Legends of Eisenwald

LoE combines an involving story with poor combat. The story takes part in a low fantasy European medieval setting. You can follow several paths, which unfold by completing missions. This means in most cases butchering some locals (bandits, rebellious knights, and a few ghosts). Options to avoid a fight are very scarce. But even so, the story does not grow old. You constantly make moral choices. Do you take the side of a power-hungry family or ally yourself with a corrupt church? Do you sell a merchant to a vampire to whom he sold girls for artifacts, or do you rid the world of the vampire for a big chuck of exp? There are nasty, nastier, and some outright evil options to choice from. Try to stay the good guy, and you end up with nothing. Unfortunately, combat is poor. It is as if the devs started with this HM&M concept of a battlefield divided into hexes, but then got lost in a semi-realistic system and eventually just gave up on it. Combat plays out as in the old Disciples titles, but without the atmosphere (mostly sounds) of acid spitting dread wyrms and bulking grunts of a demon lord hacking into enemies with a great cleaver. Movement (without attacking) is not even possible. It is not unusual to be forced to charge into a spear with a poorly armored nobleman. Having to attack a non-corporeal ghost because no other action is available just makes no sense. After playing hundreds of battles, you notice that you have some limited influence on how battle play out. But this is a fake illusion of tactics, and I think it might well be the reason why the system was never thrown out of the window a long time ago and replaced by something better. If you are looking for deep combat, then have a look at Battle Brothers (currently in early access on steam). So, the game is worth it because of its strong story (for this type of games). But after the campaign there is not much to come back for. Without the story, what is left is a broken combat system that does not satisfy.

The first few chapters were underwhelming, but then as the story started to take shape the experience became increasingly immersive. Night after night I'd go to sleep with the haunting sountrack still echoing in my head, and new moral dilemmas to ponder. Get ready for a lot of ambiguity around who´s good or bad, and which action is right or wrong. This game does not offer a simplistic world with clean choices! Historically accurate costumes, locations, plot lines, occultism, warfare and conversation topics, together with wonderful art, create an atmosphere which feels very authentic. Some references to Dark Lands were much appreciated!

Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-xfKauiobM Legends of Eisenwald is a turn based strategy adventure RPG type thing. It’s really a very interesting concept. The battles are all turn based strategy, navigating the map takes place in real time, and the story is advanced with very RPG-esque mechanics involving branching dialogues and choices in the storyline that can affect how things go for you in the future. The most important thing to note off the bat is that this is a game where if you want to be a completionist with quests you’re going to be looking at a guide a lot since the game doesn’t mark all of your objectives for you and isn’t always the clearest on what your objectives are. A lot of quests for example tell you to go somewhere, but refrain from letting you know that the trigger for the quest only occurs between eleven at night and five in the morning. The story of this game however is absolutely its biggest strength. The world you are thrust into is bitter and gruesome. And the thing that got to me the most was just how horrific it is. There are little to no positive or well-moraled characters in this game, and the ones that seem to be are either killed off quickly by someone else, or you are forced to kill them. This game will constantly play with your emotions assuming your heart isn’t a frozen cinder block as it forces you to choose between lesser evils, do horrible things to survive, and to continue on as even your closest allies turn against you and your even slightly immoral actions come to bite you harder than you could ever have imagined. Whoever’s world this is? Whoever’s characters these are? Congratulations. You made an amazing gritty masterpiece of a struggle with this game. To read the full review (Since GoG doesn't allow full reviews) view it on steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Resoula/recommended/246760/

This one's good; really good. If it weren't for some chapters having very grind-y and annoying maps, the unoptimized music transitions, the occasional quizzical animation, the complete absence of a manual, and a lack of enemy and gear variety, it would get five stars. Seriously, for what this game sets out to be, it's that good, even without voice acting and somewhat 'meh' character models. It has a great story of treachery, faith and venality in a low-magic make-believe Holy Roman Empire, with three different paths and the odd long-term-consequence decision here and there; a fantastic soundtrack that is sure to become a mainstay of your playlist if you're into medieval tunes; smooth gameplay with pleasant to look at graphics; and a gameplay length that feels just about right. Like the title says, thoroughly enjoyable. Don't miss out on this one.

The story follows a young nobleman/woman thrown into the machiavellian world of intrigue. If I had to pick a theme, it would be an exploration of honor vs realpolitik, of morality vs realism. Are you willing embrace political - and wordly for that matter - cynisism, or will you live according your values? Each choice carries a consequence, and the author of the story tries to explore it in a manner that I found refreshing - it lacks the biases and hamfisted strawmen of today's arbiters of discourse have gotten all too comfortable with. The gameplay is unique and different. It's squadbased, but with a distinct lack of freedom of movement: You're free to move your units in several ways, but once they're engaged in close combat they must hold their ground until they defeat enemy unit or die in the process. As your units level up they will acquire more abilities, mirroring real life experience (experienced soldier is worth several soldiers without experience), this opens up a more tactical debth - you will notice that as they level they get ability to disengage, hold the line, wait for enemy to approach them etc. The units are separated into 3 categories, with some in-betweens of course: - Frontline - Ranged - Utility Each of those units can be upgraded into 2-4 different upgradable units. Some units are clearly better but others, like the nobleman, but he levels up slower and requires 10 times the amount of gold you would spend on a cheaper unit. On that note, gear costs gold, and it's not always endless, so you can't just spam 10 knights and win, because then cheaper units with better gear will destroy them. Some units if built and equipped properly can hold their own vs fully equipped knights, but you gotta know what you are doing. Final score? 5 Stars due to uniqueness of gameplay and narrative, challenging battles and surprising depth. If you're not a lowest common denominator "Nugamer", this game is well worth your time.