Shards of the Realm

This game will appeal to you if: * You appreciate indepth tactical turn based combat that requires you to actually think about what you are doing. * You don't believe graphics make or break a game, even though the graphics are pretty darn good. * You lead a busy life and like to save your progress in a game at any time, even mid battle. * You like to support single indie devs that actually care about their game and encourage your feedback. * You know what it is like to start playing a game at breakfast time and then realise it's time for bed. * You remember when pc games came in cardboard boxes and were actually meant to just work out of the box. You will either love this game or completely dismiss it. It is a game that requires a good deal of commitment to understand the gameplay mechanics details but at the same time is easy to put aside for a couple of weeks and return and still remember how to play. There are no real side quests to chase. Just one main objective...why is the world in chaos with demons appearing and factions fighting each other and what is causing it. You are basically trying to put together a rag tag bunch of customisable characters (5-9) to fight increasingly harder enemies by increasing their abilities and equipment. Having a team that can synergise and be diverse with their skills is very necessary. But don't worry if you make a mistake with their levelling up. The game lets you respec all your skills and abilities at any time. While the game is open world I didn't do a lot of random exploring until late game. The reason being there was a lot going on in my immediate area. And the game introduces teleports early in the game so that makes random exploring unecessary. You also need to decide fairly early which two factions you want to support so that will limit where you travel. But the option is always there to just explore if that is what you want. You are also constantly balancing your priorities. Do you build a structure to improve your research capabilities or an improved workshop to produce more weapons? Do you need a dedicated pyromancer in your combat team or a dedicated worker in your fortress to make more goods to sell? Who should I ally with, the elves as they are good scientists or the orcs who are better workers? Should I increase my transport to have an extra character in my team or should I concentrate on crafting better equipment for my current members? The combat can be brutal, especially on Tactician or higher difficulties (though I doubt anyone could complete the game on higher). But it always felt to me to be doable. I definately had to reload many a battle midway to do my tactics differently but the combat is so good it was never a chore. I always felt I was progressing my own abilities to understand the game better. The combat is the highlight of the game for me. The game also supports mods. There are a couple on Nexus that can really change the difficulty to really help suit your preferences. The game does have a mechanic where enemies will scale up as each ingame year passes. But you may not like that (I am not fond of enemies level scaling in games) so there is also a game tweak available where you can just reset the year timer so it becomes a non issue. Just go play the demo for an hour and a bit and see if it looks like something you could get into. Nothing to lose except the time spent. EDIT. Well I have finally finished the game. I just wanted to add that this game took all my gaming life for a heck of a long time. The amount of depth and challenge was all consuming for me. I just could not play any other game while I had this one on my pc... it just constantly kept me engaged and trying to improve my party. The combat was intense but always enjoyable. The game is imho a complete hidden indie gem and I'm just kinda sad that it will be overlooked by so many tactical turn based gamers that would probably enjoy it if it was just given some more exposure. For me this game ranks in my top 5 games I have ever played.

I totally recommend this game. In addition to all good stuff I can say, it's an outstanding achievement for a solo-dev. Even more so considering it's made by a Ukrainian guy. You know, all this russians killing us stuff, enormous stress, ability to not wake up one day with much higher proc change than usual (especially if you're in Kiiv, and the dev is). But I'm 'pressing F' not because it's a Ukrainian solo-made game. It's a hardcore mode, yes, but you still have to make a good game. Is this game good? Yes, with some 'ifs'. it's a bit rough around the edges, and niche indeed. But oh boy, for the fan of the genres (RPG, XCOM-like, M&B metagame, fantasy, write-your-own-adventure) it's feature-packed to the brims! Multiclassing, lots of abilities, items, enemies, even a story! This is not a AAA-level polished game, but it is good.

Janky, buggy, and tons of spelling and grammar mistakes. Yet, I cannot stop playing it. Strategic map management and tactical combat are complex (in a good way) and there are new things to discover at every turn; think Mount & Blade meets OG X-Com. Frankly, I can't believe a game with this level of depth was created by one guy. Strongly recommended if you're looking for a unique experience and don't mind jank.

I have just updated this review and i can still wholeheartedly recommend this game. I had said before that it wasn't overly complex but I can say that not entirely true there is lot going on it has depth. There is this timer which is slowly incrementing and every world state makes things so much harder. It incredibility enjoyable and it may start off easy but it definitely shifts up a gear when you reach world state 5 and 6 and you better be ready. You don't know it but you have to be on the pedal with base and team upgrades as soon as possible. You need cash in order fund new buildings and team members which can mainly only be done by increasing reputation with different factions and this takes you away from from base building and resource collection. So you have balance what you do when you do it. I must admit I have several runs of this game already to get the point I am now and I am in new territory and its becoming very difficult in places I'm just not sure I will survive this level (6)!! I think at the price point it is a steal for what the game offers, I have played 155 hours to date so its doing something right. I am playing other EA games twice as expensive and they are riddled with bugs and are hard work this game is the opposite of that. The developer Yevhen is very passionate and wants to assist players as much as possible and open to suggestions. So what does the game provide :- - Base building where you have to research topics in order to unlock upgrades or new recipes or to help explore further in the world. You have to gather a range of base components which in turn will allow you create a large range of items need to upgrade and enhance your base, armour, weapons and potions. Killing certain beast will also unlock more advanced items, weapons armour and support items. - The world is explored in birds eye view and places need to be discovered before they appear. There are points of interest which appear that give you 2 skill based options which generally result in gaining something or losing something. Other factions are located in four areas which can be traversed quickly via portals which exist throughout the world. There two types of dungeons, faction towns and villages, resources sites, rifts and POI to discover and roaming around you can find bands of factions and enemies beasts and cultists. - Combat with up to 6 (and can be upgraded at later stage to 7) team members in turned based combat maybe up to 9 enemies maybe more in places. You can build your team from a range of classes usually found in this type of genre and offers some powerful multi casting possibilities. Levelling is easy and you can pick from a number of different feats and skills. Combat style is slightly different to similar games in that it is not grid based but is analogue positioning which is great and there are most no restrictions where you stand. However where you point the mouse on the enemy is important as attacks are also analogue. You also need to make sure you position yourself correctly. Sometimes foliage and character stats/buffs graphics can get in the way and you have to keep rotating the view but its a very minor point. - It has a range of dungeons and rifts so far. I am now attempting level 2 dungeons and that is very hard. the aim of dungeons is to get a chest which allows you to pickup gear and other stuff which appears only to be available in such places. Rifts appear more difficult and the objective is to slow down world state for every rift closed but it won't reverse it as armageddon is guaranteed. - So when you get further into the game maybe level 7 there are crisis events where you have to deal with siege beasts which can devastate whole towns. I have some tasters of these and they are fun and offer a new dimension to the game. The build is pretty stable with very little game breaking bugs and any bugs that are found so far have been corrected pretty much same day most of the time.

Не вірте куратору (перевірте SteamDB власноруч), гра не продається на росії. Чекаю на покращення UI та інших бісячих моментів. Гра потребує багато праці, але якщо довести її до хорошого стану це буде бенгер. Євгену успіхів!

this was meant to be a gap filler between game releases, its turning into a'lot more. it isnt the best graphics but the game play is solid, ive been doing the just 5 more mins that turns into an hour thing alot. no idea how many hours it takes to complete but i feel after a 25+ hour game im not even half way through. you get a castle, build rooms, research tech, make stuff from what u have research , equip a squad and go kill demons or cultists to get more research or some cash. while your doing this you need to find deposits and forests so u can harvest materials to make more stuff and get some faction rep and cash. has an old school x-com vibe but medievil mid fantasy feel

Combat system is just a mesh, AOE abilities with no AOE display, Target abilities like arrows or spells can hit your companions with no indications or direct line of block and you can not see even the possibilities, just maybe a miss and deviation if you move exactly the camera and think how much a proyectile can deviate and hit your companion even if its not in direct line? just guessing, as there is no way to check this in game. free movement with bonuses to hit from the back and from a side, as if the game was not turn based, the world time and actions were turn based, so everyone just move to the back always of others, ridiculous, seriously, just so much stupid gameplay there, can imagine someone could think this was fine. Game crashed in first 20m of play. Product returned, game is far from be a decent state, but there are tons of bad decissions not just development issues. Voices are cringe, pls use AI, really, can not be worse.

Funding, buildings and resources are a pain, resource gathering to sell will cost you more than it is worth. World map controls need to be better, Key-bind to make hold mouse wheel button allow camera rotation instead of holding R and rotating mouse.

The game reminds me of Wartales, but with magic. You can also build your own base and craft many things. For the price, it's an absolute recommendation.

I like the premise behind this game a lot. I love sandbox games. I do enjoy this game. For me it is a good game but it is not a great game. I wish it has more character development and leveling would provide a larger boost. Very bare bones actions from leveling and equipment provides static bonus. Combat gets a bit repetitive. I will put more hours in it but at some point during play sessions I feel like not enough is happening to keep me engaged for long runs. The developer is very active and does seem to be actively working on the product. I look forward to see his future additions to the game. It Amazes me how much he did.