Volper. LitRPG Series

Alpha Rome 1

De: Ros Per

Narrado por: Graham Mack

As the years start running out, you often find that life has left you completely alone. This is what has happened to one military veteran who’s lived through many of history’s “flash points”. In order to inject some color into his final days, the former soldier signs a contract with a company that has developed a fully immersive virtual world.

Project Alpha Rome is a multi-level city plagued by endless wars between humans and mutants. You can play as either species. The best argument in favor of living here is the firepower and the reflexes of your weapons. Our hero chooses the nickname “Volper” and sets out on his path alone, preferring not to fall into the ranks of an existing clan.

Thanks to this strategy, he manages to spot things other players have missed, even in the simplest of locations, meaning he progresses much more quickly than they do. His attentive and reflective attitude to his surroundings prompts him to ask more and more questions about the purpose of the project. Why has Alpha Rome really been created?

©2023 Magic Dome Books in collaboration with 1С-Publishing (P)2023 Magic Dome Books

Overall good, few nitpicks.

Alright, simple pre-face that there will be a minor spoiler.

I gave the performance a mid rating because early on either the Narrator is new (I am not looking into it, honestly don't care enough) or got some new equipment they are not used to yet. This causes some minor issues early on in the listen. He uses a reverb and minor robotic sounding tuner for his voice when doing the User Interface voice for the system. Sometimes it gets used when it is just the MC's inner monologue which may lead to confusion for some people.

Beyond the above the Narrator does a good job and it does get cleaned up after some hours (did not pay attention to time stamps for when the issue occurred). He makes a distinct voices for each character and does a good job not mixing them up (Seriously, I've listened to some where the Narrator completely mixes up voices between characters, at least label them properly in your voice changer app).

Onto the Story. So the story so far isn't bad. We have an MC working towards becoming strong in the game. He is learning the ins and outs of the system to try and maximize his abilities to do what he wants. I am not sure if this will be an OP MC story yet though kind of feels like he will get there at some point (Not completely overpowered but just strong enough that most wouldnt want to mess with him). This honestly does not feel like a story setting where the MC can get so overpowered its to a broken degree though so do not expect that.

(Spoiler Warning) So overall I like the story so far but at around 2hrs 28min remaining something was revealed that I'm honestly getting tired of reading/listening/watching. A person with a history worth listening to though they don't want to talk about goes into VR to escape reality, but someone from the past comes along and ruins things. It happens in book one of this book and im getting a bit tired of this trope. Can we please get a VRMMO with a storied MC where the storied past slowly gets revealed through their own words instead of spiteful pricks coming to ruin things?

I do recommend this novel if you are interested but because of the above I cannot give it a 5star in any category. I am not unbiased, every thing I have read/listened/watched previously influences my opinions and I am not capable of removing that. Not sure how people do actually.

Had some good fun listening to it

The mc is treat to listen to and see how he deals with issues attempts to use his past knowledge to help him in this game. can't wait for the next one

A series begins with a military flare

This is a series that begins with military flare the only reason I didn't give it a 5 star is that there are parts in it where you won't really understand it if you haven't been in the military I haven't served so there were times where I had to go back and listen to try and understand what was happening I know it's probably audible that's the reason but if you're going to swear swear this guy is all about the realism Including the swearing but I just think with this one it enhances the entire experience they should have let it pass and just said hey this is for adultsIt is a 5 star story Hopefully in the next one He can explain military lingo a little more lot of us are civiliansIt

An old man, a new world.

I managed to stumble on this gem by pure accident, and I'm glad I did.

Volper as a character is many things, and I like his character. Hell I liked the story so much I grabbed the next two books around halfway through if not more.
I like him because hes in many ways grounded, silly and hardened.
In the early points of the story, Volper has an, well an hormonal incident early on with a young lady, and what I liked about that scene was how much the situation slapped him proverbially in the face. It was a complete surprise, as he was in a body of a young man now.
Its never outright stated his age, but my guess he's at least about 90. So it makes sense of why.

his mind wanders, he has tricks from military experience which lead him to make understandable assumptions made from experience which can make him blanch in face of video game logic, and add to that, he's just trying to enjoy his fading life as it is. And I just like that in a story like this as its immersive and in a way grounded.

To anyone reading this review, I can highly recommend book 1. Not sure on the series, but I'll leave my review on the books as I go through them.