Developer: Sidereal Studio
Publisher: Sidereal Studio
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Quinterra – Preview
With countless strategy games being dumped on Steam (or any other digital storefront) every year, it’s hard to choose which game is truly worth it. There are many titles that just mimic the great ones in the genre, while others try to give their own original spin, trying to add something new to an already oversaturated market. This brings us to Quinterra, an Early Access title that tries to break loose from the usual tropes of the genre, and tries to mingle fairly easy gameplay mechanics with a roguelike experience. We did enjoy going through a few runs, but it did feel a bit shallow and very rudimentary as well.
Quinterra does already have a few blurbs of story content present in the game, but it feels somewhat redundant when actually playing. The small story bits are presented with small snippets of text which you eventually don’t pay that much attention to. Don’t get us wrong, we love that the game tries to create its own universe, but for the time being it was not able to completely grip us into exploring Quinterra’s lore; if there is any. We hope to get something slightly more cinematic in the future, even though the game may be a roguelike/roguelite. Of course, if you start new runs (which are called expeditions) often, you may end up skipping the story sequences. In the end, the game will reel in a lot of potential players with its visuals and gameplay mechanics.
We did just mention the game’s graphical quality, which is actually quite nice. You’ll be fighting on a hexagonal grid, with nicely animated tiles of floating land. When drafting land (to gain new troops in that specific match from your roster, or to gain mana), the map will slowly change. This is because the drafted land will dissipate and a new piece of land will soon be added to the map. This creates a fun additional layer of strategy, as you may create a bottleneck on the map, defending your structures or simply stopping the enemy from advancing too much if your troops are nearly dead and gone. The terrain looks quite nice, as well as the troop tokens. The UI, however, for the time being, is a bit cluttered and buggy at times. We hope this gets a proper overhaul by the time the game is ready for its full release.
The game’s offset is quite simple. You draft new units, you save up mana and materials, and you summon troops and structures. Some will have additional skills, creating small nuances to the flow of the matches at hand. If you lose, you lose morale for your troops, and when that meter runs out, it’s game over and you’ll have to restart a new procedurally generated expedition. Combat is turn-based but may feel a bit random at times, as you can summon troops anywhere on the map (provided you have enough mana) and your enemy can do the same. If the map allows it, and your enemy has enough mana, he may wipe your massive lead from the board in a single turn. You can of course also return the favor. Most matches either have the objective of killing a specific monster (or monsters) or just gaining the upper hand in a battle, until the victory bells start ringing. The game also adds more intricate mechanics by adding runes you may combine with your troops, as well as pieces of equipment you can give your champions and minions.
We did find ourselves going through that ‘just-one-more-match’ phase at a certain point, but the novelty factor soon wore off, when we noticed the flow is always nearly the same. The matches are nice, but when you start fighting a boss, to have six units on the field, and the boss character just fully heals after dealing it around ten damage, then you do find yourself getting annoyed. Especially if the match keeps going on endlessly, even though it was supposed to end after the tenth turn. It’s clear that bugs are still very much present in the game, which is also noticeable in the interface. During our tutorial for example we had a menu blocking all the actions we had to view and perform, only for us to close the game and try again.
Conclusion
As stated above, the game is still in Early Access and does have a few fun items embedded into the gameplay. Nonetheless, after a while all matches start to feel a bit ‘samey’ and it starts losing its charm. At its current price point, you are getting a fair amount of gameplay and replayability, and it also feels like it’s only the foundation of something bigger. If you’re into these rock-paper-scissors type of strategy games that pack a challenge, then this game might be interesting for you, even though some levels still feel a bit random and unfair.
Quinterra - Preview,
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