izigame.me

Never has a game made me so disappointed. Not because it's bad, but because it's so close to being great yet it's flawed enough to toe the line.

The Good:
✅ Immersive Setting & Atmosphere – The world feels harsh and realistic, with a strong medieval aesthetic. The art style, music, and overall tone sell the feeling of being a desperate band of mercenaries trying to survive.
✅ Sandbox Freedom(ish) – You can explore, take on contracts, upgrade your camp, and manage your mercenary group. It feels fun, and engaging.
The Bad:
❌ Repetitive Gameplay Loop – Once you’ve fought a dozen battles, you’ve seen about most of what the game has to offer. The variety in enemy types, encounter design, and quest objectives is lacking, making progression feel sluggish.
❌ Tedious Resource Management – While the survival aspects (food, wages, repairs) add immersion, they also make the game feel like a never-ending grind. The economy is punishing, and you’re constantly scraping by rather than feeling like a growing mercenary force.
❌ Very shallow story: While the world is well-crafted, the story elements feel shallow. Quests and interactions are often basic, lacking the depth and choices found in similar RPGs.
❌ Slow Progression & Scaling Issues: Leveling up and acquiring better gear feels sluggish, and enemy difficulty scales in a way that can make growth feel unrewarding. Instead of feeling like you’re becoming stronger, the game just keeps throwing more sponges at you.
NOW the part that really (in my opinion) keeps this game from being great: The Combat:
This game tries really hard to make an engaging combat system that I think it (rather poorly) attempted to draw from D&D 5E and Divinity: Original Sin 2's combat systems, kudos to the devs because if you're going to draw inspiration for turn-based grid combat, there aren't any better contenders.
What Works:
The game nails the basics: positioning matters, armor mechanics force you to think about how you approach fights, and different classes provide variety in how your team fights. Battles can be satisfying, especially when flanking enemies or setting up good engagements.
Where It Falls Short:
Lack of Environmental Interactions:
One of DOS2's biggest strengths was how battles felt dynamic—fire could spread, water could freeze, and the battlefield itself was a tool. WarTales doesn’t have this. There are no meaningful interactions beyond basic obstacles and hazards, making combat feel static.
Limited Ability Synergies
DOS2 encouraged creative combos—teleporting enemies into fire, electric water, or chaining many status effects. WarTales lacks this depth. Abilities feel disconnected, mostly dealing either raw damage or applying minor debuffs, making combat feel more like a numbers game than a tactical battle.
Repetitive Encounters
Battles in DOS2 often felt unique because of enemy variety and encounter design. In WarTales, fights quickly become repetitive. Once I got the gist of combat, Most encounters boil down to "engage, surround, stab," with little variation. Enemy AI also tends to behave predictably, reducing the need for dynamic strategies.
Strange mechanics
This is more of a personal dislike. There is no disadvantage or penalties for ranged combatants that are within melee range of a melee class UNLESS that enemy is actively engaging them by attacking first. You'll watch your spear-man or swordsman (well within blades reach) stare at an enemy archer as they pick off the dying member of your warband.
The hit chances fell "off"
You know that feeling in XCOM when a 95% shot misses? Wartales does this quite a bit. between an enemy getting a critical hit when you got lots of protection buffs, while your best archer with amazing traits only has a 2% chance of hitting your ally that's fighting that guy that you have a 98% chance of hitting, and they not only shoot their ally, but they also get a crit on just 2% - you really start to question if the game is just lying to you or not.
Final Thoughts / TL;DR
WarTales had the potential to elevate its combat to the level of Divinity: Original Sin 2, but it stops short. Without meaningful interactions, deep synergies, varied encounter design, and questionable developer choices, fights start feeling like routine chores rather than exciting challenges. It’s a solid foundation, but compared to its inspiration, it lacks the polish and depth needed to make every battle feel fresh and rewarding. It's really a shame because this game is really close to being great, but it's just not there, nor do I think it'll ever be great.