Fantasy Wars
This - on the surface - is a very simple game, but it is complex in its simplicity.
It appears to be a fantasy sim with the diversity of characters you can command, and towns and castles scattered throughout the map; however, there really is no building to be done.
Gold does exist, but it is only to recruit creatures.
If a unit dies - then it is gone, and the longer they stay alive the more experience and skills they acquire.
Thus, there is a short-term incentive to win each map level…but there is a long-term incentive to keep ALL units alive through the campaigns, otherwise the player has to start over with new units with no level skills and experience, and because each level gets progressively more difficult, having an army with mostly new units is almost certain to lose.
– Real player with 170.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Fantasy Turn-Based Games.
Поражению нет никаких оправданий, а победа в них не нуждается.
- Warhammer 40,000
1C неожиданно анонсировала King’s Bounty II, но лично мне KB2 куда больше напоминает сиквел Кодекса Войны (aka Fantasy Wars на Западе).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JZdZBzLims
- Кодекс войны - это классический варгейм со всеми вытекающими отсюда достоинствами и недостатками. Именно с тактической стороны вопросов к игре почти нет - сражения удались. Придраться можно разве что к тому, что иногда знание/незнание что будет дальше слишком сильно влияет на успешность вашей стратегии. Особенно это актуально в начальных миссиях кампаний, когда у вас еще нет прокачанных разведчиков, которые могут быстро и далеко просветить местность, а низкоуровневые герои дохнут от малейшего фокуса. И проблема даже не в том, что они мрут, а в том что чаще бывает проще начать миссию заново чем продолжать, расставить правильно войска, заранее зная что на этом фланге нужна конница, а на другом лучше поставить пехоту под прикрытием стрелков. Такой сейвскамминг очень влияет на эффективность и вообще на выбор стратегии. Да и реиграбельности никакой из-за того что все условия миссии жестко прописаны разработчиками - всё на что вы можете повлиять, это привести ветеранов или неопытных рекрутов/героев и найти или пропустить артефакты.
– Real player with 95.6 hrs in game
To Battle!: Hell’s Crusade
I thoroughly enjoyed this game - and yes, the humor is sophomoric and the voice acting is tongue-in-cheek, but it just works for me. It’s an old-school general’s type game from the SSI era and as everyone else has already said, in line with the modern Fantasy General.
More importantly, I think the strategic design is really well thought out - the units each have their niche but aren’t hobbled by hyper-specialization. And while the maps are static, and prior map-knowledge is extremely advantageous, it also opens up the pursuit of battle perfection.
– Real player with 32.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Fantasy Turn-Based Games.
Disclaimer: I’ve been a beta tester and I know the developers personally. But….
Here’s my review:
I’ve played HC now for probably several hundred hours (most of that was in beta). The campaigns aren’t suuuuper long, but somehow I just enjoy playing them over and over because it always goes a little different each time I do. Like I can beat all of the missions now, but I cant ever do it as well as I want to. So I just keep trying! lol
The tactical campaign is more kind of old school in that you’ll probably have to restart missions. I do anyway. It’s kind of like chess cause you really have to plan ahead. The adventure campaign starts out easier so it may be better for your first playthrough, but about half way through it starts getting pretty challenging.
– Real player with 16.3 hrs in game
Warlock - Master of the Arcane
Warlock Master of the Arcane is a turn based strategy game in which you play a Great Mage, a member of the aptly named Council of Great Mages. The game is centered around your character’s goal in defeating or otherwise becoming unopposed as the titular Warlock, who is unsurprisingly the Master of the arcane.
For anyone experienced in Civillization, or games similar, many of the concepts in this game will be familiar. But it would be erroneous to call this game a clone. There are dozens of differences, and I can only list a scant few in this review.
– Real player with 105.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Fantasy Turn-Based Games.
I’ve been on Steam for years, and I cannot recall writing a review; this game begs to be an exception (and rightly so), so here’s my short n' sweet:
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Old time gamers remember Master Of Magic from the 90s? If so, good…
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Current gamers …have you played Age Of Wonders 1, 2, or 3? If so good…
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And/Or, perhaps have you played Elemental: Fallen Enchanter or Sorcerer King (Starkdock)? If so, did it feel so-so, or the artistry not your flavor? Regardless, keep reading…
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And/Or, have you played any CIV 1-6 game? If so, good…
– Real player with 101.2 hrs in game
Warlock 2: The Exiled
Warlock 2 is a truly fantastic game, despite what some of these reviews may say. If you’re a lover of 4X strategy games and fantasy lore, get this game – you won’t be sorry.
One of the reasons this game has so many harsh ratings is because it can be a little buggy. But on the right system (Windows 7, 8 and 10 all work well), it’s a ton of fun and you’ll encounter few bugs. I can safely say this after 2000+ hours of game play.
However, the Linux and Mac versions do not work. The developers were forced to abandon the game before they were fixed, so avoid this game if you’re using one of those systems.
– Real player with 5783.6 hrs in game
I bought Warlock 2 during the Summer Sale, and I’ve quite easily gotten my money’s worth. It is a lot of fun, though not without serious flaws. My review is based on three (partial) plays of “The Exiled” story mode, and one full playthrough in “Battle for the Outplanes” mode.
A big complaint a lot of people have is that it seems like a content update, rather than a sequel to Warlock. This is true to an extent. However, the handling of the planes was the biggest flaw of Warlock 1 but seems to be the central appeal of Warlock 2. In Warlock 1, there were other planes, and they were full of big bad monsters, but they weren’t very interesting and the rewards for going there weren’t significant enough to bother with them. A game of Warlock 2, on the other hand, has a hierarchy of planes, where you (and your A.I. opponent mages) start on less threatening planes, and you work your way down through to planes with significantly more dangerous fauna (and sometimes flora), or back up the hierarchy to fight the other great mages. Each plane has its own unique flavor, and most special resources only occur in one or two types of plane. The special resource thing is key… most races don’t have strong research-producing buildings, so you need to chase after the research-producing resources, which tend to be a couple planes down from where you start. The first time I reached a Shadow Plane, and established a fortress there to defend myself against the horrible shadowy horrors that awaited me, it felt … well… I would say “epic”, but that word is way overused these days. But it was awesome.
– Real player with 223.5 hrs in game
Deity Empires
Short description:
DE is the most faithful (playable) successor to Master of Magic. It has some
*4x Fantasy Strategy with seperate magic and civic research
*points to spend on perks at game start
*sophisticated economy
*incremential elements like resource upgrades and unit leveling ( (which you can turn off))
*Tactical battles and Rogue like dungeon diving (simplistic Rogue Like at the moment but there is more to come)
A negative point is, that this game is complex and/but has very limited manual (and no tutorial). As I understand it, the devs wait for the big and essential updates, before they spend time on manuals. The DE community is very welcoming. The forum search function is your extended manual.
– Real player with 783.5 hrs in game
This review is from the perspective of someone who has played a significant amount of the Age of Wonders series and the Fall from Heaven 2 mod for Civ4. I’ve also dabbled in Endless Legend, Fallen Enchantress, Dominions, and Master of Magic.
Right now this game feels like a cross of Age of Wonders and FFH2, and I love it. Below are some of my thoughts:
City Development (Tall vs Wide):
Cities start weak but can become incredible powerhouses given time and investment. For example, a starting city will produce approximately 100 gold per turn, which is enough to fund a low tier army or a level 1 improvement every 5 turns. My capitol in my latest game, however, produces 4000 (!) gold a turn, and is still not yet fully developed. I basically don’t have to care about income because this city is basically El Dorado.
– Real player with 357.3 hrs in game
ENDLESS™ Legend
Good game, but I will give more preference to endless space 2 with more mechanics and more elaborate gameplay.
– Real player with 364.9 hrs in game
Pros:
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Great strategy experience
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Interesting fantasy theme
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Enjoyable equipment mechanics
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Heroes add an interesting strategy layer
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Tweaking a faction to your play style is awesome
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Complicated subsystems that make the game always interesting to optimize
Cons:
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No in game encyclopedia to learn game terms and mechanics (tooltips aren’t enough)
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Game speeds other than standard are imbalanced
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Subsystems need better explanation
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Too much and too costly DLC
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DLC should not radically change the way the game is played (here it feels like what should be an update is DLC)
– Real player with 228.6 hrs in game
Hex Commander: Fantasy Heroes
First of all some critics claim that this is a pay to win which simply is not true. You’ll get more resources than you need to complete it just by playing it (you really do not need to spend any money on it unless you want to support the devs). This is one of those rare games that really lives up to it’s 5/5 rating.
True value 10-15 £.
Although the size of the battles are mostly small to mini this is a true contender for best game of the decade. I’ve played it back to back, all the campaigns and every scenario, over and over again. It is that good!
– Real player with 1484.6 hrs in game
Great little game if you like turn based games.
No need to spend any cash either which is a bonus.
You can achieve highest levels on mage and alchemy very quickly just by playing the easy levels.
Major in magic and seige and do the hard levels to raise them to full rank.
Do the levels on extreme and you can have full skills to fight final boss.
And not a penny spent, took me a week to finish the game and very enjoyable it was too.
Now don’t get me wrong, not everyone’s a grinder, so please free to support the effort put into this game by purchasing some gems.
– Real player with 96.7 hrs in game
King’s Bounty: Armored Princess
This is an old school turn based RPG game.
The storyline isnt going to knock your socks off but the gameplay will. There are many different tactics to win battles even within one class and there are 3 to choose from.
How you build your army often dictates your tactics and vice versa. The locations of items and spells are random so you wont always get the same items or spells available making it a very different game every time you play it.
The only downside to me is once you get deeply immersed and want to get the best score or go for a no loss playthrough then you do have to adopt an element of cheesyness like running past encounters to get access to better items and armies. But the game has already got you by the balls at that point. Enjoy.
– Real player with 299.7 hrs in game
A worthy sequel to the magnificent strategy.
King’s Bounty: Armored Princess takes what made the first title so good and makes a game, that’s virtually the same, but, at some fronts, as good and, at others- even better than it’s predecessor.
Story. Without spoilers- it’s very good. Not as generic as the Legend’s plotline, but, at that, not as classy.
Dialogue is fucking hilarious. Despite a few incorrect phrases, the conversations are, at times- very (sorry for repeating myself, but it’s the best word) classy and witty, packing an extreme amount of sarcasm and jokes, and some real world references here and there…
– Real player with 150.8 hrs in game
King’s Bounty: Crossworlds
I recommend this game because I enjoy playing it. If you liked King’s Bounty: The Legend (KBTL) then you will probably like this game. Although, I am having a little difficulty adjusting to some of the changes. There are some changes that I really like, some that I don’t like that much, and some that I am starting to appreciate as the game progresses.
There are a lot of new units to pick from and that can be hard to because you have a lot of choices, but it is nice that you start with 2 reserve slots automatically. Some tweaks have been made to some of the units and I still haven’t experimented with the Adrenaline system that the orc units now use.
– Real player with 227.3 hrs in game
I regret playing Armored Princess first before realizing Crossworlds is the same game with tons of extra features.
But other than that this is one of the better King’s Bounty games currently out there. Nice balance in difficulty, good pace in progression, and a rather medium length game.
A few complaints:
Some of the islands you explore are really small and so a full exploration is pretty short. It felt like there could’ve been more, such as a few more enemies to fight.
Goblin shamans can use one of their abilities on an opposing unit despite it saying it can only be used on allies. The ability makes it so that between 2 units you selected, the slave unit takes half of the damage the master would’ve taken(not vice versa, it’s a 1 way thing). Because it’s most likely you won’t be using goblin shaman units in this first place, enemies will take advantage of this and cause you to lose massive amounts of units either way because 1) if you don’t attack the master you take a ton of damage from the master itself. 2) if you damage the master unit, you will take a ton of damage to the slave unit.
– Real player with 164.3 hrs in game
King’s Bounty: Dark Side
After 1 official patch (9/2/14) that I’m aware of, this game has very few bugs (compared to KB: WOTN), w/ the caveat that the Mac version seems to be a little behind the PC. I’m expecting a new patch soon, and hopefully the Mac faithful get a better game. Because this game is super fun.
I was mystified to read some reviewers thought it the worst in the series (or maybe the “weakest”). That’s not my impression at all. I think they stepped up their game significantly w/ the writing, quests, and overall sense of humor. Also, for those of you tired of playing the same old standby human and dragon units, this is the game for you. You can of course over time get a significant medley of old favorites, but I would recommend trying to stay close to the thematic choices that fit the 3 PCs: Mage (Vampire) Undead units; Paladin (Demoness) Demon units; Warrior (Orc) well you get the idea. I’ve only played as the Mage, but I suspect I won’t feel differently after playing the next 2 PCs.
– Real player with 399.5 hrs in game
This review is for players that are familiar with the King’s Bounty games and to answer the question “is Dark Side a worthy addition?”. If you’ve not played any of the KB games before I highly recommend you do them in order, they are all excellent.
I’ve just completed this game, it took me 300 hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. However this is the only KB game that had features in it that I didn’t like. Lets start with the beginning, it is absolutely terrible, enough to put you off playing the game. You are given no tutorial (not a problem for veteran players), instead you have to follow a linear path where most of the enemies are too tough to fight, there is no loot to boost you and you can’t refresh your army. Eventually you reach your first garrison. You can now refresh your army but have to defeat 3 tough enemy and then a further 1. Don’t even think about a no loss win, you’ll be lucky if half your troops survive.
– Real player with 300.7 hrs in game