Review to First Access v.0.85.00

Urtuk - The Desolation is a grid turn based tactical RPG with limit of 6 combatants of your own (starting with 3 of your predetermined choice) and the reserved ones that can improve weapons, armor, create medicine, train or scavenge with a risk of being injured.

The turns of characters are depending on each individual's Agility (speed), Strength affects the weapon damage, Vitality boosts health and Concentration boosts personal traits.

If any of your members falls in battle, he is injured and will die next time falling unless you use medicine, or you can exchange him for reserve. There's an interesting feature that may force you to heal your members despite keeping them outside of battle’s harm

Flanking is effective but even better is to keep higher ground advantage and keep fighters in tight spot as some objects are obstacles or create traps and slowdowns. You can hook or push enemy into deadly fall thus killing him for certain. 

Overall, game is fun with various weapon types, each having unique look as I travel different worlds, they seem to be made of local resources. Every next world provides stronger heroes with local equipment. There are few other heroes accessible later on. 

After each victory you get experience, you gain chance to choose your reward that is random after each battle and can be only picked if you accumulated enough life energy items that are common.

These rewards make traits to my heroes. You can choose 3 normal traits and 1 special per each hero, giving them bonus abilities and options to engage in battle. 

As I'm travelling across the map, I see mobile enemy groups, find many allies and others that need my help. I move one point at a time being allowed to move only to adjacent points. Some may be occupied by enemies that can ambush but most of the time, player is free to run or retreat battle, getting many chances to get better for next encounter. 

The story here is non existent. It introduces you to the world and says about it more at the end, but that is it.

There is a shop for buying better equipment, hiring new members and medicine.

Heroes also get their own achievement trait activation during fight that will grant them some bonus, e. g. higher damage vs fought type of enemies that may persist after battle. 

As mentioned before, flanking is useful, hero strikes critical or stuns. If there is a ranged hero with support trait and melee hero attacks, ranged one will shoot too. 

Hookman strikes adjacent enemy behind target enemy. He can also ram jumping few tiles ahead besides normal movement and will attack adjacent enemy trying to move away. 

Certain clubman can jump ahead besides normal movement which is great for flanking and can throw around a target without damaging it which is useful when saving ally in front line. He stuns on critical damage.

One certain hero sets damaging traps, that enemies tend to ignore and get hit hard, and marking traps which activate attack of any nearby hero reaching that spot.

Shieldman protects adjacent allies taking damage on himself, spearman can poke any approaching enemy on adjacent tiles. He also protects as shieldman.

Allies look like enemies in other battles, so you must guess which is foe. Usually the one on higher ground and with more members compared to allies. After you position your heroes and start, you know which are yours but this may mislead some into putting ranged front, however I always guessed foe position right. It just requires some visual additions since the characters are repeating themselves, ally or foe. 

Gameplay ⅘ good strategy and loot but game sometimes misleads me into engaging “easy” enemy that decimates my and allied heroes. “Hard” can be easier as it highly depends on composition of my vs enemy combatants. Ranged and pulling enemies tend to be very nasty.

Replay value 4.5/5 great weapon variety, harder enemies on further world, too often same enemies and battlefields, compositions matter and good knowledge of mechanics is crucial in succeeding later stage.

Graphics 4.5/5 rather simple, grim, bloody, characters are breathing and act lively.

Music 4/5 rather ambient music. Sounds of fights are good. 

8/10 original strategy combat mechanics blended with turn based tactical RPG. It needs few story lines and advanced dialogues to make it more memorable. Current tutorial is well described, battle dialogues are okay. 

Which games are similar to Urtuk?

Graphically: Irratus, Darkest Dungeon

Gameplay (kind of): XCOM, Divinity: OS, Civilization 6

How difficult?

Easy. Normal. Hard. Tricky.

On easy difficulty, game is very easy at start, gets little harder at the end of first world, then is much more challenging in second world.

I could keep grinding the first world so I wouldn't have much trouble in second as I do because enemies are different and trickier and they heal themselves and there are poisons harming a lot, however battlefields offer spikes and falls, so some of my handy pushers will still keep the team alive.

Third world brings even bigger challenge with high damage and self regenerating enemies.

Fourth world offers some demons and others. Then it is only about gathering strongest composition for the boss fight on each world without losing them for good.