Epitaph
I recommend it to some players BUT it’s a very specific group of players.
I gotta start by saying the art design is great. Incredibly eye-catching with all the colors and angles. Premium style!
Anyway, Epitaph’s gameplay is kinda like the line battle system in Darkest Dungeon. And they really leaned into the mechanic. For example, one of the reapers can headbutt an enemy to knock it into a different spot. Another example, one of the characters can attack in front of or behind them. You’re stuck in the 2D but there’s still a lot of movement and options. Even with 13 characters, they’re all simple to learn. Epitaph has a low skill floor but a high skill ceiling.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Tactical 2D Games.
Vikings: Age Of The Axe
GET READY FOR A LONG VOYAGE
Gather warriors, take your weapon and get on your boat to sail through the sea. Choose one of many available locations to raid and go ashore.
PLAN YOUR PLUNDERS
Before starting the raid, it is worth sending a patrol to discover the location of enemy troops and buildings. Choose your targets order and plan the battle to minimize losses.
FIGHT TO THE DEATH
Slash, throw, thrust and chop to win in the deadly combat. Use a variety of weapons, kill quietly or eye to eye and do everything to not be the one left on the ground.
TAKE YOUR TREASURE
This is the purpose of your efforts - break in, grab everything valuable, loot the dead and burn what you can’t take with you. Exchange gathered wealth for better equipment, skilled people and get ready for further battles.
Read More: Best Tactical Souls-like Games.
Special Tactics
It’s a great game! Too bad the player base is 0 at this point so if you want to buy it for the multiplayer, you need to have some friends to play it with or you can add me.
However, the single player is awesome! The campaign has a lot of variety and teaches you everything you need to know. It shows of the maps very well. After completing the campaign there is not much left to do. Only thing you could do is survival mode, but that gets boring after a few games
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Tactical Turn-Based Tactics Games.
Special Tactics Online is a tactical/ strategy shooter with addictive gameplay.
This game now in Early Access, but in this stage its also can keep your mind for couple hours.
The gameplay is turn based you sent orders for your squad what contain a four member, after that when you end own turn your opponent do same. In a multiplayer the players have 50 second in each turn, in other modes time is not limited. In a game you can found five different classes, all has different features. You also can use in every round one type of booster (from four available) and you can use three different grenades types. At the moment game has 7 maps, but this amount will be grow up in the future. Also you can change a weapons of your squad members. You can buy weapons, on the store, what you can earn playing, survival mode, and multiplayer.
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
The Stone of Madness
The Stone of Madness is a hardcore real-time tactics and stealth game set in a Spanish madhouse in the late 18th century. Located in the Pyrenees, a timeworn Jesuit monastery is home both to a madhouse and an inquisitorial prison. Five mysterious characters have been imprisoned between its walls under different pretenses. Plagued by cruel punishment, madness and despair, they will soon devise a plan to escape this place.
Escape the Madness
Using an isometric perspective take and alternate control of your characters and aid their escape. Depending on how you play, their sanity will deteriorate, gaining them a “Stone of Madness” and triggering new disabilities and negative effects such as paranoia, dementia or bouts of violence.
Explore your surroundings, find clues and tools to help you achieve your goal. Be careful though, if you’re caught being somewhere you shouldn’t be the guards will not be kind…
Character Progression & Regression
We all have our strengths and weaknesses and our heroes are no different. Each character starts with various traumas and phobias. Depending on how you play, their sanity will deteriorate, gaining them a “Stone of Madness” and triggering new disabilities and negative effects such as paranoia, dementia or bouts of violence. This in turn increases the game’s difficulty. Characters can also unlock positive skills or reverse the negative effects on their sanity by finding “Stones of Clarity” which are scattered throughout the monastery. Some actions may exacerbate phobias and other mental conditions or even trigger new conditions to develop.
Discover the Secrets of the Monastery
Choose from several different escape plans to execute, each with its own stories, objectives, special characters and other surprises. While exploring the monastery you may come across items or clues that can aid different escape plans or future attempts. These items can unlock new content for your future play-through’s.
You have no memory of this place…
Each new game generates a different monastery thanks to a semi-procedural system. Everything from the monastery lay-out to item location is variable making each play session as fresh as the first.
Day/Night Cycle
Time is continuous in The Stone of Madness; Day & Night phases are split with actions to complete during the day and preparation activities (healing/crafting/resting) at night. Most actions can be completed during the day while others, are better done at night with fewer eyes watching. But there are reasons you should not go prowling at night…
Stunning and Original Artwork
The Stone of Madness' visuals are heavily inspired by 18th century artist, Francisco De Goya. Everything from scenery, to clothes and even character faces are influenced by De Goya’s works. Combining his styles with our artist team’s sketching and animation has resulted in numerous hand-painted scenes and hundreds of traditional-style animations that is both eye-catching and enhances the isometric-perspective The Stone of Madness uses.
Features Overview
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Master Tactician– Plan and execute your escape in real-time, utilize each characters’ unique abilities and escape the Monastery.
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The Prisoners – Play as five unique and flawed characters, discover why each has imprisoned.
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Secrets of the Monastery - Explore the monastery and you may come across items or clues to unlock new content for future play-through’s.
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Character Progression/Regression – Each character has special skills and unique flaws that can help or hinder or progress.
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Endless Escapes - There are multiple escape plans to attempt by exploring the monastery. The monastery map also changes with each play-through, moving key and items to other locations.
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Stunning and Original Art - Exquisite hand-painted and original works inspired by 18th century artist, Francisco De Goya
The Stone of Madness takes inspiration from;
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Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
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Desperados 3
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Broken Lines
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Darkwood
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Darkwood
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Commandos
Bionite: Origins
At its current state I can’t recommend. I’ve re-downloaded when new updates were made, but sadly the game does not feel like BZ. The controls are too sophisticated (couldn’t implement the original’s?), unit AI needs a huge improvement, and many bugs just build on top of it all. Seriously though, commanding your constructor to build a guntower shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. Bad pathfinding and controls plague a game where basic game mechanics should be a priority. Besides, 6+ years and it’s still in early access? Sorry, but donating to them was a mistake.
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
As others have said, this game unfortunately seems to have grinded to a halt since 2018? Developers obviously lost interest. It’s a buggy mess that is COMPLETELY unplayable at this stage; controls are wacky and nothing seems to work correctly. Don’t buy it.
I think everyone was hoping something great would come of this spiritual successor… it’s a shame. Oh well, Battlezone 98 Redux and Battlezone: Combat Commander are on Steam now at least.
EDIT in response to developer:
I fully understand that game development is very difficult, especially when starting out or with only a small team, and as such, many projects take years to develop.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Desperados III
Perfect game made with love and attention to detail. Engaging story, believable characters, excellent voice acting. Smooth and customizable control scheme.
This game represents the peak of the genre.
– Real player with 117.5 hrs in game
I LOVED the original…Then I played this! The original now sits in that nostalgic corner of my gaming brain never to be played again just thought about with fond memories because when you play the original you’ll be thinking of this!. Well worth every penny and more. I lost two and a half hours on one mission that only felt like half an hour, I also managed to burn my dinner in the process! Ha. The achievements are a very nice touch that gives the game some longevity….Speed running might be a bridge too far for me though! The only negative thing about this game is you get to the end eventually and you’ll want more!. Note to Mimimi…Please take my money and make more content….(pretty please).
– Real player with 91.3 hrs in game
Nordic Warriors
As someone who played Myth 2 and Myth 3 years ago(But unfortunately missed playing the first game), I’m still waiting with great anticipation for those games to be either remastered or adapted for modern platforms in order to be able to play them once again. In all the years since Myth 3 came out, there has not been a release of any RTS game that comes close to replicating the unique style of that trilogy. Until Nordic Warriors, that is.
I came across this game completely by accident while routinely browsing on Humble Store, and as someone who very much loves everything with Scandinavian themes(Which the developers did a fantastic job of adapting and implementing in the game) I went and checked the game’s page on Steam. Upon seeing its striking resemblance to the Myth series from the screenshots, even before reading the game’s description which explicitly mentions it as inspiration, I instantly downloaded the demo, played it, and I was not disappointed. After playing the first three levels on the demo, instantly purchased the full game, went on to continue right from where I left off and finished it all two days later.
– Real player with 32.0 hrs in game
Nordic Warriors draws heavily on Myth games developed by Bungie back in the mid- to late-90s. The developer (a 2-person team!) of Nordic Warriors even stated that they were tired of waiting for more games like Myth to be released, so they set out to build their own. If you loved Myth, I feel you’ll also love Nordic Warriors, but this is no Myth clone. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of similarities to Bungie’s series, but enough unique ideas that Nordic Warriors can stand alone.
The gameplay is real time tactical (RTT). If you’ve never played a game like this, it boils down to starting with a limited number of units per level. Positioning your units, timing attacks, choosing stylistic matchups, and finding unit synergies are all factors that determine success of failure. Your units gain experience which makes them tougher, more accurate, and generally “better” in different ways depending on type of unit. This adds a fun facet that makes the loss of even one unit really impactful. Not only do you have to wait until the next level starts to get a fresh unit, but that new unit is now the weak link in your crack team of warriors.
– Real player with 14.8 hrs in game
Partisans 1941
Introduction
I was naturally interested in Partisans 1941, as real-time tactics games based on World War 2 are quite rare lately, especially when they offer a bit more unique view on skirmishes behind the enemy lines rather than on commanding the Red Army. In the end, it surprised me how I was thrilled to start a new mission each time, but my enthusiasm went a bit down due to constant performance issues and occasional minor bugs. As if we could not get a decently done game in all aspects lately.
– Real player with 44.2 hrs in game
I was really craving a game like this for a very long time and it has definitelly scratched that itch. It really reminded mo a lot of the old Commandos games. I’ve been ingame for 32 hours, but I would say it took me about ~28 to complete the story. If you can afford is, the game is totally worth the buy, I really enjoyed it, but that said I would like to go into details about some (not all) of the games mechanics and give my feedback about what I enjoyed and disliked. Please feel free to comment with anything and especially with updates if something has been resolved. Sooo this is my first proper review on steam, and I didnt know there was a word limit. I was actually 5650 words over the limit in my original review which you can find here here and nelow is a very, very reduced version of the original.
– Real player with 32.2 hrs in game
Crash Dive 2
THIS GAME DESERVES A GOOD REVIEW!
Reasons for a cheap price tag:
Graphics are interesting, even though simplified in appearance there is much detail in the game.
U-Boat modeling very simple and almost toyish, in appearance but it is all there.
Modeling on objects in distance of being observed don’t have that realistic emergence into view, just that don’t see it now and you do see it thing but it works. You won’t spot smoke on the horizon in other words, just modeled if you see them or not and then scaled according to view and size. There is debris, fires, oil slicks, smoke, fog, rain. clouds are a bit unrealistic in presentation.
– Real player with 130.8 hrs in game
Crash Dive II, it’s about the closest recent game that I have found as a sub sim to Silent Hunter III, Wolves of the Pacific.
It will be a game that will be compared because they are both based in the Pacific region during WW2, but there are differences, for instance, Crash Dive II is much easier to get straight into and overall is an easier sim to play, its not as in depth as SH II and does not have a choice of subs or starting zone to choose from, does not have historically dodgy torpedoes that don’t work (all these do) and the graphics in Crash Dive II could be better, but are still ok for the fact this isn’t a big developer.
– Real player with 29.9 hrs in game
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
I’m still missing some achievements but the Steam Awards are here and Shadow Tactics deserves a prize.
Briefly: Shadow Tactics is a real-time stealth tactics game, a true tribute to Commandos games. Instead of soldiers, it’s about ninjas and scheming in feudal Japan. And it fits the concept perfectly.
It’s always a bit daunting to write about a game you love. Shadow Tactics has everything you loved about Commandos games, coming with a modern interface. It’s also a great example that Unity can create truly great games.
– Real player with 93.2 hrs in game
I guess all of us have games that we used to love back in the days, but can’t find anything like them on modern market. Times changed and now there are many dead, or half-dead genres and sub-genres. Space simulators, rail shooters… Even real-time strategies and puzzle / point & click adventures aren’t doing well now. Among all that there’s a small RTS sub-genre that was never really big, but still made a lot of loyal fans. I’m talking about Commandos series and its clones. An unique mix of stealth and RTS with revolutionary “cons of sight” system. By controlling group of soldiers with the unique set of abilities, players were supposed to finish different missions in WWII setting. The first two Commandos games (released in 1998 and 2001 respectively) were absolutely brilliant and it felt like their makers, Pyro Studios, are making instant classic. Unfortunately, the third Commandos game wasn’t that popular thanks to many questionable changes in the gameplay, while FPS spin-off called Commandos: Strike Force started the dark times for Pyro Studios. Which switched to casual games soon after that. Commandos series died. But there was another team to keep their spirit alive.
– Real player with 81.9 hrs in game