Game Impressions As a fan of 40k universe ,the tabletop and turnbased games, I have to admit the game is very well thought and made ,gameplay wise. I really enjoy the clever representaion of initiatives and gunplay. However the always online connection and the heavyly applied freemium did put me off. I believe it should be offline for solo play and the freemium reduced a little so advancement wouldnt feel pay protected.The squad cooldowns and the crafting is OK for in app mechanics. But levelling with currency is flat out wrong and really feels like obstructive . The game could come with a starting price and then apply the freemium but not at leveling. All in all a very good game. Maybe one of the best of 40k universe but tweaks are needed at the freemium ,and always online is a dealbraker for mobile devices. If these are fixed we are talking about a winner.
You're right, now the paywall is gone. I think the credit reward is fair; if you're not going to pay then a bit of a grind is expected. I'll go edit my initial post. And for the person who was asking, yes I mean my iPad Mini w/Retina.
Game Impressions Everybody is connected yes. However Why the game should rely on internet connection whan it does not serve any purpose. If some mechanic would be benefited yes. But lengthy sessions such as this would really benefit in long flights etc. Also I hate getting disconnections in a game that is solo. It does not serve any purpose imo.
Well I can see one benefit already. They are able to make changes to mission rewards without needing to roll out a new patch/updates. Since yesterday they started making the first campaign missions pay out credits without patching. It seems that mission rewards are stored on the server.
This is an opinion I cannot share unforunately. From a BETA standpoint makes sense. But still cannot be convinced that for this game always online requirement helps rather than altering the experience. As i see it the game plays close to XCOM and that was handled marvelously.It will show I guess. but personnaly would prefer it as offline experience.
The makings of something really cool Warhammer Quest from Rodeo was one of my all time favs so far. I do not mind freemium if it is logical. I completely understand (well I don't really understand the mentality but I understand the math) the massive discrepancy in the number of downloads of free vs premium. The said, my gameplay comments thus far. Needs more filters. Filter in the disenchant area, filter in the deck building, filter in the evolve area, filter everywhere. (I know it is in a couple of places) The problem is that when I am going to disenchant something I want a quick way to see all commons not in a deck. Or if I am looking to evolve I want to see all cards that I have 2-4 of and choose in deck, in collection, or both...etc Movement. I don't need a TBS game to be 100% in character. Love Lords of Waterdeep which is just a D&D skin over a management game, but it works. So we have the most feared and trained genetically engineered soldiers in the galaxy. Let them pass each other for the love of all that is good and holy. You would think with all the training they could say "excuse me" and slide past. Seriously though. With 3 units it can become a total cluster and a time and fun killing nightmare just to move around. Passing, discarding, passing... I get in space hulk thematically and gameplay wise they couldn't pass... but in this it's just annoying and a fun killer. The map grid is representational, it doesn't need to be a literal amount of space that allows for no passing on the right... Weapon types: Again, thematically its absurd to think of a guy carrying a couple Las Cannons, 3 heavy blotters and 6 power axes. I get that the cards are just representational. But I wonder if limiting the number of things like heavy weapons on lets say a standard marine would make for better play. Ranges, Movement, Shooting, line of sight: Ok, this needs some serious love. It is just a few tweaks, but it is a $hit$how at the moment. There is no way of knowing when you look at the map and you want to move to bolted range how the hell to do it. You know you want to make a move and a shot, but because a bunch of the weapons have different firing arcs, and because impassible terrain is not marked you end up having to do this crazy dance of click card, click move, see where it gets you, move, then realizing that the bolter is 3 wide not 4 wide... or the flamer pistol is a different shape than the flamer. There just needs to be an overlay as you click on the cards in hand to show where they would move you and where you could fire. That way you could click a bolted, remember that it has an arc 3 wide and 4 long, then choose a move card, or convert a card to move as needed. In a perfect world it would show me one color for all the move ranges, and one color for all the firing after a single move. Music and Sound I hardly ever notice this stuff, but holy crap the music is repetitive. Even if it is a place holder for now, let me turn off the music separately from the sound effects. Sounds. Some of it sounds cool, and some is just so bad it has to go. The bolters and such should have that really deep base .50 cal sound. The chainswords should sound a little less like a 40v Ryobi electric string trimmer, and for god's sake when you hit a guy in power armor with a chainsword it should screech, or grate, but not make a sad kind of squishy sound... It is so close though. Price I think if you polish this up, and make it really shine... It is so close as is. It is ripe to add mission packs, unit packs, and unique loot packs... BUT and please understand that I fully understand the "whale theory" of Candy Crush, and the don't sell a way to get rid of timers when you can milks the spenders on more energy or PTW power-ups... BUTand I am happy to pay for my entertainment. For real. I bought all of WQ at full price. Bought Banner Saga, no prob, this is not about being cheap.... If I am seriously to pay $10 per deck... and obviously there are all sorts of great add-ons begging to be made (librarian deck, inquisitor deck, etc). But if I am dropping $20 for the full unit experience and game experience, I want: The squad timers gone... I know it doesn't have a massive impact, but I want them gone for $20 base price, and I want to play with my favorite space wolf "Yvgvar" every time then let me. If you wanted to make it more of an actual gameplay element then go the Xcom route and they sit out based on damage taken and not healed during the mission. Side Note: There simply is not a Space Wolf named "Ray".... It is just not right. Also at that point the rewards should double or something that makes sense... No way do I want pay to win... but a booster for 1000 coins is a little much when I am just trying to evolve my favorite legendary bolter. I even like the coins for Runes for forging.... just ditch the timers if I cough up the cash... they are not doing anything. Map: I need a mini map... Or a zoom way out feature. it to hard to tell where you are going, were those dudes just appeared, and where your goal is... Last comment for now: The maps are really not alive enough. Models look great, lighting is gorgeous, (I still need to see line of sight though... come on guys..)... but the maps are very very linear and sparse on the random elements laying around. Just some small touches where and there would be great. Please, please spend some time just tweaking this. It really is so cool and so close to being amazing. (pardon typos, it's 3 am here
Well I don't know if it's related, but a day after I complained here about how the lack of premium currency gains made it impossible to progress without paying, the game seemed to change to make the premium currency more available in the first chapter.So it's possible that devs are paying attention to feedback here.
Loved the review style of Cyllwynn and agreed with everything he said, thought I'd add my two cents. I was able to download Space Wolf from the South African store and I'm playing it on an ipad retina. Needs more filters. This can not be stressed enough! With a deck building game you need to be able to filter almost everything. Maybe I've been spoiled by Hearthstone but being able to filter is a must. As it stands, I have no idea how the cards are even ordered when looking at the deck building screen. It doesn't seem to follow any pattern. I would also like to be able to view the cards in my deck in more detail, currently they are listed on the right hand side but if you tap on one it gets removed. I would prefer a tap to bring up the card so you can view it and a swipe to remove it. Movement. Being able to move around or through your own squadmates would be ideal. Having to waste a few turns just so you can move is frustrating. Weapon types: I have no problem suspending my disbelief when it comes to carrying a veritable cache of weaponry on my back. I do love the ability to use weapons of similar type to reload the equipped weaponry. Maybe a compromise can be made where cards don't actually represent the physical weapon but just a way of reloading a small collection of weapons. Honestly, at this point I don't see them making major changes to this mechanic but its worth a thought. Ranges, Movement, Shooting, line of sight: Totally agree with the line of sight, showing a lit up grid of firing range on card select would be ideal. Price Completely agree with Cyllwynn on this, plus he said it much better then I could. Map: Mini map! I find myself doing the first mission over and over just to collect cards, credits and cash. There is quite a bit a strategy to be learned, especially when to end your turn to get a better advantage on the next round. I use equipped weapons with overwatch a lot. Drawing out the enemy into a well laid overwatch trap is satisfying and effective. The levels can be time consuming and some of the goals are really difficult (for me). I still haven't been able to collect the forge crate on 1:3 before the Rune priest kills everyone. Also, the game disconnects a lot, like all the time, and I've got a decent connection. Luckily, the game saves after every move so I'm able to reconnect and jump right back in but it is a little annoying. I wish they had taken the Warhammer Quest route and made this a premium game with additional heroes and quests available for purchase but I'm definitely enjoying it so far. With a little bit of tweaking they could make this a great playing experience.
Thank you guys for all the kind words and ideas. We don't mean to be rude not writing here, we definitely read, but everyone here is just busy with updates and preparing for big release. Some important notes: It will work with iPhones (5, 6, 6+), we are tweaking UI at the moment. So it's coming with full release. The game is built with PvP and further development in mind, thus 'always online'. I know it's easy to say we should have made it Paid, but we had game as a service in mind, with revenue stream leading to adding new mechanics, cards/weapons, features etc. If only we succeed in keeping you interested, indeed. Being too sensitive to connection is not right of course and we are working on that already, you'll notice some fixes in upcoming update(s). Some things have been in discussions for months, like mini-map, more zoom-out, filters etc. In some cases we know the issue, but not yet decided on solution. And we are definitely revisiting all this in updates. Looking forward to reading new comments and first impressions. Thank you in advance!
Game Impressions Okay, now I've played the first couple of missions. Overall, I'm liking it. It's a true tactics game, and not just a card game with a bit of maneuvering thrown in. Has tried and true mechanics like overwatch, where, with the right weapon equipped, you can potentially get a free shot at an enemy if he stops in your firing arc. One interesting mechanic is the way it handles turn sequence. Each character gets two actions during his turn (i.e., you can play two cards), and each action adds a certain amount of... I can't remember what they're called, but let's call them "time units". After a character ends his turn, all the characters' time units count down until somebody gets to zero, and THAT'S who moves next. As the tutorial points out, you can use this to do things like take only one action on your turn and then (if the enemy has been using all his actions and therefore has a lot of time units stored up) immediately take two more actions before the enemy gets a chance to respond. I'm only a few missions in, so there's still plenty up in the air, like whether it eventually gets grindy or repetitive. My main current complaint is that the mission I just finished felt like it dragged on too long. And it wasn't because it was a big sprawling complicated map. I was literally headed straight down a corridor, periodically triggering previously unseen enemies. I'd fight them, and then continue heading the direction I had been. Eventually I got to the end of the "lane" and fought the final enemies to complete the mission. I'm looking forward to playing more.
First of all, it's now also available in Sweden's AppStore. We have updated to 1.0.1, some minor issues were fixed. I also have some good thing for you, this in-game code gives rare card and extra credits: TARCADESOFT Looking forward to seeing more comments and ideas!
The graphics on this game really are pretty, especially enjoying the Rage kills animations. As for the gameplay, I'm enjoying the strategy of managing your stress levels ( I think that is what it is called) so you get to go before your opponents, I'm not so enamoured with moving between set pieces (5 is about the most you can move). Or the fact you can only swing a melee weapon directly in front of you (pretty sure a space marine could swing an axe to the side or spin around). Played the first mission and thought I was killing it and would breeze through, then got to like mission 4 and got my ass handed to me. Also picking up the bonus objectives is a real pain (get to objective killing less than 5 enemies, get to crate before run priest kills everyone). I'm not sure if this is designed to be done with specific cards later on in the game when you pick them up, but I sure as hell can't work out how to do it currently. Currency wise it seems fair so far though I'm admittedly not very far in, I haven't seen anything yet that you can't buy with game won currency. I've bought the £7 currency pack to get the terminator armour deck, and also to support the devs as I would really like to see this succeed, it does justice to the license in my opinion. I'll post more impressions as I get further into it. I'll post more impressions
Thank you very much grenadedodger! Good point on melee weapons, changing reach (or fire range patterns) is definitely one of the things we can do to bring more variery to game mechanics. Looking forward to reading more ideas/critics.
A little info on what you plan to change before launch would go a long way... I will keep this post brief (not really . Either you guys are incredibly busy and furiously deciding on the game mechanics that need to be cleaned up before launch, or the mechanics are set at the moment and you are trying to clean up the bugs and get it out the door. It worries me that there is almost no commentary being given on the Dev's end other than "thanks", "can't wait for more". I totally appreciate that they are here, but your first post led me to believe that you A) really wanted to turn this thing into yet another async PvP game with pay to win IAP or B) you plan on fixing a lot of these issues with updates after launch. Regardless. Im still a huge fan of it. Think its really, really got potential. Weapon Arcs: I am just being sarcastic and in no way I am actually trying to be rude to the Devs here. BUT. Seriously? LoS and firing arcs are straight lines and not cones? And inexplicably you never really know what the hell you are gonna get until you play the card!?!? I mean I know the Mk I and Mk II power armor has those blinders built into the helmets for some reason, but that was all fixed by the time the MkIII armor rolled around (sorry, super dork humor). The whole LoS and firing system has to be adjusted so you can see where you can shoot once you move without having to guess, have crib notes, or click on 4-5 cards. IAP for squads and that ridiculous "stamina" timer I said it before and it scares me that you didn't clarify or address this. IF we pay $20 for the two extra squads, the stamina timer needs to go away. That is just insane. It's bad enough with Freemium games charge a $1 to buy em and then leave stuff like that in the game...but $20 and a timer? Multiplayer and Async It's your game and your company, but I am sure you are aware at some of the massively talented studios that tried to make Async TBS games and failed. There is too much room for frustration. Too many quits, give ups, etc... BUT.... when you factor in the movement issues I already mentioned... Recap: the most feared fighting forced in the Emperors army are unable to say "excuse me" and walk past one another.... then you are in for a total shit show. I was playing last night and hit a narrow part of a map with a right turn and some stairs and even with trying hard to get everyones turn order properly in sync so they could single-file-it around the corner, it still took 4 full turns to get them down the stupid stairs.... In multi-player that would just be game suicide. No one will deal with it. Maps, hamstrings, and WHQ For some reason, even though the maps are basically all outside they feel like you are walking down a really narrow corridor and waiting for the next little group of baddies to step out of the shadows (!?!?!?). WHQ took place in a dungeon... a narrow dungeon.... and still allowed you to have more maneuver room than this. Walking down a path only to have have 3 enemy units at a time appear from the mist, kill them, walk some more, get stuck, kill next group of baddies, repeat.... Why? It is such a waste. And FYI. There is a thread about WHQ like two threads down from this. It was released in May of 2013.... AND they are STILL talking about it, still asking for more content, more expansions. Soapbox rant over. I am happy to not continue to harp on the same issues if you guys are going to release without more play testing and core mechanic tweaks, but letting us know would be helpful. All the Best.
Started playing this last night and I'm hooked. I generally don't play games as deep as this one so the tutorial was greatly appreciated. I felt it did a very good job in "training" me for the upcoming tasks. The graphics are amazing. Gameplay is quite easy to get a grasp of. The upgrade/equip element of the game is the only area I need to "get used to" but only because I am a noob at these games. For comparison sake I fired up Warhammer Quest and I think for now I prefer Space Wolf. I think the card collecting element adds a random twist to the game that I enjoy, having Injustice in my current rotation. Can't wait to get deeper into the game! Awesome job!
cyllwynn, first of all, thank you for your ideas. Some of that will take a lot of time to digest and respond. Yes, you are right, we can't change core gameplay at this point. I wish we had that time, but we just can't afford it. You should also know that we do want to change some core gameplay aspects along the way, with future updates. So it's not like we are simply dismissing everything you say here. On async - no, we didn't plan something like that, although some say we should do it, and you are right, we haven't seen anything exciting in async/TBS department. So our initial idea was to have fast competitive game in very small arenas (compared to most of campaign levels). Plus bot games against someone's setup (deck and squad mates). We are talking details of all this at the moment, so by all means I'm not officially announcing anything. Firing system. We were going to add always-on grid in options. Plus we could add an option to this grid - to show what you can shoot, we just don't know yet how to do it better. Maybe colored zones showing where you can move and what you can shoot (calculated from all your cards in hand). WHQ is awesome! No doubts about that, most of us have played a lot of it. On maps and hamstrings, we'll think what we can do. Thank you for taking time to analyze and for wishing us well, we'll do our best! P.S. We have a bunch of new AppStore codes with the latest updates, please PM CygnetSeven (Moderator) if you want one.
Hey Guys, Appreciate the responses. I am still willing to hang in there and see how things shake out in the future. I hope the choke points on the maps and the inability to move through one another don't cause too much frustration in the initial release. I am also still willing to shell over the often unheard of $20 for the two other unit types (Sentinels of the Multiverse is $10 and one of the hottest releases in the strategy arena in recent memory as a comparison).... but not if the stamina/energy bar stays. It's just poor form. To allow for a top dollar premium purchase to unlock a full game in one thing, but to unlock the units and then try and double dip with stamina/timers is absurd. +++ This is also the easiest question/comment of mine to answer, but the one that still gets ignored... You don't need to take my work for it. Read any scathing review on TA, Pocket Tactics, or IGN about any game that charges a premium price and then continues to limit play in one manner or another. I do truly wish you the best of luck, it's a neat game with some great concepts.
