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
Chess: King of Crowns Chess Online
The developers of this game take much pride in the hard work they put forth into making sure the game is stable, steady and runs without hiccups.
They are always ready to solve issues and really make this game worth what it is.
The support is immeasurable!
thank you king of crowns chess!
I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, keep making games :)
– Real player with 35.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Chess Turn-Based Tactics Games.
Activation keys are not working!
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Grace of Zordan
EDIT:
I used to recommend this game, I do not anymore. This game has some serious game breaking bugs that are being abused by some players and the devs are not taking care of. I posted the issue on the forum with proofs of users abusing them, but they still don’t ban anyone abusing that bug, nor patch the bug.
Before:
An extremely skill demanding turn-based tactical-strategy chess-like card game, the main focus of the game is on each player’s ability to make the right tactical and strategic decisions rather than luck.
– Real player with 59.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Chess Early Access Games.
I actually like it,
great for people that want a ‘slower’ (yet fluid) paced game.
The game goes fast, but by ‘slower’ I mean it harkens back to the day when games weren’t ‘distracting’ - you were able to focus on them due to the game design, art style, etc.
Minimal distractions unlike the games of today, where even the garbage is ‘hi-res’ and distracts your eye.
Once again Russians show they have a great sense of aesthetics, they know how to do art with a very beautiful contrasting colours and tones.
– Real player with 41.9 hrs in game
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
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
Tabletop Playground
Nice way to play tabletop games with friends in these times.
good modding community, it’s brand new but everyday theres more and more great board games made.
Editor can be a bit tricky at first, but there’s a few tutorials available at the moment.
As i read somewhere else, Devs are working hard on this, so I guess there will be more advanced tutorials and definitively more features in the future.
I dont know anything about programming, and I managed to create all the 1st edition circuit boards for Formula D. Hopefully, the guy who created the formula D game (which is awesome btw) will use them.
– Real player with 48.9 hrs in game
Experienced on the Oculus Rift
Please note: I received a free Steam key through the Steam Curator Connect program.
You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/SJSIN7RH-80
If you’re thinking of buying Tabletop Playground (TP), you’ve probably heard of Tabletop Simulator (TTS). They are both digital tabletop sandbox games. In both games, certain card & board games are included, and they both have mod support so you can easily download even more card or board games. They both have online multiplayer and have VR and Non-VR support. TTS has been on Steam for years and is running on the Unity Engine. TP just released a few months ago and is running on the Unreal Engine. So which one is better?
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game