Slaves of Magic prelude
To sum up:
1) Fluent flow: intuitive & detailed user interface, streamlined gameplay, clever AI,
2) Satisfying tactics: many tactical decisions to make (split up, sneak through buildings, flanking etc.),
3) Neat RPG elements: the different character skills leads to cool combos
4) A great indie team: the developers are really open to community feedback & completely remastered the in game combat.
Although it is just a DEMO, it is clear at this stage that the game has limitless options for further content
– Real player with 4.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Turn-Based Tactics Games.
I really like the remastered combat system. It reminds me to the board game Eclipse Second Dawn for the Galaxy: first getting the movements all done, and then dealing with the action phase is a great mechanism!
The basics of the game are working well, and I’m really looking forward that state of the game, when many unique character skills will be available. And I’m looking forward when it will contain the campaign map as well, not just this tactical combat episode, that is currently in the DEMO.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Battle Barn: Tactics
Take your tactics to the next level! Battle your way through bite-sized combat until you hit the next zone. Strategize your way to victory with the ultimate team composition.
EVERY FOE CAN BE A FRIEND
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Every unit can be captured and controlled
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Hundreds of strategies and synergies with different units
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New units to capture in every zone
EVERY UNIT IS UNIQUE
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Animals move in their own patterns
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Dozens of moves and abilities
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Countless combinations of upgrades for each unit
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Roguelite Games.
Blacken Slash
Blacken Slash fuses tactical turn-based combat and fast-paced hack, slash and loot gameplay – and takes only the best out of both genres to create a simple, but endlessly rewarding gameplay experience where you fight, loot and repeat until you die. Play on your own and perfect your gear across dozens of runs and see which difficulty you can master – or compete with other players in an online leaderboard where you start from scratch each week.
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Minimalist – easy to learn
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Difficult – hard to master
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Short levels – short play sessions
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An abundance of items
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Various playstyles and builds
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Challenging achievements
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Weekly online leaderboard
Burned Land
Burned Land is a niche game, and a little gem to me.
At first sight it might seem a little bit empty and obscure. Then it will seem very hard, even unfair. But if you push forward, you will discover a game with a very original approach, very rich and permissive in the ways you want to shape your kingdom and face the gods.
In this game, you not only build units and facilities, you will also “monitor” your population (literacy, devotion, nobility, sedentary, etc.), so they will provide you what you need and when you need it.
– Real player with 31.9 hrs in game
It is a pretty rough game, both in terms of UI and difficulty. The UI will hopefully get some polish from this one-man dev team, and perhaps the difficulty as well, but the difficulty certainly needs the polish a lot less. The dev is still pushing out regular updates, thus my recommendation for this Early Access game.
I made it to Turn 194, after narrowly dodging a very early game defeat. The early game near-defeat came about as my village almost starved due to a famine brought on by the gods. The entire point of this game is that the larger you grow, the more interest the gods have in stopping you from growing.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
Nilspace
Age of Fear 3: The Legend
I might not have bothered with a review since I need to be either incredibly impressed or massively wound up by a game to do it, but some dwarves asked me to.
I’m not kidding. I finished the first expansion (which was dirt cheap, short, well made and pretty fun overall) and then my little dwarfy soldiers had a conversation where they talked about how reviews help indie games and asked me to post one. Normally this would really annoy me, but considering how much time I’ve put into the completely free ‘Age of Fear: The Free World’ and the fact it genuinely made me laugh I’ll go along with the beardy little gits and pen this. I’ll do the usual and write sections about the different bits of the game that jump out at me, but I will say that you can stop reading, go download the absolutely free ‘Age of Fear: The Free World’, play that and decide if you’ll like this game based on your experience there. It’s free, which I might have mentioned already, has everything but a main story arc and is constantly being updated, which is crazy. Free game, yet still gets big updates? Yeah. Anyways, back to AoF 3.
– Real player with 108.2 hrs in game
Very good games and I played for 60+ hours now in this series. ThoughI have some feelings and suggestions:
First I go with some defaults and potential improvement in my opinion.
1. Difference race is not very well balanced.
1.1 Death power is too OP in general because the catapult of death is the only accessible one to capture, and super OP and can be resurrected. In late game you can even set up a catapult legion. Also. a legion of Lich is also OP because they can resurrect each other. No mentioning wights can be the solution to almost all hard fights. Basically a legion made up of death hydra, catapult and lich is way powerful than any combination in other races: high aoe damage with morale decrease for all, all-resurrect-able and not influenced by morale. Even units as dark knights which would be quite popular units in other races but it is off the top 3 OP list in Death units.
– Real player with 50.1 hrs in game
Dark Deity
I want to start this by saying that I DID enjoy the game… but I don’t think I could recommend it in a lot of cases. There are many reasons why for this, but at the moment I think that I’d want to start with the things I did like about the game, because there are a good few things I enjoyed.
Things I liked:
-Spritework. The animations of characters and attacks did actually blow me away from time to time. Was always excited to see what new animations I would get from a new class, or for the spellcasters, getting their spells ranked up.
– Real player with 51.4 hrs in game
Dark Deity takes its inspiration from Fire Emblem games, generally. Here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
Sprite animations are great.
Movement ranges are visible and easily determinable.
Weapon damage output, hit chance, and crit chance are all clearly visible based on your chosen weapon.
Leveling up characters is fun, and you have multiple options for modding the game in terms of XP, GOLD, and STAT start.
Cons:
-Loading screens. Holy moly, anywhere between 4-7 loading screens (requiring around 5-10 seconds of loading time each) between given battles. It’s nuts. A loading screen before the save screen. A loading screen before the dialogue cutscene. A loading screen before the actual battle. Absolutely bonkers and annoying. Please fix this, it’s fucking stupid.
– Real player with 48.2 hrs in game
Deadnaut: Signal Lost
From the developer of cult hits Deadnaut and Zafehouse Diaries comes Deadnaut: Signal Lost. In this slick, fast-paced roguelike you’ll take control of a single Deadnaut, unlock suit upgrades and abilities, fight cosmic horrors, and investigate drifting wrecks and abandoned moons. But remember: your Deadnaut is not a puppet – earn their trust, do your job well, and they might return the favour.
Equip your Deadnaut with a wide array of weapons and gear and lead them through a series of procedurally generated missions, fighting where you can – and running when you must.
Your Deadnaut may not like the idea of being torn apart by unknown horrors. Do what you can to complete your mission - pay bribes, make promises, turn them into a mindless space golem - but remember: everything has a price.
There are many ways to play, from weapons and sensors, to shields and hacking. Will you take the heavy duty Labour suit and slice your way through the ship, or will you slip through the shadows in the ghostly Sensor suit?
Encounter dozens of enemies types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Avoid – or exploit – the security system in each level, from the Watchers that roam ships to the malfunctioning security Towers and Sentinels that guard settlements.
Tailor your armour and damage potential, and develop your Deadnaut with over 100 suit upgrades.
The cosmos is tearing itself apart. Wrecks are full of horrible, interdimensional creatures, the dead roam surfaces of moons, and you’re being hunted by technically advanced soldiers. Experience the world of Deadnaut up close.
FAQ
How does this relate to the original Deadnaut (2014)?
Deadnaut and Deadnaut: Signal Lost are both situated in the same universe and feature similar, mission-based gameplay in procedurally-generated locations. Furthermore, in both games you take on the role as a remote handler who controls the action ‘at a distance’ via a physical console. The Deadnaut also uses similar weapons and suits; battles against security systems; trades ‘knowledge’ for gear; and can be cloned upon dying.
Is this a sequel?
Deadnaut: Signal Lost is not a sequel. It is focused on a single Deadnaut, rather than a whole squad. The action is more intimate and tactical, and you can develop your Deadnaut with numerous suit upgrades and abilities. Furthermore, the gameplay is turn-based, not real-time, which helps focus the action.
How many levels are there?
Deadnaut: Signal Lost is designed to be fast, easy to pick up, and replayable. There are roughly 12 – 24 levels in a standard game. With five suits, special game modifiers, multiple difficulty levels, over 100 upgrades, loads of gear and procedurally generated campaigns, we think you’ll be occupied for a long time.
Isn’t everything ‘roguelike’ these days?
Deadnaut: Signal Lost has many genre-defining features, such as turn-by-turn tile-based movement, character progression, procedural generation and permadeath.
Knights of Frontier Valley
Get ready for unlimited adventures in Frontier Valley, a mysterious and unforgiving place. Take on the role of an adventurer and guide him through his years from age 20 to 40 in a unique and dynamic world. Gain fame and fortune, while never losing sight of the most important goal: staying alive!
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Survive the dangers of both the wilderness and faction politics in a procedurally generated world full of secrets and lore.
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Choose your character from a number of different classes, customize his skills and appearance to your liking, and pursue a profession that fits your style of playing.
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Join a faction and gain titles and glory, or go at it alone in your search for long-lost wisdom and powerful artifacts.
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Fight in gridless, turn-based tactical combat, or choose to have the AI battle for you quickly.
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Adapt to a highly dynamic world with day/night-cycles, seasons, and ever changing places and characters.
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Craft items from a large number of materials, and interact with the environment in creative ways to gain the edge over your enemies.
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See your actions become part of the valley’s story, impacting friends and foes alike.
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A true Indie game: designed, funded and programmed from scratch by one person who has never done this before.
Knights of Frontier Valley is the RPG that can be played over and over again. No two games are the same in this challenging fantasy adventure with survival and strategy elements. Making it to the end with one character will just make you want to start over right away with a different one.
Phoenix Point: Year One Edition
Been following this game since announcement, could only buy it recently
Not as polished or filled with content as reboot XCOM titles and has a lot of balance issues, but i like it, i hope devs will keep on supporting the game.
The biggest difference from other x-com-like games is that you can aim at different body parts similar to fallout’s VATS system, effectively letting you disable individual bodyparts of enemy units or strike the least protected spots to maximize damage as guns fire projectiles and not just mimick that feel, making cover work as actual cover and not just decrease a chance to hit and damage received
– Real player with 344.1 hrs in game
Phoenix Point is an evolution of the turn-based tactics genre. The free-aim system allows the player the control to make meaningful decisions in placement and in utilizing the soldiers rather than praying to RNG-esus to give us a good roll. Snipers don’t miss shots right in-front of their faces, there are no ‘99% but whoops it missed!’ moments. For this alone it’s a worthwhile and substantial upgrade to classic tactics games.
The over-world is on par with X-Com 2 with the player moving from point to point looking for cities and supplies in addition to trading opportunities. The great bulk of the player’s time in the over-world should be spent either moving to a mission or moving between havens to trade resources. One of the major missed elements of Phoenix Point, and what I see giving players an endless amount of consternation is in finding enough resources to make it through the game. I’ve also noticed the achievement for ‘Trading 10,000 Resources’ is also under 10%.
– Real player with 177.2 hrs in game