Chaos Reborn is a perfect blend, taking the fine art of risk management/mitigation from timeless games like poker and adding a turn based strategy fantasy theme. The game is so good I have left my wife and job and I have not eaten in 9 months, I see this as a positive.
Chaos allows you to build your own sets of equipment, shaping the likelihood of what spells you receive and creating unique playstyles and almost infinite possible load-outs. There are realms to explore and co-op play with friends with social ranks and guilds to come
The real strength of Chaos however, comes from the PVP aspect , I have read reviews and comments about the RNG system making Chaos overly reliant on luck, this is nonsense.
% chances of spell casts and combat resolutions are displayed on screen and choosing the timing and method of attack, which spells to boost the % of or discard, when to bluff with an illusion and which tactics to use to give yourself a +expected value for victory are skills which are all required to make a good Chaos player.
Lovely and unique approach to TBS genre from a little indie studio headed by established maître of this genre Julian Gollop. Originally created as a re-imagining of good ol' Speccy classic, this title managed to bring fresh air in almost every aspect of classy strategy play.
While core mechanics seems to be purely luck based with zero skill involved at the first glance, in fact it requires from player to re-flash his wetware in order to master sophisticated witchcraft and wizardry of risk management, short-term planning, bluffing and even behavioral psychology, keeping massive impact on improvisation and enthusiastic play style.
This little gem does not hesitate to constantly treat you as a newbie, without concessions. Things never will work like you want them to; for someone watching his precious 90% cast failing could be a punishing experience. The key is - hope for the best, prepare for the worst! Still, if you can't wrap your wishful thinking around Chaos Reborn, it will be better for you to stay away from RNG sorcery.
That said, if you've desperately wandering around game market in search for deep and thoughtful game with unique mechanics of chess and poker - rejoice! No doubt this game has it's own flaws, but most of them could be classified as first attempts from inexperienced little indie studio.
Come on, fellow wizard, join me in this zingy journey of blobs and bolts with almost infinite replay ability and tons of fun!
Chaos Reborn is a very accessible strategy game. It will take you just half an hour to learn all of its secrets. Thanks to simple rules, a turn lasts just a few seconds, and the entire session usually ends in 10 minutes or less. But you will be glued to this game for hours.
An ideal choice for strategists and those who don’t get discouraged by random factor of success and failure. Sophisticated tactical fun is hidden beneath the cover of randomness. [Issue # 261]
Those who want precision and control should stay away, but Chaos Reborn will be a good fit for players who appreciate planning but also want to be surprised during a battle.
Chaos Reborn works the best if you have played Chaos back in the 80s. The multiplayer is quite enjoyable, but as single player game Chaos Reborn gets boring fast. Dear Gollop, with a niche-game such as this, the key to lasting success is solid single player experience. [Dec 2015]
Julian Gollop returns to form with probably the best Turn Based tactics game on the market right now. Finely balanced multiplayer action for up to 4 players (unfortunately no longer 8 like in the original game).
The game plays out like a cross between chess, poker, and wizards, you've got a strong tactical element to game play (like chess), but with a percentage chance of each move you make working or failing. This in itself would make for a quite simple game, until you then add in firstly a bluff mechanic (like Poker, or Liar Dice), and secondly the possibilities to both store up magic and affect the alignment of the world that you're fighting this in turn lets you mitigate your future future luck (like real Wizards do)
Btw - It's technically not possible for an rng to be broken, only to be programmed, a 90% cast will be successful 90% of the time. From my experience of playing the game >600 hours, this is exactly what happens. The trick is to be prepared for that 10% chance of a fail and plan your game accordingly. It's like Russian Roulette, if you've a 1 in 6 chance that you're going to shoot yourself in the head is that a chance that you're willing to take?
I backed this game on Kickstarter and got mostly what I expected and more. The team just kept adding more to the game and suddenly it transformed from the simple little strategy gem i admired into a full blown campaign with lots of rules and multiple styles of play. It is a fun little game for fans of X-COM, Archon, or any similar turn based strategy titles.
I don't get this game and stopped after playing though the tutorials and completing the first map conquest. The game is ridiculously random and this is not a good thing.
All of combat seems to be "who can cast gooey blob the other guy first". That's it. Seriously, gooey blob kills enemy mages in 1 turn, making tactics kinda pointless, it's run up, cast gooey blob, wait for the enemy to die.
After I complete the map, I don't really see much point in continuing - it does not appear like I can actually build my deck. I can pick some staves that have certain decks linked to them, I can add amulets that add certain cards to the deck, but other than that, it's purely random cards.
This is the ultimate definition of "taking your chances" type of game. You'll lose many tutorial battles based on missing 4 attacks in a row with a 60% of hit-chance. Other than that it's a solid game and if you like number crunching you should give it a try.
Snapshot Games introduces their own theory of probability. You expect that spell with 90% success rate will be casted? You shouldn't. 80%? Nah. Once my wizard failed to cast 3 spells with 80% success rate one after another. The other side of this coin is for example you may think that your buffed shielded wizard will survive one hit from silly rat which have only 13% to success. But he won't. So my point is when you say that some event will happen with 80% success than it should be exactly 80%. Otherwise its nonsense. I would not recommend anyone game with such broken random numbers generator.
SummaryAt the heart of Chaos Reborn is an intuitive and fluid turn-based wizard combat system. You play the role of a fighting wizard armed with a selection of spells and magical staff. Some spells summon creatures but others are more exotic, such as the Gooey Blob which spreads uncontrollably across the terrain. The balance between Law and Cha...