Skyshine's BEDLAM - More Reviews

Alec Meer (Rock, Paper, Shotgun) on Skyshine's BEDLAM:

Wot I Think: Skyshine's Bedlam

Skyshine's Bedlam (that awkward prefix is because a first-person shooter named Bedlam is already on Steam) is a team-based roguelike in which you drive a giant APC across a post-apocalyptic desert, getting into regular turn-based fights and trying not to run out of food and fuel. It’s out today.

A list of games which have made me swear the most:

5) Syndicate (original)
4) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
3) Mario Kart
2) Quake III: Arena
1) Bedlam

[...]

So you'll have to view my closing comments through the lens of that confession, but: I dig the way Bedlam looks and I enjoy the Chess-like restrictions of its combat, but I feel like it hasn't quite got the soul it needs. I don't feel like I’m visiting a place (or riding through it in a giant, iron-clad deathtank), but rather that I'm looking a collection of art and words created to meet a brief. Bedlam borrows so much from FTL, but doesn't manage to capture the lonely vulnerability. The character-led chattiness of The Banner Saga is absent too, with the story propelled instead by what I can only describe as flavour text.

I enjoyed Bedlam, without a doubt: it looks great, it motors along and the fights are thoughtful as well as punishing. I don't necessarily feel like I’m going to go back to it though. While it looks lovelier than FTL, it doesn’t have the drama and tension which keeps me committed to that game of endless space danger. It's the best alterna-FTL we’ve had so far, but I question whether simply being an alternative is enough. Perhaps I’ll be back to see what fresh secrets and OTT characters I can dig up from the desert once the bugs are fixed, however.

Angelo M. D'Argenio (The Escapist) has reviewed Bedlam, too:

Skyshine's Bedlam Review - Die Historic

[...] It's a good thing that battles are so incredibly fun. They run on the same engine The Banner Saga did, with a couple tweaks. Every turn you get two action points, which can be used to either move with a unit, or attack with a unit. Your units come in several varieties, including melee tanks called frontliners, short range shot gunners called trenchers, mid-range pistol wielding gunslingers, and long range snipers called deadeyes. The movement and range of these units varies wildly. Frontliners can move clear across the map, but do very little damage, while deadeyes can move one or two spaces at best and can only attack five spaces from their position, but do four times the damage of a frontliner. As I said before, it feels a lot like a tabletop miniatures game, where you do your best to position your enemy in such a way that you can spend double turns attacking with your most powerful units. It's simple at core, but individual interactions are varied and intricate.

Thanks Eye!