Reseñas

• gamedeal user

  Dec 2, 2021

  3d battle brothers
• gamedeal user

  Dec 3, 2021

  Do you like turn based tactics? Do you like party maintenance sims? Do like being punished for biting off more than you can chew and learning the world through a series of, what you eventually realize are completely avoidable, misfortunes? Then this is the game for you! Equal parts RPG and sandbox party sim, this game is exactly what I've been looking for after hitting 'the end' on replays and mods on Battletech, X-Com, and Darkest Dungeon.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 4, 2021

  First off, this game is very much like playing Mount & Blade overworld/strategy combined with tactics combat instead of real time. However, it's brought down by overly harsh game mechanics that add a little bit of fun / difficulty but too much frustration: 1) Unit Position - You can't. No matter if you ambush an enemy, get ambushed, or have a normal fight on the streets, your units will always be placed mingled in with the enemy units. The game gives you "spawn locations" that you can switch between but in general it's about 5 per area at most so unless you keep your party size small, have fun constantly being in "Darkest Dungeon Surprise!" mode. 2) Enemy scaling - Admittedly, this is OK for the most part it's just incredibly immersion breaking to walk around with 3 guys, see groups of 2-4 guards, recruit 2 guys, and then see groups of 4-6 guards (or whatever). It's made worse by the fact that your recruits are always level 1, so adding those extra recruits didn't really do anything for you. Edit: This isn't true, they just don't refresh unless you hire them and come back later. 3) Party size - Due to enemy scaling, party size largely doesn't matter. You need multiple professions but you can freely switch between them. You can station units at certain campfire buildings to buff yourself a bit but you don't need to unless you have a larger party. A smaller party gets to stick together, a larger party has to split and fight even more enemies I was really enjoying it until I realized how these mechanics worked. I'm not even losing the game, I'm doing rather well so it's not that it's too difficult it's just not fun. My strategy in *literally* every fight right now is "put my highest movement knockback/cc spear characters in the middle and use my first few moves to group my men together on one side so they can fight together like a proper unit would", and even then sometimes you can't do that and there's enemies on both sides anyway. Edit (06/21/2022): Positioning: Tried the game again but it doesn't look like any changes have been made to unit positioning. I started a new game, joined an in progress fight at the farm just north of the starting area with my fresh party and some of my units still ended up in the middle of the fight surrounded. I quit immediately because that's just ridiculous. Did my units zipline in from a chopper? How did they get in the middle of the fight? Etc. Scaling: The level scaling system actually seems better than the region lock system. I haven't tried the scaling system again, but the region lock system had my very first event fight just north of where I started be against much higher level enemies that could one shot me and had 40hp when I had 19. I could have just avoided that fight so its fine but I'm not sure how much thought was given to the pacing of the game in the newer region-lock mode. Still not recommended. I'll check back in a few months.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 13, 2021

  If you have ever played Mount&Blade: Warband and thought to yourself "Gee, I sure am having a good time, but I would rather be playing DnD right now" Then this should be an instant purchase for you. Very solid game with many interesting, immersive mechanics. From a studio who has a track record of doing early access right! Congratulations to Shiro on another successful release. The Good: -The game has a ton of mechanics that immediately pull you into the world. I am a big fan of the camping system, and the way it is presented is something I have wanted from games of this genre for a long time. -The campaign map is simply amazing. If you enjoyed the way Bannerlord or the newer total wars look you will appreciate this as its own stylized and aesthetically crafted version of those games. When this is done correctly as it has here it makes exploring worthwhile rather than a chore. -Speaking of the campaign map, its liveliness is one of the strongest points to this game. Much like the Mount&Blade series in many ways, the world is going to do its thing with or without the player (with one BIG exception, but ill get to that). When you camp for the night, time does not stop. When youre shopping in the market, time does not stop. When youre fighting for your life out in the woods, time does not stop. A long fight can take an entire game of end game time, and when you need to sleep at the end of the day, you can easily see how an expedition will take much longer than you think. In this way, the game rewards planning out ahead and making sure you have the supplies you need for an emergency. The Great: - I might be giving it way too much credit, but I am a huge fan of the valor points system. Its essentially a "special ability" resource for combat. The kicker is that it carries over between fights and only hard resets once you rest at the end of the day. This would be extremely punishing if you couldnt also earn "temporary" points that expire at the end of the fight by completing special actions within the fight, assuming you spec into them through the level system. I love this system because it forces to you plan your fights around your expectations for later fights. You could spend all of your valor points to absolutely smash the pack of wolves that snuck up on you, or you can make that fight harder, but by saving the points you make a later fight much easier. If you know you have a much harder fight coming up, you really need to save those points for later, which can make present fights much harder and cost you valuable medicine and repairs. The Bad -Level scaling. i wont talk about it much here, because its the number one debate point in the community right now and I have nothing to add to the discussions already taking place, but it completely invalidates all the "world exists with or without you" that has been set up so well by the rest of the game. Its contradictory and unnecessary, and really needs to just not exist or have an alternative. The devs have addressed this as a point of emphasis and im sure ill get to remove this section of the review at some point during development. -Professions feel not fully refined. Like they make sense, for the most part. I like them, for the most part. Some of it doesnt make sense. I understand why a fisherman cant be a blacksmith, but why cant a blacksmith fish? Youre literally just sitting there with a pole. Why does telling your blacksmith to fish make him forget everything hes ever known about blacksmithing? There are some "professions" that should really not be professions, and just something anyone in your party can do as long as they have the equipment. Conclusion. I don't want to end on a sower note. The above are not enough to diminish the game for me, and those that are enough to take away from the experience have been directly confronted by the devs and addressed in future roadmaps as priorities. I absolutely recommend this game and im extremely excited for the future.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 14, 2021

  People say it's basically Battle Brothers 2, but that's not exactly true — Wartales offers enough changes to make it its own game. Perhaps the most important one is that the starting positions of your mercs in battle are randomized — no more "left vs right" battles that got won by Spearmen poking enemies from the second row. The result feels more generic — there was something special about BB's claustrophobic fights — but is admittedly more interesting tactics-wise. Another important change is character classes instead of general perks. They offer more dramatic specializations, like new skills and armor options, while making your mercenaries (the humans themselves) more important. That is, perhaps, the most fundamental change. Battle Brothers, at its core, was a battle of equipment. You were meant to lose your mercs, and it was fine, because you could always recruit another and compensate for his low level with good gear. Gear won battles. In Wartales, the humans themselves matter — and while you're still meant to lose them sometimes, it's now a blow instead of the norm. Like in X-COM. The best addition, however, are the action points. Their pool is shared among all your mercs, and they spend them on special conbat abilities. You can also take perks that generate these points for specific feats in battle, like ending the turn next to an enemy you're not engaging. Considering that you can use your mercs in any order, juggling action points becomes a crucial part of your strategy, which adds significant depth. The overworld progress and management are also good. You have to consider a lot of metrics, from reputation to food, but it's more or less intuitive and less hardcore than BB. I also liked how the story is interwoven into the exploration: you don't have to follow any quests or markers, but it's profitable to pay attention to the world around you and follow leads; and if you do, you end up exploring the politics of the region. And you have dozens of gameplay goals like obtaining new titles and Path-based missions (that are earned through different styles of gameplay, like exploring the world or going rogue). The game is not without flaws. It's not particularly pretty; the lack of questlog hurts it for no reason (no, it's not immersive if you still catalogue the names of quests — just not the descriptions). And random battles do become a slog after a while. But it's still the best tactics released (or rather EA'ed) in 2021, I think, and definitely worth a try for any lover of tactical battles.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 27, 2021

  So, I'm in over a 160 hours. You're paying for an early access game (which i do feel like is pretty high for an EA) so it isn't completely flushed out as far as content goes. From the road map they have laid out - It looks like that will eventually come. So there is ZERO hate towards to current available content. It is what it is. It is EA. This isn't an RPG as i think most people had hoped for. I'm not even entirely sure why they labelled it as such. There is very little character or "troop" development passed the rudimentary skills applying to each member of your band. You aren't getting yourself a true RPG game. More so .. maybe troop management, none of your characters have a backstory and none of them have any ties to the world they now reside in.. There is very little for the player to connect with their characters. They are easily disposable and replaceable. So there is no player emotional connection. Your troop are nothing more than just fodder for you to get to the next area or contract. I think if the dev's place some importance on character to player connection. That would help this game some. The base of this game, so far, is to roam back and forth between the available map areas, pick on contracts and collect money to pay and feed your men. There is no other reason or goal, other than this. If you don't pay them or feed them. They get upset and leave your troop. Which, has no real penalty because the game scales its' difficulty to the size/level of your troop. In fact, there really isn't even much incentive to hire new mercs'... because the larger your team, the large to enemy team will be. The majority of your time in this game, is spent doing the old rinse and repeat. This is where the game loses its' immersive environment. After over a hundred and sixty hours, I feel like I can put this game down and i have seen all it has to offer. With that being said, the last 20 or so hours where very much forced to sit and continue to do the same mundane tasks over and over again. There is a story line for each area of the map- i feel like it isn't fully developed, hopefully that comes soon.. Again, no hate towards the current content, and I'm sure they are working to make it more immersive. I hope. I give it a thumbs up on the battle mechanics. I'm not a fan of turned based combat, but these guys seemed to have figured it out pretty well, and the more you progress, with the game scaling, the battles do maintain a certain level of difficulty. A couple of simple mistakes can cost you the lives of one or more of your troops. So kudos. I still recommend this game- but only lightly, you'll enjoy it, for sure, but i'll almost guarantee it is not the game you hoped it to be. yet.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 28, 2022

  Scaling for normal enemies makes relative sense, but for wildlife like wolves? The game seems like something I've been wanting for a long time but I'll have to come back to it after it get's a bit more refined.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 9, 2022

  Hm... 42hrs in my first playthru. 42hrs in the first area alone. I felt like with the EA, I hit the limit with my team too quickly. Got the hang of the whole, fight, run home, repair, eat, fight, run home, repair, eat, etc. fairly quickly. As ambitious the concept of Wartales sounds like, I couldn't really feel emotionally attached to my team/character as I would in games like Kenshi, Mount & Blade, Crusader Kings, etc. I didn't really feel attached to the mini-stories around the area as well. I was excited to play the story of farmers wanting more with life but once I started playing, it felt like your backstory has nothing to do with how you play or how it dictates the world. A game title like "Wartales" feels like a "Play the way you want to with the backstory you want" type game. But this is just purely, fight, loot, repair, eat, sleep, repeat. Oh, uhm.. once I figured out how to effectively and efficiently craft items for trade, it added an additional 10hrs of gameplay of renewed excitement realizing I could make more money by crafting from random loot and selling the crafted items. But then I hit my limit again once I managed to consistently stay over 1000 gold or so. After all that and completing the first area and moving to the second, I felt like I hit a wall to play this game as it felt it's a rinse and repeat regardless of the region you're in or the background of your team. Overall, this EA reminds me of other EAs I played where I play for a solid week or two and then hit a hard stop for many years as it just didn't feel wholesome or satisfying. I guess I'll keep TRYING to play a bit more to see what else I can uncover.. I don't really thumbs down games but would definitely give this game a "MEH" for now. Maybe other users have a more fulfilling and exhilarating experience instead?
• gamedeal user

  Mar 8, 2022

  I've never felt inclined to write a game review before, but I can appreciate that this dev team is VERY actively responding to critiques so I wanted to help out. I haven't played a turn-based game since the HOMM series and this little game is really scratching that itch (btw if you know what that stands for then congrats, you're old too!). Being early-access, there have been a number of rough areas of the game but a lot of them have been taken care of. My first play-through was about 55 hours and I was genuinely surprised by how addicting the gameplay was. Story Telling/Fantasy: I'm not terribly interested in elaborate cut scenes and hit-you-over-the-head storytelling. I like to feel immersed in the world and have some idea why I'm in an area killing or gathering but I don't want it to interfere just being able to play. This game feels like it walks that line perfectly, providing just enough story telling without it getting annoying. Combat: The tactics are simple enough to stumble through without reading any guides but surprisingly thought-provoking when you consider the difference between builds and how they play off of each other. I'm sincerely enjoying the challenges this game throws at you. Content: It's a good amount for an early-access game but I'm definitely excited to see more of this world and some new enemy types. The updates have been timely with significant content coming in with each new patch. Biggest Issue: Level scaling... the one everyone has been complaining about. It's what made me quit after a few dozen hours because the encounters get harder with every level you gain or for each member you add to your party so it feels like you are being punished for growing instead of the opposite. Improvement become solely based on gear upgrades and there is no point whatsoever to add members to your group since it just adds tactical complications and increases ration requirements. The fix: With the latest patch an option for 'region-locked' was added to completely disable level scaling. I began another play-through and finally hit a point in the story where I need to go grind up some levels to be able to pass the enemy I was facing. This is it! This is the game I wanted Wartales to be! I immediately stopped playing to come write this review. Additional thoughts: As an avid hardcore RPG player the 'hardcore' mode in Wartales seems a little too intense since you are locked into turn-based combat. Even losing a single member of your group is an extreme set-back and there often isn't much information about enemies prior to engagement so it's extremely difficult to play 'safe' and still explore all the game has to offer. On the other hand the 'save' modes are too carefree and don't carry any consequences at all since you can spam the reset. I would love to play something in-between these two modes but I don't know if that's possible. Maybe a version where you have to recover all your gear/weapons with only what you have stashed and/or a massive gold penalty. Last thought... PVP? Battlegrounds? This game hits a whole new level of tactics when an actual human is on the other end and the meta would be taken to an extreme. Minor stuff: - The hotkeys are great and seem to be a new feature. Can you add some labels like a little 1...2...3... in the corners of the buttons? - Compass-snap-to-north. I personally hate changing the view direction but it's necessary sometimes to see around obstacles. I just want to be able to reset it quickly to 'normal' both in battle and on open ground. All in all, solid little game. I'm really enjoying it and look forward to checking out whatever else Shiro games comes up with.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 8, 2022

  I think I'm in love with this game, but it's taken 100 hours of binge playing to figure out why. The cheap and easy thing to say is that 'if you love XCom, but wanted a more medieval/ fantasy setting, you'll love Wartales', but there's so much more here. The first/ biggest thing I actually love about Wartales is that it's actually got more in common with tabletop war gaming, than it does XCom (in particular kill team, bolt action, and Legion). When you enter combat, you arrange your soldiers and take turns pushing them into your opponents, hopefully taking units off the board before they take yours. Like some of the more recent entries on the tabletop scene for skirmish scale fights, you and your opponent will bounce activating different units on the board. To help, you'll be able to see which units they'll activate, while you'll have the freedom of being able to activate anyone once a round; so there's something to be said about removing earlier units before removing those that will activate later, etc... Like table top wargaming, fights generally come down to the weaponized trigonometry of figuring out distances. Maybe your opponent will be activating that swordsman early, but you can measure out how far they can move and strike, and realise you can just deploy so you're out of their range to negate the activation. To help add colour and depth, your weapons and units all have different skills which take advantage of things like range, status effects, and positioning. I was delighted to see that some of the tricks/ strategies from tabletop war games also applied here, like denied flanks or last-first activation's. Adding more colour to this are the 'champion' mobs which mirror XCom's 'Alien rulers' who can act several times a turn, letting them be immensely powerful without necessarily letting them get killed through sheer activation economy. For those who played Warhammer and enjoyed the customising the loadouts of your army, there's plenty of that here. Rangers (rogues) can be built to be grenadiers with poison and PBAOE dagger attacks, or straight up chain killing murderers who play completely differently. Archers and spearmen can just be ranged dps, or area denial units. Depending on traits, gear, and synergies, you can build a really interesting army that hums just the way you want. Beyond the table top comparisons, Wartales also delivers a continuity of gameplay. It's really neat to have your soldiers level up, and grow relationships with one another while also being these incredibly fragile pieces of art. In games like Fire Emblem or Triangle Strategy, you can lose characters but the nature of the story means there are some characters you need to keep seeing in cut scenes so their deaths lack a lot of weight. Here, your mercenaries are just... people you dragged out of a tavern with the promise of riches and prestige (or perhaps, dreams of not-starving-to-death). Which means they're all expendable, which keeps the stakes tense when you're choosing to commit your best tank to the front line, or risk plunging your rogue behind enemy lines. With that said, there are some (minor) negatives. Character design is pretty bland, with most of your soldiers and civilians looking like the same stock images that you'd expect to find in crude visual novels. Some of the skill descriptions need to be clarified as some are woefully poor compared to others, and sometimes I find the camera doesn't let you put your units precisely where they're allowed to go, which can be frustrating. It's like there's a language to the game about precisely where you can stand to cleave, or when you can expect certain things to work or not work which only comes out by playing the game. On the one hand, maybe we can call this a means of developing mastery, but in the early hours it can sometimes feel like you just wasted your turn because you didn't quite understand how that ability works (not terribly unlike miniature war games). Story wise, I think the game is kinda thin. Because it's so open world, and all of your characters are basically interchangeable, it doesn't ever feel like you're part of the story as much as you're the person flipping the pages in the book. This isn't to say there aren't choices in the game (do you save these plague victims, or do you let the mob lynch them?), but your involvement in these choices always feels like you were just the person who walked in at the moment they were making the choice, as opposed to you being on some gritty mission of revenge/ love/ patriotism, etc... My next gripe isn't particularly fair in that I think most games suffer the same issue, but Wartales does take a stab at solving for it which is very commendable. The gripe is that as your heroes get stronger; what do you do? You can certainly have mobs get stronger, but then you're not actually any stronger for it? What's the point of getting stronger, if it just means all my enemies get tougher? Inversely, Wartales has an option for battles not to dynamically scale, in which case you can absolutely outnumber/ outclass your opponents, but inevitably this means that end game content will require a full roster of titans; which may clash with the initial small unit skirmish mode that you spent most of the game playing. As someone who really enjoys having smaller parties (preferrably the 6 - 8 range); I think running a campaign with 16 soldiers and 4 pack animals (and all the logistics behind having to feed and pay that many units) would become complicated. However; while I don't think the core question is answered with dynamic content, I do really appreciate that an attempt was made. My final gripe is that there isn't a lot of variance in the fights themselves. Every fight I've been in has been some variant of 'kill all their people' which gets bland. Occasionally you may want to capture someone, or to protect one friendly npc because their death will lose the mission; but 99% percent of everything you do will be 'kill all bad guys'. I've found one mission that involved holding a position until your characters could find a way to escape, and one more trying to flee from overwhelming odds; and I'd really like to see a lot more of this sort of content. If you're put out by the same-ness of character designs, that all battles are just permutations on the same battle objective (with very few exceptions), or that you will be responsible for the story of the game; this may not be the right game for you. Inversely, I think Wartales is a great game if you're into tabletop war games and are looking for something that simulates the intricacies of building a list and carefully pushing and pulling miniatures across the board. With the option of dynamic combat, I think this game also shines for those who want to slowly build up a small army, or those who'd prefer having a small squad of heroes; which is also really cool. If you also enjoy the more administrative portions of an open world game (like making sure you have enough food for a long trip, or making decisions about whether your party will help refugees or rob them), I think this game becomes a must buy.