Our opinion on Wartales and its early access

Indie studio Shiro has developed a few gaming gems over the years, like Evoland, a retro action-RPG, and more recently, Northgard, a real-time strategy game that requires you to take control of a continent with its vikings. Their next title, Darksburg, was an action roguelike, which proved far less compelling. But at least the team looks like they're enjoying their freedom, as their new project, Wartales, is once again very different from their previous titles, mixing things up in a bit of an unusual way. As the studio sent us a code before the opening of early access to the general public on December 1, 2021, here is all the info on it, to help you decide if you want to participate, or at least monitor it.

Also note that a free demo of Wartales is already available on Steam, this is by far the best way to determine if a game is for you or not. You can find it in early access on this same page from December 1st.

The band of the Hawkward

The game begins by choosing the first campaign available (there are several), as well as the main lines that define your group of mercenaries. Will you command retrained peasants who lack combat experience? Or sleepy bandits, who decide to indulge in a little more legal activities? This will influence the composition of the starting group, as well as its resources, without forgetting some bonuses and penalties, which gives you different options and several approaches. However, it's a shame that you can't create your group a little more freely, and you don't even know what the advantages of the classes listed are until you have experienced it in game for yourself. Once launched, we start on a world map that is a bit reminiscent of that of Mount & Blade 2, with its merchant caravans, weapons and groups of marauding bandits. The notable difference is that it evolves in real time, which has the advantage of being dynamic, but a little punishing when simply surviving the passage of time is a major challenge.

One thing we haven't mentioned before is that at game creation you can change the difficulty of battles from easy to hard, as well as independently change the difficulty of survival in the world of same way. And as much to say, before being run in and knowing the game well, as well as the specificities of each map, it is really difficult and punishing, even on easy for both. Your party will deplete over time and travel, which will inflict heavy morale penalties, as well as in combat. You need enough food to rest, and nighttime ambushes are always possible, which shouldn't displease fans of The Darkest Dungeon, but it doesn't sit well with open-world exploration. Going in the wrong direction and missing the first village can easily doom the party to death from exhaustion or bankruptcy. As the world is not procedurally generated, but the places and events are mostly fixed, it gives a big "die and retry" side that does not seem voluntary. Luckily the saves are there, with the ability to restart from the previous village if you saved the game, as if you were already dead, but still unaware of it.

The exploration is nevertheless very satisfying once the basics have been mastered. We identify the key points, we take contracts in town, we stock up on provisions, and we unlock professions for the different members of the group in order to ensure the functioning of this small community outside of battles. The Handyman will craft useful tools for other trades, as well as facilities for your camp, such as a tent and a cauldron, which will improve comfort and provide more options. The fisherman makes it easier to get food, the blacksmith will create new equipment with the resources picked up on the map, the thief will unlock chests, etc. These professions are unlocked organically when the circumstances are right, for example, by going to see an established blacksmith, or by coming across a school of fish. These professions will then progress by using them, which will offer more options, and bonuses to useful characteristics in combat. More or less successful mini-games also accompany these professions, but they also suffer from some balancing problems, with a part determined on the talent of the player, and another on luck. We hope you like Skyrim lock picking, it's the same here.

Exploration is also doubly rewarded, as it allows you to invest in a variety of travel talents. These can improve the morale of the group, or the rewards obtained for example, and this will not be a luxury. It's quite pleasant, and it's nice to learn to master all these elements over the course of the games or loadings, but the constraints prove to be a little too many, certain resources being too limited if we add weight management and real time, one can easily get into dire straits, since the fights won't do you any favors either. It's nice to come across a strange blanket of nighttime mist, in a forest that was normal in broad daylight, but it's a quick game over that awaits you against the hordes of ghostly creatures. We don't only face humans in Wartales, packs of wolves, boars, rats, and real monstrosities await you.

I hope you are assured

Wartales does the opposite of Total War. While, as we have seen, the exploration of the map is done in real time, the fights are turn-based. You start with 4 ragged troopers, their class varies a bit depending on your starting choices and luck, you may or may not have a rogue and an archer for example. Other classes include a swordsman and brute with a shield, a spearman with good reach, and axe-wielding nags who sweep a wide area with their weapon. The clashes are rather classic for the genre, with a movement gauge, an action that can be used to attack, and a common gauge of heroism points that can be used to trigger actions and special attacks. This gauge is regenerated while camping, as well as via certain talents unlocked from level 2.

Initially, the fights are quite simple, even a little too much, and we find ourselves wondering how to take the advantage over the enemy without relying on brute force and a little positioning. It is not enough to stand next to an enemy for it to be considered engaged in melee (which prevents it from scampering free, damn archer), you must also attack it once. This limits the options a bit in terms of placement, since the engagement is only with one target, the others are used to determine if someone is surrounded and attacked in the back, for example. As the placement options at the start of a battle are extremely limited, and force you to spread out your troops in front of, or around the enemy, this greatly limits the possible approaches. Having more deployment options, and choosing which strategy to adopt before engaging in combat wouldn't be too much, and hopefully that's something planned for a future update.

Meanwhile, the result is that the only tactic that initially seems viable is to simply engage the most dangerous enemies with your tanks, to keep them from moving, and then focus the rest of the party on the most dangerous target. fragile, or the most dangerous to take advantage. The fact of starting almost in contact with the enemy outrageously favors the side which has the advantage of numbers and/or much more powerful characters. As all attacks hit 100%, and since the terrain management is more than basic, with no obstacles or elevations worthy of the name, you are tragically lacking the tools to tip the scales in your favor. As exchanging gnons in melee is inevitable, the armor management system kicks in, and it didn't convince us. Rather than having passive damage reduction, or hit chance reduction, as is often the case, the armor here offers a second gray bar, above the health bar. If your tank wears rags and a rotten wooden shield, it has 10 points of armor, and physical enemy attacks will damage it before the health bar. The problem being that the defensive equipment worn breaks as it goes, once the armor bar is empty, it's as if your tank was in his underpants, after only one or two hits received.

In addition, after the battle is over, this equipment remains broken, you need to use a blacksmith in town or special materials to repair each item. As you can imagine, as we multiply the fights, it quickly becomes a real gas factory, which forces you to store heavy materials, and/or to suffer many injuries, which will require elixirs also bought in town for care for group members. We have the impression of discovering what Zelda Breath of the Wild would give without dodging, if the armor also broke, it's unbearable. This is another element that would need to be redesigned, or at least rebalanced. Even in easy mode, fights are tough, taking damage is unavoidable, and resources are very limited, permadeath is on the way, and recruitments are very expensive. It's a bit reminiscent of Warsaw, which killed its potential by trying to be too punitive, but at least it's early access for Wartales, it's here for that. Currently, the only real option is to abuse saves and progress your party slowly but surely, with lots of easy non-story related battles, which is pure farming, and uninteresting.

Once the battle is over, after wiping away your tears in front of your crumbling gear, you get loot and experience, which eventually allows you to level up and advance your little troop. We then begin to benefit from more options, with talents to be activated in different situations, as well as advanced classes with their own abilities. The fights then become a little more interesting and complex. Better quality equipment can also be acquired over time, which allows you to start advancing in the story and completing quests without risking annihilation at any time. It's a shame that the current balance is too punitive, since there is clearly potential. The missions and encounters are quite varied, with several possible resolutions, which will affect the course of the entire campaign in some cases. They can ask to choose between helping a group of bandits or the guard, successfully escorting a blacksmith to the nearest town, or being forced to deliver him to the local tyrannical lord, etc. This gives different branches, even if they are difficult to explore as they are. The same goes for how to play, you are free to rob people and rob caravans, but when the guards start stalking you, you are going to really bite, especially when the enemies out of nowhere are stalking you. in the backwoods like they've got you on radar.

Rather promising

The early access of Wartales promises to be mixed. On the one hand, it has an original recipe, with many interesting features, and robust content, which lets the player explore, progress and play in his own way, at least in theory, since on the other hand, current balancing issues make progression too laborious to be fully appreciated. But there is nothing to be alarmed about, these are elements that can be corrected quite easily, and which are almost self-evident in early access. It's a game to watch, and one we'll happily come back to when the recipe has been tweaked, to provide the subtle balance between challenge and frustration.

Manage progression and exploration freely The camp and professions A successful atmosphere and environments Moral decisions and the direction of the story Overall very unbalanced at the moment A big lack of tactical tools to take the advantage Armor that breaks in one coupThe real time on the world map

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