A brilliant and subversive take on tactical RPGs, is for the rest of us. Bravo, Double Fine. It’s easy enough to make a good game a lot of people will like. It’s not so easy to make a great game only some people will love.
One of my three favorite games, the others being FTL: Faster than Light and X Com: Enemy Within. It feels like it hits the sweet spot between these two games in terms of length and investment of time. All three create character bonds between the player and the game. All three can/are played in "Iron Man Mode." All three are fantastic. Play this game!
Really enjoying the game. Some times it feels too unfair but you cant always have things go your way. Be cautious, because 1 mistake can turn things around quickly.
Between the bloodlines, research, and combat, Massive Chalice tosses a ton to micromanage, and it can feel overwhelming. But it all builds up to a spectacular ending that makes it worthwhile and satisfying.
Massive Chalice’s personality and ingenuity ultimately win out over its shortcomings, and it’s certainly worth a try for strategy fans who don’t want anything too ponderous or serious. But its cup does not, as they say, runneth over.
Nicely done tactical strategy with solid foundations looks like a prototype of something bigger. As if the developers forgot to add more layers over the basic structure. Fans of the genre will enjoy Massive Chalice anyway, even though the gameplay mechanics do not bring anything new and move the shallowness of the content is way too visible.
A stellar example of a game that is totally not worth your time. No one will reward you for suffering through ho-hum gameplay with a well-crafted story, and there is not enough humor to make up for all the flaws.
While it is not as expansive as a $60 XCom game, for the $20 price tag, it is a nice tactics and strategy game with humor, quirk, and a lot of fun gameplay and replayability.
Definitely a solid entry into the strategy game genre, One of only 2 of the free games with gold games on the xbox one I have thought to be worth a playthrough as of yet. Graphics are not amazing considering how new it is, and there are some parts of the breeding system which make it annoying at times. There is enough enemy and friendly unit variety to make things interesting, but I do feel at times the strategy in the game doesn't have much depth.
Massive Chalice is about strategy and some management of your kingdom, not more, not **** game gives you a basic story, the rest plays out like Xcom:Enemy **** fighting is very simliar and as a person that hates the X-Com remake i certainly dont like the combat in Massive Chalice.Lets look into everything:
Visuals:At first, the game might look **** artstyle is somewhat unique, or at least you will think that if you never played older games(on PS2 for example).While the artstyle is kinda unique today its not that unique if you compare it to Stellar Deus on the PS2 for example.From a technical standpoint the game looks bad.Weapons, armor and faces are not detailed, not **** a pricetag of 20€ you can get better looking **** visuals are not everything, right?
Sound:The music and the voiceacting is **** chalice is kinda seperated into 2 persons.They speak to you or they will comment on some things, like the death of a fallen soldier or new enemys.I really like that part of the **** weapon-sounds are more or less non existent, i dont like that but many games have that problem.
Gameplay:That is the part that disappointed me the most.When you start the game you think "oh, i can do so many **** and no!In theory you can do some things.Research for **** problem is, many things serve no real **** example:You can research a bow that can pierce through multiple enemys.That feature sounds cool but its useless because somehow that weapon doesnt fit into the **** bow is too weak and some enemys have abilitys that punish you if you do not enough damage per shot.There is one enemy that has the **** hit it once, it will boost its armor and you can hit it only for 1 damage this **** need strong weapons for that enemy to kill it with 1 shot or blow.Other enemys need to be taken out quickly, like the wrinkler.They let your soldiers age with every **** would i use a weak weapon on him??Thats just an example for poor balance, there are other things that makes no sense if you really think about from a mechanical point of view.
There are other problems in the way you set up your **** fortress for example is where you breed new **** clases of the parents determine the class the kids will be at the age of 15 or **** my playthrough i got stuck with 3 classes which turned out to be overpowered because they can cloak, shoot and move a second time or they have a sneak attack that is insta death for nearly every enemy.Other classes **** compared to that(i played a second time).What i dont like about the way double fine handles the fortesssystem is that you give a fortress to 1 regent and if you appoint him/her the first time it locks in the family that can inherit that fortress.Because i lost some soldiers of that family in a tragic event i had problems to give the fortress to someone out of that **** not gamebraking but it is so much management for such a shallow game, it feels unnacessary.There are more things, but ill spare you more negative points.
Conclusion:Massive Chalice seems like an interesting game at first.Unfortunatly the game is much like X-Com a very shallow expierence.Everything is basic, nothing more.Brilliant voiceacting cant save shallow gameplay in a not so good looking game.Plus, i had crashes in every **** to save a lot because of that.I hear many of you say "its just 20€" but what i see from that game is not enough to justify 20€.Think about what you can get for that kind of **** i look on steam they got Fallout Las Vegas Ultimate Edition for the same price and i bet i can find some older games in the same genre with more depth, better looking for the same price or **** sorry, that game is not great, not good, its mediocre at **** you wait for a sale, lets say 7-10€ its okay.Dont buy it right now.
Too much **** RNG when planning out attacks and such, really annoying when you cant land hits or land 3 damage instead of the projected 23-27 damage it shows, WTF?
Never liked Double Fine games even since the days of Brutal Legend. They do a lot of marketing but the actual content is really half-assed. Don't be fooled by their hype game.
SummaryMassive Chalice is a single player turn-based tactics game within a multi-generational strategy campaign where you must unite your kingdom under a powerful dynasty as an immortal King or Queen to eliminate the demonic threat, and reforge the Massive Chalice.