Whether you love fretting over turn-based shoot-outs or watching people become mutant food, Skyshine’s Bedlam is an apocalypse of considerable intrigue and polish.
Despite some rather controversial combat mechanics, Skyshine's Bedlam remains a fun and artistically beautiful roguelike experience, following in the footsteps of games like Faster Than Light.
I've been following this game since Kickstarter. I have to say while it was rough around the edges upon release, the devs have been listening and have made major updates to this game. So all the review below are actually invalid as they pertain to version 1.5 and under. You have to try version 2.5 - they added a new tactics mode for combat!! All my other issues, like wonky boring events are also being addressed.
While not unique in any way, Bedlam’s art is just scrumptious, its story-line is addictive and game mechanics are infuriatingly fun.
Skyshine’s Bedlam is like XCOM meets FTL meets Fallout meets Mad Max.
You and your immense APC, simply dubbed Dozer, have to traverse the desert riddled with Mutant, Cyborg, Marauders and Rogue A.I. cities. If your foes won’t be your end, then the lack of crude, meat and power cells will surely make a dent in your quest.
Your goal is to reach Aztec City where, rumors have it, a sanctuary can be found – a new hope for life.
It's clearly a rogue-like game that takes inspiration from Oregon Trail, XCOM and FTL with a little bit of Mad Max and Fallout sprinkled on top.
I don't get why everyone is bashing the combat system - it's supposed to be this hard. You have to think to win a fight. There are so many dumbed down games nowadays that don't require any strategy whatsoever. Unfortunately, shallow titles have cemented themselves as the gaming industry's standard. It has to be incredible easy to play, filled with tutorials so everyone can jump on it and of course, have a safety net just in case you don't quite get the mechanics - aka a ton of checkpoints and the possibility to Save Game.
Well, this is not the case with Skyshine's Bedlam. It stands tall with its middle finger pointed at the status quo.
Combat is fun and enjoyable - if you spend time to actually learn it. The story unravels as you play. If you just go straight to Aztec City you'll be missing out on the fantastic lore made by John Mueller and his team.
Sure, it can feel lackluster if you don't pay any attention to details, if you don't immerse yourself into Bedlam's universe. But who's fault is that?
Try it out on Steam, it's totally worth it.
Skyshine’s Bedlam is definitely rough around the edges, and could certainly do with a few balance fixes (and a more rewarding ending), but as a package, I still found it to have a charm that its faults couldn’t quite spoil—if only just.
There are many games where you can lose your best guys in a second and end up dead in a radioactive ditch, but in BEDLAM such misfortunes often come through no fault of player. [Nov 2015, p.69]
Skyshine's Bedlam promises more than it offers. The game makes a good impression with audio and visuals reminiscent of the Borderland series, but a cool gameplay concept has been buried underneath a weak tactical mode. This is a game with an artificially high difficulty level and a total lack of balance. It has appeared on the market only to conduct beta tests on unsuspecting players.
Skyshine's Bedlam needed a few months in some early access program. All we got without them is a game full of strange solutions, monotonous gameplay and a story lacking any depth. Interesting world is not enough if the gameplay is not well though out.
Small, small game... but i will play it again, and again! (for how long? That is the question...)
The art stlye is absolutely jaw-dropping, but the game is lack of content, and really short. As an indie rogue-like strategy game it is worth the shot, but there is an FTL out there... never forget the great FTL...
Interesting rogue like/indie/fallout/banner saga game with nice graphics, art style, music, characters and concept.
Bad sides:
I was expecting to be able to fight with Dozer, upgrade it even more. Fights are ok, but not deep enough. They should have used the XCOM style turn based fights. 2 moves are just not enough.
Game needs more depth, mainly unit battles and Dozer battles.
This review is for the REDUX version.
Great tactical combat system and good graphics but the rest of the game is weak:
-No story, only serves as background
-I.A. weak during fighting
-A faction too strong with respect to the others. Bad balanced game.
-Gran sistema de combate táctico por turnos y buenos graficos pero el resto del juego no está a la altura:
-Historia inexistente, sólo sirve de fondo
-I.A. débil durante combates
-Una facción demasiado fuerte con respecto a las otras. Mal balanceado el juego.
Not so good I'm afraid.
Visual style, theme and game concept are really very good, I compliment the character **** gameplay is not.
Combat is very light from a tactical point of view, very few option to choose from during turns, no option in character development (equipment, role, ability ...nothing is changeable), convoy management also very **** sadly get boring very quickly.
It's more like an Android game than a pc one.
I would suggest seeing gameplay video before purchase
Wow what an overhyped game.I saw some payed promos on YT and was a bit hyped.After some hours into the nothing but disappointment remains.Lets look into the details:
Visuals:Yes the game got a unique **** maybe not unique but you dont see this style not that **** a futuristic/cyberpunk-artstyle.Looks **** for the most part the game looks not that great.Especially in the fights it looks kinda bad.I played a lot of the classic PS2 strategic-RPGs like Stellar Deus.They looked more unique and they hold up to this day.When i compare Bedlam to these games i think the devs did an ok job but is this enough?
Sound:Wow, really nothing shines **** weaponsounds **** are generic and dont have any **** there a theme, a backround music?I dont think so.I demand more when a game **** when it comes to **** can do so much things with the sound to make the player forget that everything else **** here?Nothing!
Gameplay:Ok, visuals ****, sound ****, what about the core mechanics?In 2015/2016 i demand more compared to the old PS2 strategic titles of this genre.Even on PC the genre evolved quite a **** have games like Jagged Alliance on the throne of the genre and here comes a game that looks not great with a bad sound assets and......a shallow gameplay.That describes the gameplay pretty accurate, its **** cant equip weapons, different armor or do **** start out with **** soldiers, cant equip **** cant adapt your own play because of the very limited supply of **** healing takes FOREVER and everyone dies far too **** here comes the cavalry, the fanboys, i know you **** say "but it is meant to be a hard ****, a hard game, not a stupid **** enemy will rush you cause hey, hey have nothing to lose.They die, no one cares while your healing takes weeks and you will encounter enemys every 1-3 **** enemy will often dont use cover, instead the braindead AI will rush you, often instakill 1 guy per fight.Sometimes you awayteam will start the map seperated.Think about **** start your mission and 1 or 2 guys stand in the other corner of the map and between your 2 groups are enemys.This is unfair, youll lose guys in this situation because the devs made it so so you have a feeling of "wow this is hard".Nope, not hard, unfair.A big disapointment are the **** can choose what to do but wow, youll get no infos about what is going **** will say "you found X, what will you do" and you can choose options.That is so random and its not appealing to me, im sorry.
Conclusion:From a technical point this game is ok at **** gameplay is shallow and **** customization and soldiers that die in a second and you are not interested in ****, what a boring game, i had fun for 5 **** only upside:No bugs.A game that bores me so quickly deserves a **** can compare this game to FTL.That was much more fun with more **** that, not Bedlam or how i call it:Badlame.
SummarySkyshine's BEDLAM is a strategic rogue-like turn-based RPG. You are the Mechanic, in charge of commanding your crew in battles, managing your resources, improving your Dozer, interacting with various characters, and protecting your passengers while navigating through the post-apocalyptic wasteland.