Turn-based game with elements of Slavic mythology, in which a number of sophisticated features create a complex and addictive experience. Sometimes luck plays too great role and user interface would deserve quite a few improvements. But otherwise Thea: The Awakening is an original, exciting and great game.
This is a GREAT game - from an indie gamedev that published themselves and did basically everything the right way. I'll fully support this developer from now on.
The game itself is a mix of Civilization-like city building, HoMM-like RPG adventuring, 4x (explore, exterminate, expand, exploit), and has a bit of its own flavor. A true genre-blending game that feels great to play.
The replayability is also very well done, unlocking different gods, and leveling up each god to make a fairly different playstyle each time, with of course a randomly generated map you can tweak in size and difficulty.
The quests flood in constantly keeping you entertained with great storyline and allot of quasi-humor plugs (monty python, king arthur, etc).
The crafting system is awesome as well - making it a mix of research, gathering, and character management akin to any good RPG.
The music is fantastic, really putting you in the atmosphere. The lore taken from slavic history is also quite a unique touch and very well done even if you dont know anything about it.
The combat system at first seems complicated and frustrating - but give it 10 or so combats, and watch a youtube tutorial video or two and you will master it in no time. Enough complexity to really wreak havoc with good strategy, and keep you entertained - while simple enough that ongoing combats dont seem like a chore/bore, as in many games of this type. (More complex than a HoMM type game for example, where combat gets boring very quickly).
Graphics are also good - plenty good enough for a game of this genre, though not the best eyecandy out there (but I dont think this detracts anything at all from the game, graphics are perfect fit for the type of game it is).
What else is there to say? This game is a gem. Grab it now!
I rarely ever give a game 10/10 score. In 25 years of gaming probably only 20-30 games would even be seriously considered for 9 or 10 out of 10.
While I have only played this game for ~50 hours in about 4 playthroughs (first 2 were pretty disasterous as always) - I'm not playing on custom difficulty of 300%+ difficulty bonus and enjoying it immensely. I can easily see myself sinking 1000 hours into this game and still coming back for more.
I havent even tried multiplayer yet either! A whole new type of gameplay awaiting me yet.
A very good indie game. As some reviewer mention, s an older gamer I see so many games already and so many mechanism past my screen that it's getting more and more difficult to be impressed by a new game. Heroes of Might and Magic III was one of the first games I played and really liked. It was a turn based game with a big map where you have to search for monsters and treasures on a fantasy setting. Since that moment I played that game it's my favorite genre.
Slavic mythology, card minigames, and hexagonal turn-based strategic gameplay are just the beginnings to what Thea: The Awakening has to offer. With such a high replay value, it’ll keep you entertained and busy for much more than you would expect.
Thea: The Awakening makes for something of a grim, low-power 4X strategy game that works extremely well with its particularities. Proper planning can only take a God so far as adaptability and luck plays a major role with random events that could very well lay waste to everything. While that's not necessarily always good fun, what it does do remarkably well in building the tense atmosphere that is quite unique for the genre.
Thea has a very specific, Slavic atmosphere and combines several genres which in the end makes for a really unique strategy game. It's not for everybody and the gameplay is uneven but I hope the developers will explore this area. After some technical and gameplay tweaks Thea could be something big.
The game is just too complex for its own good which is a shame as there is fun lurking just around the corner. Fix combat, explain things a little better and chip away some of the needless aspects and Thea: The Awakening would be a much better game.
Yeah, I don't get it. I guess in order to be a professional critic you have to take all kinds of nonsense into account when rating a game. My only criteria for rating a game is how much enjoyment I get out of it.
I found Thea: The Awakening on Steam while looking for a new game to scratch my turn-based itch. From the description, to the screenshots, to the reviews, it looked like a hidden gem. I picked it up and installed it straight away.
I was so surprised. The best way for me to describe Thea: The Awakening is it's much of the game that Elemental (by ****) wishes it would have been. You, a fallen God in a fallen world, must guide your few remaining followers back from the brink of extinction. You do this by managing your settlement (domestic resource/people management with lots of options) and organizing expeditions.
Expeditions can go out into the world to hunt, gather, etc. They can also adventure - visiting sites and monster lairs and following up on rumors. All expeditions (like your settlement) are bound to the resource system, i.e. your parties are dependent on fuel and food.
"Combat" in the game is perhaps more accurately called "Conflict Resolution", as all manner of tests are resolved using the same base mechanics, those in the form of a card game. There are combat tests, social tests, sneakiness tests... all manner of things that some of your followers will be better at than others. This card game, at first, is a bit overwhelming and difficult to understand. But if you just bite the bullet and play it through a few times (damn the torpedoes!), not only will you quickly get the hang of it, but it becomes quite fun! The cards themselves are very well drawn sketch-art, and provide nice ambience to the whole game setting. And while some might gig the game for not having a "tactical combat system", the card game serves that purpose well, and allows for non-combat resolution all in one go. Brilliant. I would rather have a good card game than crappily done top-down tactical battles anyways.
As for the story elements, thus far they are quite refreshing and imaginative. I'll just leave it at that.
Amazing how easy it is to become attached to some sketch drawings. Last night, two of my followers died after a bad ambush. I was quite disappointed, and I'm really looking forward to going back tonight to see what comes of my people.
I'd like to add that my Steam purchase included free DLC. The devs have a voluntary DLC contribution that can be made... something that I look forward to contributing to. I haven't scratched the surface of this game and find myself already clamoring for future content.
Thea's a good game - one of the best releases in the past few months. It's certainly similar to HOMM, but I think it reminds me even more of Eador. It's just a notch behind being so similar it's a clone. -So I'm just going to compare the two.
First off, the story in Thea branching, short-but-fleshed-out, inventive, and boring. It strives for the same sense of absurdity and seriousness in choices as Eador, and many of the stories are actually interesting, but I never really felt invested, and maybe this is more the mechanics of being able to pop out new units so fast, I actually would get annoyed whenever I saw I had new people to micromanage. This is very different from Eador where you usually only had 2-3 heroes (or even just one for most ****), and rarely ever 4. Thea lets you bundle your people up into expeditions, but I'm not sure I see the benefit of having 30 semi-customizable units vs 3 very customizable units you've taken time to tailor finely - it certainly makes no contribution to my emotional investment.
The writing in Thea has some very dramatic attention-grabbers in the little stories it tells. Sometimes, they'd actually shock me -- you know, I just didn't expect my normal-seeming folk to be nailing cats on their walls and sacrificing virgins to a roving band of rapists - it just really caught me off-guard. -So good for them on that, because it's an unusual accomplishment. I'd just be minding my own business hitting the return key every few seconds, watching my villagers collect nuts, and they suddenly decide it's time to take all the kids and put them in a gladiator-style death-match... what? Sure, okay! I hope the sequel will let me bet on who wins...
The game is at the very least an excellent demo of their Honey Hex engine, but now that I've played Thea, I'm not sure I want to play many more games on the same engine without heavy modifications (it's a very well-made engine having investigated it, that said - but I don't use Unity).
Back on-track... the combat card game is bad. I like card games, so I figured this would be right up my ally... but it just takes too much time for too low of stakes, and I don't seem to do too much better than auto-resolve, while opportunity rarely presents itself to lose via auto-resolve unless I'm so outmatched I'm screwed either way, so I don't feel any incentive to spend my time in it. -But I shouldn't need an incentive to play a game, right? I could auto-resolve in Eador, but I enjoyed being able to micro-manage there so I could do what I built up my army for, and auto-resolve was typically an awful choice.
Content-wise, it's just lacking, and mod support certainly doesn't appear to be in the works to pick up the slack. There's a great base, and you see glimmers of an amazing, timeless game similar to Eador, but there's just not enough content in it. You play it two or three times and the experience is very similar but you have the opportunity to choose a slightly different ending. It feels complete, but just too small, like it's just a preview of things to come; maybe the devs didn't have the money to spend more time designing and implementing content, or maybe they didn't actually think the game was as good as it is and wanted to move on to something else to hedge their bets (I don't get this feeling, honestly - I think it was just a lack of time/money, which is hopefully resolved).
There's a lot to build on here, and another game in this engine by the company is absolutely justified. -So I'd advise buying this as a down-payment for Thea: The Re-awakening, giving it a few playthroughs and then playing Eador if you haven't already (and I can't imagine why you wouldn't have already...).
This is a solid indie game with a great theme. The rough edges with being an indie are much more noticeable here with bugs, voice acting, and UI issues, but the game systems stand out and are strong. Unfortunately, the storyline and different gods don't vary too much to warrant more than one replay. But if you are a fan of turn based strategies, this is worth at least one to two games. Better than Renowned Explorers: International Society but not as good as Invisible, Inc. for 2015 releases. Strong resemblance to Armello.
I've spent something in the neighborhood of 40-60 hours with this one. I feel I gave it a very fair shake. I don't have a problem with the graphics, the writing, the systems -- all of it is fine. Except for the combat. I think the decision to allow a coin toss to decide which direction a unit attacks is utterly horrible. It undermines player decision-making. Many games use randomness to much better effect. Mostly decent 4x game, but I feel the attempt to innovate on combat mechanics is a huge failure.
SummaryThea: The Awakening, a turn-based, rogue-like, strategic-survival game, set in a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy world, all inspired by Slavic Myth and Folklore and infused with rich story and a unique, card based minigame.