Wartales, a turn-based tactics role-playing game by Shiro Games, is so gritty you could use it to strip paint. In it, you control a mercenary company in a low-fantasy world overrun by bandits, wolves, and, well, pestilence. Some players could be put off by the challenging early game, in which you must march down Struggle Street while attempting to collect enough money and food to pay your workforce. That hasn’t stopped it from being popular, as Shiro boasts that it has already sold over 600,000 copies and been added to one million wishlists.
Wartales is doing well with players on Steam, who’ve given it a user rating of 91% positive over more than 13,000 reviews. Our own Rick Lane gave it a score of 83 in his Wartales review, praising its “rich and granular mechanical toybox” as well as its potential for character-driven storytelling.
“As you pootle around in your camp,” Rick wrote, “your mercs will occasionally have moments of introspection leading to a minor narrative choice. In one example, Ledric resolved to be more social with the other mercs, presumably to improve his standing with them. His efforts did make him one friend in the camp. Unfortunately, it was the pony.”
He also made sure to mention the important fact that, as well as being able to hire more mercenaries and increase the size of your camp as you go on, “You can capture and tame wild animals to fight alongside you, and each animal has its own skill tree.” The idea of leading a beast band made of bears and boars, with the minimum number of humans to tame them, seems pretty tempting. Especially since animals don’t need to be paid, just fed. It’s a practical choice, really. Wartales left early access on April 12, and is available on Steam(opens in new tab) and GOG(opens in new tab).