Thea: The Awakening - Review
Thea: The Awakening is a survival game which combines elements of colony builder, turn-based strategy and tabletop card gaming in a cohesive package. You will take on the role of a God who will direct their settlers in gathering, exploration, combat and, ultimately, survival. The game is story rich, with a lot of inspiration from Slavic mythology, and has wide and varied gameplay, allowing for a variety of play styles.
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Selecting the God you wish to play as, more become unlocked as you reach various milestones, increasing replayability |
When you start the game you are introduced to the world of Thea by a guide called Theodore. You can then choose whether to work through a fairly comprehensive tutorial, or to just go for it. Due to the deep and complex systems, particularly with the card based combat, I'd recommend going for the tutorial. Theodore tells us that Thea has become broken and that the Underworld is closed with undead roaming the Overworld.
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Our starting village with party having moved to Theodore's tower |
Through your exploration of the world, various events will take place. These can simply be conversations but can include combat and other encounters. These often have more than one way in which they can be completed depending on the skills available in your party, for example when you encounter a group of wild animals you can try to do a straight combat, but you may able be able to apply some hunting skills to prevent harm to your party. You also have the option when you have these encounters to play them out manually in the card based play, or you can have the game do the calculations and auto-resolve the encounter.
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A card based hunting encounter |
In the set-up phase, the player and computer take turns to play their cards, laying these from left to right. Once both the player and AI skip a turn without placing cards, you move to the attack phase. In this phase, the play progresses from left to right, with each card attacking the closest enemy, be that to the left or right. Don't think that by choosing not to play cards they are immune however, as damage will be dealt to cards in the hand and discard pile once cards on the battlefield are defeated. Any damage incurred during a fight encounter will be carried forward, damage received during an encounter such as a feat of strength will not be carried.
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Moving the party to a cell farther than they can reach on this turn |
Within the village there are a number of tasks you can undertake. These include gathering of whatever resources are nearby, crafting of tools, food and equipment and construction of buildings. To complete these you will need to assign people to the tasks, ensuring that you choose people with the correct skills to optimise the tasks. As time passes you will also have children in the village who will grow up to provide you with more workers and warriors. The game also features an extensive research system which allows you to access more resources, crafting recipes and buildings as you earn research points.
As something which I would not normally pick up, this has been really refreshing, although I will admit that it took me a little bit of time and a couple of failed attempts before I really got into the game. The game is extremely solid and I noticed no issues with performance or any bugs (granted it is a game that is now over 3 years old). The game is visually pleasing, although it would be nice if the cards had a bit more detail or colour rather than simply appearing as a piece of parchment with a drawing. The sound is also done very well with an atmospheric soundtrack and well executed SFX.
The game has not only spawned the recent Switch port, but also had 3 free content packs (one of which introduced multiplayer co-op) and has a sequel which entered Early Access on 30th November last year. Even at full price of £15.99 for Switch and £14.99 on Steam I would not hesitate to say that this is a great game and well worth to money asked.
Thea: The Awakening - Review
Reviewed by Parcival
on
February 06, 2019
Rating:

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