Black Legend
This game is a rare gem, even though there are others like it. It’s true that it has gone through some rough stages, but if you like turn based tactics, this is a challenging title. Especially on higher difficulty, but unlike in the other similar games, the Ironman rules are not about the save scumming. You will die if you turn up that dial. That is certain.
You will only have one save and one goal, to survive. Luckily they don’t throw you in the deep end straight from the beginning, but you won’t be able to feel the bottom under your feet either. The encounters will start to come in fast, but if you’re into speedrunning, there is a sprint and you can find a way around the encounters. So anything is possible, but towards the end of the game, you will have to do some clashes.
– Real player with 89.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Games.
I think when judging this game, it is best to keep expectations in check. This is from an indie developer and not a AAA one so there is a limited amount of time and money that can be put in a project. This naturally means some areas of the game will suffer and I am a bit more lenient regarding it.
My thoughts:
My first impressions of this game were actually very good. This is because I love the 17th Century period in general and was drawn to the turn based approach of this game. I have also wanted to play some of the classes present here in a game. The atmosphere of this game has been good along with how you can freely run around the city. The animations and designs, although not perfect and could do with some work, are still pretty impressive. I paid full price for the game and do not regret it as I do not find it disappointing or sloppy.
– Real player with 32.5 hrs in game
Eisenwald: Blood of November
Unlike origina Legends of Eisenwald which included a campaign across several maps, here you have only one (large) map and the gameplay near the end is really tedious. You need to control the most castles on November 8th and there is no way to skip to this date if you control everything already, so you just wait on max game speed and hunt respawning brigands. On the other hand, the enemy forces respawn too, so you’ll have a very difficult fight until you level up your troops a bit and capture their city - then the endless enemy forces almost stop.
– Real player with 24.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy RPG Games.
The Ice Crone is Hillary Clinton, Deiter is Donald Trump. Seriously, do the introduction quests and when Deiter talks about building a wall around the whole kingdom and keeping criminals and rapist southerners (Mexicans) and Saracens (Muslims) out, and then meet the corrupt Ice Crone and her corruption and likelihood of war with the “Muscovites” (Russia) and support for the Northern Treaty (TPP Deal) as well as her cheating husband and the “Saracen Beauty” they even named Huma after her aide Huma Abedin in real-life, you’ll know you’re choosing Donald or Hillary in this scenario - Which is hilarious. I can’t wait to see both sides' endings as neither can be good for the country, just like in real life. Political inside jokes aside, this scenario is actually quite fun.
– Real player with 22.8 hrs in game
Frozen Synapse
I’ve bought this game three times now and I’d buy it again if I had more free time. I bought it first as a standalone Linux game. Later I picked up another copy in a bundle that gave me a Steam key for it (it was part of a bundle and there were other games in that bundle I liked, but having a copy of Frozen Synapse on Steam was the sweetener that sealed the deal for me) and I subsequently bought it for Android because I couldn’t get enough of it.
My biggest problem with this game is it plays to my own desire to optimize and speculate on what my opponent is going to do in a turn-based strategy game. The core mechanic tends to lead me to a decision-paralysis. And I love the game intensely for it.
– Real player with 601.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Games.
I love it when a plan comes together, and Frozen Synapse is my favourite turn-based game.
It’s similar to ground operations of X-COM, for example, but in a purer, simpler form. There’s no base management, inventory, RPG elements. All units of the same type have identical stats. And, unlike X-COM, RNG does not make much of an impact on outcomes of firefights, if any. The typical ‘chance to hit’ mechanic is replaced with ‘time to hit’. If enemy unit is in cover, your unit will need more time to hit him; if enemy units runs into your stationary unit, your unit will shoot first because he had a bonus to this timer, and the enemy had a penalty for running. Thus, if you can predict what your opponent is about to do, you can be 100% sure what will happen when they encounter one of your units. If.
– Real player with 93.5 hrs in game
The Protagonist: EX-1
This is a really solid little early access tactical turn-based shooter. The graphics and audio are both pleasing and the combat and crafting are addictive and satisfying. I do wish that the gameplay was quicker and more difficult though.
All-in-all, for $13 this game is definitely worth it. Check out my full review here!–-v
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thwb0cJQoa8
– Real player with 14.1 hrs in game
**This is an excerpt of my much more detailed review and analysis, that you can find here (ENG & DE) and also as Video below.
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Opinion and conclusion**
Overall, I find the combination of Early Access and RPG a bit difficult. Because you usually play through RPGs only once because of the story and a later re-run after Early Access is rather unlikely. I would prefer internal beta testing and a proper release here.
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
X-COM: Apocalypse
More than 20 years after it’s release, I can still quite confidently say, without hyperbole, that this is still one of the best games ever made. And I don’t even mean just one of my favourite games, but literally one of the best games in history. The hours I have on this are just the steam version, which is a tiny fraction of what I played back when I was on windows 98/2000 as a kid.
This game is systems upon systems upon systems. All of them working in the background, and in perfect harmony with each other. Everything you do in this game has far reaching consequences that are not necessarily simple or obvious. A decision to use serious explosives when defending a building owned by another company for example, may lead to you pissing that company off, which can change any further missions you do in their territory, can cause services to become unavailable to you, and may even result in inter-corporation wars in both the strategy and battle layers, spontaneously and unexpectedly starting up or beginning with clear hostile actions. While you can put money into deals to improve relations with some companies, others will not be your friends no matter what you do.
– Real player with 141.3 hrs in game
XCom Apocalypse is my favorite of all XCom titles, old and new. And - no, not because of nostalgia.
While I’m certainly cherish the challenge of the first two XCom games, and enjoying the tactical shootouts of the newer ones… By the terms of complexity of the gameplay, Apocalypse still has no rival. Well, maybe the first Banner Saga has something common in terms of complexity - but it’s another setting and totally another scale of events.
If you’re still wandering, what I’m talking about - it’s all of the game economics, your actions and their consequences. Yeah, the things I hate in the new XCom games for their inaptitude.
– Real player with 130.1 hrs in game
XCOM® 2
On my umpteenth install of this game, no mods and on a fresh install of Windows. Still great, still buggy. Crashes often on missions involving the Lost. Sound disappears randomly, sometimes returns but often needs a game restart to fix. I think it’s fussy about graphics cards, other than that, I have no idea why it’s still so fragile after all these years.
– Real player with 1565.8 hrs in game
This game is all about learning not to be disheartened. You will fail sometimes, you’ll lose good soldiers that you invested time and effort in training up. You’ll make a single tactical error in a mission and will be punished with your entire squad ending up dead. Even worse, sometimes you’ll just get your butt handed to you by bad RNG. You’ll make a bad strategy decision by researching something in the wrong order and leave yourself behind on technology, making it easier for the aliens to wipe you out.
– Real player with 426.6 hrs in game
Blackguards
Blackguards is the 3rd Dark Eye game Daedalic has released (I believe they also recently released a Blakguards 2 which would be their 4th). The series is based on the German Table-Top RPG game ‘The Dark Eye’. Their first Dark Eye game was ‘The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav’ followed by ‘Memoria’. Those two games were directly part of the same story line. This game is not a continuation of that story line. I have yet to finish this game but have not currently found much of anything that ties it together with the other games. The first 2 Dark Eye games were point & click adventure/puzzle games. This one is a turn based RPG.
– Real player with 183.2 hrs in game
Warning : in about 35 years of playing video games, mostly RPGs and tactical games, this is one of the hardest I have ever played. You will fail some fights the first time, as you will have to discover strategies and some “puzzles” so-to-speak (traps on maps, etc.). That said, I always succeeded my second attempt much more easily. There is a sweet Retry button, which makes the pain sting less.
Still, if you do not feel like getting kicked brutally between the legs while playing a game, I really do not recommend you start this game. It is important for your enjoyment and frustration management that you know this in advance.
– Real player with 95.8 hrs in game
Jagged Alliance Flashback
Note: this is written by a fanboi of the originals JA series. To the uninitiated it’s a fair game that resembles the original series. Not sure whether it’s worth the price tag, but it’s a fun game, though clearly needs some polish. I give it thumbs up because it’s a nice game to play, even if it’s a long stretch from the original series.
For the fanboi-ish review: meh. This review won’t be very positive. So this is supposed to be a fanbased remake of the original. Clearly it resembles the original in some ways. But it’s actually the little and subtle things that make this game far from “like” the original. On top of that it feels unfinished, content seems missing, hints seem missing, achievements somewhat broken, but mainly it feels as if the story line was rushed in.
– Real player with 54.8 hrs in game
Not Quite JA2 But Still Fun
tl:dr version
Pros:
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Good combat mechanics
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Meaty weapon sounds
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Fun barks (they get repetitive but barks always do)
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Pleasant simplistic saturated art style
Cons:
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Buggy
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Dull storyline
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Characters lack personality
Jagged Alliance Flashback is a Kickstarted game that aims to recapture the greatness that was Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2. Did it succeed? Not completely. First off, if you’re expecting Jagged Alliance 2, you’ll be a bit disappointed. Flashback is closer to JA1 than JA2, in my opinion. That’s not necessarily a terrible thing, though, as JA1 was a great game in its own right.
– Real player with 33.1 hrs in game
MASSIVE CHALICE
Massive Chalice is a turn-based strategy game that has the player rule over a land that is under attack. The defense force consists of heroes, which battle in short, turn-based skirmishes against invading forces. Heroes live for 70 years on average, but the player has to defend the land for 300 years. Therefore the player has to marry off heroes so that they produce children, which get some of their genes and personality traits from their parents. This way, the player attempts to breed heroes of good stock, so that future generations are better able to defend the land against the invaders who get stronger all the time. Sometimes a hero may leave behind his weapon upon death, which then becomes a family relic, that gains better properties over time when it is used in combat.
– Real player with 93.8 hrs in game
XCOM (2012) meets Crusader Kings II with a eurogame design aesthetic.
If you are a fan of those games (or even one of them), Massive Chalice is worth a playthrough. XCOM was already a streamlined remake of X-COM, so you might wonder how it could be further simplified. The solution is reducing resources that need to be managed to just bloodlines, territory and “Research”. The later can be used to get new technology, build out infrastructure and aquire new heros. Instead of the slightly complicated system of engineers, scientists and money, you can build one project at a time and speed it up by dedicating heroes to become lifetime “Sagewrights”. They can’t fight for you anymore, which is always the tradeoff when assigning heroes to special positions.
– Real player with 63.6 hrs in game
Mordheim: City of the Damned
Hi all,
I will present this review in different segments depending on if you are:
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a GW fanatic and preferably familiar with the Mordheim Tabletop game. (GWF)
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A general fantasy/tactics lover (GFTL)
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everyone else (EE)
First the TL:DR version:
- a GW fanatic and preferably familiar with the Mordheim Tabletop game. (GWF)
You have been waiting for this game since the first time you critted the Ogre mercenary. It’s here. Go buy it. Oh wait, its not a straight conversion like BB? Hmmm. Well then have a look below to see if this adaptation is for you. Yes there are some bugs and yes the AI is not great, but this is meant to be played vs friends anyway right?
– Real player with 874.9 hrs in game
I know the feelings about this game are very mixed but as far as I am concerned it is perfect. The difficulty is the kind of unfair that requires you to think about every move you make, even one attempt to cut a corner and you’re punished severely.
I’ve played a fair bit now and from the negative reviews I’ve read alot of people seem to dislike the hardcore nature of the game. I can appreciate why but I don’t think anyone was ever mislead about how difficult this game would be or the penalties your units face for going out of action in a mission. This is almost a roguelike RTS, the best thing about this game is that you use the environment as part of your strategy to out manouvre the far superior enemy, lock them down and beat them into nothing.
– Real player with 749.8 hrs in game