Hex Gambit

Kickstart backer Pros: The gameplay is very good. The single player is a good addition to let you learn the game. Cons: The time limit is horrendous. 48h is way too long to wait for your opponent to move. This game is resource intensive and doesn't play well on integrated Graphics. It isn't touch optimized and it doesn't work well on cheap windows tablets. There is no live play! Waiting two days for your opponent to move isn't live ffs. There are very often 0 players online, based on steam spy. The format is a complete miss, thinking anyone wants to play it in is current form is delusional. For cheaper laptops the game take a lot of resources so it just barley works. You quickly dont have anything to do as you have to wait forever for your opponents to move. You can't play another game or look at a movie while it is running in the background as the game requires a lot of resources. (unless you have a good PC) I really dont understand what type of player this game is aimed at. Its a game philosophy that is good for a mobile game but a complete miss for PC gamers. PC gamers doesn't play a game for 5 min then wait a couple hours log in and play for another 5 min. That is how you game on a mobile phone not on a PC! The only solution I see is to have live play with a couple minutes per move per player. Then you could get PC players to play this game. The speed you can play at in the Blitz royal is perfect, multiplayer games should be played at that speed. I think it was a huge mistake to launch 1.0 without live play. How are you going to promote it now?

[b]Disclaimer:[/b] I'm an early Kickstarter backer of this game, but this review will be as objective as it can get. [i]I provided a TL;DR down below[/i] As of the time of this writing, Hex Gambit is in its VERY early days and certainly neither feature complete nor fully polished. Granted, this should be common sense when you contemplate buying an Early Access game - but due to the nature of some popular titles going "Early Access" (albeit already having long passed polishment), we gamers tend to be very spoiled. That said, you CAN play and enjoy this game - the core game experience looks stunning and is very much playable. Mind you, there is no in-game tutorial yet, but there is a PDF handbook that explains the rules and how everything works. Personally, I preferred only skimming over the handbook briefly and figuring things out through trying and experiencing it myself. There's no harm in losing a couple of matches - that's the obligatory lesson we learn in any game I am sure. This game does not feature a Solo Campaign yet, so if you have anxiety testing the waters with real human enemies, you should wait until it has been implemented (the very open devs are working on getting this into the game right now). There are a few user interface inconsistencies which the developers have acknowledged and put onto their polish list. Like it should be, things will be polished once the game is feature complete - so do keep in mind that some menu screens or keybindings aren't very intuitive and don't convey all of the information you would prefer, but it's enough to find your way around. Luckily, the menus are not important at all right now because your loadout is fixed to the five minions that are available. Despite the fact that "fixed" sounds like you can't apply any clever tactics whatsoever, rest assured you CAN. It takes a good while to figure out the value of each minion type during early-, mid- and late-game. Since every minion furthermore has more than just one ability, you will find yourself experimenting with that a lot. There doesn't seem to be a meta carved in stone yet, and every minion that's added to the game will shake things up a whole bunch. This game features asynchronous online multiplayer, which is both a blessing and annoying. The current population of players seems to be largely biased towards certain time zones - alas, therefore sometimes you would have to wait a few hours for someone to join your match (let alone take their turns), so you usually have a brief session of taking your turns and then close the game until something happens. Some people, on the other hand, are extremely active and will play this through one sitting. One game takes about 10 minutes if both players are playing reasonably fast. Thanks to Steam notifications, you won't miss your turns though (provided you're connected to the internet through the Steam client). And as time goes on, more and more people will join the Early Access and make matchmaking a lot faster. [h1]TL;DR:[/h1] [b]Pros:[/b] + Really bright and promising turn-based mechanics + Great strategic depth, even more so with upcoming minions + Regular balance patches + Good countermeasure against First Turn Advantage + Asynchronous play with notification support + Friendly and trustworthy developers, active on Discord + Novel crowd-based "clan war" game-in-the-game (Apex Cup) + 48-hour time limit on turns [b]Cons:[/b] - The user interface can be quirky sometimes (and will likely stay imperfect until the end of Early Access) - There's no in-game tutorial YET (but you apprehend the mechanics within one match) - There's no Solo Campaign YET - Requires patience (because the player base is small YET) [h1]Conclusion[/h1] If you understand what Early Access means (i.e. NOT a finished product that should be judged by its raw edges) and are into strategy, do get this game. The game is a spiritual successor of Outwitters, which is an excellent game (but had no regular monetization, so it got overshadowed by F2P titles and eventually abandoned) whose community is still active to this day. The only issues Hex Gambit has revolve around its very early Alpha nature, and the game WILL be enhanced and polished by the very active and open developers as time moves on.

A fantastic hex-based strategy game that innovates through the use of the "crowd surfing" mechanic - which encourages strategy and discourages turtling - and the powerful hero abilities, which can change the complexion of a game very quickly. In addition, the meta-game "Apex Cup" has a lot of potential to incentivize players into thinking beyond themselves when they're playing and giving them longer range goals to shoot for. I particularly like the ability to queue up a bunch of games and then make moves whenever I get a free moment or I find myself with a little downtime. Waiting on that queue for a moba game to pop? Waiting for half-time of the sporting event that you're watching to finish? Waiting for your significant other to get out of the shower? Well, this game can help you with all of that. Since all you need is a few minutes to make your move, the time commitment is very flexible, making it an especially good game for those of us who don't have as many multi-hour blocks of downtime as we used to. This is a very good product from a very good developer.

If you consider buying this game in its current form, please be aware that while live games are possible and can certainly be arranged, the games against random opponents are usually asynchronous and take multiple days. Hex Gambit does something many strategy games aspire to but only few actually manage to deliver: It takes straightforward mechanics and turns them into deeply strategical gameplay. The balance is amazingly good already at this stage of development and future improvements are already in the works - along with new units, which will offer even more variety. I'm looking forward to what this game will become when it's finished. :)

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6142328/][b]Like this Review? Follow The Cpt Froggy Club Curator Page for plenty more![/b][/url][/quote] Hex Gambit is a fun and colourful hex turn-based strategy game with competitive gameplay from One Man Left Studios It’s probably best to start with the tutorial, which does a good job of explaining the rules of the game and will give you certain scenarios to overcome as you learn the games mechanics. The object of the game is to be the first to reach a score of ten points, or to destroy all of an opponent’s minions. Scoring points can be done by either defeating an enemy minion (where you’ll gain one victory point), or by gaining one victory point from tapping an enemy’s crystal pillar. When starting a game, you’ll have four action points to use and you’re able to bring four minions onto the field on your first turn. After your first turn, if you want to bring another minion onto the field you can use one action point to do so, and there are two spawn points from which to choose. Tapping a crystal pillar requires one action point, and you only have four action points per turn. These can be used to spawn a new minion to the field, or they can be used by the minions for their special moves. Each minion has three special moves to choose from each turn; however, they won’t all be available to you at the start of a game and will only become available to you once you reach three, five and seven victory points until then they are blacked out. Some specials, once used, will take time to recharge, while others will provide perks straight away. There are seven minions to choose from, but you can only pick five to go into battle with. The minions to choose from are, Soldier, Runner, Defender, Sniper, Pacifist, Motivator and Brute. Each minion can only move a certain number of hex spaces per turn; for example, a Brute can only move one space compared to a Runner, who can move many spaces. So, a runner would make a good minion for a quick attack on an enemy’s pillar, whereas a Brute may only be able to move once, but it’s a stronger minion, and so would be great for defeating other minions of an enemy. Each of the minions has a different number of hit points, ranging from two to six. Placing one of your minions on the spawn points of an enemy is a great way to stop them bringing any more reinforcements into battle. Another strategy you’ll use is Crowd Surfing, which is great for moving further than you normally would. Crowd Surfing allows you jump over the heads of other minions, as long as it’s in a straight line. So, if a minion can move three spaces, they can first move one space, and then if there are three minions in a straight line, you’re able to jump over on the heads of those three minions and it counts as one move, and then you’ll still have one move left. This is another great way for trying to reach an enemy’s pillar, especially with a runner. Sometimes battles won’t be going quite as well as you’d like, so to help you in such times, you have one of six Captains, all with different abilities, called the Captain’s Ultimate. The six Captains are: Penny Miser, Bjorgolf, Lolli, Molera, Salvador, and your tutorial host, Abbacus. Each of these Captain’s ultimate abilities are different, and some will take longer than others to charge up before you can use them. Penny Miser’s ability lets you remove one health from all minions of an opponent, while Bjorgolf’s ability will bring a blizzard onto the field, which will stop minions from moving. You can choose your loadout from the six captains (once unlocked) and the seven minions, or you can randomize your loadout if you fancy taking a chance on what you’ll end up with; there are twenty-one different loadout possibilities. You can also choose from six different colours for your minions for that extra bit of customisation. There are three game types to play; Blitz Royale is the single player game, where you’ll take on each of the Captains in search of glory. Exhibition is where you can practise against friends or random players online without any worries. Next there’s the Apex Cup, where each month players choose one of three factions and take part in a community turf-war for control of the summit. Each victory point earned in each of the wars played goes towards the faction you’re in, whether you won or lost your game. Trophies are awarded to the top performers of each faction, along with trophies for all players on the winning faction. You can also play one versus one or two versus two competitive games, as well as choosing between real-time or online asynchronous play. On the main menu screen, you’ll find Play, Profile, Options and Quit; you will also see your name, level and rank. In Play you can choose the type of game you’d like to play: Apex Cup (league games), Blitz Royale (single player), Exhibition (practise against friends or random players), Learn (tutorial). In profile it tells you your name, rank and current level, as well as when your next promotion is due. Your Apex Cup Faction if affiliated, your league wins, season influence and lifetime influence. In the options, there’s gameplay, a choice of five different languages, video options consisting of resolution, window mode, shadows, textures, bloom etc, enough options to tweak the game to how you’d like the game to look. For the audio, there’s master, music, sound effects and dialog volume controls. Positives + Nice colourful graphics + Uncomplicated, fun turn-based game Negative - Game crashed several times while on round five of Blitz Royale - No Achievements - No cards A fantastic, fun and colourful turn-based strategy game, where you’ll go crowd surfing as you try to outwit your opponents. 7/10 [quote]Key provided by developer/publisher for review purposes via THE CPT FROGGY CLUB! Any opinions expressed are entirely my own![/quote] [quote]For more reviews, great game giveaways and much more. Come join us @ www.Zeepond.Com and [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/thecptfroggyclub]The Cpt Froggy Club[/url] Steam Group[/quote]

I was looking forward to a fast paced and fun little game, but the glacial speed ruins it completely. No bots to learn against, just the battle royal gauntlet where you don't get to pick your minions or anything. No quick games - up to 3 days between moves against a human... I want to finish a game in 10-15 minutes, not 3-4 weeks.

i have nvidia gtx 1060 and it it keeping it in 99-100% usage from 1-9% before i start it...

Feels like playing against AFK Players, the only thing i could do was Positioning my Minions and then staring at the Desktop, waiting for the Enemy doing anything in their turn for Minutes.