Master of War: Rule of Power

Master of War is a turn-based strategy game that draws inspiration from games like Heroes of Might & Magic, albeit with a simplified, slimmed-down approach and some of its own tricks up its sleeve. While the lo-fi presentation is charming and generally well-executed, the game's obtuse tutorials, poor writing, and slew of technical issues prevent it from being an altogether enjoyable experience at this point. The overarching mechanics are ones you'll be familiar with: build structures to generate resources, increase population capacity, and train the denizens of your tribe. These tribe members all perform distinct combat roles, from the hardy melee warriors to the nimble ranged hunters. The game then becomes a dance between managing your resources and capacity whilst simultaneously spending your turns pursuing your enemy, wiping out their population and destroying their base. In theory, anyway. Unfortunately, some of the core mechanics here are poorly-explained, and even interactions as simple as left- or right-clicking don't necessarily function in the way you might expect - in some instances, right-clicking brings up a helpful explanatory popup, while in others, it will execute a command, such as converting a building to another type. This wouldn't be such a big issue if the tutorial was concise and well-explained, but between the shoddy writing and difficult-to-read all-caps pixel font, the tutorial itself became a chore rather quickly. Other technical issues abound, also: my damage numbers while attacking enemies stopped showing up after the first mission, despite that the enemies' would. A* pathfinding paths were visible for the enemies as well, and I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not (either way, it looks broken). The game also crashed multiple times for me, particularly when attempting to load a saved game. There's something charming with a lot of potential here, but it's hidden under layers of rust right now. With some brushing up, this could become something special, but as it is, there are simply too many technical issues and confusing core mechanics to recommend this title. If it's patched and these issues are addressed, I'll be happy to review again. Find more reviews and recommendations on my Steam Curator page, Indie Infinitesimal: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41769714/