Game review 23 October 2019, 21:00

author: Bart Swiatek

Crossroads Inn Review – in Desperate Need of Gordon Ramsey

Crossroads Inn is a production from Warsaw-based Kraken Unleashed Studio, which brings an original gameplay formula – it puts the player in the role of the manager of an inn located by the key trade route in the fantasy world of Delcrys.

The review is based on the PC version.

Adventure time! Once again, we get a fantasy world, where we can grab a sword, torch or a magic staff, and plunder, burn and... wait, why are you giving me a broom and a rag? What do you mean I have to clean up this stain and order a keg of beer? What "customers?" I'm a hero, Goddamn it! A slayer of necromancers and demons! Not some... innkeeper! Wait, what? What do you mean I'm not?

Well, not really, at least not in the game conceived by the Warsaw-based Kraken Unleashed Studio. The developers created a fantasy game, in which our main task will not be killing virgins and rescuing dragons, but rather managing an inn, where peasants are looking for a mug of beer, nobles for some fun, travelers for a warm bed, and criminals for a chance to nick a gold purse. That's all. But that's also a lot, contrary to what you might think – after all, we all know how important innkeepers are. Did the developers manage to achieve their goals? Unfortunately – not quite, but this production is worth a look if you just like economic strategies and have a bit of patience. Okay, a lot of patience.

From zero to innkeeper

The basis of gameplay in Crossroads Inn seems to be quite simple – it's a combination of classic economic strategy with something that resembles a simplified version of... The Sims. We start the game by building and furnishing the establishment, and the selection of options and decorations is quite rich, with the editor giving players extensive possibilities in terms of realizing their architectural fantasies.

Once the inn is built, we have to make sure it doesn't run out of all the necessary things, such as alcohol, food ingredients, lamp oil, firewood, or candles. We buy these goods from merchants in local settlements, and it’s important not only to find the best offer, but analyze all remaining costs – we pay for transport, so it's usually more profitable to buy wholesale – however, our budget often doesn't allow that. It's necessary to find a healthy balance between all current needs, and plan for the future, which should lead to greater savings.

The perils of gastronomy

Our responsibilities also include management of personnel. Initially, the story campaign gives us control over just a single person, but we soon get the opportunity of expanding the team, and, over time, we're also able to recruit characters that offer special services. All the characters were described with a range of feats (such as loyal, lazy, or energetic) and may belong to one of several roles, specializing in various duties required at the inn. A local muscle will be very useful for chopping wood and carrying heavy stuff, he may also sweep the floor, but don't expect him to be great with serving the customers, or overhearing valuable tidbits and gossip (there's a nice mechanic here – the rumors are a currency, which you can use for various purposes, such as getting better prices, recruiting a valuable employee, or prolonging a bank loan).

The skills of the employees develop over time, as do our avatar's abilities – meeting campaign goals unlocks points, which can be invested in the development tree. This gives us access to new services and capabilities. From time to time, we talk to NPCs, developing our rhetoric skills – and it's worth noting that the dialogues are often extremely useful for the operation of the inn.

In practice, the staff management system is rather passive. We can't give direct commands, although we can initiate or stop a break, praise or scold them, and give them a bonus (to increase morale). As a rule, however, we only prioritize tasks that need to be done, and indicate which rooms need attention first. If you get it right, the inn runs like a fine Swiss watch. Unfortunately, this is not always the case (more on this later).

The level of complexity and diversification of the strategic layer is really great. For example, guests are divided into categories – they have different preferences regarding the decor of the rooms and dishes, and even have a preference regarding the level of ambient lighting in the rooms (criminals prefer shadows, while others aren't comfortable without enough light). We can also hire town-criers that will advertise our place, and look for adventurers who can complete some special tasks we have, offering certain bonuses. Everything works well, and the game can be really engrossing if you don't mind the kind of productions, where you passively observe the characters execute your orders.

(Excessive) home Kingdom

"Crossroads Inn is a real time management sim set in an original fantasy world of Delcrys" – proudly reads the description on the game tab on Steam. Having read that, I was expecting Delcrys to be vibrant place full of attractions that would complement the complex and thoughtful mechanics. I imagined wandering magicians, frequent random events, interesting details, and brawling daredevils. Unfortunately, in practice, the "fairy land", turns out quite boring, void of firm character, and resembling a completely default medieval setting. I honestly expected the devs to make the most of such a setting. Special events that appear from time to time, are unfortunately not so frequent as to ward off a sense of monotony that slowly but steadily creeps into the game.

In other words, the story campaign is rather tentative. The ruler of the largest of the surrounding kingdoms called Yorevale, dies. Since he leaves no heir to the throne (his children parted the world in unclear circumstances), the king's successor has to be determined by election. Several powerful personalities compete for the crown (they're all cartoonishly exaggerated, which I didn't like a lot), and we enact the owner of the Inn – a young man with unclear origins, who will play a very important role in these events. Right at the beginning, we understands that this story won't be one to remember. However, it does work well as an additional incentive that motivates the development of the inn and gives us concrete tasks to accomplish. I think the entire game would benefit from it, if the devs allowed the players to discover some of the things themselves during the game – such as the identity of the protagonist – which was revealed way back, right at the start of the crowdfunding campaign – prematurely, if you ask me.

The game also has a sandbox mode with several levels of difficulty. It should please those of you, who prefer complete freedom and don't need a plot to have fun with running things on a strategic level.

Decent views and familiar sounds

The audiovisual design is certainly one of the game's strengths. There's no fireworks in terms of visuals – there's not a great variety of character models, and an the color palette seems a bit dull, but that's nitpicking. Overall, the inn looks really nice, and setting things in motion is very satisfying. If you go to the graphics options, you'll be able to check an option that draws a thick, black lining around objects and characters, which gives the game a slightly cartoonish look. It's a matter of personal preference, but I opted for playing without it.

The sound design is also great, particularly the soundtrack was fun – it was actually composed by the same man who made music for both The Witcher 3 and the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, i.e. Marcin Przybylowicz. The original score isn't very long in total, but the songs are really fit for the atmosphere. Some are really catchy. Check it out:

It's too bad that, at least some of, the characters aren't voiced. This could do wonders for the immersion, but I understand that it wasn't viable financially.

Worms, rats and stains

Maggots, rats, oily stains – that's the bread and butter in every (dis)reputable inn, and it's not different here. The game comes short in terms of worldbuilding, but the foundations are solid, and you really can have a lot of fun. Unfortunately, this impression is disrupted by some of the annoying glitches, mostly related to the behavior of our employees.

Characters regularly got stuck on environmental objects – even when provided with adequate space to move around. I also noticed a few times the NPCs tried to fill the lamps with oil while standing on the other side of the wall from the lamp. The characters would often become stuck for good – reloading the game wouldn't help, and so I had to load an older save. You probably know how irksome that can be. At one point, about 80% of my staff were stuck in one place or another, unable to do anything, and meanwhile, the inn was full of guests in desperate need of fixing a drink. Worse still, most of them didn't get any rest at all, and I had to pay them back. I have no idea what the reason for this strike was, but fortunately restarting the game helped in this case.

Finally, I've also heard reports of problems with localizations of the game. The devs promised a German and Polish version to become available soon (it's likely that both are already up as you're reading this).

Which is the best inn in the village?

I would love to solemnly recommend this game – there's just something about it that makes you want to come back, and the hours go by unnoticed, one by one. But I can’t really do it – mostly because the setting is so bland, the potential of it utterly wasted. Then, there are the issues with movement of characters. However, if you like economic strategies and your stats include a lot of patience, it's worth giving Crossroads Inn a shot. It's a solid game that just needs a few patches to become a really compelling experience.