Collectible card games with roguelike and tactical strategy elements continue to appear regularly on Steam, and their authors continue to experiment with the format. Today, the next step is the tactical experiments of the developers of Trials of Fire . What is so interesting about the game, which was called almost the best among CCGs on Polygon?
Interesting “lore”
As such, there is practically no full-fledged plot in Trials of Fire . There is a common standard disposition – everything is bad, there are enemies and monsters around, people are looking at you with hope, and now it’s your turn. And there are different quest modules (yes, as in board games), designed for different passage times, and sometimes for different heroes.
The central module, Trials of Fire itself, suggests that we will be looking for the leader of a certain settlement, who went in search of another important artifact. The rest are about the same – find components for a very necessary thing, get a relic that will save your people, save your allies, and so on. And that’s all – we recruit a group of three heroes of different classes and set off on the road to the global map.
The fact that there is only one main quest is clearly temporary.
In general, everything is superficial, it would seem. However, the game has a very elaborate “lore”. For example, you are reading a standard assignment – go there and find this and that. Hover the cursor over the name of the place, and you will be presented with four paragraphs of compact text detailing the history of the city. Point at the name of the person you need to find – and a certificate about who it is will fly out. You meet local ratmen, and you are told in detail the history of this people. And so it is constantly. As a result, reading this, you plunge deeper into what is happening.
Thank God, the Russian language was added to the game.
Flexible settings and modifications
The Trials of Fire many taken from nastolok. On the map, we move a figurine that personifies our group, and in battles, the characters are completely represented by tokens. In addition, as I said, many different quest modules are built into the game, designed for different passage times. Plus there are daily, purely combat (no quests) and seasonal challenges with their own tasks and conditions – for example, in the daily one cannot change the set of heroes chosen by the authors.
And for the main quest, the conditions allow you to flexibly customize yourself – in addition to choosing the complexity and size of the world, there are interesting modifications that can facilitate or, conversely, complicate the passage. You can, for example, make it so that armor does not give protection or that all characters deal double damage with any attack.
There are many modifiers, but you cannot enable them all at once.
Lots of classes
In any case, completing modules and challenges is useful, even if you do not win there – you earn points for the rating, characters earn experience and pass tests, which allows you to unlock new maps and classes of heroes. And if at first only the basic hunter, warrior and elementalist are open, then the alchemist, commander and others join them. In total, there are nine classes in the game, and in most cases, at the start you determine both the composition of the party and the weapon that you will take with you.
To open new classes, you need to fulfill certain conditions.
Non-linearity and important decisions
Moving around the map, we constantly come across certain events, other groups, “points of interest” and settlements. And each time you need to decide what to do – try to save someone from the same ratmen and get a new follower (I’ll talk about them later) or pass by; stand up for people who are robbed by marauders, or approach the leader of the bandits and trade profitably with him; catch the thief with the jewels by the hand, hand it over and return the stolen goods or negotiate with her; try to inspect the deserted houses / ruins with a chance to find something useful or, conversely, get into trouble. Well, and so on – there are enough options, although many begin to repeat themselves from module to module.
The map is always full of interesting places.
Many decisions have different chances that we will receive a difficult battle, a good reward, new equipment (better if epic or legendary), a pack of resources, or, conversely, one of the characters will earn a minus to health, or even gain injury. Among the latter there are even psychological ones that make them attack their own.
Some decisions require a specific character in the group.
You have to survive here
Injuries are automatically removed after defeating quest bosses, as well as while resting with the help of rare herbs – at the same time, the undermined health for food units is restored.
Injuries can accumulate.
Camping is also useful for other reasons – on vacation, you can improve equipment and cards, create or remove one of them from the deck. All this is spent on different resources and materials. And the aforementioned followers improve crafting / upgrade effects or reduce their cost. By the way, followers are also allowed to improve.
Now we obviously need to rest.
In addition, while resting for food, we restore the group’s stamina, which is spent as you move along the map. And we also need to maintain the mental state of the detachment, which decreases when we make bad decisions. And low stamina and weak morale, of course, lead to fines. So, in battles, instead of useful ones, curse cards regularly fall into your hand.
Some curses cannot even be thrown off properly.
Deep tactical capabilities
Battles in Trials of Fire are turn-based, and all attacks, techniques and actions are represented by cards. Each class has its own starting deck, where there are common and unique actions for everyone. It is clear that the hunter has more ranged attacks, the warrior has more melee attacks, and the elementalist has more magical attacks. But these are the simplest examples. After gaining new levels, they are allowed to add one new class card, but this does not expand the deck – you have to throw something out in return. And this is only the first reason for tactical reflections and decisions.
Equipment also adds new cards to the deck – this is the best way to increase it.
The second reason has to do with the fact that Willpower, which is required for most actions in combat, accumulates only when we discard. That is, in order to attack or impose a “buff”, you need to decide which of the characters and what will sacrifice. There are, of course, cards that give bonuses to the accumulation of energy under different conditions, but they are not used for free – again, you will have to discard something. Moreover, you will be allowed to complete your turn only when each of your players has a maximum of one card left. In general, think.
You often have to dump everything.
Finally, fighters don’t just stand in their places and lay out cards – they can and should move. Melee damage can only be inflicted on an enemy in an adjacent cell, and for magic and long-range attacks, you will have to come within shot range. It is also often necessary to take into account that there are always obstacles on the battlefield, such as trees and stones, that can block the shot. Other buildings do damage to everyone in the affected area.
Finally, when the fighters are next to each other and one of them attacks the enemy, the rest automatically beat him too – this is called combo attacks, and there are cards that enhance their effect. In general, you have to constantly think about movement and the correct tactical position. By discarding cards and positioning characters correctly, you can reduce the influence of randomness on what is happening.
Combo is coming!
Trials of Fire turned out to be not the best TCG, but certainly one of the most distinctive and thoughtful in terms of tactical mechanics. In this sense, it is almost hardcore – even at an average level of difficulty, it is not easy, especially in battles with bosses using their own techniques. So even if you are not particularly fond of CCGs, but adore turn-based tactics, then feel free to launch Trials of Fire – you will receive both a challenge and a feeling of deep satisfaction when you adequately answer it.
Pros: well- developed “ENT”; addictive tactical gameplay combining CCG, roguelike, turn-based battles and survival simulator; many events in which you need to make decisions; even though there are no three-dimensional models of characters here, but in general the picture is pleasing; atmospheric music.
Cons: there is practically no plot; generally primitive quests; the balance between classes still needs to be brought to mind.
