A Green Mushroom

Guys... Duelyst is really good. I wrote about it awhile ago and said that it had potential but I would have to wait for the official release to see how it panned out. Well, it's been out for a few months and it's really good.  It's somewhere between Hearthstone and Hero Academy, two games that I loved.  I highly recommend it if you're interested in turn based strategy or new card game mechanics or even just good online competition. Duelyst has come a long way and it's completely free to play (unless you want to spend money).  Seriously, go check it out if you haven't.

I'm finally completely finished with Fire Emblem Fates.  This game is definitely in the running for my game of the year pick. The Revelation campaign is the third and final campaign in the game.  It's highly recommended that you finish both of the other campaigns first to get the most out of it and I can see why.  Revelation pulls from both of the other stories and gives you the details about what's happening behind the scenes.  It's the middle path, and the one I think I would have chosen if given the option initially. It's super cool to see all these main characters that had to fight and kill each other in the other two campaigns finally meet as allies.  It allows for all sorts of interesting conversations.  Pairing up troops from opposite sides of the war was especially fun. Not to mention that the ending of this campaign felt like the true ending of the game.  Both of the others were satisfying but incomplete.  Playing through all th...

I love the premise of Atlas Reactor so when I had a chance to jump into a free weekend trial I took it. That premise is a turn based MOBA-ish strategy game where actions are all locked in during a 20 second window and then all the locked in actions take place during the next phases.  It's kind of real time, mostly turn based, but overall very interesting. By the end of the first full game I played of it I realized there's a huge execution problem.  The game, idea, and systems are solid enough but watching the locked-in actions play out take way too long.   Like, they could speed up all the animations by a factor of five or ten it would be just fine. Or they could do what I thought was the obvious execution and just have all the actions for a given phase happen simultaneously instead of sequentially. I think if they made either of these changes I would stick with the game and give it more of my time, but based on my frustration with how slow it is I just couldn...

I beat Birthright within a week of picking up Fire Emblem Fates and I loved it! Fire Emblem Fates sees you taking on the role of Corrin, a prince or princess (you choose) who was raised by the Nohr royal family but then soon finds out that they were a member of the Hosido royal family that had been captured at a very young age. If you're unaware of the Fates situation, basically there are three campaigns but you don't buy them all together.  You purchase one version of the game and get that as your first campaign.  This is either Birthright (which I picked) or Conquest.  Birthright sees you siding with Hosido the family of your birth while Conquest will keep you with the family that raised you. Once you beat that campaign you get the choice to purchase either of the other two campaigns at half price and download them directly into your existing game.  The third campaign, Revelations, is a middle path that ties both of the other two together. All of the ca...

X-Com 2 seems to have clicked with me much more than the first game. I always appreciated X-Com as a decent turn-based strategy game but something about it just didn't quite click with my personal taste.  I tried playing through a few times but always gave up, despite my general love of turn based strategy games. X-Com 2 generally plays the same but there's just enough differences that make me like it a lot more.  I think the tactical battles are tuned to force players to play more aggressively, which is how I always played the original.  I didn't realize until I saw complaints online but I guess most people played the first X-Com very slowly and defensively... I guess I was playing it wrong.  X-Com 2 often has an objective with a timer that forces you to keep moving.  I love it. I also never seemed to make good decisions in the strategy layer of X-Com between missions.  Apparently there's one "correct" way to play it that I never figured out. ...

I downloaded the brand new Fire Emblem Fates earlier today when it released and after picking up the Birthright version I had enough time to sit down and play it for one full charge of my 3DS battery. My initial impressions are really good.  It has everything I loved about the first 3DS entry in the series, Fire Emblem Awakening, but it's been refined and added to.  The core of the combat system is still the same as is the relationship system and I'm really happy with that.  It didn't need big changes.  The minor tweaks they've done are for convenience. The biggest difference I've noticed right from the start is the attention paid to the story.  In Fire Emblem Awakening it had a very typical (and stereotypical) story that was easy to predict even though it was well executed.  In Fire Emblem Fates they've created three unique storylines depending on a key choice you make near the beginning of the game.  I'm already seeing huge ramifications and ...

I played a bunch of Duelyst and it's a fun mix of strategy, turn based games, and deck building.   I really like the potential here. The battle system has a general who can use abilities and summon monsters from your deck.  You draw new abilities and monsters every turn so your options are constantly changing and evolving.  Instead of these being cards they turn into actual characters that go on a board.  The game mixes current digital card games with turn based strategy games on a grid based field.  It's a really fun combination. It honestly reminds me of a fresh modern version of Hero Academy which I loved when it came out.  Except with Duelyst the battles happen much faster because it's not asynchronous. Duelyst is still early access but it's obvious that this game has lots of potential.  I played enough to know that I like it and that I'll want to play it when it actually releases.  But, I don't like pouring a lot of time into ea...

I picked up Steamworld Heist when it suddenly appeared on a bunch of "game of the year" lists in early January.  I had been interested in it since I loved Steamworld Dig but for some reason the release date (near the end of December) had totally slipped my mind. If I would have played this before the end of the year it would easily have been in my games of the year post. Steamworld Heist is a 2D sidescrolling turn based strategy game with skillshots and trajectory skills.  It's awesome. You all know I love a good turn based strategy game, and this is a great one.  It follows the aesthetic of Steamworld Dig but beyond that similarity it is it's own game.  Steamworld Dig was a dig deeper and upgrade your character sort of game.  Steamworld Heist is all about being a ROBOT SPACE PIRATE . Maybe I should have put that up at the front of the post. YOU ARE A ROBOT SPACE PIRATE!  It's so much fun. The progression mechanics of acquiring new gear and ...

Eon Alter was a game I heard a bunch about from my blogger/twitter friend Talarian .  That's because he's a member of the dev team! I had heard a bunch but I hadn't ever seen the game in action or gotten hands on time until PAX. It's a really cool concept. Eon Alter is a multiplayer simultaneous turn based RPG that you control with whatever phone or tablet you have on hand. My brother and I played it together, me with my iPhone and him with his Android phone.  All your controls are on your smartphone/tablet screen but the action is actually taking place on the main computer monitor.  All the enemies simultaneously take a turn, and then the players all get to take their turns simultaneously too.  That means that even though it's turn based you're never waiting long for the next thing to happen. It's obviously still in early access since it's a bit rough around the edges but it's easy to tell the core hook of the game is there and work...

I've been on a big turn-based game kick lately.  Invisible Inc is the latest in a series of games that I've enjoyed but failed to put a lot of time into.  It's kind of weird that I know I love turn-based strategy games so much but lately none of them can seem to keep my attention for long. Invisible Inc is really good.  Out of all the turned-based games I've been playing lately this is the second best.  Only Valkyria Chronicles has a one-up on it. In Invisible Inc you navigate a team of spies through a procedurally created enemy complex.  Your mission might be to get new equipment, rescue other agents, retrieve intel, or a number of other scenarios.  It allows you to push your luck by staying in the enemy complex longer while you search for more loot, intel, and gear.  But the longer you stay in the enemy facility the higher their security level gets.  It's really fun! I like the game a lot.  I've had a bunch of nights where I'll play t...

Heavenstrike appears to be what happens when you take Square Enix's talent at making tactics games and neuter it with Free to Play mechanics.  Ugh. I tried it because I'll try most things that Square Enix releases.  They always have my attention since they're the company that makes Final Fantasy... and if you haven't noticed by now, I love Final Fantasy . Heavenstrike is a turn based lane pushing strategy game.  You summon units using mana and the units push up each lane trying to get to the enemy commander to do damage.  The first one to take out the opposing commander wins. The basics aren't bad, but the game has all the free to play trappings that I try to avoid.  Energy is used each time you enter a battle and if you run out of energy you can either wait a while or pay real money to buy more.  You can also pay real money to have a chance to recruit new super units.  This is not the way I want games to make their money. It's the worst...

I wrote up some reactions to the Codename S.T.E.A.M. demo while I was in the middle of playing it last week.  Last night I finally sat down and finished playing the demo. I've decided to not buy the game. It's sad for me since I was really looking forward to Codename S.T.E.A.M.  On paper it seemed to be a really cool turn based strategy game that would be a good fit for me. In practice it falls apart for two main reasons: The enemy turn takes way too long. The best strategy is to rush to the goal. By the end of the demo I hated both of these things. Waiting for the enemy to take their turn and move around becomes excruciating after a few levels.  It's even worse once the levels get more complicated and contains more enemies. As far as the "strategy" in this game... all my careful strategy and best laid plans are worse than just rushing one character to the end of the level and getting them in the "Goal" area.  Once I discovered th...

I've been super excited for Codename S.T.E.A.M. ever since it was announced at E3 this year! It's a turn-based strategy game from the same people who make Fire Emblem.  This game is set in a steampunk world with lots of interesting visuals.  Each turn players have a certain amount of "steam" which is used for movement and attack.  Since both move and attack share the same resource it becomes a game about balancing when to use each one. The demo just released earlier this week so I've been playing it off and on.  My reaction has been mixed. I can tell the core of the game is really good, and I'm still most likely going to buy it.  I love the turn based strategy and the steam mechanic of resource management.  But there are some issues that I wouldn't have noticed if I skipped the demo. My two biggest issues are the alien movement and the controls. Alien movement is the enemies' turn and it takes a really long time to sit through.  While wai...

I've been playing a lot of games for my 3DS.  Right now I'm playing through Fire Emblem: Awakening and enjoying it a ton. The older I get the more I move away from real time strategy games and start to appreciate the turn-based format.  It's not that my reflexes are bad, I'm only 26, but I just don't have time to devote to getting really good at execution in games.  I'm usually playing less than an hour each night and I'm lucky if that is one uninterrupted block of time. For me, right now, Fire Emblem: Awakening is perfect.  It's a turn based strategy with interesting mechanics that I can suspend at any time.  I constantly have it near me since my 3DS is almost always close by.  It's great to be able to take a turn and then put it down to come back to later.  Even if I know I only have 5 minutes I still get to make some progress and stretch my mind with some strategy. It's more character driven than most turn-based RPGs I've playe...

Hero Academy is the game I've been longing for .  I didn't know how much I needed a game like this, but now I'm playing it more than anything else.  I've been in the mood for a nice tactical game without twitch elements, and Hero Academy fills that role perfectly. The premise of Hero Academy is simple.  On your turn you get five actions to spend how you will.  The game plays out asynchronously over multiple turns.  If you destroy your opponent's crystals or kill all of their units you emerge the victor. These five actions can be to move a unit, attack with a unit, or bring an object into play from your current available "hand" at the bottom of the screen.  The objects you'll bring into play are more units, equipment for existing units, and spells that you cast on the battlefield.  At the end of every turn your current hand of objects refills up to six. Those are the basic mechanics of the game,...

On a recent weekend away with my family I had the chance to use my dad's ipad for awhile and I downloaded Hero Academy.  It's an amazing turn based tactic game for iphone and ipad that I was instantly addicted to.  I played for hours against other people online.  If Hero Academy was compatible with my ipod touch I would be playing it every day. After latching onto the game so fast, I realized that I'm starved for a good turn based tactical game.  I don't have as much time to game as I used to, and time is what's required to get good at a twitch game.  So, while I love Tribes Ascend, League of Legends, and Starcraft 2 I always feel like I'm at a slight disadvantage.  I don't have the 8 hours of free time each night like I did in high school. Instead, I'd like the emphasis to be on my mind and not my reflexes.  Unfortunately, there really aren't that many on the market right now that are turn based.  I could dive back into my catalog of GBA an...

I play a lot of free games, trials, lite versions, and demos but I don't like to directly link to games unless they are worth your time. That being said, SteamBirds is worth your time.  It is a turn based strategy game where the player controls steampunk versions of WWI style planes. It may seem strange, but the gameplay shines.  After entering commands for all your planes you advance and all the aircraft in the game move at the same time.  This gives the game strategy and tactical elements but doesn't completely devolve the game into a turn based system. Although the game is hard to explain you should go check it out right now, even if you are a casual gamer.