14 DAY TRIAL // 
We have herds of more than 700 cattle and more than double the sheep, with about 150 horses also available in the herds. But the tribe can also count on less than one season’s worth of food in the stockpile, which probably means that we will soon have to sacrifice some of the herds to make sure people have enough to eat.
I’m more worried about our lack of magic, which can have severe consequences if some is needed in a coming event or if we get attacked. I use the Venture system to organize a hunt, which should help with our food stores. And I brace myself for the next event. It’s ghouls, demanding access to our dead, although we cremate them. I choose to send a war party to attack them, which means five of my swordsmen get injured.
It’s a relatively small price to pay, in this time of disappearing gods and rising chaos. It’s now Sacred Time and the tribe needs to decide how to invest magic. I focus on the fields and the pastures because we need food. I keep three magic in reserve, ready for the unexpected, and put a full two into diplomacy as I prepare emissaries to contact other tribes and try to create strong alliances for this uncertain time. Humans need to close ranks when the gods stop answering.
Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out is developed by A Sharp, with publishing from Kitfox Games. I played on the PC using Steam. A version of the game will also be offered on the App Store. The title mixes storytelling, strategy, decisions, and role-playing elements.
Gamers are taken to a fantasy world, the kind where the tech level is that of Bronze Age humanity, but people fully believe in their gods that manifest their will and magic is real. The first game in the franchise was about a tribe that could prosper in the mythical world of Glorantha. The sequel starts off by telling players about the coming apocalypse and only slightly moderates the gloom and doom to suggest that one tribe might have a shot at rebuilding once the cataclysm is over.
Six Ages 2 is mostly driven by events and involves a lot of reading. Gamers have to carefully consider the information they get from the text before making their choice, while also taking into account the general state of their tribe. This mythical universe has its own pantheon and complex history. It takes some time to get a handle on it all. The quality of the writing is solid, designed to appeal to players who love low fantasy universes with unique ideas. And the quantity of events means the game has variety and replay value.
Mechanically, Lights Going Out is not different from its predecessor. Gamers will first choose the backstory for the world and their tribe, then gain control over it. There are temples to build and rituals to enact. Players can choose to send diplomatic missions to other tribes, use caravans to trade, or simply employ steel and magic to raid them for resources or simply to kill as many as possible. During Sacred Time, magical resources get allocated, and ventures allow the tribe to focus its energies on certain activities.
As seasons pass, events arrive. They present a variety of dilemmas, ranging from undead attacks to noble disputes to interactions with the gods. There aren’t right or wrong decisions and it’s often hard to choose what or who to sacrifice for the good of the tribe. Ambiguity is built into the experience, but Six Ages 2 should do a better job of showing players the consequences of their actions.
There’s constant pressure to get extra food, find ways to increase magic, and contact the gods that are still willing to talk to humans. It’s impossible to fix this world and pretty hard to keep one tribe from disappearing. Doing the right thing is often a bad idea because it gets men killed or leads to losses that simply cannot be sustained for long. The mix of atmosphere and constant decisions is what makes Light Going Out a good experience. More than 500 events are featured and there’s creativity and complexity to be found in all of them. For newcomers to this universe, it will take time to absorb all the lore and understand everything that’s happening.
The time and energy investment are worth it because the title is a great narrative generator. Every attempt at survival feels unique and there’s no one strategy that can guarantee success. After one run in which I had constantly food trouble, I focused on keeping the pantries full only to have them emptied by raiders after I failed to shore up defenses. Both campaigns ended in failure, but it was fun to try ideas out and see what events test my decision-making.
Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out uses the same style as the first game in the franchise, with very good static tableaux deployed to illustrate the various decisions players have to make. The images are beautiful and help this world come alive, illustrating the many and the challenges a tribe has to deal with. They also add to the immersion and make it easier to gulp down the big amounts of lore that the title often delivers at once. Given the apocalyptic themes, I expected to see a little more weirdness and horror elements.
The interface is decent but can sometimes make it hard to easily access a certain action or quickly learn a tribe statistic. It takes a while to learn where everything is. The game doesn’t feature any sort of voice acting, so be prepared to imagine the way chieftains, priests, and emissaries sound. The music is a little repetitive and, for long play sessions, it’s easy to replace it with a fantasy-themed podcast.
The Good
- Great mythical universe
- Tons of events
- Variety of tribe development opportunities
The Bad
- Lots of lore to absorb
- Limited sound design
- Too much ambiguity at times
Conclusion
Approach the game more like a journey through history than an opportunity to try and min-max tribe advantages and actions. Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out gives players a cool universe, complex situations to explore, and plenty of ways to fail as the world falls apart around them.
Review key provided by the publisher.
