A brutal story RPG beat the save scumming out of me

It had been a tough couple of rounds for my clan of doomed horse Vikings. The world-shattering war between the gods and chaos now blotted out the sun. The heroes questing for the royal regalia were missing, presumed eaten by druids. All of our goats had gone insane. At least I had sacrificed enough to send my God Talkers on a divine petition to maybe, just maybe, persuade them to prevent another famine. Then a random event informed me that the devil Wakboth World Ruin had just sucker punched our elder god of language out of the sky — wiping out them along with my biggest ally (whom they landed on) and the literal concept of words.

I was, to quote my senior priest, “ivivm frrrrrl screwed.” But something hit me even harder than Wakboth’s gross serpent fist: at no point during this cursed streak of bad luck had I felt that familiar compulsion to start over.

Do you, like me, suffer from save scum-itis? Is your finger worn to a stump from smashing the F9 key every time you miss a 95 percent chance shot? Do you Groundhog Day your way through every dialog tree outcome until the loading screen tooltips are burned onto your retinas? Then Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out might be the cure. In this choose-your-own-Ragnarok strategy RPG, you lead a tribe of Bronze Age barbarians through an ancient world of myth, magic, and making sure you have more cattle than your neighbours. But unlike its predecessor, Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind, or its ancient ancestor, 1999’s King of Dragon Pass, you won’t be spending your time in Glorantha honour raiding the chariot-people or seducing river dragons. Instead, you’re in a desperate struggle for survival, as the world is dying and your gods have abandoned you.

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