战斗的难度在背景设定中就有直接体现。你不能说这个世界是残酷无情的，然后允许玩家轻轻松松杀掉每一个自己看不顺眼的人。游戏必须是困难的，死亡再寻常不过。玩家在应敌的时候必须思考这场仗要不要打。

Combat difficulty is integrated into the setting. You can't say that the world is harsh and unforgiving and then allow the player to kill everyone who looks at him or her funny. The game has to be hard, dying should be easy, and you should have reasons to pick your fights.

Vince D. Weller
《颓废年代》制作人

Vince D. Weller,
Age of Decadence's creator

遗憾的是，对话和环境方面的挑战就不如战斗系统那样优秀了。《颓废年代》会犯许多其他 RPG 游戏的通病：你可以直接选择标有特定技能的对话选项^[2] ，而导致玩家很少真正关注游戏文本。

在大多数 RPG 游戏中，就算对话技能检定失败了，也只会让你进入一场小战斗，并不需要足够技能就能获胜。与之相反的是，在《颓废年代》中，你很有可能在对话当中就被直接杀死，被弹出到主菜单加载存档或创建一个新角色。有时游戏也会把你扔进一场对你当前的角色等级来说绝对不可能战胜的战斗。在这一点上，游戏是有些令人沮丧的，但是换一个角度想，这款游戏也是残酷且冰冷到令人心服口服——就算你会崩溃绝望，世界也不会为此屈就你。

对话系统的缺点实际上是所有 RPG 游戏中都存在的设计缺陷。当然，这也有好的一面，因为有多种方式可以和平地完成很多任务。实际上，这也是《颓废年代》的优点之一，让玩家有机会扮演一个“嘴炮角色”，在整个游戏中不进入一场战斗。

你的一些选择也会产生长远的后果，比如背叛一个派系而加入另一个派系，或者谋划改变某个派系的老大（这都会影响到以后的任务，因为新老大可能会关注新的东西。）

Sadly, the same cannot be said for environmental challenges and dialogue. Often, they fall into the trap so many other RPGs fall into: you can simply pick the options with the [tags of] skills you have invested in, rarely needing to actually read the text.

In most RPGs, failing a dialogue skill check will simply put you into a combat that anyone with moderate skill can beat. Instead, AoD will just kill you mid-dialogue and send you to the main menu to reload or make a new character; sometimes it might also throw you into a fight that's absolutely impossible for your build. In some ways this is frustrating, in others it's pleasantly brutal and unapologetic – the world will not bend to keep you from breaking.

The sins of the dialogue gameplay are really just the same designs flaws essentially all RPG dialogue suffers from. There are, of course, good parts, as there are multiple ways to resolve many quests peacefully. In fact, that's one of AoD's strengths, as it's possible to play pure “talking characters”, going through the entire game without ever entering combat.

Some of your choices will also have long-lasting consequences, such as betraying a faction and joining another, or scheming to change the leader of a faction (which changes later quests as they are not likely to have the same agenda).

Iron Tower 使用《颓废年代》的开发资源和战斗系统（现在还加入了队伍系统）来开发《地牢鼠辈（Dungeon Rats）》。这是一款于 2016 年发布的以战斗为核心的 RPG 游戏。

Iron Tower used Age of Decadence's assets and combat system (now with party members) to develop Dungeon Rats, a combat-focused RPG released in 2016.

对话设计的一个有趣的点是，你可以使用对话来进行“传送”从而减少跑路。你经常能在对话中选择立即去找你的目标人物地点。如果这在剧情中是合理的，你甚至会强行传送。有时这可能会让你觉得你被游戏所干预，但实际上是巧妙地移除了你被干预的错觉。

一般来说，首次玩《颓废年代》所产生的疑问会多过你在游戏中得到的答案。每个角色通常会加入六^[3] 个派系中的一个，然后负责使事情向着有利于该派系的方向发展。然而，即使没有玩家，事情同样会发生，同时了解事情的前因后果同样也需要游玩其它的派系。

在这些派系中，有一个是专门为“嘴炮角色”所设计的，有两个非常注重战斗，而其余派系一般会允许精通两种技巧的玩家都能通关，只要你做出正确的选择，来支持谁和背叛谁。

《颓废年代》经常会让人感到沮丧，费解且处处受到掣肘。但是凭借着出色的战斗系统和让你可以选择自己想要进行的冒险的对话，它让你体验到战斗以外的有趣部分，整体来说依然是一款非常好玩的 RPG 游戏。无论如何，它值得一玩，因为它摒弃了许多根深蒂固的设计惯例，并提供了可行的替代方案。

An interesting part of the dialogue design is the frequent use of “teleports” to reduce walking around. You're routinely offered the option to just immediately go to the person/place that is your goal. If it makes sense in the story, you may even be forced to do so. Sometimes it may feel like you don't have agency, but it's mostly just removing the illusion of agency.

In general, a single playthrough of AoD will create more questions than it answers. Each character will typically join one of the six major factions and then be responsible for making events unfold in favour of that faction. However, events will occur even without the player, and learning the reasons behind them will require playing other factions as well.

Of the factions, one is dedicated to pure talking characters, two focus heavily on combat while the remainder generally allow for both types of characters to get through as long as you make the right choices of who to support and who to betray.

Age of Decadence is frequently frustrating, obtuse and a bit constricting. But, with an excellent combat system and Choose Your Own Adventure dialogues that often present interesting non-combat gameplay, it's also a very good RPG. Regardless, it's worth playing simply because it ignores many deeply ingrained design conventions and offers viable alternatives.

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² 译者注：许多 RPG 游戏会在对话上标有技能，意味这个对话会触发对于特定技能的检定。
³ 译者注：游戏中应该是有七个不同的派系，这里疑似作者笔误。