Deadhold

Overall a very fun real-time tactics game that is unlike any contemporaries I know of, and very reminiscent of the old cult classic Myth. The core gameplay loop is impressively solid, polished, and very fun. The possible depth of skill and tactics is vast. The combat is meaty and satisfying. Cooperative play is tactical with potential specialisation. Definitely more fun with friends. Downsides: - Learning curve is likely steep for people who never played Myth or other small-scale real-time-tactics games, and it can get a bit frantic (especially if playing solo rather than co-op). - At time of writing the core gameplay is excellent, but the "content" is rather slim in terms of the number of maps / levels / different kinds of units. I have no doubt more is soon to come, so I'm not worried about that. And there is plenty of depth in the core system to keep you honing your skill. Unusual features / Key differences from Myth: - They had an interesting idea to reduce micro-management by abstracting out "special abilities" away from specific units and putting them on to the player. For example, you don't have to find and select your medic to use a "heal" ability on another unit, you just select the ability directly then apply it. You choose which abilities you bring to each battle in a manner similar to Diablo 3, where you can mix and match and experiment with synergies between different abilities. I think this is a really interesting idea to solve the micromanagement of unit abilities, and I think it works very well. - In the campaign and co-op modes, there is a "soul essence" bar that fills up as you deal damage, and you can spend it on powerful abilities, or spend a huge amount to ressurect a unit (proportional to the point value of that particular unit). This was apparently to help make the game a bit more forgiving, and to solve Myth's problem of excessive saving and reloading to undo any minor mistake. I think this is a very cool system and overall a good solution to that problem. - (This only applies to co-op) For progression, you unlock new abilities like Diablo 3, and you can find "gems" that give passive bonuses (e.g. archers have longer range) if you choose to equip them for a battle. I like the fact that if I want to, I can choose to use no gems and get to put myself on a level playing field with a new player in co-op. Gems only exist in co-op and solo play so it isn't a fairness issue in PvP. But it is nice to be able to remove my advantage in co-op so that I'm not dominating the game when I play with a new friend, and we can both be equally useful. This was a huge problem for Diablo 3, because whenever one of you advanced several levels beyond your friend, the other one would be useless in combat, and Deadhold fixes that problem by just letting you remove your gems to balance yourself out. I have been waiting for a gory real-time-tactics game similar to Myth for a long time, and this is exactly what I wanted.