Pawn of the Dead
Nice change on chess games, waiting for new scenarios
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Indie Games.
If you’re a chess fan, don’t miss Pawn of the Dead. New rules totally reinvigorate the game (but the original’s still there if you want it). Campaign is a series of 64 challenges but as if that wasn’t enough there’s also an arcade-style “queen vs zombies” mode.
You probably have to be a chess fan to enjoy this, but if you are, this is mindblowing. Features a campaign with 64 challenges, a “queen vs zombies” mode, 2p mode and both classic and zombie rules.
For more niche curation, follow me at: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27440015-CSH-Picone/
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
Disciples II: Gallean’s Return
!!!!! ON WINDOWS 7/10: !!!!!
Run with Direct3D turned on, stretch to fullscreen, and 800x600 res. Trust me btw, the 800x600 res looks INCREDIBLE b/c of the awesome textures in this game.
70 hours in at the time of this review, I just finished the 2nd campaign (there are 4, and this isn’t even the expansion set) on Average (normal) difficulty. This is a game that will challenge you, but also reward you. Whether you build massive armies or put all of your time and energy into one unit, you will be surprised how difficult it is to stop moving those little bastards around. Buy this game if you have the opportunity.
– Real player with 213.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Classic Games.
One of the all times favourites games : Diablo2, Age of Empires 1&2, Disciples 1&2. Special mention for Civilizations 3 Heroes of might and magic 3. There was nothing like them at that time, and there still isn’t.
For fans of the genre and disciples 2 in special, i recommend checking Atlantica Online (cashgrabber and if you are not in an active strong guild there is no way to have the top mercs and craft top equipment, but the game itself is so much like Disciples 2, only mmorpg)
Disciples 2 had lots of room for improvement, but is a fantastic game, simply amazing. Disciples 3 unfortunately turned away from the style of the game, moving units in battle ruined the tactical pre-battle arrangement of troops.
– Real player with 135.3 hrs in game
Disciples III: Reincarnation
If I got to name one game which receives a lot of hate yet is one of my favorites, Disciples III: Reincarnation would be my answer without the slightest hesitation. I’m gonna go through what most people complained about then throw my 2 cents on each criticism.
“Game is too hard." While in English version the 3 difficulties are Easy/Normal/Hard, there are Normal/Hard/Hardcore in Russian’s respectively. To put it another way, there is no such thing as Easy mode in this game. For the love of Bethrezen, just lower the difficulty if you can’t handle the harder one. Also keep in mind that even though the game eventually gets away from world map strategy, exploring the map and choosing the right mobs to fight for XP are vital to strengthen your armies. If you’re wandering to a place where most neutral armies are currently out-leveled you, just head to other directions then come back another time. I’ve watched a streamer got frustrated after keeping on running into a Troll with a level-3-party (Tier 1) for like 20 times then screamed this game sucked really bad. Obviously, he was playing Disciples III: Suicide Squad Limited Edition and indeed that game sucks. While this is the case, sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where it looks like there are no neutral mobs you’re able to farm for XP and the rest of the map is just too powerful. Don’t worry, you can just grind the ruins, dungeons,… which are gonna be inactive for a few turns after being looted. Alternately, you can visit a training camp to level up any unit with a direct conversion of 1 gold = 1 experience point.
– Real player with 543.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy RPG Games.
Are you SERIOUS?????? Come on….!
This game is roughly (no exaggeration) 800x better than Disciples 2.
History: so I played Disciples 1-2 (and all expansions as they were called before we had things called DLC lol) And I loved both. Haven’t played them in decades.
Bought Disciples 3 and first expansion in BOX form. Played them. Liked them. Didn’t play again for years. Then Steam had a sale for Disciples 3 and their expansions. Bought it. Played it. Liked it. Not loved it. Liked it.
Disciples 3 Reincarnation came out (Ok now this is getting ridiculous. How many expansions/DLC/Versions are there going to be for this version.) And Played it over the last couple weeks. Liked it. Most of it.
– Real player with 218.6 hrs in game
Mythic Legions Tactics
Discover the world of Mythoss and build your “Mythic Legion” in this innovative, customizable, non-Pay-to-win TACTICS game featuring Fully 3D Realistic Environments, Hundreds of Class options, and Skill Based Battles! Build your Legion! Change your faction! Fight in the WAR OF THE AETHERBLADE!
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Free-To-Play Multiplayer game that that comes with a purchasable Single Player story that includes more than 150 fully 3D Battles, Hundreds of Weapons and Armor, and nearly a Dozen Races.
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The game will be available on PC and mobile platforms initially (iOS, Android) and is being designed with strategic, satisfying gameplay in-mind…
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Fully Customizable Characters!
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Cinematic cut scenes with high-paced action!
GAMEPLAY
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Single-player or Multi-player where you can battle against your friends in Hot Seat or Tactics With Friends, or anyone in Tactics With Friends or Auto-Battler Modes.
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Not a “pay-to-win” game. Players can only enhance their power in the game by building up their skills and completing challenges during actual gameplay.
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Players can purchase different character skins and graphical enhancements to accessories or weapons (like adding flame effect to a sword.
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Turn-based strategy & tactics players will embrace the familiar joy of a classic genre with innovative features, such as movement across fully 3D realistic environments that include different elevations and landscapes such as hills, stairways and even in water. On top of those there are special moves, full 3D camera rotation, and Auto-battling options.
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Combat matters! Besides normal combat mode, players can choose to attack certain limbs and making special targeted attacks.
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Customization is king - like the Mythic Legions toy line, players can customize their characters at a very high level and add details to their characters body, armor, weapons, clothing, accessories – no 2 characters will be the same
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Players will build a “special ops” team within the faction they choose and will follow the storyline getting into battles, side missions and boss battles to advance in the game and unlock levels and rewards.
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One of the coolest features is that players will be able to play the storyline of a certain faction, and then go back and play the storyline as a different one. For example, play as the good guys chasing the stolen Aetherblade, or as the bad guys trying the outrun your pursuers and return the sword to its master.
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When players do switch storylines, they will be playing against the faction team they’ve previously created which is now run by the games AI.
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Character Skins & Power Level – Players will be building their characters using a “slot” system. Which will allow them to build up their characters skills and powers. Players can decide to change their character skins during the game (say from Knight to Barbarian) and the skill/power they’ve already built up will automatically transfer over. This also includes when players decide to switch storylines to a different faction. For example, if you build up a character to a 20 during one storyline, you will start the other storyline with a 20 so you are not starting over. The games AI will scale automatically.
STORYLINES
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War of the Aetherblade is the 1st season of the Mythic Legions Tactics game and is set in the high-fantasy world of Mythic Legions with Humans, Elves, Knights, Orcs, Trolls, Undead Skeletons and Vampires, and more
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The game’s story starts with the coronation of the Elven Queen Artemyss Silverchord at Castle Silverhorn. During the ceremony, the castle is attacked by the Legion of Arethyr and the mystical Aetherblade sword is stolen. Queen Artemyss’s legion, along with other factions and splinter cells, are now racing to win back control of the Aetherblade before it falls into the hands of its master Arethyr and he lays waste to the realm of Mythoss.
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Play the storyline as different factions – Mythic Legions has a deep storyline and there will be 5 factions included in the Single Player game.
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When a player does decide to switch factions, the skill and power levels that they’ve already built up will be transferred to their new storyline. So players don’t have to start from scratch.
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Boss Battles – every Faction will feature a boss battle featuring one of the core characters from the Mythic Legions universe
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Side Missions – Each storyline will have side missions (like a jail break out) and challenges that will either advance the story or unlock bonuses.
WHAT MAKES MYTHIC LEGIONS TACTICS UNIQUE?
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3D Realistic Levels - Most Tactics games are 2D and won’t let you rotate the camera around to see different angles. The few 3D Tactics games that exist are made where the environment itself is made of just a bunch of textured 3D squares of Hexes instead of more realistic environments. Instead we place the Hex grid over the environment instead of making it using them.
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Visual Customization - Lots of games allow for visual customizations, but we believe we have taken it much further. Not only are we customizing the standard things like skin color, face, hair, tattoos, but every piece of armor and weapon can be recolored to any color, mix and matched between different types, and effects can be added to each such as flames or frost. The customizer in this game will literally let anyone create a digital action figure and pose them in a display environment as well as shared with anyone to see your collection.
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Slot Based Characters - This is slightly more difficult to explain. The basic concept is that all of the character data is stored in a specific slot. Since Mythic Legions Tactics lets you play 5 Single Player Faction storylines as well as Multiplayer battles, we didn’t want the player to always have to start back off at level 1 every time they choose a different story or played Multiplayer. So to accomplish this you can create a different playable Character for each Faction storyline and even different ones for Multiplayer all within the same slot allowing the slot to level up. This slot continues to grow the more the player plays the game, so no matter if you are playing Single Player stories or Multiplayer battles, the Slot keeps its experience, Skills, and unlocked Classes.
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No Pay To Win (Everything is Skill Based) - Well when we set out to make this game, one of the most important elements was to make sure it wasn’t something people could just come in, buy a bunch of overpowered equipment, items, etc… and just destroy other people. So instead we removed ALL stat boosts, specials, and other enhancements from equipment. We made the game more about how skillful your characters are with each weapon, armor, or item. So by unlocking a skill, that skill then levels up as the character uses it more there by increasing the stats, attack, defense, etc… of the character. So the more you play the more your character improves instead of buying that improvement!
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Melded Classes - This is probably one of the most unique features for Mythic Legions Tactics. This allows players to essentially merge two different classes into a new one. As an example, if you leveled your character up to unlock the classes for Priest and Mage. You could Meld the two into a new hybrid class called a Blue Mage which gives the player access to most of the same Skills and Spells for both classes as well as a few new unique ones to the new hybrid class called Blue Mage. A more extreme example would be melding a Barbarian with a Necromancer. Honestly I don’t know what the new hybrid class would be called just yet, but they are on opposite sides of the Classes hierarchy with very different Stat requirements. But at the same time it is absolutely something you could do and allows for people to have a lot more fun trying out the various options for potentially hundreds of unique classes!
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Turn-Based Strategy with Auto-Battle - Most tactics game battles take a long time to complete even a single one. Some people love this. It means you can get 50+ hours of gameplay in a single game. However, others don’t like the tedium of having to choose every action for their characters to attack the enemy. While it is far more efficient to do so, it also isn’t always necessary if you are grinding to level up, or just want to play to see the story. To make the game more enjoyable for everyone, we have added what are called Battle Templates. The game will come with a few pre-made ones, but essentially a Battle Template allows you to select a set of predefined rules and action for your characters to follow instead of you having to decide each and every action. This will let you be able to just Auto-Battle levels by having your team just go through those actions automatically so you can enjoy leveling up, the customization, and the amazing story. Also, just so everyone knows, Battle-Templates work on both Single Player story levels and Multiplayer!
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Win Conditions - Normally win conditions in a tactics game are just to defeat everyone. We are definitely going to have that win condition, but sometimes the win condition might be to sneak past guards and unlock something, get all of your players to a specific area on the map without losing anyone, or incapacitate the enemy instead of kill them. These different types will offer a variety of gameplay options not seen in strategy tactics games.
Fenrir’s Prelude
Good game good design
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
You get what you pay for ,_,
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars
If I were to describe this game in one sentence it would be as follows: A game with strong foundation, but a lot of underutilized or wasted potential. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and look at its strengths and weaknesses.
STRENGHTS:
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ART. Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars features very high quality art that is best represented on Cards. I can’t praise art of this game enough. Everything is very detailed, atmospheric, diverse and just a pleasure to look at.
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ATMOSPHERE. This one is a bit subtle but at its core this game makes you feel like a vampire ruler who is playing a deadly game of influence and warfare. The fact that game represents quite a few things with cards certainly adds to this feeling.
– Real player with 149.0 hrs in game
After playing for 100 hours, completing the campaign, and finishing +16 sandbox with all factions, i can say that this game is, for the better parts :
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Stable/Playable (I encountered no game crash, nor errors, with the “worst” bug being solved by simply surrendering the fighting in which i was stuck.) (Played on an Acer Nitro N50-600, I5-8400 CPU 2.8GHz, NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB, 8G RAM)
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Enjoyable (Some part of the campaign may be more difficult than others but taken on the right angle, they become easier.)
– Real player with 137.6 hrs in game
Osteoblasts
Target Audience: Those wanting a solid RPG
Summary:
Let me start off this review by saying please don’t take the number of hours that I’ve played of this game pre-release as the game’s length. It’s around 12 hours on a typical run, but I tested a bunch of stuff to confirm some thoughts about the combat system here.
With that said, Osteoblasts is actually underpriced for the solid combat system and the equipment/skill system the game throws at you. I spent hours upon hours playing with the different configurations of skills for the shaman, but each class only serves as a starting template to make a character that you want. Worshipping to the various gods and the stats that they give becomes the molding clay of how to make your ultimate character. The different equipment and stats and how enemies react to different strategies is smart and intelligent. Stats are a little familiar to other RPGs but all the secondary effects and different stat combos and the strengths of different enemies means that you’ve got to make strategic decisions each turn: conserving your marrow and using defensive and counter skills to take enemies down little by little. Really, a lot of the time in this game is just seeing how you can maximize your self in the enemies you’re facing RIGHT now, and then adjusting to the next set of enemies that you come across.
– Real player with 52.7 hrs in game
This is a pretty quirky one and it’s very hard to review, as a result.
Given the time I played and the overall enjoyment and general lack of bugs or whatnot, I’d give it a decent ‘yes’, with a few caveats. The story/dialog are all kinda ‘wacky’ to say the least. It’s a strange one. I got quite a few pretty good chuckles out of it, but it feels like later in the game tries to really hammer in a bit of actual story and whatnot and, frankly, I could not make full sense of it.
There seem to be a few endings and even an unlockable or two but nobody seems quite sure how to get them or what triggers what, and the writing and pacing makes it a little extra hard to tell.
– Real player with 20.0 hrs in game
Rogue Lords
I really enjoyed Rogue Lords, and I decided to write this review as I have a slightly different take from the others I read.
It took me ~40 hours to finish all chapters, and I always played with the same team (the starters: Dracula “the Support”, the Headless Horseman “the Tank”, Bloody Mary “the DPS”). I think I had a total of two game overs, one at the second or third chapter, and one at the second-to-last (but see below).
I read several reviews mentioning that the game is hard and RNG can hit hard. I think they are not wrong, but I did not find it THAT hard: I think it’s more a matter of COMPLEXITY. Damage already starts in the double digits, and it is not unusual towards the end of the game to hit for 30-50 (multiple times). With 3 characters on your side and 1-3 characters on the other side, you can also have several status effects in play at the same time (probably the maximum I’ve seen is ~20). You accumulate this with relic effects and maybe even battle effects, and suddenly it becomes really easy to make a fatal mistake. I remember in one boss battle I accidentally made the Headless Horseman use an attack that steals HP and SP, while he was under the effect of a Zombie debuff (healing received becomes damage), so instead of healing him I made him Vulnerable with 0 HP and 0 SP. Fun times.
– Real player with 132.9 hrs in game
Note that while I am giving this a thumbs up, there are definite issues that sour the experience (that I will go into more detail over below). Honestly, this rating should be 3/5, 6/10, or a neutral but we don’t have those options.
Long story short:
Rogue Lords is a fun roguelike very much like Slay the Spire, but not being a rip off in the slightest. It has a unique cheating mechanic and is pretty difficult while also having balance issues and run destroying bug. The concept is unique, fresh, and fun, but the gameplay could use some retuning and class balancing.
– Real player with 116.7 hrs in game
Through Rust We Are Returned
When I play a game I want a good story without having to constantly mash the keyboard in fights. This game has a compelling story revealed in the form of character memories. The game play is unique, you use the memories to determine the order of combat bonuses. It is fun and not difficult to play. I hope to see more from Chaos Crew Productions!
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Full Playthrough w/ Both Endings and reading:
Review:
This game is definitely more of a visual novel than a strategy RPG, but it’s pretty well done. I really love the mechanics of equipping memories to adapt and customize your characters it’s really cool, the big problem though is that the battles are mind numbingly easy it’s pretty much a rush down there’s not much strategy required at all. I did enjoy it’s visual novel aspects though it’s a pretty dang story the end through me for a hot minute as I was trying to figure out who was who and what was going on, but it has a really dope cyberpunk victorian take on sociopolitical struggles it’s written pretty well, there’s not many typing errors at all. Definitely recommend it’s a well done free to play my only complaint is I wish the combat was a bit more strategic it seems like they give you certain memories so you can make a tank character, but there’s no reason to might as well just go flat damage and blitz.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Shadows of Forbidden Gods
TLDR - Great, unique Lovecraftian turn-based grand strategy game.
The player takes on the mantle of one of multiple eldritch gods with different play styles, bent on bringing their particular brand of apocalypse. The first unlocked god is the most simple - She Who Will Feast, a giant snake that focuses on corrupting heroes and rulers through “enshadowing” them. She starts weak, without a real worldly presence, before awakening, destroying civilised lands and ultimately eating the world. Other gods include Iastur, the Laughing King who focuses on spreading madness to all, Vinerva a god representing nature’s bounties but with a serious catch, Mammon (unreleased at time of writing) who offers great material wealth for the small price of eating people and Ophanim (unreleased at the time of writing) who offers mankind salvation from the aforementioned enshadowment but at the cost of their autonomy.
– Real player with 23.7 hrs in game
My plan to destroy the world was foiled but its okay because I can change the chosen one’s name to Ligma Balls as a final act of primordial malice
– Real player with 19.7 hrs in game