Operencia: The Stolen Sun a game for curious completionists who value substance over style

When you push past the distinctly 2007-esque feel of Operencia: The Stolen Sun, with its budget music, inexperienced voice actors, and vaguely inappropriate scripting, this game is made for completionists who value substance over style.

You really don’t hear a lot about Hungarian folktales, and that’s one of the things that makes Operencia: The Stolen Sun so special.

Hungarian studio, Zen Games have largely specialised in making pinball games since 2003, which is why their seemingly sudden decision to make a first-person dungeon-crawling RPG came out of left field for a lot of people. But anyone who plays the game will be able to feel the love, care and passion that went into it.

Let’s be realistic, this is an indie game, made by a relatively small studio. It has a distinctly 2007-esque feel to it, and there is a lot lacking if you were to try and compare it to a game with a bigger budget and more resources.

For example, the music sounds exactly like what everyone thinks of when they try to conjure the sound of a game of D&D in a basement in 1987.

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Operencia: The Stolen Sun is an indie game, made by a relatively small studio.

Then there’s the inexperienced-sounding voice actors — the man who plays King Attila in the beginning sounds like an indulgent father reading you a story book (though, the shoddy writing and thinly veiled innuendo between him and the queen make you hope that indulgent father isn’t reading to a child).

That’s not to mention the overall clunky-ness of the movement. This game was clearly designed for PC, and doesn’t play particularly well on a big-screen TV.

But, put that all aside, because once you push through, create your character and go on the real quest — that’s when you start to care about this world and those who inhabit it.

This game was obviously borne from a love of tabletop RPGs, and that vibe of playing someone else’s tabletop campaign goes to the end.

Aside from that, this game is made for completionists with patience, and those who don’t mind going back to replay sections to explore after gaining new powers.

This is a game for the curious and those who value substance and concepts over style and execution.

Bottom line: If you love tabletop RPGs and won’t be able to meet up with your DM for a while, or want to experience a game that happens in the theatre of the mind, without using any imagination, this is worth a go.

Operencia: The Stolen Sun

Overall: 3/5

Available now on: Xbox One, PC

Price: $29.99 (or included in Xbox Game Pass)

Reviewed on: Xbox One S

Out now.