Chaos Reborn - a skirmish game from the creator of the original X-Com

Thought I'd bang the drum here a bit for Julian Gollop's newest creation. Chaos Reborn is a turn-based tactical skirmish game with strong roots in board-/tabletop gaming, and a reimagining of Chaos: The Battle of Wizards, a game he wrote in the early 80s for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Check the trailer:

Chaos Reborn, much like its spiritual ancestor, is all about small-scale skirmishes between warring wizards, who cast spells and summon all sorts of creatures to do their bidding, in an attempt to magically murder the hell out of one another. What looks similar at first glance to the tactical battles of e.g. Heroes Of Might And Magic or, even more so, the Kings Bounty series, is actually different in many ways, most prominently a strong focus on deception, and a constantly changing tide of battle. There are no hit points in the game; every single unit dies in one hit, from your own Squishy Wizard to even the biggest and most heavily armoured monstrosities you can conjure, and the outcome of each clash is based entirely on attack/defence values, a few special attributes and a smidgen of RNG. That might put off people who do not like random elements in their games, but it is true to Chaos Reborn's board game roots. In fact, RNG and controlling the odds in your favour are very the core of the game, and what makes it quite different from the tried and true, but, in my opinion, rather stale formula most turn-based games seem to follow these days.

Further details on the Wiki page.

edited 28th Mar '15 5:16:41 PM by TAPETRVE

Oh wow, the graphics and art style have improved considerably since last I looked at this game, and that is some very pretty concept art! 0_0

It's a very pretty game to look at overall; one thing I like in particular is the mix of classic pulp fantasy tropes and futuristic high-tech elements, as opposed to the overused steampunk aesthetic found in most popular video game fantasy settings. Look at this set of wizard armour◊ for example, which will be part of the upcoming update. Apart from having some very obvious Samus Aran vibes, it also looks more slick and futuristic than e.g. the clunky Imperial technology in Warhammer 40 K.

edited 27th Mar '15 5:35:37 PM by TAPETRVE

I'm working on a wiki page. Anyone interested in the game and wants to play or has questions, give me a call; I'm almost always up for a match. It's currently 20 bucks on Steam, which isn't exactly cheap, esp. considering it is still in early access, but the core game is already perfectly playable and lots of fun, if you can get into its extremely board game-like nature.

edited 28th Mar '15 5:19:29 PM by TAPETRVE

Okay, I got this game today and realized that nobody on my steam friendlist has this, so clearly I have to advertise this more :P

Seriously, its fun and short mp game :P Bluffing with illusions is fun(I had "Huh, you too summoned a lion, that has to be illusion! Haha I was right! And indeed, my lion was real so you just wasted spell trying to disbelieve it!" moment) and its one of better early access games from what I've seen and played

edited 12th Apr '15 1:52:39 PM by SpookyMask

My girlfriend got into the game today, too. As of now, it's in a bit of a limbo, because the first iteration of the equipment system has shifted the balance significantly, and the game has become a bit frustrating in the process. Still, worth it. It's btw. 25% off on Steam for another day, so if you're interested, buy the fuck out of it.

Here is a gameplay video courtesy of Youtuber UnstableVoltage that covers the most recent version of the game and explains the mechanics quite well.

Huh really? I've had rather even matches, well, besides matches were one of players get unlucky and fails to summon any monsters in first three turns

Then again, I've played one on one online so far, I did try out higher player amount(and ai level) on offline though before online

edited 12th Apr '15 2:00:18 PM by SpookyMask

It goes even enough as long as players are on the same level, and most new players are, but as soon as you run into someone with upgraded gear and a few talismans at their disposal, it can get a little messy.

edited 12th Apr '15 2:05:31 PM by TAPETRVE

Huh ok

Make sure to join the community over at http://www.forum.chaos-reborn.com, if you want to get deeper into the game . I'll likely work my way up to Demigod rank and run a guild, if the game catches on as much as I want it to.

edited 12th Apr '15 9:06:17 PM by TAPETRVE

Hah, my win ration is split in the middle... Thats pretty bad thing since eventually it will go negative xD

But yeah, I just had rather epic match :P So like opponent has two sapphire dragons, hell hound, etc all real, I'm like "Whelp, not gonna last with this deck so might as well go down in blaze of glory" so I went in middle of all enemies to attack them. Didn't kill anyone but skeleton, but I did last for like five round and were down to final card in deck before dying. Awesome luck even though I missed a lot :D

Yay after two weeks of playing this I have finally reached archmage/world rank :D I'm at rank 191 right now..

Maybe I should try applying to those tournaments. My win rate is right now 45% or something so probably wouldn't do well, but I keep meeting fun people in mp matches

I'm taking a break until the next updates are out. The game is still fun, but the current equipment system is broken to hell.

Eh not really, talismans are now pretty nerfed :P

I've now joined steam group, tournament site(dang no tournaments right now... Ah well I would suck anyway) and the forums of the official site

Dunno if that matters much, but figured out this thread could use more bumbs :p

edited 1st May '15 6:43:12 AM by SpookyMask

The devvies are currently working on the single player part of the game. I guess the next big update won't be coming for another month at least, so let's see where this goes .

Whats your in game name btw?

My wiz goes by Ednostennik. Which is Bulgarian for monohedron, because reasons. On the official fora I'm simply TΛPETRVE.

edited 1st May '15 7:43:12 AM by TAPETRVE

I'm Jay(wizard name, tournament site, forum) on all three places for sake of consistency

Even thought it mean getting rid of my mask theme naming for while :'(

edited 1st May '15 8:01:00 AM by SpookyMask

Now I only need to make sure I have 50 bucks ready for the Wizard King tier, so I can create my awesome realm and reign over it with my royal wizard skin as soon as the feature is available .

lol not sure I want to get "unable to get get demoted" tier. I mean, I'm already annoyed at there being gods who can't be demoted, especially since one of them is planning a real life god with real life backstory in fictional setting and other one is really generic mysterious beautiful serene goddess type character

I guess it leaves me space to become spider god if I ever get that far :p

Anyhoo, maybe I'll get further backer stuff eventually. I'm seriously considering buying forgemaster pack when it comes available

The reason for that is that someone has to be running the show. The Kickstarter-tier gods are essentially the first community managers.

edited 1st May '15 8:23:32 AM by TAPETRVE

Perhaps But they still could have come up with more original ideas. Or even interesting cliches

edited 1st May '15 8:24:16 AM by SpookyMask

Actually, they don't. The generic Moon Goddess is also a real-life Goddess, from Gaelic mythology. For your information, meatspace mythology is officially part of the game's lore. The Chaos universe is taking Earth history up to the late middle ages into account.

So wait, the game takes place in real life after wizards broke the world in middle ages? What

Also I don't get your reply "They don't"?