Baroque is flawed but can be enjoyable

by Jon Erik Ariza

Fun factor: Average

Worth to: Rent

A misunderstood dungeon crawler with a unique approach to storytelling and a few graphical and gameplay inadequacies.

Baroque is a unique game and a difficult one to understand, which is likely the reason it has gotten the mixed reception that it has. Most people come into Baroque expecting an action-role playing game which puts them into a certain mindset -- the exact opposite mindset needed to understand the game, quite frankly. Baroque is strange on just about every level and often presses the line between bad design and unusual intent.

A misunderstood soul

To begin, Baroque has more in common with the Mystery Dungeon games than it does with any traditional one as your death basically resets the game for you, sending you back to the first floor and starting back at level 1. Fortunately, you are able to save at each floor. Yes, there is experience to gain and there are levels to work towards but the game isn’t about grinding to beat the boss. It’s more about just killing enemies for their item drops and hoping to make it to the next floor of the dungeon. This is where Baroque will lose a lot of fans. Most people simply are not used to this rogue-like dungeon crawling.



When you are told that Baroque is an action RPG, you’re expecting to level up your character, equip him with the best stuff and plow through the bosses, and while this is somewhat true, it is also looking at this game the wrong way. The mindset necessary to enjoy the game is something more akin to Gears of War 2’s Horde mode. The point of the game is more about survival than it is linear progression.

Can you handle the mosaic of plots?

The main challenge of Baroque is to get to the next floor of a tower. Each floor is randomly generated and filled with all sorts of creatures to impede your search for the exit. Further emphasizing the survival aspect of the game, you are given two meters. One is the typical HP meter common in just about every RPG and the other is a Stamina meter which constantly depletes while you explore the dungeon. After your stamina is depleted your HP will deplete, so you’re pretty much fighting against the clock the whole time. Fortunately, both HP and stamina can be refilled with items.

Possibly the most divisive element of Baroque is the manner in which its story progresses. Your nameless character finds himself in a world that is only a shadow of its former self. Ravaged by an incredible calamity known as “The Blaze”, not only has the world been decimated, but so has reality itself. As a result, people’s bodies have begun to distort and change to reflect their psychological “ticks”, in this world referred to as Baroques. With no memories of his own, your protagonist is charged by the Archangel to descend the Neuro Tower and correct the sins you have committed. What these sins are, you are only given vague hints and that is true for the majority of the narrative in the game.



Many reviews cite this lack of clarity as a flaw, but I consider its veil of mystery part of the game’s mise-en-scène. You are not playing this game to be told a story, you are playing it to become the protagonist and slowly recover pieces of your memory, which may or may not unfold into a single, coherent tale. Baroque’s narrative is truly a non-linear experience, unlike what is typically considered non-linear, which is a linear story with breaks in between scenes to let you go do other stuff. No, practically all of the game’s narrative threads are optional.

Weak gameplay but still enjoyable

During your descent of the tower, you may encounter characters which may reveal something, however cryptic; you may die and have a fragment of your memory returned; you may not speak or see anything as you descend the tower, or you may see a character or scene more than once. Baroque’s narrative is more a discovery of context as all the plot points you find do not reveal a single linear story but a hazy collection of events, exchanges, and even confrontations. It’s a daring experiment, and not one that everyone will be able to digest well.

As fascinating as the game’s approach may be, other portions of the game are far less impressive. The graphics are pretty much a direct port of the PS2 version, and for a PS2 game they are not very impressive. The randomly generated dungeons lack personality as they are made up of pre-built parts that are repeated ad nauseum. The combat system is downright primitive and consists of a regular attack, a charged attack, and a special attack which can be chained into slow, extremely limited combos and there is no block, or jump.



Still, the combat system is not a total loss as you are able to throw almost any item in your inventory, including equipment, for damage, and many items have special effects when thrown. You are able to brand yourself and items for additional effects, as well as fuse yourself and items with parasites that further augment your abilities. Torturers are special items that have a variety of effects and can do anything from generating a wave of fire, summoning all enemies on the floor into your room or even healing you, which you will definitely need as you journey through Neuro Tower.

Summary

Baroque is simply a unique game; call it niche if you wish. The genre -- the rogue-like dungeon crawler -- is not the type of game that many people are drawn to. The story itself is vague and is conveyed in a fashion that has rarely, if ever, been attempted. On a more basic level, the game is lacking as combat, graphics, and movement feel primitive, but primitive they may be, they still function enough to let the game’s more unique elements shine through.