Sumerian Six

I'm genuinely surprised how good this game is. I think it's better than Shadow Tactics and Shadow Gambit but not as good as Desperados 3. And it's release came out of nowhere. Most importantly, characters have UNIQUE abilities, some parts are reskinned from previous Mimimi games but I think they're mostly original... although I do think some characters are just... too damn powerful. Character Swap and Hitchhike are worthy of particular highlights. Isabella is a good example of an extremely overtuned character and she can use chain her lure making her an S tier character and she also has a cloaking rig :| (with Sid being the only close contender imo with his insanely poweful flash bomb), Rosa being able to stun somebody at the cost of her own mobility is also pretty busted. The rest of the abilities are mostly balanced. It's also worth mentioning that you barely actually get to play the full "Sumerian Six" (title drop), with the only time you can do that is in ONE mission. The rest of the missions you play an incomplete squad which did kind of disappoint me. The story is really nothing to write about (but the still shots during the mission endings are nice), bunch of events that lead from one to another and the villain (Kammler) to me was very, very anticlimatically defeated, at least the ending with Humbaba's banishment was cooler, but nobody plays these games for the stories, do they? It's still worth picking up, it's a damn good effort and I hope Artificer makes more RTS' games like these.

There are still some things to improve - a mediocre story, a lack of own character, conventional level design. I think the Sumerian mythology is a main factor which distinguish this game among others, however it's not really enough to set a new standard for this genre. + controls and UI are very close to Mimimi games' - it's easier to enter the game, especially with user-friendly tutorial + a few nice abilities and mechanic of XP-boxes for each character + cel-shading graphics will age like wine + it's just more gameplay we use to know from the classics - soundtrack doesn't fit the setting - it's too modern and it feels recurrent - AI is quite stupid and devs tried increase difficulty level by just adding more enemies instead of make them smarter - level design limits player's choices - too many closed corridors on maps and sometimes there is only one path to win Sumerian Six is not as good as Mimimi games, it's not as polished as it should be (pun intended). But after all I really enjoyed the game and I'd like to play some DLCs or even sequel. Great entry to the genre for new players, maybe even better than Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood.

Artificer have created a great entry into the niche stealth tactic genre. The story, while simple, is quite engaging. The characters could be a bit more realised but I do understand that given the overall compacntess of the story (and the fact that this is not an RPG) there was little room for extensive backstories or character development. The graphics are gorgeous. Overall, I hope this is not the last time we get to play as the Sumerian Six.

Made a couple tweaks to the graphics settings to prevent lock-ups during simultaneous actions, but have otherwise enjoyed this straight-forward map strategy game set during a kind of Weird War 2. On Normal setting, it feels more forgiving than Desperados 3, and doesn't lean as hard overall into character development like we saw in The Lamplighters League. The voice acting is refreshingly well-done, and I especially enjoy the character-specific XP boxes spaced around the map, and the frequent auto-saves that don't intrude into the game as they do Shadow Gambit. Some things I'd enjoy seeing down the road: more prominent presentation of the individual map goals and perhaps both an option to hide the XP box locations from the map and to see a post-map report such as in Shadow Gambit (I was one box short on the first map and curious what areas I'd missed during my killing spree). But even if those additions don't come, this is a well-made, well-paced, enjoyable game with strong voice acting and a (so-far) intriguing story. Very happy to have it alongside the classics of Mimimi Games.