Sometimes, press releases simply throw as many phrases as doable at you and see what sticks. Words like “vast procedural overworld adventure”, “multi-character deck-driven combat”, and even “recurrent tactical optimisation”. That final phrase makes me wish to stick my head in a bin, however “deck-driven” has been grabbing my consideration ever since Slay The Spire sucked up 300 hours of it, so right here we’re.
Trials Of Fire is an upcoming turn-based technique game, introduced yesterday by Whatboy Games. That’s a brand new indie studio shaped partly from individuals who labored on the Batman: Arkham sequence, so hopefully super-slick punching interprets into… oh god, we’re going to have to determine what extra of these phrases imply. And watch a pleasant trailer.
It’s set in a “post-cataclysmic” fantasy world, the place mentioned cataclysm has turned the deserts to glass (a bit like what real nukes do). Horrible, however fairly.
Pretty, however not informative.
The precise game has you exploring a procedurally generated overworld, normally moving into fights. You give instructions to your heroes utilizing playing cards drawn from a deck, whereas on the identical time shifting them round a board, a la one thing like Duelyst. That “recurrent tactical optimisation” waffle refers to how heroes additionally come geared up with weapons and gadgets, and the declare that “discovering one new epic weapon could cause the player to rethink their entire strategy!” Interesting if true!
Even extra attention-grabbing are “Judgement” encounters, the place you make ethical selections within the context of a post-apocalyptic world the place regular justice methods have damaged down, and default ethical assumptions together with them. That’s very a lot my jam.
It took me far, far too lengthy to grasp, but it surely additionally has permadeath. Proper affirmation of that’s mysteriously buried within the early entry a part of the Steam blurb, the place Whatboy additionally point out that they plan to spend 12 months including extra lessons, playing cards and modes earlier than the full-fledged launch.
Trials Of Fire launches on May third in early entry. More (complicated, buzzwordy) data will be discovered on Steam or Whatboy’s website.
I’m fairly eager to offer this in the past, regardless of all the things.
