Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest

I admittedly did not get too far into this game before it completely put me off. Should have seen the hint when the tutorial level was already difficult to do the optional objective before entering the next mission where there is an annoying time limit. Have had several attempts at it, even turned it to easy for one attempt and I just run out of time. Does not even get me engaged into the gameplay or story or anything, a big hurdle out the gate and reading around does not seem to get anymore enjoyable after. Wish I had checked it out a bit more first, but just saw a turned based game and thought it seemed interesting. I am sure it may be fun for some people out there, but maybe if it had a tough level a few hours in after pulling me into the gameplay loop first I would have tried to persevere to get through but throwing that 5 minutes into the game? Sorry, but not thanks, not my style of game.

This is an excellent turn based tactics game. Abilities are easy to understand and do what they say on the tin. The scope of the game is just right - it's not enormous but what is there is very satisfying for the developer's "15-20 hours" of content. It took me just a few minutes past 20 hours to do all the missions on normal with all the secondary objectives completed. The dialogue and characterization is also excellent, and there is enough of it to make you care about why you are doing each mission. The characters are witty with interesting personalities. The world building leaves something to be desired. The world feels expansive, but the wider world is only referred to obliquely in the dialogue, leaving the player to guess at the details. However, there is not really room within the scale of the game to have given more backround information. I have no complaints about the graphics, although they don't particularly stand out overall. The color palette was pleasantlny bright. The final couple missions were exceptionally attractive; my wife walked in on the final boss stage and said only, "ooh, that's pretty". I'm glad that the whole game was not so visually busy though - it helped give the finish the right degree of pop. I did not run into any significant bugs or technical issues. The game ran smoothly on my machine. There was one instance where a dialogue line went off the right hand side of the screen at 4k resolution and the halbert takes 2 hands to wield even with the perk that makes 2h weapons wieldable in 1h. Pacing was even and difficulty ramp was well matched to power ramp. Overall, I say the game is of consistiently high quality with no major (or even middling) flaws.

Just like grimrock i liked the trailer though its not one of the genre i usually play i bought it on sale. I do not regret it. The game has nice graphics and atmosphere, an entertaining story with humorous characters and the gameplay is well polished. Its challenging but not frustrating and keeps u on the line with the character design, much of new enemy types, new win conditions and so on. Also the character development is on point. I just enjoy it and can highly recommend it , even if u dont play this type of game usually and u want something quiet or relaxing for the evening.

It doesn't happen that often that developers throw a lot of themes, genres, gameplay elements, and ideas into the cauldron and the result is not an indigestable mess but a game as delicious as Druidstone. It's a thing of beauty. It has beautiful graphics, beautiful music, the plot includes some very original ideas, and - best of all - it is beautifully balanced and has beautifully crafted missions with polished gameplay. On the one hand, every turn matters, and you often think, "Oh, this has just cost me the battle, I should have done X instead." On the other hand, most missions have multiple ways to victory, based on which skills you'll decide to use. The story includes a fantasy setting in a parallel universe, druids, an evil Sorceress, and an old technologically advanced race that seems to have escaped from a sci-fi novel. Characters? There's the Archdruid's daughter, a strange being called Oiko, the Warden - a human-like creature created by the Menhir Forest itself when in danger, a Japanese-speaking karate girl (no kidding), conscious stones, minor deities, mail-delivering intelligent birds, a spacetime demon... And it all just works. The gameplay is a perfectly working mixture of turn-based strategy, RPG, a puzzle game, and a card game. You level up your characters, which earns them new spells to learn. The number of times they can use the spells during a mission and their strength are determined by allocating gems you get for reaching the missions' objectives (some mandatory, some optional). And while some missions are about careful planning and outsmarting the enemy, others are more like puzzles where once you understand the main idea, you'll just do the trick and win. Add a big dose of humor, music ranging from lyrical to monumental string action to a tribute to arcade game tunes, throw in some pop-cultural (rather game-cultural) references, shake, then stir, and you'll get Druidstone, a game I spent 110 hours with - and don't regret a single minute.

I was not expenting this quality, especially for this price (bought it in promo). I am amazed with the game quality, story, mechanics, puzzles, evertyhing. It is somehow like Xcom but at the same time with completely different mechanics. You have to put some effort to pass some missions even in normal, but nothing a thinking brain cannot overcome ;) After so many AAA games disapointments this year, so far this game takes the best of 2019 seal of approval!