Now I really enjoy the fantasy genre, always been a massive pen and paper D&D nerd, since back in the day when people could meet face to face in groups of more than four and distances of over a meter.
However I'm more attracted to the RPG and character development aspect than strategy. Never really been a fan of the large scale turn based battles or any of that malarkey.
But recently I have found enjoyment in smaller scale Skirmish games. Particularly ones that give me a shudder of nostalgia and remind me of rolling those polyhedral dice... ahh the smell of the white crayon filling the number indents, fills my 'memba nostrils even now!
One of my favourite games of 2021 so far has been the incredible Demeo and I had a lot of fun with The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk last year and recently revisited in June for its console launch. Not to mention the incredible Wildermyth we previewed last July that now has a full release.
The problem that I have is when they try to inject humour. Whenever you think of 'funny fantasy' you immediately think of the late, great, Terry Pratchett and those are some big shoes to fill.
Naheulbeuk had a large back catalogue of written and recorded content to pull from and only just managed to pull it off (in my opinion). Fort Triumph however, falls flat.
It does it best, but the opening campaign missions had me squirming with second hand embarrassment. It was genuinely uncomfortable to sit through the dialogue and I almost switched it off there and then.,,,, but being the consummate professional I soldiered on and I am glad I did.
Under the initial wrappings of "try too hard nerd dad jokes" and cringeworthy back and forth between the characters, there is a decent game. A very decent game.
It looks good, plays well and moves along at a decent cadence. The game actively encourages you to weaponize your environment in a similar vein to games like Divinity, this at least tries to promote some out of the box thinking rather than, click character, use that same ability over and over.
It can be a little confusing at first realizing what is clicked or who is active, but you soon become acclimatized and into the swing of things. There are only 4 heroes and with a campaign duration of around 8 or 9 hours it isn't the biggest game around, but it's priced accordingly and seems the perfect length for what it is.
Fort Triumph is out now on Steam priced $19.99 and launches on the xbox store today (15th August) for $19.99
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