knights of the round table, such as Lancelot, Geneva, Morgana and many others.

Based on the character we decide to play in our adventure, but not only on that, Pendragon's events will unfold in a different way, weaving synopses that are always different but equally interesting. It is impressive, in fact, how Kyle has managed to embody such a long series of facts and events, in a narrative framework that never creaks and manages to prove to be up to any direction we take in the numerous crossroads that will appear in front of us in Pendragon. br>
This preponderance of the narrative also affects the actual gameplay of the title, which more than willingly bends to the needs and requirements of the plot. More than once, during the turn-based fights that we will talk about shortly, our movements have in fact been interrupted by some dialogue or reflection, which can sometimes even change in the course of work what is the continuation of our game.

Pendragon: between squares and knights

Unfortunately, the goodness of these aspects cannot be found in the more playful phases of the title, with Pendragon's turn-based strategy sector it is botched and far too simplistic. Each mission will in fact take place in a small patch of land, consisting of a maximum of a few dozen squares, with our goal being to get to the opposite end of our starting area or to defeat every threat on the battlefield. Threats that can be eliminated, as well as the members of our party, with a single attack, with the skirmishes of Pendragon that end up looking like a simplified version of the game of chess. There is obviously no lack of various powers and abilities, but it is undeniable that the core of Inkle's last effort is definitely to be found elsewhere.

In addition to these more eventful phases, Pendragon also has some small survival features, such as the need to manage the hunger, morale and rest of our characters, and a more exploratory section, where between a combat and the other we will be called to plan our journey in a polychromatic map.

A constant of all these phases is the disruptive aesthetic aspect, without a shadow of a doubt one of the greatest strengths of the production. Pendragon looks like a stained glass window in a moving cathedral, an incredible exercise in style as well as a beautiful explosion of colors. The images accompanying this review, after all, do not lie. Finally, the sound aspect is also very good, especially for the rendering of environmental noises such as rain, which contribute to increasing the player's identification.