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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
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