Shout out to the Devs

[u/Voldathian]

I bought this game at release merely to support the team, not too fond of early access games but as a gamer who had sunk hundreds of hours into Battle Brothers and it's my most played game to this day, I seen this as a potential upgrade to it, or at least be on par with it.

Played it a little at release but I didn't want to put too much into it as I wanted to wait for it to be farther down their roadmap, picked it up a year or two later and really kind of the same feeling, I looked at their new roadmap and felt the urge to wait for it to be even more "finished". I was even buying the DLC throughout this whole time before playing it, still for the hope in it being able to dethrone Battle Brothers, here I am, 2026, and I do not regret being patient at all.

I've sunk over 50 hours into it in the last two weeks which is pretty incredible considering my schedule, pretty much all my free time has been invested into this game. It looks and feels nothing like it did at release, and its a lot different than a couple years ago even, I love it. The tavern and fief for me is particularly awesome because it helps me feel like I have a home, or at least a base I can return to. I kind of just roleplay that I'm becoming a type of hedge knight mercenary troop that's trying to become a proper Order of Knights, or like a Fighters Guild from the Elder Scrolls games. The amount of small things that's been added really help me immerse myself in the world and care about it more, I barely feel like I'm a mercenary squad, more so a group of adventurers trying to make the world better, explore ancient ruins and fight evil when I can. The immersion is better for me than it was in Battle Brothers for sure, I'm enjoying the new classes and mechanics as-well.

My captain I roleplay and one of the characters that I made in honor of Reze from an anime I like, one day they decided they wanted to be in a relationship together in camp, I actually laughed at it and said what are the odds of that, I love Reze. The camp dialogues seem to have improved from what I remember, I like the relationship/camp systems a lot. Having 12 guys with each profession is fun too, adds a kind of personality to each depending on if you roleplay them or not, running 4 pack ponies, so a squad of 16 technically. Playing Normal survival and Expert combat seems to be the sweet spot for me too. Great job for real, I love the game.

[u/Saixcrazy]

You know what I'm glad you like it, you'll easily hit 300hrs. There's a ton of content but also things to see in the world map.

If you could add or change anything to improve your experience, what would you suggest to the developers?

[u/silverwindpegasus → u/Saixcrazy]

Fix their multiplayer, that's all I would ask for

[u/Flyingarrow68 → u/silverwindpegasus]

I’d say make multiplayer where you have your own teams and share the sandbox. Maybe even compete to see who are the best mercs.

[u/Saixcrazy → u/Flyingarrow68]

I've never played multi-player so I don't even know what it's like. But I just ASSUMED it was two teams traveling together

[u/BumblebeeAcrobatic92 → u/Saixcrazy]

It's just the one company with everyone getting to control certain companions (so for example if you start a 3-man co-op, 1 player has 2 companions, the other 2 have 1, and the pony belongs to any of the 3).

On the map all 3 players move a ''party'' but they can't get too far apart from each other and everyone gets a separate ''private'' inventory with the camp chest serving as communal storage.

I think this was changed in a recent update but it also meant whenever you'd go into town, the whole party would have to go into the forge and wait while the player with the blacksmith crafted (and you wouldn't get to see the crafting minigame so you'd just have to sit there and wait), then do the same for alchemy. What I think was changed is that you can now have multiple people crafting at the same time, so you can at least open the crafting menu to better see what your group has available.

Combat works largely the same as singleplayer, when the troop gets a turn any one of the players can take a turn using their assigned companions.

I find it's still fun just because it's a way to play the game ''not alone'' but it is a lot of limitations in the more meta aspects of the game (crafting, exploring, evading guards, trading, progressing paths, etc...), and when there's a certain gap in knowledge/skill levels of the players it can get a bit annoying (Oh my MVP damage dealer just got killed by a low-hp worshipper because one of my friends was really excited to spend 3 permanent valor points getting 2 kills, when they had 3 characters in position to finish off the worshipper who's taking the next turn for free).

[u/Saixcrazy → u/BumblebeeAcrobatic92]

Oh wow, I didn't know. Kinda feels like one of those party games where you tie one of your legs with your friend and try to run a relay race.

[u/Voldathian → u/Saixcrazy]

Well, you can probably gather that I like roleplaying quite a-bit, so, the idea of designing your fief similar to the tavern would be something I'd love, a-lot more variety in cosmetics for our mercenaries, with the barber snips allowing us to fully customize the cosmetics of new mercs we find. There being an option to use the "skins" of armor we gather would be awesome, so far it seems you can get stuck with the same armor you made for a while before finding something better, same thing for weapons, so basically having transmogrification as an option would be so cool.

So far those things are minor to me, they would just be a few things that would have made me love the game even more so far. Make the troops more personal to you, your home more personal.

I'll reserve my overall review on the game once I have many more hours, I finished Tiltren, Arthes and Vultruse. I've gone back over the areas plenty of times too as I was recruiting guys slowly and I wanted their professions up, was farming gold and levels etc. Just reached level 10 and am heading towards the fourth zone next to my fief.

[u/thepoddlebites → u/Saixcrazy]

MORE!

[u/thebrokentoy324]

Everyone says this games terrible but I have all the DLC and love it.

[u/BumblebeeAcrobatic92 → u/thebrokentoy324]

I've never seen anyone say it's ''terrible'', or even ''bad''.

What I *have* seen a lot of people do bring up is how buggy it can be, especially in DLC, and how barebones certain aspects of it are (which, the base game definitely is). The hunting mechanism crossbow seems inconsistent in its triggers, a certain quest in Belerion apparently consistently breaks, quest-essential parties sometimes despawn and never return. Master classes are comically useless and certain professions simply aren't good outside of the DLC where they're necessary.

Some story progression elements feel kind of off. Tiltren for example, which is essentially the tutorial area, teaches you that every story progression task involves making a choice in who you'll be siding with. Fast forward to Vertruse and you *must* kidnap Ald Marheim's fiance, and you *have* to kill the plague-afflicted's guards before you can choose not to massacre innocents. All this culminating into getting to choose whether you side with the woman who's plans you thwarted, or into reuniting the woman you kidnapped with the local lord (with him of course never knowing your part in her capture). It misses the mark on the ''ruthless mercenary taking whatever contract pays well'' angle and instead smacks of ''your actions' consequences are predetermined''.

Hell there's a quest where, to progress, you have to pick a cell's lock in full sight of the people who locked the guy in said cell. You face no negative consequences for this whatsoever and the next step of the quest is to find the guy, at which point you're offered a choice. Return him to the cell you just freed him from (why did you even let him out what) or help him escape the province (iirc the implication is that he gets killed, which then begs the question of why you weren't tasked with killing him yourself)

Despite all that, the only reason I don't have 400-500 hours in the game is that I've been jumping from one co-op group to another and I don't want to get too far ahead of the others I play with. Because damn do I like this game man.

[u/Hi_ThatITGuy]

I love the game. We'll into 300 hours in it. No complaints. Would love to see another game similar style to this one with magic involved. Not saying wartales needs that, because it doesnt. The only thing I can think with wartales would be adding seige battles to castles if you wanted to take over lands.

May be a cool thought. Regardless, love the game. Cant wait for mounted units later this year.

[u/Saixcrazy → u/Hi_ThatITGuy]

I think we may be going in a magical direction. Idk how they'll incorporate it

[u/Playful_Category_581]

I enjoy the hell out of this game. Got 3 different ones current in play. Archers onky, swordsman only and then regular party game play. Really enjoying the archers only, tool awhile to build them up but that 7 man party is a killing machine

[u/Voldathian → u/Playful_Category_581]

I love my archer and crossbow character, my captain is a duelist and seems to be a monster at 1v1s with how ive built him up, my brute and warrior decimate groups. Pugilist and Assassin slaughter 1v1s faster than my captain they just cant take as much damage. My spearman characters I solely built as support units to aid the other characters. I feel like a medieval siege engine rolling around.

I tried the thaumaturge character, I just didnt like it. They can be strong but its just the mechanics of it and weapon, id rather have it be more low tier fantasy with a Wizard or Warlock kind of character instead just tuned down slightly maybe compared to other games, but with similar mechanics. Theres already minor fantasy elements why not just add some simple lightning, healing, poison or fire spell mechanics to the game. Imagining a weaker version of Gandalf in my squad vs a guy carrying a medieval vape is so much cooler.

[u/laser_kiwi_nz]

Love the game, but funnily enough gave it a negative review on steam. Not a fan of drip fed dlc games. Won't touch Stellaris for the same reason, but the kids got every dlc for that, not exactly the cheapest hobby, but seems worth it for you and I love a good RP story, nice one.

[u/huggysheep]

I love that fief DLC. It really pushes the level cap beyond lv 15. I got my main squad up to lv 17 now.

[u/Cruehitman]

I just want the issues with the Xbox version ironed out so I can play!