Styrateg review by Game Tunnel

Mike Hommel: 8

This is what indie games do well. Take a not-so-indie thing - turn-based fantasy strategy battles in this case - and pare it down to a simple core, and then make a rather short game of it. That's what we have here. The leveling up is fun, the gear is fun, the rather small palette of spells and skills is fun. There are some issues with the interface (clicking on towns is hard, and it constantly resets which skill is active), but on the whole it's a very good production that makes for a very fun and simple game.

Seth Robinson: 7

This is a sharp looking fantasy themed turn based strategy game that has you moving around your 'heroes' and gaining levels to earn more action points. It's not perfect; the GUI leaves out some important pieces of information (show the AP cost, please!) and gameplay boils down to carefully watching your turns-left count and leaving a map right before you lose to maximize experience. I like it, it just feels like it could have used a few more hours in the oven.

Brian Clair: 8

This release may have a strange name, but is surprisingly fun to play. Styrateg is a turn-based fantasy RPG where the player controls several characters through a campaign to squash an unknown threat to the kingdom. While this title is quite original and addictive, there are some pitfalls potential players will need to be wary of. For starters, you only get so many turns to complete each mission, so you usually can�"t explore the entire map. This can be pesky since if one of your characters dies, they�"re often gone forever. Resurrection scrolls are very expensive, and since you always have a turn-limit over your head, you can�"t just hang out and hope to earn extra gold (once you�"ve left a mission area, the character is lost forever). Death hurts even more since you start out customizing a character that you may then lose down the line. Factoring in some very well done music, Styrateg is definitely worth a trial run and well worth the purchase price.

Russ Carroll: 6

This game is a Strategy/RPG hybrid much like Empires and Dungeons from last month, though currently E&D is the better game. While it certainly looks better than E&D and has a more gameplay as you work through each segment of the story plays out as a distinct map, it suffers from many bugs that make it near unplayable. I was initially getting into the game until glitches like units crossing the entire length of the board and other problems crept into the picture. The final straw was getting to my 'goal' only to be told I needed to collect 3 idols. Well, I already had the idols, so smartly, the game moved onto the dialog thanking for bringing the idols, and the idols were removed from my inventory. Then the city popped up with the dialog that I needed to get the 3 idols to go further. Only one problem there...since you already took the idols I can't get them anymore! (c'mon people don't script it so linearly) I wandered the board for another 30 minutes, just incase the idols had re-appeared somewhere randomly on the board, but to no avail. It was the final bug for me! With bugs fixed it might be better than E&D.

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By: The Illustrious Panel
Posted: Friday September 22, 2006