Baldur’s Gate 3
Recommended only if you are willing to accept that it is not complete and is still yet a while away from being done. Very similar to Larian’s previous two games but with just enough tweaks to make it feel fresh and closer to DnD ruleset. Some say it may as well have been called DOS3. While true, it’s also not a bad thing. Those games IMO are responsible for the resurgence of the old-school CRPG genre. Personally, this is my dream game. Huge fan of the originals and huge fans of the DOS games. Actually had the out-loud thought back in 2014…“what if Baldur’s Gate made a comeback and these Larian dudes were the ones to do it?” Wish granted. People will nitpick and complain, but I’m beyond impressed with what I’ve seen so far. The RTWP argument has been done to death and if you want to cry about it, go play Pillars of Eternity. It’s so close a copy to the old Infinity engine games that it honestly got stale and lost its nostalgia shine real fast. I would have been disappointed if a new game bearing the BG name turned out to be the same stuff I played to death 20 something years ago. The scope of what Larian is going for here is extremely ambitious and I’m 110% rooting for them to pull it off. With all of the possible dialogue options and minor little attentions to detail, its like a real tabletop in that everyone who plays will be working through the same “module” but everyone is going to experience that story differently depending on the player or groups decisions. Obviously, proper tabletop DnD cant be played solo, but just like the original Baldurs Gate games, this is/will be the best possible way for a solo player without and IRL group to play with to experience its universe.
– Real player with 198.7 hrs in game
This is a pretty amazing game the best DnD based game I have ever played it is very good. There is still a lot of development needed would not recommend this game if you do not have a high performance PC with an SSD they definitely still need to do some work on the performance. When the game leaves early access it will be well worth it I can assure you. For right now once you get bored of the waiting for new content check out what the modding community has done there has been some really great player content.
– Real player with 114.3 hrs in game
Low Magic Age
TL;DR: The game is a fun grind, but it is not well balanced.
I have about 90 hours in the arena and about 10 in the adventure mode. I have raised a party to around level 100 in the arena. I am recommending this game with some suggestions for the devs. I hope the devs will implement some change so the player feels like they are growing more powerful as they level up, instead of feeling like they are barely holding on and crawling towards the inevitable moment when they will no longer be able to beat a single encounter.
– Real player with 136.4 hrs in game
Well as of the date of this review we are still awaiting the Campaign Mode to be implemented. I am hopeful from what the developers have shown recently that it will be at least released sometime this summer. It might even be close to Fall before we see the full game come to be. Even so for $6 I still recommend this game.
Right now we have what is called “Arena Mode”. You take a pre-made party or create a custom party to be placed (by the game) as a group on a random map to fight one wave of monsters at a time. These waves are chosen by you as the player and can contain random kinds and numbers of mobs. The waves range from easy to difficult. You get to choose what difficulty you are comfortable fighting against which is nice. After each battle, if your party prevails, you get a certain amount of gold based on how your characters did in the battle. If no one in your party dies you get bonus gold. You also may get a piece of loot or two. After each battle you are also given a chance to buy and upgrade equipment for your party, which is randomly generated, if you have enough gold. You can also level your characters once they have achieved enough XP to do so. The rules mainly try to follow the 3.x DnD ruleset. And it does a pretty decent job of doing so. With each of your characters gaining higher Feats and Talents as they progress. The magic system is different as there is no mana involved for any spells that are cast. Instead you have a cooldown period for each spell. Some do not like the way this mana-less sytem plays but I love it personally. There will also eventually be crafting available which is nice.
– Real player with 64.0 hrs in game
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
Short version:
Pros:
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Colorful graphics
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Decent ideas
Cons:
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Repetitive enemies and locations
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Too random
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Unbalanced
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Grindy
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Questionable DLC practices
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Feels like a mobile game
“Long” version:
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation is a turn-based dungeon-crawler that takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.
You control a group of heroes with different abilities and you must complete quests and side objectives to upgrade your gear and get to the final level.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2377348053
– Real player with 30.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dungeons & Dragons Strategy Games.
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation is a boardgame-inspired title in which a group of brave adventurers seek to end a terrible curse plaguing the Forgotten Realms. Traverse the jungles of Chult to find the source of deathly magic unleashed upon the living and the dead, yadda yadda.
Writing two introductory sentences about a fantasy-themed game shouldn’t be difficult in theory, but here we are, struck by reality where the curse of Dungeons & Dragons video games persists - majority of them are very lackluster for what is supposed to be one of the greatest and most known tabletop franchises, and Tales from Candlekeep is no different.
– Real player with 25.0 hrs in game
D&D Lords of Waterdeep
I’ve never played the board game, but I thought I would give this game a shot since I’m a long time D&D player and have been craving a bit of solo fun. Most people have already outlined the pro’s and con’s regarding it, so I will not go through them. I will tell you:
-The game is worth $10 easily. Even $15 is acceptable if you like computerized board games.
-You must play the tutorial to understand what’s going on. I played it twice, and after that was a pro at playing.
-Ignore all the naysaying about the animation speeds. Once you know what is going on, you will appreciate the speed of the animations. Could they be slower? Sure. However, a couple games through and you know exactly what the cards are doing. There is also a review icon that you can click called the “Discard Pile” to read and look at the cards that have been played. In addition, you can click on the individual players cards and review those that they have drawn which may have moved too fast to read initially. IN FACT, it is a good strategy to review the other players cards to make decisions in the game.
– Real player with 61.4 hrs in game
My “hours played” stat is a little misleading, because I played the iOS version of Playdek’s adaptation on the iPad for years.
This version is virtually identical to the iOS version, with a few exceptions. The most obvious is the fact that the game is horizontally oriented, instead of vertically. This is an unfortunate necessity, since monitors can’t be oriented vertically. As such, the expansions –- and I strongly recommend getting that DLC – have to be awkwardly crunched into the board, instead of elegantly just placed below the board. One has to scroll as well, and non-obvious tabs implemented to save space.
– Real player with 43.1 hrs in game
Fantasy Grounds Classic
OK, so please read the full review instead of just taking note of my thumb down vote for this game. That was a tough choice to make. This program is a very mixed bag, some wonderful things in here that are blended together with some horrible design decisions.
Context: I use this program as a face-to-face tool for my gaming group, no outside connections. So this review will ignore any feature dealing with that. Also, will not be comparing this to any competitors. My setup is a dual screen PC, with two instances of the program open. One (GM) on my monitor and the second (Player) on a TV laying flat. Players are using miniatures and real dice, while I am using tokens and the program’s dice.
– Real player with 1343.8 hrs in game
*** Update as of 3-July-2020****
I’m not going to remove the previous review because it’s all accurate still. That being said, FGU has more features and is better than classic, mostly.
However, even perhaps more importantly…. There is a piece of software called “Foundry” that is LOADS and HEAPS better than every other options out there. You pay 50 bucks for software as the host and it works just.. seamlessly. Check it out, it’s outstanding and incomprehensibly good. People connect via their browsers, but with NO exaggeration, it has 1/50th the load time of FGU or FG, and is so utterly beautiful. Check it out, you will be impressed.
– Real player with 530.5 hrs in game
The Curse of Feldar Vale
I have well over 100 Steam games, but have never felt the motivation to do a review before. I have finally played a game that I feel is worthy of a review. Please excuse the review being a bit ‘long winded’, but put that down to my venerable old age!
My interest in D&D games started way back in the 70’s as a player in a tabletop game. Through the 80’s I was hooked on the Wizardry games, programmed a D&D game in the mid 80’s, was a tabletop dungeon master in the 90’s & have tried almost every D&D game that has been released since. With this extensive D&D history I feel I can recognise a good D&D game when I see one – and ‘The Curse’ is one such game.
– Real player with 152.7 hrs in game
Yeah good fun but, it would be nice for double movement out side combat. Makes exploring easier. You know a bit like 3rd ed. So I can’t change class for any of my party. My champion was supposed to have a couple of levels of rogue before becoming a fighter. A little frustrated with that. Overall though I am having good fun times. I especially like my accordion manoeuvre with my big fighter supported by my cleric when in tight single file corridors. My mage ‘mister squishy’ , don’t ask me about my mage. How do I add spells to his spell book?
– Real player with 50.1 hrs in game
Fantasy Grounds Unity
The Skinny:
Easily one of the best programs on my computer and just keeps improving itself. More detailed below.
The Thick of thing:
I began looking for an online resource to start playing Pathfinder remotely, as I only knew a handful of people who played and they lived all over the place. I started with Roll20 and stayed there for a year. During my tenor there I had to keep restarting things on every new game I made. I could not use the same assets without bringing them in again to the new map, and eventually started paying subscription to gain abilities to automate and utilize the feature that made life easier. Content creators were great (independent artists and such) but I began to realize the subscription model was going to make me pay more than any other game I owned. So I started looking at ‘competitors’ which I learned there were many.
– Real player with 794.0 hrs in game
Fantasy Grounds Unity (FGU) is a special case. It has a lot of downsides; however, FGU is the only product that provides flexibility, official support, automation, and most importantly regional currency support.
On the bright side; FGU runs on the local machine. The GM can use whatever maps and props he likes. It is also possible to make modules and share them. I can make an entire adventure including images and tokens and just send the file to a fellow GM or move characters between campaigns. I can run 50000 different campaigns and the best of it, once I purchased FGU, it is mine to keep. The official support is also great. You just buy the system once and it is yours. Most of the settings are updated with new features. If you are following a rather popular system, there are tons of adventures and if you are a DIY person you can make your adventures. The FGU also comes with 11 RPG systems and starter info for the most popular syste. Unofficial support is also plenty, there are a lot of unofficial RPG system files out there. You can also port or make your own system. With FGU, the sky is the limit.
– Real player with 549.5 hrs in game
Tabletop Adventures
Tabletop Adventures is meant to look and feel like an actual role-playing environment that you would setup at home and play with pen & paper, dice, miniatures, map tiles, and imagination. The game uses familiar rules systems and takes you through a generated story with random changes to make things unpredictable for maximum replay-ability. Since the game is single-player, you won’t have to find friends with flexible schedules in order to start playing. You control 4 heroes and partake in a voice narrated story in a video game that emulates tabletop board game actions. This is not meant to replace your favorite role-playing game, but to get you through the week while waiting for your next tabletop adventure.
Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue
When I read some of the negative reviews about Vagrus on the store page for the full game, I was hesitant about buying it and so I decided to try out this demo. One thing I’ve gotta say is that you HAVE to be in the mood for reading if you want to fully experience and enjoy this game. The first time I launched, I was not in that mood, and boy, I was really having my doubts. After getting bored during the first few dialogues, I decided to put it down and try again another day. Second time launching, I got ready to embrace the adventure ahead of me, no distractions, and it was FANTASTIC!
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
KENSHI in heavy text mode and turn by turn battles?
A book where you are the hero/leader as a video-game?
Conclusion in comments!
Demo offers 2 game modes:
-A tutorial campaign titled “Pilgrims of the Wasteland” which is in fact the first part of a story-driven campaign.
I completed it in 3 hours or so, taking my time to read tutorial hints and lore texts.
-5 turns in a free campaign, open-world setting.
I didn’t try it, 5 turns (days) seems too low for me to enjoy, also the tutorial has been enough of a test for me, i’m hooked.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Dungeon Solver
If I could give a neutral view, that would be great, but alas, it not possible.
But I’d still recommend getting it if you want to relax AND are good at solving puzzles - as you need all heroes alive, not just the warrior to get it through, so can’t sacrifice the wizard so the warrior can attack the enemy.
You have you use the brain of yours to get anywhere, but if you don’t this game aint for you.
– Real player with 24.4 hrs in game
One game mechanic, having to press skip on every single turn, makes a 2 hour game into a 16 hour game. This becomes extremely tedious as you move through the game. the Skip enemy turn button should simple be a toggle, would make the game more enjoyable.
Since the developers are actively fixing the small aforementioned issue, it does not significantly take away from the puzzle solving value included in this surprisingly deep game.
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game