New dark fantasy roguelite RTS game from Age of Empires, Borderlands, and BioShock veterans lands on Steam with launch discount
Every gamer knows there is no shortage of roguelite games in the current line-up of Steam hits, but Wartorn seems to be offering a unique blend of game genres as the newly formed game studio's first outing. The studio behind Wartorn, Stray Kite Studios, is led by and features a roster of industry veterans from all corners of gaming, including BioShock, Borderlands, Age of Empires, and many many more, and the team's eclectic background seem to be showing up in its debut game.
Wartorn plot and launch discount
Wartorn follows two sisters as they embark on a journey across the war-torn continent to return to their ancestral homeland. Yara and Elani aim to harness the power of the elements — fire, water, tar, plant, and lightning — against the squadrons of rogue beasts and armed forces they encounter on their way home. Wartorn seems to rely on a mix of RTS, roguelite, and ARPG elements, requiring careful decision-making and battle tactics to make the most of each run, while success in battle and piecing together the story enable progression. Your job as the player is to recruit and command a force of myriad fantasy creatures to help you along your treacherous journey home. You will need to command your armada into position, come up with attack strategies, and find synergies to snuff out your foes, but most importantly, you will need to keep up morale among your troops.
Battle is fast-paced real-time strategy, and progression is partly handled by growing your caravan and its skills in battle, but you will also encounter characters from Yara and Elani's past who will both help you piece together the game's story and help you along with new abilities and items that will grow your military might. There are also elements of resource management baked into the larger journey.
So far, in the day since Wartorn's launch, the game has earned a relatively positive reception, with Steam reviews citing challenging combat and a rewarding learning curve. The level of polish and seamless blending of genres and mechanics also comes up as a positive frequently in the Steam reviews. Wartorn is, for better or worse, single-player, which means any replayability stems from switching things up from run to run and testing different squad compositions and ability synergies. Those same roguelite gameplay mechanics and the game's relatively low minimum system requirements make it an ideal candidate for on-the-go gaming using something like a Lenovo Legion Go (curr. $699.99 on Lenovo US).
To celebrate Wartorn's launch, the game is currently discounted by 33% to $20.09 on Steam until June 24.
