Adventurer Manage is part RPG and part management simulator. You are the new King of Adventuria, inheriting the position after both your parents were murdered by the hands of the evil Illusionist Miraj. You are tasked with hiring local adventurers to form parties, and send them out on adventures to regain the loyalty of the various races in the realm.
Adventurer Manager is an Early Access game now available on Steam. If you are not familiar with the Early Access concept, it essentially means that the game is still in a state of active development, like an Alpha or Beta version. An Early Access game may be anywhere between a near unplayable state to a mostly finished game that needs some polish and bug fixes. Adventurer Manager is a playable game that is missing some non-vital features that will be added further into development.
Unlike most RPG games where you play the part of one of the characters actually exploring and adventuring, you oversee it all, as going on adventures would be far too risky for a King. You start the game with the ability to hire adventures to form a party from a selection of four classes; Warrior, Rogue, Cleric and Wizard. An additional three classes; Barbarian, Paladin and Monk will be added in the near future. As with any RPG, these classes have different strengths and weaknesses, Warriors and Rogues usually for front line attacks, Wizards and Clerics behind them providing support. As you progress through the game, you unlock more parties and can send them all out on adventures simultaneously.
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You have two options in the type of adventure you want to send a party to; an automatic or manual exploration. If you choose automatic, then once you send a party on their way, there is no further involvement required from you until the party returns from the adventure. The adventure is automatically undertaken and can last from a few seconds to minutes, you can sit back and wait or get on with other tasks such as organising another party or the second option which is a manual explore. Choosing the manual explore allows you to directly control the party on the adventure. Not every adventure can be manually explored, each area will have the main and side quest for manual, and several automatic to choose from. The adventures have some often funny titles such as the Toilet of Apocalypse and Mattress of Patronising.
The manual option is much more fun than automatic. In fact, when starting the game I suggest going straight for this option otherwise it makes the game feel like a massive grind fest. This way you get to play the game as in deciding which room to explore next, and when in combat you chose what each member should do. Combat is turn based and you have the usual options available. Each party member can choose to attack, defend or perform a skill. The character initially starts off with one skill depending on their class, so for example a warrior can bash an enemy and stun them for a round, while a cleric can heal a character. Each skill takes a number of turns to ‘cool off’ before it can be used again. Additional skills and enhancements to skills are unlocked as the character levels up.
Your characters gain more experience and loot in manual than they would in automatic. This is why the game feels less of a grind when you take control instead of sending them off on automatic missions. You gain a lot more loot doing this, and it can be equipped on characters or sold to the local town store. The variety of equipment is varied with weapons, shields, armour and jewelry, these come in different levels, rarity and buffs. Worn equipment visually changes your character which is always a nice feature.
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As mentioned, playing the game in automatic explore from the start of the game turns it in to a grind. However, when you unlock a second party later in the game, it becomes more necessary. Juggling two parties in manual explore is time-consuming, so you can send one off on auto while you take control of another. On later stages it can take several minutes to finish an adventure on auto, so use the time efficiently and you can level up all parties at a good rate. It is here where the management part of the game starts to become clear as you tweak your parties for the best combinations. Bonuses are awarded for party combinations such as an all male or female party, having one of each class or funny combinations. Finding these out is a lot of fun!
A lot of features are planned for future which covers all aspects of the game including new classes, skills, salaries and injuries for the adventures. For the game in general is where the most interesting features may be coming such as a crafting system, more castle upgrades, side quests and loot. There is an impressive list and I can’t wait to see it all added.
As it stands, Adventurer Manager is a fully playable game. As more features are added over the development period, I can only see the game getting better and better. The start of the game can feel a little stale at times, but once you complete the second area and have your characters leveling up there is a lot of fun finding the best combinations for equipment and characters. I definitely recommend checking the game out if you are an RPG fan who doesn’t mind getting really stuck in with the management side of such games.
We do not give scores for Early Access games, but we may re-review the game or update this article with scores when the game is complete. You can find out more information on Adventurer Manager via the homepage at va-studios.com and purchase it from Steam here.
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