Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Feb 6, 2022

  I wanted to enjoy playing this game, but it just wasn't possible. 1. The interface is awkward, and there is no "Undo" button (seriously, GW porters: add an Undo button to move back just one step in your games) for when you make a mistake because the interface messed you up. 2. More important - as mentioned previously, you can only see half the cards most of the time, and that half DOES NOT INCLUDE the essential combat stats. Basically, you have to already know your fighters by heart in order to play them in the game. 3. The dice go WAY too fast. Even somethign as simple as rolling initiative, the game rolls the dice, highlights them for (literally) half a second, and then the dice disappear and the game announces who won. Similarly for combat: dice are rolled, a half second highlights the relevant rolls, and then the dice disappear and combat is resolved. 4. Combat resolution. I just had a fighter with 4 Wounds get hit for 2 damage, and then it died. I have no idea why or how. I assume that there was some card instant that was played by the opponent, but it went by so fast I couldn't see it, and suddenly my fighter was just gone.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 29, 2020

  Steelsky have done a great job of bringing Warhammer Underworlds to digital. The game is a snapshot of how it was in season 1, so for any tabletop vets it's a step back in time to 2 years ago (some differences, albeit minor, like Farstriders and Magore being available before Fyreslayers, etc, some cards still missing) The pricing is fair, and the production quality is here. With time and DLC, I expect this to flesh out further. They certainly have a solid roadmap with the job GW has done producing, refining, and polishing the IP over 3 seasons so far. I want to take a moment to highlight what a fine job the developers have been doing with this game in the time it's been available to the public. Throughout early access they provided regular updates, most of which added significant updates and features requested by the community. They listen to feedback and actively work to improve their product. Some people have complained that the game is only available on PC (and steam) at the moment but it's clear they're working to get this up to speed before thinking of cashing in with multiple platforms. Any quibbles I have about UI are minor and have been getting addressed as patches release. If you enjoy the tabletop game, snag this.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 29, 2020

  Disclaimer: This review was written within three hours of the game going live on Steam - the very start of Early Access. Things may have changed. tl'dr: it's Shadespire (aka: Underworlds Season 1). It's the game almost as it was out of the box on day one. That's a good thing, because Warhammer Underworlds is a bloody fun game (I'm a former GT competitor, so I'm obviously going to say that!). It's also a bad thing, because Underworlds didn't really hit it stride until Nightvault (Season 2) The game as-is at time of writing is a solid place to start. Rough around the edges, yes, but it plays like the tabletop game does and that is exactly what I wanted. The only gripe I have is the card library is a bit thin right now, and this sucks for us Sepulchral Guard players as our Warband, much like the game itself, didn't really shine until Nightvault. There's also no lethal hexes. These came in at the tail end of Shadespire and by Beastgrave (Season 3 of Underworlds) they became a pretty big deal. I never realised how big a deal until I played a few matches and found them completely absent. Hopefully, we'll see them before long. But all the fundamentals are here. If you want to play defensive / objective focused, play Steelheart's Champions. If you want to play aggro, play Magore's Fiends. If you want to play aggro but you want to handicap yourself for no good reason, play the Orruks. If you want a completely different, and painfully hard experience, play the Guard. Having only four Warbands feels a bit thin on the ground, but I've been there before. I honestly recommend you try it, especially if you enjoy the tabletop and you're nostalgic for those early days again, or if you're a die-hard Warhammer fan. Last point: don't let the Age of Sigmar paint job put you off. This game is far better than the Ground Marines on the box make you think.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 29, 2020

  This is early access - as in, real early access, where you get an unfinished unpolished product, and not the new-age early access where devs offer a refined product that they just want to add a little more content to, or doing a large-scale beta test under the guise of 'the game's not done yet, remember?'. Mechanically, this is a great implementation of Warhammer Underworlds, but it feels clunky, a little unintuitive, and everything takes FOREVER... If you REALLY need to shade some spires, this will get you by, but otherwise I would wait, but definitely keep an eye out, because there's a solid foundation that can easily be improved upon.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 2, 2020

  This game is early access and although very very playable, is obviously still missing sound candy and eye candy spell and/or melee effects as well as other things. Despite that it is a must have for fans of the Games Workshop "Age of Sigmar" Universe, which was the result of the destruction of the Warhammer fantasy world and universe we came to know and love in games such as Total War Warhammer I and II. The Storm Cast Eternals (good guys in gold) are basically the revived Heros and Soldiers who esteemed themselves in the eyes of the Warrior God of Old Sigmar. Sigmar revives them as these guys in gold who don't remember their former lives, but in some cases have flashbacks of their former selves. They fight on the leftover shards of a shattered old world earth against the forces of chaos who destroyed it as well as others. Here is my review: THE GOOD: Make sure you set Options to "Fast Mode" and "Auto Resolve", as this advances the turn if the cards you have cannot be played and also automatically resolves any objective criteria you meet. Not doing the above can cause confusion for new players IMHO. Very loyal to the Games Workshop Table Top game, this is a turn based game requiring strategy and tactics at the tactical level inside a gaming table sized beautiful game board and not a click and twitch game. Lots of detail in the characters and landscapes. Great Graphics. Challenging very challenging, a little bit of a learning curve (take the tutorials) but once you get the hang of it its great. In a nutshell, you select and play "ploy" cards as bonus actions during attack and defense for each of your characters. You also play Objective cards which allow your upgrade cards to be used on your guys when you take certain objectives and/or meet certain criteria. You can edit your deck to suit your play style and tactics. The tutorial is required for those not familiar with the tabletop game but in reality its a good idea for all to play. THE BAD: The game is Early Access so the devs have not added any cool sound effects or graphical effects to combat. and obviously bugs. Also, there is no background story or introduction at the moment. Hot spots are sometimes hard to find (objectives) until you get used to the setting and realize you just mouseover them to get their objective number. The game is slow and clunky UNTIL you change the Options to "Fast Mode" and "Auto Resolve". Doing so changes the whole flow and speed of the game in a very POSITIVE way. In fact, I feel this should be default. Thus, I highly recommend new players to set these 2 options from the get go. Editing your deck can get lost in your learning the game, I completely forgot about it and it makes a BIG difference in winning or losing. Player pop can sometimes cause a wait fof a live opponent, but frankly play against bots until you are ready to play live opponents. THE UGLY: We really need a background story/Introduction so that players not familar with Age of Sigmar will realize from the get go what this is all about. IN CONCLUSION: At first I did not like this game, but I gave it a 2nd chance and changed those two game options and now I am ADDICTED in a good way. Warhammer table top affectionatos should have this game on their MUST HAVE LIST!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 11, 2020

  I have mixed feelings about the current situation of the game. I am hoping that by the time this game goes past early access I will have only positive reviews! I'll start with the good stuff: 1) This game is implementing the mechanics of the table top version of Underworlds - Shadespire perfectly and I have faith that the developers will do the same justice to Nightvault and Beastgrave. 2) The game looks great for early access. the Visuals are great and the models look fantastic. I would like to see the background change from game to game and make it feel more like a changing city but it should not be a deal breaker in my opinion. 3) Good Customization which promise more to come once early access is done. 4) Skaven! Now for the bad points which are mostly UI related: 1) The game has a lot of bugs right now. For instance models keep there moving animation after taking a 1 tile move which is hilarious but also annoying. the clunkier the model the more annoying it gets. 2) There are too many mandatory button pressing. An auto skip button which you can activate or deactivate would do wonders in my opinion. 3) The timer feature is too subtle in my opinion. It happened too many times for me that While I was thinking I didn't notice the timer running out and something random like placing my Sepulchral leader in the front line. While I am sure my opponent found it a great gaming experience to smash my Warden's face on turn 1 with a giant hammer, I would have been happier if I had an audio warning or at least a bigger visual presentation to tell me the timer is running out. 4) Inspire mechanic is one of the most important aspects of Underworlds and it should be possible to check what upgrades a model gets after getting inspired while inside the game. I really can't remember what each Skaven gets after getting inspired and would wish I could plan ahead who to inspire while playing. The only place I found that you can check the inspire characteristics is while going to edit deck and checking the fighter cards. I have high hopes and I would love to see the game (and Skritch) come to greatness!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 22, 2020

  So, lets begin by stating that I bought this game on the day they claimed to exit Early Access. It is clearly still an early access game. Also I own the actual boardgame. My experience begins with the fact that before even playing through the tutorial, I encountered a bug so severe, it renders bot matches completely unplayable. The "Score this immediately..." objective card DO NOT WORK when playing against bots. It is impossible to complete them, they are dead cards in your deck. Seriously?? I think to myself: Its no big deal, I'll just have to do live testing of my deck builds against actual opponents. I go on to play my first PvP game. After my inevitable loss due to whiffing every single attack for the entire game (dice game, it happens!), I quickly try to queue for another match. But I cannot. Clicking any of the "Ranked Play" or "Casual Play" buttons both take me to my warbands stats screen. The game looks like it was designed for mobile and the UI is clunky, with ugly square menus, and you will regularly do something you did not intend because the UI highlights one square and then moves your fighter to another adjacent one when you click. It is hard to follow along with what is happening. There is little time to read the cards flashing past when an opponent plays them, and no animation whatsoever when they chose to draw a power for example. You will have to try and read through the clunky game log which obscures half the screen, all the while triggering different tooltips behind it with your mouse. Accessing stats for fighters and trying to see which upgrades they have is also very limited. The amount of information you miss out on is enough to cripple a veteran of the game unless you want to drag the game out forever by trying to click and hover over every panel and fighter to find out what they've got. I cannot recommend the game at this stage and now that I have seen the UI I doubt it will ever be worth the price that they are asking. They have ported a board game and made it harder to play and to know what is actually going on. I cannot stress this enough: _Terrible_UI_design!_
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2020

  I cannot recommend the purchase of this game in it's current state. Before getting negative, let me just say that the game is fun. The issues I have, have little to do with game play and game balance. I will change my review to positive if/when the following issues are resolved. 1) The UI Everyone and their brother are complaining about this. ・Dice rolls, reaction cards etc, are not show for very long after they are played/resolved. For newer players, it is very difficult to tell what is going on. Please make the dice rolls more UP and FRONT, and slow down all transitions so my poor brain can see what the hell is going on. If you were playing this as a board game you'd be able to see the dice and other components after they are rolled for a long as you want. ・Unable to view your hand(s) in certain menus. Look, I'm stupid. If I can't see my hand at all times I forget what cards I was holding. When placing units, it is very important to know what objectives you have. Currently the game doesn't let you view you hand during unit placement. Huh!? The player should ALWAYS have access to viewing his hand, no matter what. This should be a golden rule. ・No take backs on certain actions. (The escape key doesn't work to take back some actions) Accidentally pick an upgrade for a unit that you didn't mean to? Too bad! Card mechanic works differently for what you expected? Get good. Your fault! Come on! People make mistakes! Until I have fully played an upgrade on an unit, please let cancel until my heart's content! Also, a cancel button would be nice. Escape-key for canceling is kinda odd. ・Generally unclear UI. Where the heck is the save button in deck-edit mode. Oh there it is...it only appears if you make an edit... and when you do make an edit the button is added to top-left-docked UI, which contain things like "Options, rules..." what the heck? Just add a big old save button on the bottom-right like most other card games do. 2) Bugs Some card just don't work like they should. I could understand if this was an early-access title, but a game with such a small card pool should work perfectly on release. Very frustrating. 3) Polish I'm talking about visual effects, sound effects, camera shakes, music, the works. This game has very little polish in its current state. While a lack of polish is fine for an early-access title, I did NOT purchase an early-access title. 4) Limited options No V-Sync? Game on man I don't have a g-sync monitor and I hate tearing! TLDR This game is still very much an early-access title. Wait a while before buying. I hope the player base stick around long enough for it to finally release for real.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 30, 2020

  Despite being based on a solid game, the product is woefully slow, clunky and bugged. Bugs include, but are not limited to, cards being unplayable from hand (mouse drags background instead of card), inability to cancel out of movement grid when mistakenly picking the wrong piece on using Sepulchral Guards Warden's multi-move ability, etc. Feels like an early beta despite being released. Cannot recommend.
• gamedeal user

  May 27, 2020

  This game should be retitled "Waiting for Opponent: The Game." I bought this game during the COVID19 pandemic in order to play against a friend I'd been playing the tabletop version at the FLGS. While it was fun to play someone you knew, finding matches is a headache. No one plays Casual and ranked games are completely random as far as levels of skills/experience. Furthermore, the game takes too long. You spend most of the game waiting for your opponent to do something. It would be ok if you could alt-tab back and forth, so you can multitask while playing, but this often causes crashes. The game is also a resource hog and the graphics aren't optimized very well. The game is basically static, with few animations and effects, yet my gtx 1070 is whining with pain during the game. Makes no sense at all. In short: If you're desperate for pushing virtual minis around a board and are ok with the problems I outlined above, go for it. If not, then get a better game.