Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest

Let's get this out of the way first, Druidstone is an isometric tactics/puzzle game with light RPG elements. It is NOT a full-fledged role playing game and you should not expect character creation or dialogue decisions. But if you come to it expecting the tactics game it actually is. you'll find it's pretty fun! Your starting trio is a fighter, a healer with a bow, and a wizard. They have one move and one action per round, and they can use their remaining movement points after taking an action. Special moves can only be used a limited amount of times per map. Characters with melee weapons exert a square-shaped zone of control and get a free opportunity hit if someone tries moving through without a special avoidance ability. (Earlygame protip: the fighter's melee-overwatch "defend" ability is VERY USEFUL!) Like Into the Breach, combat is a dice-free affair with small numbers and clearly displayed consequences. Mousing over enemies shows their movement range and basic stats, your health bar blinks the expected damage if your movement path leads you through an enemy's zone of control, and holding the "Alt" key highlights the grid and all enemies and interactive objects. Unfortunately there's no display of special abilities or firing range. I hope they patch that in! Unlike Into the Breach, maps are hand-crafted and can sometimes be huge, sprawling affairs with things like exploding barrels or pressure plate traps. Things aren't completely predetermined, however. Chests contain random consumables (that don't carry over between maps) ranging from healing potions, to area-damage sticks of dynamite, to items that summon AI-controlled monsters to fight on your side. It takes a few missions to really open up, but there IS character customization between unlocking new abilities at level-up, buying new equipment that grant certain skills, and using rare upgrade gems to enhance certain skills and equipment. It's not Grimrock 3, it's its own thing, and it's fun!

Just as Grimrock was more of a puzzle game than an RPG, this game is also an RPG light. It is more of a tactical strategy puzzle game where each battle encounter is the puzzle you need to solve. There would be more than one way to win, but there usually is a pattern that you need to figure out to conquer scenarios. Combat is pretty straight forward and easy to get into. There are not many complex systems which is great to get your head around. But one might yearn for a little deeper RPG complexity which you will not find it here. Optimising wins are more about being tactical and figuring out what the each encounter needs more than character progression of the characters. I find the art, the world, and the writing really charming but if you are not into Joss Whedon like light hearted dialogue in your fantasy then beware. I think it is cute and fun. All in all, it is a compelling game that I keep coming back (hence such high score) to but even in Easy mode I am struggling. I am pretty bad at tactical strategies. So, if you are like me, you might want to check some YouTube previews before hand. For some this game will not be deep enough to warrant more than 3-4 stars and that's understandable. But what is here is polished and I am into the story.

One could forgive the bland characters and the bad plot if the strategy part was done correctly but Druistone is not a strategy game. Every single mission has a timer or endless waves of spawning enemies, turning each level into a puzzle in which you have to figure out the optimal way of moving your characters and complete each round. If you like a series of timed puzzle scenarios instead of strategy, that's the game for you.

Before I bought the game, I carefully researched what I would be getting myself into. I heard that it was heavily influenced by Into the Breach, the boardgame Gloomhaven, and that it was split into separate levels. That sounded like a perfect fit for both me and my wife, and boy I wasn't wrong. I have been having an absolute blast with this, and my wife actually finished it within 3 days, bingeing it while barely taking any breaks. As a tactical boardgamey game it is absolutely great. If you play carefully and thoughtfully, the normal difficulty will provide a nice challenge. The gap between easy and normal difficulty is a bit too large, but in my opinion easy is a bit too easy, and normal is a bit too hard to be called 'normal' for most players. So it could do with some tweaking there, or an extra difficulty mode in between. It is not a true RPG in the sense that you have dialogue options or real choices elsewhere, but the writing is serviceable and actually pretty funny in places. All in all, I think there is nothing quite like this, so bonus points for innovation, and I would really enjoy more games that refine on this mixture of different design concepts. Well done Ctrl Alt Ninja, you've got a winning design here: 5 stars. Now if only people actually understood what they were buying before getting into it expecting a full fledged RPG. I'd argue this is their own fault for not doing a little research, but perhaps a small change in marketing strategy wouldn't be such a bad idea if the idea for a sequel comes up.