Massive Chalice - Review @ IGR

IGR has reviewed the turn based strategy RPG Massive Chalice from Double Fine Productions:

Massive Chalice – What We Think:

Developed by Double Fine through a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, Massive Chalice is a turn-based strategy RPG that combines elements of random chance, permadeath, and loads of selective breeding. As your heroic ruler delicately slurps the wisdom from a golden talking mug of sparkling water, you are to embrace the power within, forge an unstoppable empire, and bring the destructive Cadence to their knees (or lack thereof).

[...]

The Fever

Despite its few flaws and sometimes seemingly endless meandering in the fog of war, this crowd-funded strategy game really packs a punch in terms of replay value. With all the turn-based tussling, ill-advised marriages, and destructive decision making you could ask for, Massive Chalice will have you playing for hours on end.

Score: 4/5

Click to expand...

More information.

Thanks Eye!

I don't get all high scores this game got, for me this is one of the biggest disappointments this year.You would think that after years of mediocre games I learned not to put faith in Double fine but at least once I thought they will pull game worthy their glory days.

One small mistake in the score.
Probabely it's
"Score: 0,4/5" and not 4/5.

Imho it was one of the best tactics games for a long time.
The problems I had with it were:
1. Console-like Interface
2. Lack of information in interface
3. The game was too long for being played as permadeath game
4. Most of the story decisions felt rather random
5. The game didn't let you know how the final battle worked, which considering 3. was somewhat frustrating
6. Not very smooth bumps in difficulty
7. Overall it wasn't a clever decision to either make the game trivial by letting you save anytime or make the game a little bit too frustrating to make it completely permadeath due to previus mentioned flaws

besides of that, it was a great experience. The combat mechanics work great, it has a good tactical and strategical depth, and with permadeath creating quite some tension.

And while I'd give it a 4/5 as well, I disagree with the conclusion of the review. As replay value isn't something the game shines well at. I mean it's fine to replay like the first 5 hours. But the complete campaign took around 30 for me. And you don't necessarily want to replay that much as it would include a lot of "more of the same".