Miasma Chronicles

First of all, huge thanks to my friend 💖Scummy Christ💖 for gifting me this game. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to play such a relatively niche title. To my surprise, Miasma Chronicles ended up being a genuinely enjoyable experience, and I think that's largely because of how well it balances real-time stealth with turn-based combat. In many tactical RPGs, combat begins the moment you enter an enemy's detection range. Here, however, you're free to scout ahead and plan your route, sometimes you can even eliminate all enemies with out engaging just by isolating them and picking them off one by one. Compared to the heavily RNG-driven hit chances in games like XCOM, Miasma Chronicles clearly encourages consistent strategy over gambling. As long as you plan well enough, most encounters can be won through tactics rather than luck. The art direction also surprised me. Whether it's the post-apocalyptic environments or the smaller environmental details, everything feels thoughtfully crafted. The environment dressing is especially impressive, giving each area a strong sense of depth despite the game's clearly modest budget. Visually, it never feels like a low-budget production. That said, the game isn't without its problems. For one, the writing is weak and never fully explores the potential of its world. The ending keeps piling twist upon twist, and I really wasn't a fan of how it forced the protagonist to act irrationally just to make those twists work. Meanwhile, although the gameplay introduces more RPG mechanics and skill synergies, it doesn't fundamentally push the tactical RPG formula forward. Miasma Chronicles has a very clear core loop: explore the wasteland, scout enemies in real time, enter turn-based combat, gather resources, upgrade your characters, and move on to the next area. That loop is genuinely engaging throughout the early and mid-game, but for a game that takes around 20 hours to finish (main plus some of the sides), it does start to lose its momentum toward the end. Miasma Chronicles is undoubtedly a solid tactical RPG, but from beginning to end, it never finds a defining feature that truly sets it apart from its peers. In today's highly competitive market, being "solid" is no longer enough to sell a game, and I think that's ultimately what holds the game back. [h3]8/10[/h3]

[b]TL;DR:[/b] Compared to their earlier game, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (MYZ:RtE), it's bigger, prettier, and WAY WORSE in terms of gameplay and balance. MYZ:RtE was one of the best and most interesting tactical games I've ever played. By keeping a small squad size, adding large groups of enemies but also suppressed weapons & ambush mechanics (not overwatch), character skills with turn-based cooldowns, and guaranteed shots when flanking, MYZ:RtE balance relied on paying attention to the opponents, singling out those you could, and taking the rest within one or two turns, without the enemy being able to do much against you. This dynamic changed during bosses and harder fights, but this balance of you having higher control over the outcome of the battles was always present. Playing the highest difficulty and even Ironman mode on that game wasn't proof of luck, it was proof of knowledge over the game. In Miasma Chronicles the devs decided to call that balance "Light Tactical" and introduce a "Full Tactical" difficulty modifier (beyond the difficulty options) that effectively kills the game. Weapons have short ranges and variable hit chances based on distance, making positioning for optimal hit chances near impossible, and it takes ages until you get silenced options (and only one weapon on the early game, the only other one is a skill with cooldown). This broke the balance so hard that the game makes enemies take really nonsensical turns, doing things like moving twice to stand on low cover when they could've either went to high cover or went to low and shoot you, ignore a flanked target and instead move from cover to cover, despite having clear shots and not being exposed to any other player character, taking shots against full cover targets when they had clear shots to low cover targets... it's ridiculous. The boss encounter on the Side Quest to rescue the last Vaart (?) family member was looking to be incredibly difficult (if not impossible for the recommended level), and it cost me lots of resources (knockback grenades to group 3 enemies together into a single grenade blast twice on the same encounter twice), but the ONLY REASON I won that encounter was because the enemy ignored a flanked character while they had cover and clear shots THREE TIMES, and shot a high cover target instead of a low cover one TWICE. I didn't win that encounter, the game gave it to me. All the positioning, combos between consumables and abilities, prioritization of threats, and I only won because the game decided so. None of that preparation would've fly if the enemies had two brain cells to rub together. And there wouldn't even be a way to win that at the recommended level either, specially because an enemy that was on high ground and wasn't immune to knockback somehow decided he was immune and wouldn't budge to knockback grenades. MYZ:RtE was so fun and challenging. Making decisions mistakes on that game usually led to party wipes or loosing a character forever. Pity the developers gave up on doing something unique, decided to copy the rest, realized that it goofed everything up, and then dialed back to keep it playable. Don't know if I'll have the motivation to finish this, but after putting it down I'll just replay MYZ:RtE to clear the palate.

Mechanics are aggravating, and its a bit short. Not terrible otherwise.

5/10, which is as good as a thumbs down for me. The graphics want to look good, but are far too spotty; screen tears everywhere. However, the artwork is good, the story just doesn't shine as much. It's a typical story, stolen and reused countless times by a near infinite number of "writers" these days. Also, there's a ton of "tutorial" type missions at the beginning, while the game isn't really that complicated. You can edit your gear and skills at any time with zero cost to you, which I find always leads to an overabundance of control, ending up in an obsessive and eventually annoying compulsivity. Basically, it feels like most other turn-based strategy games, except I'm not at all familiar with the overall story, which this is seemingly a sequel to.

iphone slop no graphics options can't disable blur slop looks like mid 00s game and runs like crap on 3080 ti and 128ram not just stutters full on prolags because of all that blurry slop eating all resources seems like linear corridor game with crafting and the terrible xsom 1970s two phase combat instead of action points some of the worst writing possible disgustingly bad tutorials

В целом игра не настолько плоха, чтоб её никому и никогда не рекомендовать. В ней просто нет ничего нового и эдакого. Всё это уже где-то есть... Её можно смело рекомендовать новичка жанра или тем, на низкой сложности проходится быстро и без проблем. У меня пожалуй только 2 претензии к игре: 1)Оружие.... Ну настоооолько оно уныло и без идейное в игре...Как по визуалу, так и стрельбе... В итоге мой геймплей был такой: а) Нашёл винтовку с глушителем. б) Старался в начале зачистить одиночек. в)Окружал "Жирных" мобов и расстреливал. Так зачищал все эти "арены". Благо есть предметы для отвлечения/привлечения внимания. 2)Кардинал - ну прям ♥♥♥♥♥♥ какое разочарование в конце, это на минуточку последний босс :) А я его просто скинул гранатой с балкона.... И игра закончилась... Может баг, а может фича... Критических багов я не встретил за 10ч. Микро-фризы были конечно, но сказать, что они были главной причиной недовольства - нет. Мой вердикт таков: Пусть будет. 7/10

6/10 Turn Based Game Pros: -combat to me was both fun and exciting keeping me on my toes during battles -game provided adequate grind opportunity thru sub quests providing additional exp and needed weapons -game provided just the right amount of difficulty without me constantly dying and struggling to progress -by constantly scavenging maps and doing quests i almost always had the right amount of consumables on hand as i progressed without having to use plastic to purchase additional items -enjoyed each players unique ability tree and the miasma abilities provided Cons: -playable characters are boring with a very unappealing main character -little to no story background with a vague backstory and little to no filler leaving much to your imagination -limited variety of party items including weapons, consumables, mods & upgrades "would of been nice for more" -combat can become repetitive whereas you spend 5minutes assassinating enemies before initiating combat -found it a bit annoying that store items cost so much but party items sold for so little, making me horde plastic until i absolutely had to use it to push through a difficult battle by upgrading my team and buying consumables -game seemed a bit short, right when it was getting interesting i suddenly found the game over Summary: Miasma Chronicles to me stands out not as the worst turn based game I've ever played and not the best but right near the middle as a excellent stand alone game that provided some interesting turn based RPG combat and is quite fun but doesn't do a good job grabbing the player and bringing them in with a driven story or appealing characters. It seems to have the bare minimum needed to keep the player moving through the game but just doesn't seem to be a polished gem of a game that it could had been. Definitely recommend the game especially if you can catch it on sale. I'm a huge sci-fi and post apocalyptic fan so this game did provide me a few weeks of gameplay and was interesting enough to keep me coming back and finishing the game till the end. This game was def a gem and even though it could had been better i recommend any die hard tactical RPG turn based player to give this game a try.

Игра неоднозначная, но рекомендовать ее любителям всяких Commandos и XCOM вполне можно, если уже все прошли и совсем не в чего поиграть. [h3] Из плюсов [/h3] • Выделил бы работу графического дизайнера, стилистика артов которого напоминает Guild Wars 2, только в постапокалипсисе. Не красота, а красотищщааа :) • Неплохой сюжет с легким налетом Кодзимовщины, про странную субстанцию, экологию, роботов, ну и кожаных мешков. Отличным сюжет язык назвать не поворачивается, так как эта просто история про пубертатного подростка в стилистике красивого постапокалипсиса. • Проработанные второстепенные персонажи, их мотивация, диалоги. Каждый герой обладает своим характером. • Проработанный и детализированный мир. Каждая локация интересна, много деталей и мелочей, которые хочется рассматривать (жаль в игре не предусмотрели удаление и приближение камеры). [h3] Из минусов [/h3] • Вымораживали кат-сцены и лицевая анимация. Это просто жесть, графоний уровня мема про Дрейка из Анчартед. А могли сделать просто кат сцены со статичными артами и субтитрами – было бы лучше в разы. • Cтелс — это не просто опция, а единственный способ пройти многие битвы. Приходится выманивать и убивать врагов по одному, чтобы был шанс в основном бою. Особенно туго на начальных этапах игры, когда не прокачался. • Пошаговая боевая система. Ты в укрытии – врагам пофиг, они лупят по тебе со всех позиций. Игра показывает тебе шанс попасть в противника 50% - забудь, ты попадешь 1 раз из 10. Про шанс попадания 20% - вообще молчу – за всю игру ни разу с таким шансом не попал в противника. Зато враги всегда снайперы из любых позиций. И это я играл в сюжетном режиме. Респект тем, кто мучался на хардкоре и прошел игру до конца. • Отряд всего из 3 бойцов и двух дадут в запас по сюжету. Сборка командных билдов скудная: классическая святая троица — танк, снайпер, поддержка. • Мало вариантов оружия – снайперки, штурмовки, дробаши и дисковые пушки…всё. А, ну гранаты разной системы и разного радиуса действия. Из магии – миазма, но активными могут быть только 2 боевых фаербола, остальные, как и команда – лежат в запасе. Зато нарисовано все красиво. • Кому плюс – кому минус, но в игре не подсвечивается лут. Вернее, он подсвечивается, когда близко подходишь. По кнопке сканирования – тебе только показывается куда бежать по заданию и всё. Приходится, как собакен обнюхивать всю локацию, каждый угол, чтобы нарыть деньжат, апгрейды и найти информацию для Кодекса. • Загадки к секретам сложноватые и без поллитры не разглядеть их в игре, благо есть всемогущий Гугл, ищите коды к дверям там.

На удивление отличная игра которая увлекает геймплеем, тактикой, визуалом. Она не особо навороченная, и это ей в плюс. Здесь нет ничего лишнего, все интуитивно понятно, нет кучи ненужных диалогов, нет кучи знаков вопросов по карте, хотя исследовать есть что, но это сходится на луте валюты , что тебе поможет купить лишнюю аптечку например. Доп заданий немного, их не сложно выполнять, они не душат, и за них дают ачивку. Интересное оружие и суперприемы персонажей. Косяки что заметил: Баги: один враг лазил под текстурами и лишь дробовик на близкой дистанции мог до него достать чтобы бой закончился. Баг с Ареной. на 5/5 этапе , когда ты уже предвкушаешь победу, резко багуется напарник, не появляется интерфейс управления, ты не можешь ничего сделать, можешь лишь откатиться к самому началу арены и снова проходить 5 сложных волн врагов. Несоответствие баланса: Тоесть, у ваших персонажей уровень наприме 10, Основное задание показывается 12 минимум, ты идешь и легко выполняешь без потерь, доп задания показываются 6-8, ты идешь и сливаешь весь отряд. Особенно такое в первой половине игры. И напротив, очень часто показывается значок "высокий уровень врага", мол несуйся сюда убьёт, но ты легко их раскидываешь. ВОбщем это странно, но всё-таки это всё выполнимо. В целом отличная пошаговая штука с приятным визуалом, сеттингом и отсутствием духоты.

it starts as a good interesting game and becomes a mess at the end. + Good graphics + OK battles if you have correct skills - Not rewarding weapons - Not rewarding level ups (actually it's a first time I see a game that allows to change skills anyway you want because... there are no good skills. Each enemy type needs other skills and you need to change your skills often to win the fights) - I don't know what magic skills do here. Most of them are costly and useless - Story is a mess with annoying characters and story twists with plot holes I like turn-based games a lot and I finished the game because I like turn-based battles only