Bug fix: Game fails to recreate config file if the file has a syntax error Bug fix: Game may crash when rapidly interacting with the imp after solving his riddle in The Basement Bug fix: Game may crash under rare conditions when an enemy is killed by fireball launcher trap in The
Bug fix: Game fails to recreate config file if the file has a syntax error
Bug fix: Game may crash when rapidly interacting with the imp after solving his riddle in The Basement
Bug fix: Game may crash under rare conditions when an enemy is killed by fireball launcher trap in The Prisoner
Bug fix: Rare crash in final battle when the map is very crowded
Bug fix: Final boss' Space Distortion special ability could fail when the map is very crowded
Bug fix: game may crash when using Forest Remembers to rewind time in Battle of the Sanctuary mission Bug fix: Smoldering Crossbow's Oil Shot ability has a double word "Deals 2 fire fire damage"
Bug fix: game may crash when using Forest Remembers to rewind time in Battle of the Sanctuary mission
Bug fix: Smoldering Crossbow's Oil Shot ability has a double word "Deals 2 fire fire damage"
Details: Fixed rare crash bug in the necromancer mission, which could happen when a Skeleton Boss and Necromancer where killed by the same action. Fixed bug which could cause the screen to be rendered with wrong aspect ratio in windowed mode. Added option to send bug reports to t
Details:
Fixed rare crash bug in the necromancer mission, which could happen when a Skeleton Boss and Necromancer where killed by the same action.
Fixed bug which could cause the screen to be rendered with wrong aspect ratio in windowed mode.
Added option to send bug reports to the error dialog. If you encounter a bug, please send a bug report by clicking the Send button in the error dialog.
Looking back at it now, 2020 doesn’t feel like a banner year for strategy games, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been a few gems. The list below – gathered by a panel of experts and regularly updated – contains games from as recently as 12 months ago alongside classics from a
Looking back at it now, 2020 doesn’t feel like a banner year for strategy games, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been a few gems. The list below – gathered by a panel of experts and regularly updated – contains games from as recently as 12 months ago alongside classics from as far back as 28 years ago. They’re all games we think you could play and love right now.
For a time it looked as though strategy games had sunk into a kind of deathly malaise, unsure which territory to claim next and which ones it should leave well and truly alone. Fast forward to 2020, though, and strategy games have never looked healthier, which is why we’ve compil
For a time it looked as though strategy games had sunk into a kind of deathly malaise, unsure which territory to claim next and which ones it should leave well and truly alone. Fast forward to 2020, though, and strategy games have never looked healthier, which is why we’ve compiled this best strategy games list of all time. Whether you want to conquer the depths of space, wage historical warfare or hulk around in big mechanical robots, there’s a strategy game for you below.
You’ll ocassionally find someone on the internet sounding off about how the strategy genre is dead. If you see such a person in the future, send them this list of the best strategy games ever made. (more…)
You’ll ocassionally find someone on the internet sounding off about how the strategy genre is dead. If you see such a person in the future, send them this list of the best strategy games ever made.
Today's Deal: Save 40% on Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time
Today's Deal: Save 40% on Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
Druidstone just got a built-in level editor & modding support! Build new levels, add new weapons and equipment, create custom monsters and abilities. When you're ready publish your mod on Steam Workshop. With full Lua scripting support with over 2000 functions, the only limit
Druidstone just got a built-in level editor & modding support! Build new levels, add new weapons and equipment, create custom monsters and abilities. When you're ready publish your mod on Steam Workshop. With full Lua scripting support with over 2000 functions, the only limit is your imagination.
Developer: Ctrl Alt Ninja Publisher: Ctrl Alt Ninja Release: Out now On: Windows From: Steam , GOG , Official Site Price: 19.50/$24/ 21 I can go one of two ways with turn-based tactics games. Give me something like XCOM , where you re thrown situations full of random variables an
I can go one of two ways with turn-based tactics games. Give me something like XCOM, where you re thrown situations full of random variables and asked to make the best of them with inadequate resources, and I ll go at it like John Henry, digging away in a doomed attempt to beat the machine. Give me something like Into The Breach, however, where there s less element of chance and victory is achieved via careful planning and well, I ll love it. Until I realise I m being tricked into enjoying chess, that is, at which point I ll drop it like someone who s found an eyelid in their burger.
A new build with cinematic skipping as a new feature, along with some bug fixes. Changelog for 1.0.18: Cinematics can be skipped by pressing ESC twice Clarified Eight Winds description Added missing description for Oghmi's special ability Bug fix: game sometimes (rarely) crashes
A new build with cinematic skipping as a new feature, along with some bug fixes.
Changelog for 1.0.18:
Cinematics can be skipped by pressing ESC twice
Clarified Eight Winds description
Added missing description for Oghmi's special ability
Bug fix: game sometimes (rarely) crashes when a mob received elemental damage (e.g. fire, lightning or cold damage)
Bug fix: enemies with Steal Spell ability target invisible heroes
A new build with bug fixes and balancing tweaks. Thanks to all for the feedback! Changes: Show a friendlier message in case there are no audio devices enabled in Windows Locked doors which should be locked in Deathtrap Dungeon and The Dark Ritual Balancing tweaks to Willow Flute
A new build with bug fixes and balancing tweaks. Thanks to all for the feedback!
Changes:
Show a friendlier message in case there are no audio devices enabled in Windows
Locked doors which should be locked in Deathtrap Dungeon and The Dark Ritual
Balancing tweaks to Willow Flute
Balanced spellbooks
Added missing range to the description of Regenerate
Changes in 1.0.15: Addressed issue with NvAPI_D3D11_SetDepthBoundsTest failing (please report if you still encounter this!) Added option for disabling screen edge scrolling (default off) Bug fix: game crashes with error "Could not get path for user document folder" if the Documen
Changes in 1.0.15:
Addressed issue with NvAPI_D3D11_SetDepthBoundsTest failing (please report if you still encounter this!)
Added option for disabling screen edge scrolling (default off)
Bug fix: game crashes with error "Could not get path for user document folder" if the Documents folder does not exist
Bug fix: scrolling the view with arrow key cancels targetting mode
Bug fix: game crashes in The Dark Ritual in certain conditions when Pocket Watch is used
Bug fix: crash when Frost Hammer's Ice ability is used on an unoccupied square
Bug fix: Magebane's AI gets stuck in The Young Usurper and other missions
Thanks to everybody for the feedback and bug reports!
We are working on the skip cinematic feature which hopefully will be added in the next patch.
Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest is Now Available on Steam and is 5% off!* A tactical, turn-based RPG from the makers of Legend of Grimrock games. Every action, every turn counts as you control your party of heroes through challenging, handcrafted missions in the ancie
Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest is Now Available on Steam and is 5% off!*
A tactical, turn-based RPG from the makers of Legend of Grimrock games. Every action, every turn counts as you control your party of heroes through challenging, handcrafted missions in the ancient, mist-clad Menhir Forest.
Some of the team behind ace dungeon-crawler Legend Of Grimrock have broken John (RPS in peace). That’s John Walker, renown strategy disliker, who said that Druidstone: The Secret Of Menhir Forest felt “like something special”. Those words and more are in his Druidstone preview ,
Some of the team behind ace dungeon-crawler Legend Of Grimrock have broken John (RPS in peace). That’s John Walker, renown strategy disliker, who said that Druidstone: The Secret Of Menhir Forest felt “like something special”. Those words and more are in his Druidstone preview, which has blown my initial misgivings out of the water and made me want to devote my whole evening to it. That’s convenient, because it just came out.
I was surrounded on all sides. I'd managed to rescue the prisoner, but now we had to fight our way back out of the dungeon. Reinforcements poured in from the south, so I sent my beleaguered party north. When we made it to a room with pressure plates and fireball-spewing statues,
I was surrounded on all sides. I'd managed to rescue the prisoner, but now we had to fight our way back out of the dungeon. Reinforcements poured in from the south, so I sent my beleaguered party north. When we made it to a room with pressure plates and fireball-spewing statues, more reinforcements spawned at the entrance and quickly closed in.
Druidstone owes much of its tactical gameplay to tabletop RPGs and board games, such as Dungeons & Dragons and HeroQuest
What followed was a harrowing, tense turn, as I carefully positioned my warden for a whirlwind strike, blasted out a fireball with my acolyte, and tried to figure out what I could do with a useless unarmed prisoner. That’s when I remembered the pressure plates, and smiled as I noticed the bad guys were standing pretty close to those statues. He may have been unarmed, but his legs were working just fine.
That wasn't the first dungeon escapade I just barely scraped through in Druidstone: The Secret of Menhir Forest, a new tactical RPG from the creators of Legend of Grimrock. Druidstone is out on May 15, and though it's not a first-person, grid-based dungeon crawler, it shares much of the DNA that made the Grimrock games so good. The lush fantasy art style, stirring orchestral soundtrack, and carefully balanced level design all survived the transition to a strategic top-down RPG.
The Legend of Druidstone
For Druidstone to be born, The Legend of Gimrock had to die. Or at least be shelved for the time being.
"Grimrock 1 and 2 took over four years to make, and we poured our hearts and souls into those games," says Juho Salila, art director for Druidstone and the Grimrock series. "It would be a massive task to make Grimrock 3 and improve the game as Grimrock 2 improved Grimrock 1. We needed a break from that world." The team at Almost Human began to break up, with many developers moving on to other projects.
"At some point Petri [Häkkinen, designer and programmer on Druidstone and the Grimrock series] and I started talking about prototyping games just for fun," says Salila. "After doing several prototypes it got more serious and we started a new company [Ctrl Alt Ninja] to make Druidstone. We didn’t feel the pressure of doing another Grimrock game with the new company."
The Grimrock games sold well enough to help fund the development of Druidstone. As with Grimrock the developers avoided Early Access, and crowdfunding remains difficult in Finland. "We were also not that keen on the overhead caused by the crowdfunding process," says Salila. "We want to make games, not post t-shirts and stickers all over the world."
During Druidstone’s early stages the gameplay evolved substantially. The biggest change: Every level was once procedurally generated. "We really wanted to make the game work with procedurally generated levels," says Häkkinen."I guess we fell into the old ‘Hey, let’s make a level generator and we don’t need to do any level design’ trap. But it didn’t mesh with the compact game design. At one point we made a single level in a few hours and it was more fun than any of the generated levels."
"It’s a lot harder to make the levels look good if everything is randomly generated," says Salila. "We also found that we could actually make more variation in gameplay tactics if the levels were hand-made."
Clever level design helped make the Grimrock series so memorable, with deviously hidden traps and head-scratching puzzles. While Druidstone lacks dungeon crawling exploration, many of Grimrock’s classic dungeon elements, such as levers revealing hidden rooms, pressure plates activating traps, and surprise enemies spawning in at the worst moments, are included in abundance. "We wanted to make the dungeon levels look and feel like Grimrock—that’s how we like our dungeons," says Häkkinen.
Although the art style is similar, Druidstone takes place in a different fantasy universe than Grimrock, including a different tone. The writing in the Grimrock games was mostly limited to scribbled notes, but Druidstone features numerous cutscenes between my small party of heroes, the druids we work for, and the red priests we fight against.
Dialogue is quick, snappy, and delightfully funny, particularly from the motor-mouthed pint-sized mage, Oiko. "Whereas Gimrock is dark and gloomy, Druidstone is more light-hearted, with some really fantastic creatures like the Shido," says Häkkinen. "I like to think that both worlds are connected in an overarching meta-universe. Both games have themes of other worlds and links between them."
Tabletop Roots
While Grimrock was clearly inspired by classic grid-based dungeon crawlers, Druidstone owes much of its tactical gameplay to tabletop RPGs and board games, such as Dungeons & Dragons and HeroQuest. "We are avid board game players and Druidstone is certainly inspired by many of them," says Häkkinen. "We really like the compactness of board games, the small numbers, and the emergent complexity that arises from the seemingly simple rules."
As a big fan of Gloomhaven, a popular tactical RPG board game, I was delighted to see some major similarities in Druidstone. Each of my three party members have basic attacks and special abilities and spells they can perform a limited number of times each battle, not unlike the per-rest abilities in D&D or loss cards in Gloomhaven. The warden’s whirlwind strike hits all adjacent enemies, but figuring out when to expel its only use is often an agonizing decision.
"I heard about Gloomhaven only a few months ago and immediately knew I had to get it," says Häkkinen. "It’s interesting to see how completely separate design processes have ended up with a result that in some ways resemble each other very much. I was reading [Gloomhaven designer] Isaac Childres’ blog the other day and he mentioned Grimrock as one of his inspirations. Now the circle is complete!"
Tactical decision-making
As my Druidstone party levels up they gain new abilities, and I can use gems earned from completing objectives to enhance those abilities. Gems can boost damage, add status effects, or increase the number of uses per battle. This intuitive and swappable upgrade system works similarly to Into the Breach, which is exactly by design.
"Into the Breach is a true masterpiece, and one of the more recent games I’ve enjoyed," says Häkkinen. "The undo last move feature in Druidstone is directly inspired by Into the Breach." Furthermore the scout hero Aava has the ability to rewind time, letting me fix some of my poorer decisions—let's call them experiments. It's a welcoming feature in a game that doesn’t allow you to save scum your way through a fight.
While I’m a little disappointed that I’m not playing The Legend of Grimrock 3, I’m satisfied that the minds behind one of my favorite indie series are good at more than just first-person dungeon crawling. Druidstone is a triumph of great game design, pulling in the best elements of many tactical board and video games, along with the developers’ signature levels of art, writing, and polish, and a post-launch level editor should help extend its life even further. Says Häkkinen: "We hope people enjoy Druidstone and we can keep doing what we love."
Following a stint in beta, Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest will release on Steam on May 15. It's an isometric RPG with tactical, turn-based combat, created by a small team with experience working on the Legend of Grimrock series. Andy seemed pretty keen on the idea ba
Following a stint in beta, Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest will release on Steam on May 15. It's an isometric RPG with tactical, turn-based combat, created by a small team with experience working on the Legend of Grimrock series. Andy seemed pretty keen on the idea back when the game was announced in 2017.
In addition to the usual grid-based, stats-oriented combat, there's quite a bit of puzzle-solving in the world of Elo Shpaera. Centred around protagonists Leonhard, Aava and Oiko, these adventurers are tasked with investigating a disappeared Archdruid, as well as the menacing proliferation of weird purple cysts throughout the Menhir Forest.
The last thing I was expecting Druidstone: The Secret Of The Menhir Forest to remind me of was a deck-builder. Not least because it doesn’t feature any decks. And yet, there’s something about this deeply tactical isometric RPG, from Legend Of Grimrock’s creators, that contains th
The last thing I was expecting Druidstone: The Secret Of The Menhir Forest to remind me of was a deck-builder. Not least because it doesn’t feature any decks. And yet, there’s something about this deeply tactical isometric RPG, from Legend Of Grimrock’s creators, that contains the same spirit of gradually gaining a deeper and more refined understanding of a limited set of tools, through repeated failure, and incremental improvement.
This is at first glance a very traditional turned-based RPG – much as Grimrock recalled the glory days of the first-person dungeon crawler, this visually suggested memories of late-90s BioWare-ish battling. But playing it, it quickly becomes apparent this isn’t going to be a game that lets you spam your most powerful attacks at repeated mobs, but rather something that’s going to demand a lot more planning, a lot more forethought. This is going to be tough.
Blimey, there’s lots of RPGs with turn-based tactical combat around lately, and Druidstone: The Secret Of The Menhir Forest (from Ctrl Alt Ninja, some of the folks behind Legend Of Grimrock ) looks especially interesting. It’s a story driven, party-scale isometric RPG with a focu
Blimey, there’s lots of RPGs with turn-based tactical combat around lately, and Druidstone: The Secret Of The Menhir Forest (from Ctrl Alt Ninja, some of the folks behind Legend Of Grimrock) looks especially interesting. It’s a story driven, party-scale isometric RPG with a focus on grid based combat, minus the statistical bloat common in the genre. The game was first announced back in April last year, although its final scope wasn’t quite clear back then. Now it’s set to launch in spring 2019, only a few months off. Take a peek at it in action in the trailer below.
