Thea: The Awakening

Pro: Unique gameplay and party / village building mechanics that's a bit different in each playthrough... Con: But that's obscured behind an obtuse and unfriendly user interface. Solution: Play on easy at first and get used to how things work. Experiment! The game autosaves sporadically, so if you are attached to your group, ctrl+alt+delete your way out of the situation. Pro: Huge diversity of events and lots of ways to approach them... Con: But things can get repetitive come turn 100. Solution: Venture further and further afield, things will get more interesting. Pro: You feel like you and your village grows and strengthens as you play... Con: Until that one random event pops up that wipes out you or your best villagers. Solution: Err on the side of caution if you're afraid of TPKO - or save scrum... Pro: Intricately crafted world and mythos that makes you feel immersed and eager to find out what's beyond the fog of war and keeps you playing for just one more turn... Solution: Keep playing.

On the one hand five stars. On the other hand there is no denying that this game has some serious design flaws. The worst of these imho is character progression. The game forces you to deal with losing characters, which is one of the things I like very much about that game. However, on higher difficulty levels it is nigh impossible to replace "older" characters when the game has progressed. That is because character progression becomes harder over time. It takes always more experience than the last time to get additional progression points. So your new characters will never even get near to the progression of your earlier characters. This can be in part compensated by throwing more characters into the fight But this problem is exacerbated by the seemingly random rate of children growing up. There is either a highly random factor at play, or there is a failed (and undocumented) algorithm in place - meant for balancing - that only imbalances the game further. From my point of view, the developers tried to bring new aspects into gaming - many of them great, but with some features they failed. Nevertheless, trying new things is what makes this game stand out among self-repeating no-collision mainstream games.

I love the setting, the ambition and many of the games elements, clearly much love was put into this. But for me this just didn´t work. Unfortunately one of the core-mechanics - the card-based fighting-system - is completely intransparent and no fun at all. You can skip it though and have the game calculate the outcome of fights and challenges automaticly. I really wanted to like Thea, because it does many things I like in games, but after a few hours of playing, the fun just wasn´t there. It seemed more like a grind through a generated map, a time eater that tries an combines many things, but does none of them very well.

The Witcher, Battle Brothers, and Gwent walk into a bar.... It's the only way I can think of to describe this game. You play a party of Slavic peasants in a low(medium!) magic world, gathering resources, scouting areas, and completing quests to ensure your community has a chance to survive. Honestly, some of the best quests I've ever seen in a game are here. If you love the serious tone and occasional hilarity of The Witcher, it's clear the developers have leaned into this (Rock Trolls feature prominently). I think I'm on my seventh play through now (today's the first day of playing). On the first six I got --cked up by Little Red Riding Hood, the Baba Yaga, a Leshen, a Striga, and some other beasties i've forgotten. I helped a dwarf smith get a date with a Rusalka by promising to steal some children for her, except I decided not to steal the children but went back with [powerful item] that caused her a lot of fear and told her "i'm going to kill you unless you go on a date with the dwarf". And then of course there's the fact that the dwarf is called Bodahn and he has a Rock Troll pet called...wait for it.... "Chale" (aka Shale with a C). Seriously just play it. Even if you don't like it I guarantee you - you will see stories and quests you've never seen before and you will be entertained. It's not for everyone, but it's not cookie-cutter filler either. Try it. Seriously. Signed, A New Fan

I played this game several times and got some of the endings. If you grasp the card game, it is quite tactically, but superior numbers make almost all tactics unnecessary. As you can put as many people into your band as your village can feed, things get lopsided quickly. Another problem I found was the constantly changing tone within the setting. You find deeply emotional moments next to whimsical slapstick, as if several people put storylines into the game without consulting each other. Still, in several parts, the game's own charm shines through. It has its own take on several clichés, and leaves you choices.