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Review - Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground... Snore Fest

 

Image credit: Gasket Games

Warhammer games are a dime a dozen, and oftentimes that quantity sacrifices some quality. Are they ever going to be the worst games you've ever played? Probably not. But with so many developers doing their own spins out of the universe we're bound to see some garbage in the pile.
    Storm Ground takes place in the Age of Sigmar realm of Warhammer lore. It gives you the option to go through three different campaigns with various interactions along the way-no run is going to be exactly like another-to get to a final boss after perhaps a couple hours of playtime. You start in the Celestant campaign, taking down ghostly haunts and ghastly maggotkin of Nurgle on your way to defeat the Lady of Ashes.

The Good

One of the best parts of this game is the fact that it's set up on a hexagonal grid. Hex grids are pleasant to play on because they allow a little bit more freedom of movement. It doesn't feel so constricted and weird when pursuing an enemy, whereas that could easily be the case in games set up with squares. Six is often better than four.
    The gameplay system does work in more ways than just the formations found on the grid, however. Tribute points help to level up heroes or more minor units in the formation to make them more formidable. Having to wait for certain thresholds before inviting those fellow units to join your hero also plays an important role in the tactical aspect of things. Then you also have the generic roles that help to flesh out those tactics. Tanks, artillery, hybrids, and scouts all play vital roles in each individual battle across a run.

The Bad

Well. That just about covers everything good to say.
    The visuals are awkward and audio is forgettable. The actual visual set up of the characters combined with the angling, and lack of being able to really maneuver that angling around, makes it incredibly difficult to even really see the details I'm used to in a strategy game. That's disappointing. It really wouldn't have taken much for Gasket to give us some freedom of movement there. Any songs in the game weren't enough to remember, and I think it might have been possible there weren't any at all. I honestly can't recall. That's not a good sign.
    A clumsy attempt at a story is found in the game. It can be skipped pretty easily to just get to the actual tactical components, but I usually really enjoy learning more about the worlds that I'm playing in. Not so much in Storm Ground. What is there is very little, and the borefest that results from the heroes' bravado pre-combat is laughable at best.

Oof

They can't all be winners. At least I got it on sale.
4/10
Worse than Most
Not everything has the budget Gasket had here, but there's a way to still make the most of it.

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