I love tactics games. I’m not particularly good at them (as a very impulsive individual, forward planning frequently eludes me) but I love them all the same. So when I was invited to preview Rogue Conflict, a new turn-based strategy roguelike from solo developer Frans Wikman, I was thrilled.
As part of the preview, I got to play through the first level of the game with Frans talking me through the mechanics of each unit, and the overall game. I’ve got to say, as someone who isn’t amazing at tactical thinking this was a fantastic way to learn the workings of the game. Even though I did get over excited a few times and pressed on ahead.
You start off by choosing your army, of which there are 15 – each with their own units and playstyles, and then jump straight into the campaign (there is a tutorial for those not being guided by Frans). First of all, I’d like to talk about the style. I love the kind of artstyle on display in Rogue Conflict, the pixel art is bright and full of character and each unit looks clearly distinct from each other so you always know what’s going on from turn to turn. It’s not busy, but at the same time there’s lots of little details that give Rogue Conflict a lot of charm – like the little Z’s above unit’s when they’re taking a rest. It makes me nostalgic for how I remember games looking when I was younger (patently not how they actually looked).
It’s not just the visuals though, theres a lot of love for games in the turn based tactics genre on show for fans. Talking to Frans he said he was influenced by Wargroove, Unity of Command II, Order of Battle and Into the Breach. You can really tell he’s a big fan of the genre, and Rogue Conflict sets itself up as a fresh adventure in the turn based tactics space.
I had two objectives for the preview, but due to my own barrage of questions we only managed to complete one, which was to “Capture the Bridge”. You start off with all of your units towards the back of the map, the map itself covered by a fog of war. As you move up, the map will slowly be uncovered but you should pay special attention to where you move your units. There are hills which allow for a better FOV, unveiling more of the map than usual, and trees where your units can take cover against enemy attacks. If you don’t think you’ll need to attack with a unit next turn you can also move it further than it’s standard movement to scout things out.
One mechanic I particularly enjoyed, and could definitely see making a big difference as the missions went on, was the morale bar. As you can see on the screen shot above there’s a purple bar. That represents a units morale and if it gets low they take extra damage. This works both ways. For you it means needing to remember and pull low morale troops back and let them rest to regain it. For enemies it means strategically bombarding them with artillery or aircraft even though it might not do any damage, because there lowered morale might give you tank the extra damage it needs. It’s a incredibly fun system, and even though I didn’t get into the nitty gritty with the preview, I can already see me getting over excited with a play, forgetting about morale and immediately getting reminded this is a tactics game!
I thoroughly enjoy my short preview of Rogue Conflict. It was made even better by talking to Frans about his passion for the project and for games in general. If you’re a turn based tactics fan looking for something new to sink your teeth into, I would absolutely recommend you check it out on Steam when it launches on March 6th. It even received the highest praise a game of this genre can get from me. I recommended it the person that got me into gaming with his love of strategy games as a child – my dad.
I’d like to thank Frans for taking me through the game, which you can wishlist here.
