Wardens
After having played this game extensively since I acquired it, I am posting this review in the hopes of addressing the points made in the negative review above, as the reviewer clearly does not understand the purpose of this game. This is going to be somewhat lengthy, will try to summarize at the top.
TLDR; Pro’s and con’s below. If you came here expecting standalone chess look elsewhere, if you are interested in a sandbox experience where you can create your own units read on.
First and foremost I would like to point out something that I believe is the reason for said reviewers negative perception of this game, and that is that Wardens is NOT chess. If you go into Wardens expecting standalone chess, you will be disappointed. At present the only resemblance this game has to chess is the movement and arrangement of the pieces (for now), and that it is played on a chess board. However, despite one of the default game types being Capture the King, Wardens lacks practically all other basic chess rules, such as en passante, castling, and most importantly, check. As your goal in the aforementioned game mode is to KILL the king, not checkmate him. This was done so as to introduce the concept of the abilities in a familiar way without overwhelming the player. As for the abilities being boring, I admit that I myself do not care for the starting decks. That is because those decks are more useful as templates, to showcase possible abilities and help you to make your own. So the abilities are only as boring as you make them. Granted the amount of things you can do at the moment is a bit limited, but there is a surprising amount of versatility with what is already there. With the tools currently available, I have created over 4 pages worth of cards, with varied abilities including, but not limited to, things such as a unit that when they have sufficient mana they and surrounding allies cannot be frozen, a unit that has an ability that grants permanent attack immunity until next overtake (akin to stealth), and a unit that allows allies to cast their abilities for free provided they have sufficient mana for said ability, although this requires (for now) compatibility to be integrated into the other units in order to work, as does my most recent unit, which will allow nearby allies to cast their abilities for 3 mana less. The list goes on, and it will only improve with time as more things become available.
– Real player with 74.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Chess Early Access Games.
As a chess player, this looked interesting, but I can’t recommend it. It’s basically just chess, but the pieces have boring abilities, their movement is unchanged. Board readability is terrible, all the pieces (both yours and your opponent’s) look too similar and so everything blends together until you can’t figure out what is happening anymore. There’s no tutorial, and the AI you can play against is terrible, if you’re decent at chess you will easily crush it.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
回纹战棋
Only played short while to get first impression, it seemed alright. Well worth 99 cents cheaper then candy bar. Well also actually helping someone even if just a little.
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Chess Turn-Based Tactics Games.
Chess Evolved Online
The developer is clearly insane, and there are numerous horrific flaws that I assume will never be fixed ever. The good news is that it takes a while for the true gravity of those flaws to start affecting you, and until then you can enjoy this game a lot.
Here is a small sampling of some of the terrors of the past, although they may be gone*, they surely portend of more great sorrow in the future:
1. Turn one checkmate was once possible. Yes it is as bad as it sounds. Although it could be staved off by simply covering ever square within a 3 square radius of your king.
– Real player with 752.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Chess PvP Games.
Chess Evolved Online is an extremely frustrating game to play, and not for the right reasons. While it has an incredibly compelling base for a game and that is fun for a long time, you eventually get to a level where, at the highest rankings (I am currently in the top 50 as of this review, rank ~4400), you are forced to play only the most boring stally armies or lose a lot of rating because of effective RNG where other armies hard-counter your pieces.
So while I am giving this game a positive review out of support for being much better than most games out there, it still feels dreadful to play due to developer incompetence.
– Real player with 565.3 hrs in game
Chesstle
Had this on my radar for a while and picked it up this sale along with a (pro chess player) friend and I wasn’t disappointed. Took a match to get the hang of the mechanics (a quick tutorial or the guide being accessible in-game would’ve been nice) however it was hella fun beating on each others units and winning. I’ve never beaten my friend in chess before.
10/10 would beat professional chess players again
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
What an interesting twist to chess, I went ahead & started to play thinking it’s chess with characters. Soon to realize there is much more to it. After reading the guide I played again & really loved it. I love the special abilities each piece has (Mage/bishop can trade places with another; Archer/Rook can attack over pieces). Player gets two moves one to move & another to attack. The attacks cause damage & don’t outright kill units.
If you are a defensive chess player like I am with slow opening & building to endgame, well it’s time to leave your inhibitions aside & get your Queen/Champion in to the arena & hammer away.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game