Scythe: Digital Edition
I’m a pretty experienced player on the board game, so I know what I’m talking about: this game follow the rules quite well, except for a few mistakes (mill that create meeples WTF?!)
the board is exactly the same as the real game, and even if I felt a bit lost cause there is no infos about your mat type except at the very beginning of the game or somewhere I never found quite easily, it would be nice to have the name of the combo ( example : rusviet patriotic ) all the time, to me this can be quite important as there is some combos that are very OP (Rusviet industrial is already banned wich follow the rules of Jamey Steigmaier, crimea patriotic should follow) but those combos should remain open if you play a non ranked game or with one of your friends )
– Real player with 91.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.
Bought this game during steam sale.
I love the board version. Was pretty excited to test the digital version as well. Here is my review and why its pretty meh.
TLDR: good gameplay, terrible netcode/online games. Don’t bother buying the DLC (Invaders from afar) since factions are really bad and you will end playing them a lot more than people without the DLC. A bit expensive for the experience. Worth it for the $8 I paid during the sale.
1. Gameplay 7/10
Its pretty much the same as the board game. Works very well. It can be a bit troublesome at first to get a grisp on how to make a turn, read the boardstate etc but after around 30 games it feels really natural.
– Real player with 60.4 hrs in game
Empires of the Void II
Conquer the galaxy - or befriend it! Empires of the Void II is a beloved board game with deep strategy and a compelling story that you write yourself. This is a digital recreation of that board game, allowing you to play with friends (or strangers) in the same room, or across the world. Choose a race and befriend the native species, or crush them under your merciless heel. The power card deck contains dozens of missions that connect to the deep story underpinning the galactic fringe. Save innocent lives from a gigantic rampaging beast, kidnap the leader of your enemies, or gamble with space pirates. Every playthrough feels unique and interesting. Minimalistic graphics and atmospheric music set the tone without getting in the way. Create your own adventure at the fringe of the galaxy!
Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.
Burned Land
Burned Land is a niche game, and a little gem to me.
At first sight it might seem a little bit empty and obscure. Then it will seem very hard, even unfair. But if you push forward, you will discover a game with a very original approach, very rich and permissive in the ways you want to shape your kingdom and face the gods.
In this game, you not only build units and facilities, you will also “monitor” your population (literacy, devotion, nobility, sedentary, etc.), so they will provide you what you need and when you need it.
– Real player with 31.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Indie Games.
It is a pretty rough game, both in terms of UI and difficulty. The UI will hopefully get some polish from this one-man dev team, and perhaps the difficulty as well, but the difficulty certainly needs the polish a lot less. The dev is still pushing out regular updates, thus my recommendation for this Early Access game.
I made it to Turn 194, after narrowly dodging a very early game defeat. The early game near-defeat came about as my village almost starved due to a famine brought on by the gods. The entire point of this game is that the larger you grow, the more interest the gods have in stopping you from growing.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy
TL,DR: It is rough around the edges, but it is a worthy implementation of the board game and does scratch the itch for playing it, when you can’t get a real game going. It takes some getting used to.
Longer:
So, I have been waiting for a way to play this game ever since I first came across the boardgame. I have so far only tried the single player version.
The good:
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It is a mostly faithful adaption of the board game’s base game version
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AI is competent enough to make for some interesting games, especially if you are still on the low or middle part of the learning curve
– Real player with 47.7 hrs in game
While the game is mostly implemented correctly I can’t recommend the video game version of this over the boardgame exception as a single player training tool to learn how the different alien races play. I’ve played multiple games online in real time while voice chatting with my friends and we’ve lost count of the number of times the game will locally desync. This leaves the players on the line unsure if their friend is just thinking critically about his next move, or unaware that it’s even their move. The usual fix is that you can just close and reopen the game to rejoin the game session. However, twice now the game has kicked a player out after round 7 and they’ve been unable to see the private game listed in the game lobby. Obviously, whether a game can be completed or not is a huge turn off from even thinking about starting an online game.
– Real player with 42.2 hrs in game
Worshippers
“Worshippers” is a great deck builder and adventure game with a few rough edges. The gameplay has you completing adventures, gaining worshippers and then using the worshippers by by new cards for your deck. You draw cards during the adventure by spending an action to activate one of your settlements. Likewise, you gain resources by activating buildings like lumbermills, farms and etc.
It has some strange mechanisms, like all your resources resetting each turn but it quickly becomes easy to deal with and it’s just part of the way this game is balanced. The variety of cards and different thematic gods you can play has made this game a real chemistry set with which I love experimenting and discovering new combinations and synergies. I really love it.
– Real player with 320.5 hrs in game
A pleasant and fairly original deck building 4x game. You unlock cards during play and between games of a modest campaign structure, The combat, economy, and deckbuilding is all interesting and has pleasant tactics and strategy.
This game needs a better tutorial or guide, but it isn’t so complex I couldn’t figure it out. It has some annoying interface issues - the worst for me being that you can easily accidentally generate resources you can’t spend because you run out of actions, and you can’t unwind your turn except but using one of your precious unwinds - which are more powerful than I want in general, since they unwind bad combats and such - but all I want is to be able to undo stupid counting errors,
– Real player with 264.0 hrs in game
Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim
If you’re interested in Ozymandias, please wishlist, follow us and download the demo! :)
At the dawn of history, Bronze Age kings built the first empires. Strategize their rise to power in a uniquely streamlined 4X.
DISTILLED DESIGN
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Focus on strategy over tactics, we’ve stripped the busywork out of 4X gameplay.
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Combat abstracted via innovative Power system so you need only move armies and fleets.
HISTORICAL MAPS
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8 handmade maps charting Bronze Ages around the world, empires in real-world locations.
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Empires are tagged from ‘Easy’ to ‘Very Hard’ to reflect their unique challenges.
COMPETITIVE AI
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Data-driven AI system, flexible enough to succeed in any environment.
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Streamlined ruleset is inherently AI-friendly so no ‘AI cheating’ required.
MULTIPLAYER
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Players take their turns simultaneously so there’s no waiting around.
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Choose to play ‘live’ (short turn timers) or ‘asynchronous’ (long game timers).
Isle of the Crown
Right now you need a controller to play the game and a friend to play it with. Those are things that will be addressed in future though.
I think it’s a fun strategy game and would recommend it if you’re a fan of the genre with the above caveats in mind :)
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Beard of Stone
Beard of Stone is a fantasy turn based 4x that tell the story of a world’s creation all the way to the twilight of the gods. Not exclusively a turn based strategy game, real time bidding mechanics keep everyone actively involved. Who is up for their next turn is constantly in contention! The game is fast paced and quick enough to be played in a single sitting.
Players take the role of Gods, bending the prophetic destiny of the world to their ends. Every event and action in the game is public information from the very first turn, displayed on the Prophecy Track. Players spend their Influence currency to gain control of these prophecies in real time. Anyone can bid and be outbid before a prophecy arrives as the current turn. Prophecies span a wide range of actions, from the creation of the continents of the world, the birth of all the various races, disasters, military campaigns and more.
As Gods, players are not playing as any specific race. They strive to make the warriors and nobles of the land believers in their faith. As the races expand and worship each God, the Influence invested is redistributed to the Gods to be bid on further prophecy turns. Having the most believers in the most prosperous races will lead to one of the Gods dominating the world and winning the game.
Dominium Mundi
I only played the game for 5 minutes, but I left the game running for 3 hours as I was doing christmassy stuff with my cats. So in short, I know very little of this game so far. The UI and map are excellent, I’m excited to go back and look at it more. I only took over one single city and explored over half of the map thus far, but it feels good to play.
If you consider yourself a fan of something, you deserve to something something good review.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Save your money. I like simple strategy games at times when I want to take a break from too much intense thinking, but this is overly basic. You get bored of it after playing once or twice; it looks far more interesting than it truly is. Perhaps prices at $0.99 it may be worth considering - do not spend more than that on it.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Haulin' Oats
This is a game about truck driving, the US highways, and oatmeal. During your time as a truck driver for the Starkham Oatmeal company, you will be tasked with delivering crates of delicious oats to the local grocery store. The roads are fraught with dangers, as well as delights, so be sure to take along a trusty co-pilot and / or pet.
Arranged as a digital board game, you will encounter a wide variety of characters and obstacles ranging from drug cartels, bike gangs, random maniacs, pop stars, police, serial killers, and the few folk that aren’t completely crazy. Make your way around the board and collect your wages every time you complete a delivery then return to the warehouse. Use it to buy spare parts for your truck, the favor of lot lizards, or sometimes bribe your way out of trouble.
When you start a game, each player will get to choose one of eight different drivers; with three locked by default. Each has two strengths and weaknesses, like bonuses to truck ramming checks or penalties to dealing with the law. Mix and match the different drivers with co-pilots and pets to get the upper hand against your opponents.
Just like the drivers, each co-pilot and pet has one different benefit and disadvantage. If you get a bad Incident card draw, you might just accidentally leave ‘em at a truck stop somewhere for an opponent to scoop up. If none suit your play style, you can choose to play without one if you want.
Special guest characters (drivers, co-pilots, and pets) can be unlocked through different quests or by doing certain things a bunch.
Old friends from our previous games make surprise appearances. One cannot go through Starkham without seeing familiar faces like Bill Finnigan or Aloysius. They are sometimes found in Encounter or Incident decks. Depending on who you find, they may have a mission for you or an item to barter.
There are a lot of other characters as well. Scattered throughout the Incident, Encounter, and Resource decks various characters await you, either to rob you blind or give you mini-quests to complete. Heck, some might just need something as simple as a ride down the highway a bit or a wee bit of your money.
A quick and dirty list of features, for those of you who like bullet-lists:
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Music by Azucar, Yoshua Shafer, and El Castor
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All hand-drawn art
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36 squares all filled with adventure
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8 different drivers, 8 different co-pilots, and, of course, 8 different pets (including special guests)
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50 different cards per Encounter, Incident, and Resources deck
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Play with others in online or LAN multiplayer
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The usual breakdown of statistics and leaderboards to measure yourself against
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Achievements that actually unlock stuff
Whether your driving record is spotless or you’ve played one of our games before, get some quicker in-game unlocks with the Mileage Club! For each of our previous games that you’ve owned or played (demo, family share, or free weekend), you will unlock guest characters or table accoutrements.
Haven’t done so or don’t got ‘em? Don’t worry, you can get all the same characters and bonuses by just playing the game. And with a little elbow grease.