Urtuk The Desolation

Brilliant game. This games crime was it was ahead of its time. Some great idea's and mechanics that are only just starting to appear in games of this type today.
A massively underrated gem. The graphics and animations are something to behold, sound and music are good too.
One that belongs in every turn based strategy fans library.
I played the paint off this game when I bought it on GoG. I also bought it on Steam to support the dev's.

Really good game with a lot of depth and build flexibility. I usually tend to save scum, but this time I played on Ironman mode because it felt like the game would be more fun that way and I was right. I’ve only had to restart once so far, and that was early on when I didn’t fully understand the mechanics.

It’s also not as punishing as some other games in the genre. If a character “dies” during a mission, they’re not gone for good they just become injured. At that point, you can either heal them and wait until they recover, or keep using them while risking permanent loss. The game strikes a nice balance where mistakes are allowed without being overly harsh.

One thing to keep in mind is that it’s still possible to soft-lock yourself, even if you save scum. If you progress with a poorly built team or bad synergy, you might eventually hit a wall where you can’t beat enemies in later zones.

Lastly, a really big downside is how the game handles new party members in the later stages. When you recruit someone new, it takes a long time to get them up to the same strength as your existing team. Because of that, you rarely feel incentivized to switch out characters, which can limit experimentation.

This is a soft recommendation. The different "classes" work well together and the combat mechanics are interesting, but there's a lot of randomness when it comes to the mutators (which you need to get powerful), the node-based movement system on the map is very limiting, and each of the 4 maps are essentially identical so it becomes tiring when you get to the 3rd/4th map. I soldiered on till the end but I couldn't defeat the final boss, and I just don't have the urge to grind to higher levels at this point. If the game was just 2-3 maps instead of 4, and therefore a more focused experience it would have been better in my opinion. Still, it was fun whilst it lasted.

If you like turn-based strategy games, Urtuk is worth a try. It is all just battles and planning, wasting little time with stories and build-up; which was a breath of fresh air at first, but then in the late game I started missing a stronger narrative. The combat is a lot of fun and the learning curve was hearty enough. I may yet return to give an honest try to the hardest difficulty one day - and would definitely keep my eyes out for a sequel as the mechanics were pretty enjoyable throughout.
Cost compared to time played: well worth it :)

I hesitated to get this game because I was not a fan of the art style reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon (which I don't like as well), so I was thinking this was another simplistic turn based copycat of DD made in an afternoon with Unity (it is not made with Unity btw).
Anyway I was terribly wrong because this is a totally different beast compared those type of games, there are a lot of things going on here and it is much more serious than I expected, it requires a functioning brain at all times and it is amazing.
Be prepared to be wiped out often, this is a difficult and addictive game where the more you think about your turn, the more strategies to approach the fight come to mind, some encounters are pain in the rear especially those with boiling ground expanding.

Fun.
With very many factions and different tactics this game is fun for many hours.

Real fun yeeting 99 percent of enemies into death pits.
Really needs a cloud save system though, i dont want to unlock everything all over again.