Licensed video games are funny things.
Sometimes a licence elevates a game, making it more than it would have been otherwise.
Miasma Chronicles review
The basic elements remain the same and they do provide a reasonably solid foundation.
It’s a great idea in theory, but I’m not sure how I feel about it.
As it stands, it can make the whole process a tedious chore.
Getting to the crunchy turn-based bits, I’d say they’re fine.
Everything works well enough, it’s just a format that has become overly familiar.
My main issue is that it’s a deeply ungenerous game.
Protagonist Elvis' armour-stripping ability?
Six turn cooldown, so don’t expect to be using it more than once per combat.
It doesn’t help that new skills are doled out at a glacial pace.
Each character gets one point per level up, which happens roughly once an hour.
Most skills cost two or three points, with some being even more expensive.
As I said, it’s fine and would be sufficient if the framework that surrounded it was better.
Unfortunately, that’s where Miasma Chronicles completely falls down.
At best, it’s uninspired.
The cast of characters is a massive step backwards from Mutant Year Zero.
A huge part of that game’s appeal was that your main duo were a duck and a pig.
Miasma Chronicles accessibility options
Subtitles and remappable keys.
Tutorial screens can be referred to at any time, but theyre not particularly comprehensive.
Miasma Chronicles, on the other hand, has a boy and his bot.
For the most part, they’re just crappy characters, but Diggs is a real problem.
He’s a modified mining bot, having been upgraded by Elvis' mother to serve as a protector.
He’s strong, tough, but not too smart.
At one point he mentions bling.
I mean robots.)
It would be enough to condemn a great game, and it utterly damns this one.
An unpleasant moment, though one that pales in comparison to the anti-Black racism on display.
Without Diggs, Miasma Chronicles would be okay, serviceable, middling.
A tactics game to play if you’d run out of other options and could pick it up cheaply.
With him, it’s just not worth your time at all.
