Battle Brothers

I found out about Battle Brothers via the Lets Play by Youtuber HandOfBlood (Ehre!). The game does an outstanding job of constantly holding the carrot in front of your nose.... Only one more fight, then the next brother is a level up and I can give him the better weapon, with which I can kill tougher enemies and thus take on better missions and get more money for even better weapons. I can easily play for hours at a stretch! It also runs on a potato, so really anyone can play.

After playing so many hours, I have to say that for everything this game does right, it balances it with something very, very wrong. The game basically revolves around the concept of "You're gonna die, 'cause everything has an edge over you". This would be fine, if the mechanics were refined enough, but alas, this is not the case. Combats are either stupidly easy, or excruciatingly hard, but there is never a single in-between. Not an uninteresting game, but a very overly biased one that even assumes the premise that "losing is fun". If that's what you like (I know some people who do), then you'll love this game. But if you're looking for a remotely balanced or even just tough-but-fair experience, get ready for a frustrating experience... except if you've got the patience (and resolve) of a monk, perhaps. For those who don't, it sure won't be pleasant.

Great game. It's quite hard, you are likely to lose some of your mercenaries sometimes even after you became expert. Keep your best and most expensive men relatively safe behind good expensive armor and the right perks... or behind/beside someone you can lose in their place. ;) There is a FREE DLC from some years ago, then they made a first larger DLC "Beasts and exploration" and another one should be out soon. Sure, there is not stuff added every 6 months (luckily... these are true DLC) but the game is far from being abandoned as written in another review.

The game has a random generated world like mount and blade, leading a troop makes it promising so bought it for the play. I was wrong. Quests get very repetitive fast. The hunt down settlement, track thing, guard caravan and send items. It's ok since sandbox like Mount and Blade or Darklands also have these type of quests, however unlike them these quests are level scaled. In Skyrim if you check the level, npc are level 19 when you're 19, once you level up the Dreugar level up with you. It's the same with BB. You fought leather bandits at low level, and once higher level bandits automatically get better armor, just like Oblivion bandits all wearing ebony armor. The number of enemy bands also increase with you, what's the point of leveling up and getting better? Except enemies are going to be 20 or 30 when you only get 12 or 13 on field. Occasionally over levelled enemies are thrown at players, but never lower. Enemies also have infinite arrows so "doesn't break ai" while "remaining fair"... even games like New Vegas had ammos and an ai for running out of arrow.. Only made for die hard level scale lovers and masochists. Good ideas everywhere, but not a good game.

I've played this game since early access on Steam and loved it from the beginning. It is brutally hard, unforgiving, and loads of fun. You are the newly appointed commander of an almost-destroyed mercenary company. With only three brothers left, you must recruit, feed, pay, and equip a new company. You'll run across ordinary bandits, goblins, orcs (shudder), the undead, and get wrapped up in the dirty business of war between noble houses. Unlike most games of this ilk, you aren't guaranteed to win every battle, keep every last brother alive, or even earn enough money through performing contracts. You'll have to restart many times before you get into the swing of it, even then, the challenge will always be there. Combat is turn based and you'll always have time to carefully plan out each move. The characters are each like a chess piece that can get decapitated if things go wrong. Your mercenaries level up, gaining new perks and abilities. You'll buy or scavenge the best gear you can for them, but there's always danger present. You'll become attached to some of your little men and mourn their loss. You can keep playing any particular game for as long as you want; there's never really an ending until you're satisfied with your success and retire or (more likely) you run out of food or money and your men desert one by one and/or get slaughtered to a man. Highly recommended for those who love good turn based tactics and management but aren't afraid to accept some ghastly defeats as you play through the game.