Miasma Chronicles is a tactical role-playing recreation set in a post-apocalyptic America through which the disparity between the haves and have-nots has grown to an unfathomable diploma. The nation is dominated by The First Household; an untouchable, self-serving elite born from the ashes of huge company within the post-cataclysm world.
They have entry to a deadly robotic military and lots of superior applied sciences, and so they care not one whit concerning the little individuals who stay in small cities and villages making an attempt their greatest to make ends meet in an unforgiving panorama. That land is blighted by the miasma; a beguiling gray goo that’s each harmful and obstructive, blocking entry to sure areas whereas displaying a seemingly malevolent and lethal intelligence.
We play as Elvis, a younger mechanic from the city of Sedentary. His mom left him within the care of his robotic brother Diggs earlier than disappearing into the evening and now Elvis desires to trace her down. The issue is that so as to do this he’ll have to breach a miasma wall on the outskirts of city. And so Elvis should learn to break and finally management the miasma, destroy the wall, and enterprise forth into what stays of America past.
Alongside the best way Elvis and Diggs will meet a handful of different characters that may be a part of their social gathering, and every comes with their very own backstories, secrets and techniques, and notable flaws. It is the basic ragtag bunch, banding collectively for a typical purpose, not essentially altruistic and even first rate however fascinating nonetheless. Their dialogue will possible make you wince now and again and the one-liners miss greater than they hit, however for what it is price we did discover them endearing in their very own, embarrassing-little-brother sorta means.
The digital camera views the motion from an elevated place as you wander round every city or wasteland you go to, speaking to different characters, and exploring the world on the lookout for loot like ammo, well being potions, and sometimes weapons or upgrades. There are secrets and techniques to search out, gentle puzzles to unravel, and aspect quests to partake in.
The meat and potatoes of the sport is the tactical turn-based fight, which is the place Miasma Chronicles shines brightest. Every of your heroes will get two motion factors per flip, and so they can use these to maneuver place to get into higher cowl, reload if obligatory, use an merchandise, or assault an enemy. Assaults have a share likelihood to land based mostly on how distant you might be from the goal and whether or not or not they’re in efficient cowl, and there is a smaller share likelihood that you would land a important hit for further harm, all helpfully displayed earlier than you’re taking the shot.
Like all good tactical role-playing video games, the enjoyment of Miasma Chronicles lies in planning out your strikes and watching them unfold with lethal precision whereas avoiding retaliation by consciousness of your environment. On this regard, Miasma Chronicles is generally rewarding, with difficult encounters and an array of helpful expertise for every social gathering member which can be unlocked as you progress. There are some combat-related niggles, primarily to do with a number of cheaper feeling enemies in the direction of the tip of the sport, and occasional glitches that frustrate after they break the move of battle.
One of many coolest choices you could have within the recreation is to ambush enemies, getting your characters into advantageous positions, and even wiping them out by stealth kills with out going through a single retaliatory shot. With a silenced sniper rifle, some distractions to peel enemies away from their buddies, and little little bit of luck you may take numerous issues out of the equation and even keep away from fight fully, and we discovered this extremely rewarding each time we pulled it off.
There are additionally expertise that utilise the miasma to consider. Sure characters are capable of management the miasma for particular assaults, and utilizing these can flip the tide of battle in fascinating and sometimes spectacular methods. Our favorite was the power to conjure a barrel filled with explosives out of skinny air, which may be positioned in the midst of a bunch of enemies earlier than capturing it for hellish harm.
Miasma Chronicles is an often stunning recreation. Animations are much less convincing, notably in cutscenes, however the locales and characters are well-realised and properly rendered. The heroes are additionally distinct of their designs, from Elvis’ junkyard-rockstar-chic to a head in a jar controlling a big, robotic body.
Whereas the characters are visually effectively designed and charming in their very own means, broadly talking, their storylines and the general story that the sport tells are just a little disappointing. There are revelations and twists and secrets and techniques are revealed, however none of them carry a lot weight as a result of the story ends simply because it’s getting fascinating, and there is not sufficient time dedicated to growing any specific narrative beat over the 25-30 hour taking part in time.
Miasama Chronicles seems like the primary a part of a a lot bigger narrative, and which may actually be the plan, however as a standalone piece we had been left perplexed by the rushed nature of the late recreation plot developments. Worse nonetheless are the technical points we skilled taking part in the sport, and whereas the day one patch appears to have corrected probably the most catastrophic issues that plagued our preliminary playthrough, we solely had one endgame save accessible to check it with, so it’d pay to attend just a little when you’re hesitant about a purchase order.
All through Miasma Chronicles, some traces of dialogue refused to play in any respect and so subtitles had been required always to know what was taking place. There have been weird animation points the place characters would repeatedly sit down and arise throughout conversations for no obvious purpose. We additionally bumped into issues when making an attempt to get out of canopy, as on quite a few events our heroes half-phased into waist-high partitions and could not get out of them.
Essentially the most egregious issues we got here up in opposition to came about within the remaining battle, through which the sport crashed repeatedly after we carried out sure actions. It might crash if we hit particular enemies with grenades however would proceed unabated if we shot them or used different expertise. One spectacular error we found meant that the sport would crash if we cycled by the menu to the precise, nevertheless it was high quality if we had been shifting to the left.
We managed to muddle by that battle by studying the foundations of what crashed the sport and what did not throughout two or three hours, however we might be mendacity if we mentioned it did not bitter the expertise for us considerably. That mentioned, after reloading that very same battle post-update we did not face the identical issues. Whereas we would not essentially give the sport a clear invoice of well being simply but, the largest technical mishaps do appear to have been rectified.
