Fort Triumph

This is a satirical tactical RPG reminiscent of games like XCOM. It has two modes: (1) an overland view where you build up one or more fortresses and move your parties of adventurers around the map to fight enemies and gather resources, and (2) during a battle, you control a party of adventurers as they fight in turn-based combat. I played through the campaign, which was good for 20 hours of play, but didn't bother with the multiplayer or skirmish options.

THE GOOD:

• The graphics are cute and effective, reminiscent of Warcraft 3.
• The physics open up a really fun dimension of gameplay, as it creates a kind of Chess match of trying to figure out how to execute stun combos and best use your characters' limited action points.
• There is a lot to discover in the combat mechanics
• The dialogue is surprisingly great and funny.
• The plot is ridiculous but funny and interesting, and reveals a bit more depth than you would expect from what is 90% satire.

THE BAD:

• For a beginner, the game is WAY too hard on Normal difficulty, but too easy on Easy difficulty
• When your heroes level up you are presented with a limited set of options for new abilities. Many of the abilities are very bad and don't fit with your build (tank, damage, utility, etc.), but you're stuck either picking a bad ability or waiting until next level and praying for better options.
• In-between Acts you lose a lot of your progress. This seems very arbitrary and doesn't have any in-story explanation.
• Especially in the early Acts, there is little to buy in the overland map mode. Once you've bought everything, gathering more resources has little purpose—which invalidates a big part of the gameplay.
• In the campaign, you are basically obligated to have a party of 4 with one character of each class. This clashes with the fact that the mechanics allow you to mix and match things, and feels a bit arbitrary.

THE UGLY:

• The game has a weird mechanic for story missions that is not at all clearly explained. They claim that when you start the mission your highest-level character of each class will join, but what they mean is that the highest-level character of each class in that party will join. Make sure you send your best party to handle story missions!