It’s a cold, grey dawn in a dank alley on the East End. Snoring among empty liquor bottles and barrels of rotten herring lies a sprawled, dishevelled minotaur, top hat askew and horns coated in week-old grime. He opens a bleary, bloodshot eye and feverishly winces at the morning sky, the sun’s rays momentarily shadowed by an extravagant airship floating past. Steam hisses as the city wakes, and the minotaur reluctantly rouses his groaning, gin-soaked bovine body to face another day in the Queen’s London.

Sovereign Syndicate is a narrative-driven RPG set in a steampunk Victorian version of East London. It draws its gameplay inspiration from non-combat isometric CRPGs such as Disco Elysium, focusing on character personality and relationships as a means of progression rather than fighting prowess. Featuring a trio of protagonists, multiple story outcomes, and a tarot-based chance system that replaces traditional RPG dice rolls, this title creates an intriguing, intertwining narrative that draws you in and keeps you hooked to the very end.

Sovereign Syndicate’s world is full of mythical creatures, but firmly rooted in the socio-political traditions of steampunk. Werewolves are both a threat and a social class, with those inflicted with lycanthropy shunned and consigned to a “Containment Zone” at each full moon. Technological advancement rubs up against capitalist morality: while wealthy humans are often augmented with mechanical body parts, blue-collar workers compete with steam-powered automatons for meagre wages. The world is brash and improper, rife with thievery, gambling, drug abuse, and general skulduggery. Citizens of this London seek the solace of opium dens, brothels, and underground dog-fighting arenas, trying to eke out as much joy as they can from their often cut-short lives.

While this paints a rather bleak picture, Sovereign Syndicate is far from gloomy. The muted colour palette of this isometric world is often punctuated with rich splashes of colour or dynamic vignettes, and the characters you meet while exploring are varied and eccentric. For most of the game, you’ll be walking through the different streets of London and chatting to the locals. There’s an overarching murder-mystery plot to solve, as well as numerous personal quests that involve collecting items or using your characters’ skills to solve dramas.

Character accents and personalities come across incredibly clearly, with tonnes of interplay between each character’s inner monologue. I found myself relieved at the lack of voice acting, instead allowing the expertly written text to speak for itself. Handily, certain pieces of obscure slang and important tidbits of information are highlighted in the dialogue window with tooltips that provide context. These prevent you from getting distracted or confused by the many colourful NPCs’ turns-of-phrase, and are often used to add humour or gravitas to a scene.

Quests in Sovereign Syndicate that progress the narrative are clearly marked with point-of-no-return warnings, but I was otherwise pleasantly surprised at how satisfyingly hands-off much of the journey remained. The journal keeps basic track of quest progress, but rather than a step-by-step quest log and map markers, you’re instead rewarded for paying attention to your surroundings and listening to what people have to say. Most of the optional side quests contribute to your characters’ relationships or story in some way, and can be solved with logic and persistence.

A few technical issues cropped up during my playthrough, though developers Crimson Herring released patches during the review period to address some of the larger ones. Your characters can occasionally get stuck on pieces of scenery while walking through the world, and there were a few bugs to do with outfits that popped up here and there. I also found the final moments of the game to be a little underwhelming. While the narrative threads come together and there is a satisfying climax, some of the payoffs for individual choices weren’t quite as impactful as others. That said, with multiple outcomes depending on player choice, it’s possible that my particular ending just wasn’t as fleshed out as some of the other options.

With each character’s unique collectables, multiple endings, and a number of missable quests, there’s plenty to keep you coming back to Sovereign Syndicate after finishing its roughly twelve-hour story. While it takes many of its cues from non-combat RPG heavyweight Disco Elysium, there’s more than enough personality and life in this narrative to set it apart. It’s worth playing for the excellent writing alone, with its imaginative world and satisfying questing rounding out the experience nicely and making this an absolute delight for any lover of a good tale.