Thea: The Awakening

A potent mix of slavic mythology, a weird card game and “we have civilization at home..” makes for a highly addictive brew!
First of all, just to make it abundantly clear. I love Thea! This game is a great example of a project that really shows how much care and love the developers poured into it and even though it stumbles on a few aspects. Personally I really enjoyed my travels in the weird otherworldly lands of Thea where you encounter orcs, goblins and rusalkas while trying to survive in the strange world of Thea after a cataclysmic event seeped darkness into the fabric of reality. You are a small gathering of people following one of the gods of the Slavic pantheon trying to eke out a meager existence in a world filled with strife while simultaneously figuring out what is happening in the world..
The slowly emerging storyline in Thea combined with the rich slavic folklore is what hooked me to the game in the first play and even if I found the rather weird card driven gameplay surrounding “challenges”, as in everything from diplomacy to combat, unintuitive at first I quickly warmed to it. The larger gameplay is a weird 4x style of game where you have one settlement that you leave to go on expeditions with your best and brightest. There are tons of different classes to discover and as your village grows you will strengthen it with lone stragglers seeking refuge, weird monsters moving into your granary as well as babies found in the cabbage field.
The exploration and discovery of the world of Thea is what makes this world pop to life. On your travels gathering raw material and food to keep your village alive you encounter beasts, monsters and wanderers as well as landmarks and other points of interest that further the story bit by bit. This combination of resource management, exploration and quasi-roleplaying breathes life into the characters and makes you care about their trials and tribulations.
In the end this is a hearty recommendation to anyone vaguely interested in the slavic civilization premise. Thea: The Awakening is a great game for players looking for a great yet different 4X game that really wants to tell you a story with an excellent mystical atmosphere! If you are into mythology and folklore, this gets even more mileage since the slavic mythology is one that could really need more love, and this game really makes you appreciate the depth and richness that it holds.

100% complete as of 20 minutes ago.

This game has been sitting in my inventory for a while, and truthfully, I'm glad to have played through it. Some of the achievements are boring and grindy, but the vast majority you get from just playing.

It's a game that's fun for a few runs (and the runs can be long, most take around 400 rounds to finish a Giants Ending) but quickly burns out after a few play-throughs. By the time I was done, I was quickly becoming bored - but now that I have finished, I am glad to have played it.

This is a hidden gem. The individual components of the gameplay are well-crafted, and feature inventive twists on what is usually seen in these sort of games. They function smoothly together and make for an original experience.
I'm not normally one to get into crafting, but the variety of recipes and the tangible effect of the multitude of variations kept even me engrossed. Add in enjoyable party management, solid (often amusing) writing and a granular difficulty system, and it was enough to bring me back for multiple playthroughs - something I rarely do these days.

this and its sequel are two of my favourite games. if you play civ but start way more games than you finish you are going to love this game

How have I just got around to playing this?
They've taken elements of city builders and card games then mixed in a bit of strategy with just a dash of exploration and rolled it all into a rogue-lite that not only works, but all the parts come together to make one really addictive whole!
If your into any of the genres mentioned, I'd strongly suggest you give this one a shot!

Maybe it's the blend of Slavic folklore with the gritty dark fantasy art or the choose-your-own-adventure style encounter format, but something about Thea keeps me coming back to play all these years later. Here's the best parts of what this game has to offer:

1. Gritty, dark fantasy-style artwork drawing from Slavic folklore
2. Narrated gameplay similar to having a game master or DM narrate your ttrpg choices
3. Replayability using different strategies, tech-tree choices, resources & deity perks
4. Unique dialogue / encounter options depending on group composition, deity choice, previous encounters
5. Interesting combat / conflict resolution via card game where the cards represent your characters

The downsides of this game:
1. Fairly limited for village simulation / management options, limited to one village
2. Combat / conflict encounters can be difficult at first, but can become trivial when using certain strategies
3. The music is fantastic, but limited tracks so the music repeats a lot
4. There are some encounters where the text is not narrated (or the game fails to play the narrators lines)

All in all, Thea: The Awakening is a reasonably solid game considering its age. Worth giving a try if you enjoy hybrid strategy / simulation games with a dash of rpg-style mechanics and dark fantasy overtones.

An exceptional turn-based game design, easily in my top 25 of games. The combat system is simple and brilliant.