You can use magical tornadoes to launch rocks across the screen, or attach a grappling hook to one enemy and yank them into another to cause a rather comical double-stun. If an enemy is hiding behind a tree, a sturdy boot to the trunk will knock it down, crush the hapless sod, and, if it survives, it’ll suffer from a serious case of dizzies. On a basic level, cover becomes a hazard. This system gets recycled constantly for a reason, and that’s because it’s pretty damn swanky.įort Triumph mixes things up with the use of physics and the manipulation of said laws. There is even a disproportionate amount of chest-high terrain to hide behind to help you dodge arrows and magic missiles. Each character has several Action Points and they use them to move around, hit things, and use abilities. On the surface, the combat on offer is quite literally ‘fantasy X-Com’. To its credit, it shines brighter and longer than everything else. By the time I was able to go toe-to-toe with these brutes, I had already completed the Act, and fighting them seemed pointless.įighting is where Fort Triumph truly shines, even if, like everything else, it is only for a little while. This was especially true when some of these encounters pitted you against seemingly impossible odds. There is very little to find outside of gold and combat, and the odd magic trinket or arcane encounter did little to spur me to action. Part of the genre’s appeal is the somewhat addictive nature of uncovering stuff in this phase of the game, and Fort Triumph manages to pull it off to some extent, but like with the story, something is a bit off here. The game underplays the importance of this system in the tutorial, but success is almost always down to a mixture of map maneuvering and town tinkering. Want to move further? The town has you covered. Feel like your dudes aren’t doing enough damage? Upgrade your town. Towns essentially act as buff dispensaries and hero farms. Speaking of towns, Fort Triumph dabbles in some light town-building. As the Acts tick along, you will also encounter roaming enemy parties who can and will, steal your stuff and ransack your town, which keeps you on your toes and encourages careful expansion. The main quest is also highlighted during this mode, but ignoring it and finding extra loot and EXP is something any budding explorer should endeavor to do. Your party can only go so far before they have to rest, with resting generating currency and eventually causing enemies to grow in power. You guide the physical representation of your party (or parties) throughout the wilds, encountering all kinds of enemies, dialogues, and gubbins along the way. Each campaign is split into acts, and each act takes place on a large, fogged-over, world map. The game is, for the most part, split into two distinct modes of play with a side dish consisting of catastrophically important, but easily overlooked city stuff. Needless to say, I stopped playing Fort Triumph for the cookie-cutter plot points, and instead engaged more and more with the game’s rather interesting gameplay. The game’s charm never truly fades, but it does diminish rather quickly. Each campaign will run you around-about 10 hours to boot.Īs canny as Solaris Ironfloss can be, or as entertaining as the Smouldering Soup Inn sounds, the actual story in Fort Triumph leaves an awful lot to be desired. Whether your holier-than-thou Paladin is inadvertently fueling his mage-friend’s drug addiction, or your scoundrelous ranger is smooth-talking his way out of governing some peasants, there are plenty of good times to be had. The story itself is delivered in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, and the jokes being cracked here are written well enough to evoke the occasional half-smile. Fort Triumph comes packaged with four campaigns following the exploits of various fantasy races such as Humans, Elves, and Goblins. If I was being especially kind? Adequately. Fort Triumph attempts to reinvigorate the genre whilst adding in some neat touches of its own. Whilst the big names in the genre are substantially lesser now, there are still some who remember the good old days. These games hooked me with a mixture of town management, adventuring, hero building, and turn-based combat in a way few games have. Some of my favorite PC Gaming memories as a kid came from the likes of the now-desecrated Heroes of Might and Magic series, and to a lesser extent, King’s Bounty and Age of Wonders.
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