Mordheim: City of the Damned

Mordheim is a turn based tactical RPG, quite reminiscent of XCOM series. The player leads a small party through tactical battles decided by an unforgiving RNG. There is much to like about the game but it's buried under janky user interface, controls, camera and bad AI. In this game: - Maps are very big relative to individual party members. Maps are complex and 3 dimensional with many-storied buildings. Objects and buildings are difficult to differentiate and there are many blind alleys. - But the only camera view available to the player is a view from the perspective of the individual fighter. From this view it's impossible a for player to assess tactical situation well. There is no enemy overview nor camera from the perspective of the war party. There is only a small general map overview you end up consulting almost all the time, but it severely lacks functionality - the player can't control anybody from it and it's 2 dimensional. - It seems the developers attempted to make the game playable using only console controller. As a result every action including jumping, climbing, and looting is undertaken by cycling through context dependent possibilities, choosing one, and then confirming it. It results in hundreds of unnecessary clicks. Also Mordheim context dependence is quite clumsy - the player must frequently fervently maneuver their characters to trigger jumps or other actions which don't trigger even though they should. Context dependence extends to inventory and skill management resulting in even more unnecessary clicks. - Battles take too long for the wrong reasons - maps are big and there is no positioning phase so before the actual fight begins the opposing parties blindly move all over the map searching for each other. Also moves of the enemy take time without possibility to skip them, even when enemy is not visible. - AI is frequently stuck in labyrinthine buildings. Summing up the above - the game has nice ideas, but execution is terrible.

This is not Mordheim. It simply isn't. It wears the skin of Mordheim, but has none of it's soul. It tries to emulate the sort of scenario you could find youself in during a campaign of Mordheim, but does so by simply weighting the odds against you and almost always putting you against a stronger opponent.

I love this game its just so hard no easy mode no saveing even when your careful u can loose it all on one bad map

Interesting idea, controlling every unit in over the shoulder camera mode (just like a TPS), while being turn based. And they tried to give lots of options to customize each character in your warband. But the gameplay is just bad: For a start it is difficult to oversee characters in the battlefield, because you only see one of your character at a time, so if you don't know the map, you don't know where others might be, and where should you go. There are "ambush stances" in the middle of nothing, so when you approach an enemy in plain sight, you might be "ambushed" by that enemy. The actions are clumsy and slow. The enemy actions are also slow, you have to sit and wait for long times. The GUI is a mess, more confusing than helpful. It looked interesting, the presentation of the game is good, but the gameplay itself made me uninstall fairly quickly. Luckily I had this one for free, because for me it wouldn't even worth the 2 euro at 90% discount price, and I regret even that little time that I spent on it to try out.

Between GOG and Steam I have a pretty hefty collection of Warhammer games, both Old World and 40K, and this title yearns still for challengers to depose it's firm grip in my personal Top 5. Sitting amongst more commonly loved giants like Dawn of War and Battlefleet Gothic, Mordheim is a game that will either send you screaming and tearing out your own hair or it will sink it's Skaven like claws into your grey matter like a crossbow bolt. This gem of a title will force you to learn patience, discipline, and an instictive tactical acumen which is hard won and painful but also transferrable to strategy and tactics games of all sorts. Your first steps into the ruins of the City of the Damned will likely see you snatched by an unseen foe, dragged behind the woodshed, and left facedown in the mud with more bruises and wounds than intact flesh. Resist that first anvil of despair dropped upon your head by the Ruthless Number Gods and soldier on if you wish to unearth the wonders and wealth concealed beneath the tormented ruins of the once great metropolis. It's a game that makes you earn any semblance of victory, a toll extracted in blood, lives, souls, and no small number of faceplants onto your own keyboard as you discover for the umpteenth time that hubris is a trait not tolerated in Mordheim. A few simple tips will help you build a warband worthy of songs sung over stiens held aloft as foaming mead and ale spill upon the revelers inspired by your deeds. -No man, woman, rat, flea or shadow ought proceed alone, even if it is just to retrieve a single fragment of precious Wyrdstone in a seemingly safe locale. -Projectiles provide the security of range, but a 25lbs hammer removes threats faster. The fallen harm none. -The clever outlive the brave. When in doubt - rout. -Casualties are unavoidable, always bring disposable assets. -Get the DLC, the best units are extra...Warhammer, right? It's survival of the most unscrupulous, can you sink to the challenge?