Wartile Complete Edition

Genre: Strategy-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Wartile was first released on PC in 2018 and ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2020, with a “Complete Edition” of the game coming out later in 2020 on all of those platforms as well as Nintendo Switch, with this version of the game including all prior DLC.

Wartile is a fairly unique take on the Strategy-RPG genre, as it blends turn-based and real-time mechanics in a way that’s a bit difficult to describe. During battle, characters act in turns, with actions each having a cooldown before that character is allowed to do another action. However, whether you’re ready or not the battle will keep going on without you, as your characters automatically attack nearby enemies and enemies move around the area and make attacks as well.

It’s a system that takes some getting used to, and thankfully the game allows players to tap “B” to slow everything down to a snail’s pace so they can think through their next move or react to the movements of enemies without having to make a mad scramble to command each of their units.

Unfortunately, the mechanics of this game are not explained very well, information is not conveyed clearly, and the controls are unusual and unintuitive – even something as simple as highlighting an enemy to see their stats is unnecessarily cumbersome, and despite knowing the odd button combination to change the targeted enemy I still feel like I’m not confident I’ll be able to get my characters to target the enemies I want them to.

Of course, I haven’t yet mentioned one of the main appeals of this game, the presentation. Wartile is designed to mimic the appearance of a figurine-based tabletop RPG, with a 3D game board separated into hex-shaped spaces and characters all represented by figurines on stands, albeit ones that still animate like one would expect normal characters to do. To be honest, I found this visual style to be appealing, but gimmicky – having the characters animate and attack in real-time kinda’ runs counter to the tabletop RPG aesthetic.

Meanwhile, the game’s visuals are backed by an atmospheric soundtrack and decently-voiced characters and narration. It’s nothing especially memorable, but it does a decent job setting the mood for the action and fits the game’s themes well enough.

In the end, as much as I wanted to like Wartile for its blatant appeal to nostalgia, I felt like this nostalgic presentation clashed too much with some of its more experimental tendencies, and in particular it does a terrible job conveying its mechanics and controls to the player in an intelligible way. Players looking for a unique Strategy-RPG may still find this to be a fun and engaging take on the genre, but it’s one that takes a lot of time getting used to its eccentricities.

tl;dr – Wartile is a Strategy-RPG with an aesthetic designed to look like figurine-based tabletop RPGs. It’s rather creative in its mechanics, but it unfortunately does a poor job properly explaining those mechanics and basic control functions to the player. Fans of Strategy-RPGs looking for something unique may still find this to be an enjoyable and original take on the genre, but it’s just as likely to frustrate you due to how poorly it conveys its information to you.

Grade: C

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