Wartales

... and then it's 4 in the morning and you have to go to work in 4 hours.... One of the most engrossing games I've ever played. Its underlying systems take a little while to reveal themselves to the player, but then appears a world of possibilities. You can tweak the party in whatever way you fancy and respec the members and try combinations of skills, weapons, buffs, order of battle, even what they eat and where they sleep matters. I bought the game on Steam 1 month after launch so it was pretty much done, no bugs, no glitches. Very active discord. Highly recommend for the experience and the price.

Outstanding. After a few days of playing, that's the word that comes to mind! Wartales is first and foremost a turn, squad-based tactical game blending in ideas from other genres: from RPGs, the character building and choices made during regional story quests (or which of them do you complete) influence the world around. From survival, you have to find time in safer areas to prevent ambushes while resting, with the obvious need to feed and pay your band. And you could fit in the roguelike: in hardest settings, you're very likely to lose people in battle at any tactical mistake, replacing them later on! The game has the great aspect of being customizable: save frequency, level scaling (or not), starting combat classes, your band's shared bonus and malus, survival and combat difficulty. You can pick your characters' jobs (which provide a meaningful stats bonus depending experience) like mining or alchemy; and you can pick traits (permanent bonus or malus) for your starting members. Events can influence each mercenary to make them acquire new traits or titles, or relations between individuals - the latter altering their efficiency in battle or choices in camp events. The camp can also be customized by building a few things: a cooking pot, racks to dry meat or tan skins, and so on! The game has a rather slow pace, yet it's far from boring. Exploration can be eased through some bonuses to run speed, the building of travel posts to enable a fast travel function between them, or the use of pitons to immediately go down from a cliff. The storytelling didn't catch my attention, however it fits its world. Regarding combat, classes determine learnable skills and usable weapons, the latter changing your base attack. Valour points are a limited resource to use other attacks, with resting the only way to recover it. Animals can be captured and used in battle, while prisoners can be worth a bounty at prisons or join your band. In short, a worthwhile experience awaits you!

Steam has had coop for a while and this gog version doesnt seem to get the same love

...and more casual friendly than for example battle brothers. Right at the beginning you can choose if you want level scaling or not and there's even the option to save whenever you want. The game so far is fun with interesting storys and mechanics (crafting, group management etc.). But - alas - there are no helmets.

The game definitely feels fresh. Roaming through the first open area, fighting bandits, completing quests, managing your funds, stealing from merchants, burying your fallen companions - it al feels great, but... You'll notice that after moving on to another are you're met with exactly the same quest structure. You have two factions, do five quests for them, choose your side for the final battle and on to another open area. I've played for around 30 hours in total and managed to reach lvl 6 on my strongest characters. At that point the game becomes a grinding chore. The combat is enjoyable - reminds me of Wasteland or X-com, but the experience gain is so slow, it makes me want to stop playing altogether. I'll give this game a go in couple of months. Maybe there will be some meaningful updates down the road. At it's current state I'd give it 3.5/5. A solid foundation, but flawed execution