Chaos: Reborn

Kickstarter doesn't hold interest for me and my nostalgia. Apart from my faithful, trusty NES I didn't get my first PC until I was 12 years old, so I missed out on the Spectrum generation by a few years. Never-the-less, I remember Chaos. I would wrangle every excuse I could to visit my friend who did own the game and then hassle him until he 'volunteered' to let me play.

Snapshot Games and Julian Gossop (the lead behind the recent X-Com reboot) have, after a successful Kickstart, brought Chaos: Reborn to Steam, currently on early access but with new stuff coming out soon. An early Christmas present to all of us Turn-Based Strategy fans out there, I am very impressed with what I've seen so far.

If you're unfamiliar with the premise, Chaos pits opposing Wizards against each other in a closed arena. They get a random selection of spells that fall on the Law, Neutral and Chaos scale; as those spells are cast, they effect the Alignment of the battlefield, making successive spells of the same alignment easier to accomplish.
Spells include summoning creatures like Goblins, right up to Dragons, as well as battlefield-changing obstacles like the resilient Tangle Vines, the terrifying Shadow Wood and the notorious Gooey Blob. If all else fails, charge up your Staff and unleash your Mega Spell for a killing blow of fantastic magical power!

At the moment the game only includes a skirmish PvP mode, with a single player and co-op story mode coming down the pipeline, but there's plenty of variety as this is one of the few games I know of that allows for 3-way, 4-way and 2v2 battles.

I go by 'Wraith' in the matchmaker too, and I'd look forward to seeing some other Playgrounders seeking arcane glory in the realms of Chaos. :smallbiggrin:

Ooh, this made it to Early Access? I may need to break my rule about not playing EA stuff...

How faithful is it to the original? I'm surprised that from your description there's only 4 player multiplayer since the original had I think 8 people. Are there still Illusions? Online Multiplayer would make those easier to use...I remember when I played it we had the other players hide their eyes except for when it was their turn, so you couldn't tell whether a spell was real or not. Still have fond memories of my cousin successfully summoning a Golden Dragon very early in the game, and laughing evilly as it was hit by a volley of failed "Disbelieve" spells the following turn.

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Originally Posted by Rodin

How faithful is it to the original?

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There are precious few differences so far;

• Multiplayer is so far only 4-way. I don't know for certain if there are plans to increase that, but by the sounds of things they will do so, will also add "clans" for tournament and 'ranked' play AND will add a single-player story mode to boot.
• Battlefields now have a vertical component as well as lateral - there are hills and 'cliffs' that you cannot always walk straight over, which makes navigation something to think about.
• By killing enemy creatures and mages, discarding unwanted spells and picking up "mana sprites" from the arena floor, you gain Mana Points. These can be used as a limited resource to increase the chance of successfully casting a spell, rather than relying on the basic dice roll.
• All Mages now start the match with one of five randomly assigned Staffs which gives them access to a Mega-Spell, which have a powerful effect and are always 100% to cast, however you first need 60 mana to add it to your spell pool. I like this mechanic, as it forces you to decide between casting all your spells or budgeting for one powerful, probably game-winning special one.

Otherwise, yes and yes. Most of the old spells are still there - though the only one that I can think of that is absent is Summon: Pegasus, and at present there is only one colour of Dragon available - and they can be cast as illusions. Just be aware that there are still some balancing issues - I've played about a dozen or so games so far, and a significant number of them have ended by someone being Magic Bolt'd in the face within the first 3 turns....