Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy Reviews

At first, I thought that the bugs were the problems and that with a proper early access period, this would have been a good game. But, after playing for more time, I realized that, no, even without the plethora of bugs, this wouldnot be a good game, mostly because the AI is dumb as a rock. Well, actually, there's almost no IA : opponents don't move until you enter their aggro zone and once you do, they juste move to you and attack, that's it. You can stay in formation, activate the opponents one by one and pick them up. The lack of AI triviliazes the game. Right now, the only thrill vibe you get from the game is "will a bug eat the loot I just got or will I actually receive it after the mission ?".

Definitely worth it on a sale! PRO's - Lots of different classes and equipment - Good graphics - Heavily old school tactics based game CON's - Mediocre story - Too predictable - Can only have the characters they give you - Maps are somewhat small with nothing going on - Quite repetitive Still worthy on sale , took me 27 hours to finish the game with all achievements (which honestly were way too easy to get) Still fun to pass time

About an hour in already and I really love it. What I liked - I love the character builder system so far. Lots of choices. Quite a bit of learning by using which works great for me, I enjoy that exploration of it. Optional missions that are replayable and with some secrets to find is also quite fun. Monsters already have seemed varied and different. I enjoy that it's not all just a different color and call it good. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed the art style. The game feels like the true tactics games, with fun RPG elements in how you set up your characters. If you really like tactics games, you don't really need to read any longer, it's worth the cost. Concerns - There are a few UI aspects I wish they'd adjust, and the speed you scroll on the map you may want to change to the slowest possible as it's quite fast on any other setting. Took a little bit to get used to, but once I got things where I wanted them it was fine. The Meh - The story so far seems pretty cut and dry. You are effectively to weak to fight the big bad while they do some terrible stuff. But they let you live so you can get stronger and defeat them. (Guessing). However! This is an early thought and not only could there be a twist I haven't seen. Also, really it doesn't bother me.

Not worth the money. Super basic game. The only real strategy is the way the different characters attack so trying to position them in the beneficial way without blocking other characters movement. Levels are long and tedious just trying to get to the other side of the map. Sills max right away at level 3 and most of them suck. Then it's still really buggy. Spent 15 trying to exit out of the settings menu so I wouldn't have to play this boring plant level again for the third time. Not worth trying it again. Probably worth $6 or $7 if you get a deal but huge disappointment at $25.

This game sucks. It is painfully and over the top reddit written. If that sounds appealing to you, you should buy this game if not run. The story doesn't take itself serious, constantly undermines itself, breaks the fourth wall, and had le quirky chungus marvel quips. This story also boils down to "f u dad" and is so disjointed due to the above reasons that if there was more buried beneath that, you will not find it. Gameplay is fine, a lot of classes and the systems are fine but at some point you have played against all 10 yes only about 10 enemy types and you just want your suffering to end. As far as writing the only good thing I can say is at least none of the characters are annoying. The art is very good and why I bought the game but the good ends there. Story 0/10, writing 1/10, gameplay 6/10, art style 8/10, map design 4/10 (it was 6/10 until the last boss my god is that map annoying and easy).

I really wanted to enjoy this game, it has a nice art style and I'm a sucker for tactical RPG's. That being said this game sadly feels like a burden to play. -The dialogue is pretty horrible and cringe, what is voice acted makes me question why it was even added. -The audio is rough, even with levels set to the minimum scale of 1 it is still incredibly loud. -The controls are VERY rough on mouse and keyboard, changing to a game pad is only marginally better as while the buttons now map for easier use the manipulation of movement and attacks feel like the developers lack an understanding of basic directional sense. The fact that I obtained the Big Money achievement after only doing the first 4-5 missions, 2 of which are tutorial, and its an achievement that only 54% of players have is very alarming since that's the first 45 minutes of play.

Game itself was mediocre. Classes are "meh" and every level requires tons of walking. Here's the catch for me: Got to a level (after Galena) where the game bugged, and despite replaying a level multiple times, you get to the end, not objectives, and no monsters, but the game won't progress. Wrote support, not replies. Cannot even PLAY this game anymore if I wanted to because of bugs.

I wanted to like this one. I really did. I need another tactical RPG in my life right now. That said: it's not the tactical mechanics that turned me off on this one. Some issues: The game tells you how to play every single level so far up at least through the first major boss fight, going out of its way to re-explain mechanics that it has used multiple levels in a row. The dialogue just... look, a joke is funny once. A character's opinion is interesting a few times. Having a character tell me how reckless the tactics we're using are when we're forced into those tactics by the level design, four levels in a row, is... wearying. The options menu literally has no volume knob for sound effects, and even at the lowest for music, it is still -quite loud-. The buy menu does not let you buy items except one at a time, but encourages you to use items in a big way. It's just... a game with a lot of little flaws that have added up to a bad experience for me. Can't recommend this one, folks.

This game strongly reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Disgaea and other similar tactical RPGs, but ultimately adds nothing new to a genre. While I wouldn’t call this game bad or unplayable, it is somewhat boring and predictable. After a very short tutorial you find yourself in a caravan (hub), where player can change equipment on heroes, buy/sell things and embark on story/side missions. Story missions are occurring on different and unique grid-based maps, where you fight enemies, pick up loot and occasionally interact with environment (chests, herbs, breakable stuff) in a turn-based fashion. Side missions usually (but not always) reuse already completed story mission’s maps with new goals and enemies for some bonus rewards and can be grinded for exp/money should you desire to do so. PROS: + decent visual style + several different heroes, some variety of builds and possible strategies of playing + music is not annoying, although not very diverse CONS: - difficulty is rather easy. I played this on hard, but had 0 issues with clearing everything deathless on the 1st try, mainly because enemies on map do not react unless you walk into their aggro range. So naturally you just pick em off one by one and this is why gameplay becomes boring pretty fast – there is no real tactical depth, just same approach all the time. - no hot keys, lots of clicking to do stuff - annoying bugs. When I first opened the game I was softlocked in the options screen and had to Alt+f4 to actually play it. During side-missions you can loot “secret” chests only with main character, because otherwise the items will disappear from your inventory after you complete the mission. - college humor suitable for edgy teenagers. While I did chuckle a couple of times, the majority of dialogs, jokes and plot in general are not really mature, which doesn’t help with immersion and caring about your crew. - enemy variety is rather low TL;DR Average tactical RPG which you can buy on a sale if you don’t have better things to play…or you can skip it entirely and won’t really miss anything.

This is one of those games where it's 90% done and then the developers stopped trying for the last 10%, not dissimilar to submitting an essay for homework but forgetting to spellcheck or proofread it and it's littered with spelling mistakes. Does the game have great art? Absolutely. Gameplay? There's a fun, enjoyable loop here, but there are some questionable design decisions, such as tight spaces and allies blocking your movement path, or being unable to set the starting position of your characters. Story? Nothing remarkable and leans more towards anime-style cut scenes, but nothing where you're invested in. Where the game really suffers (the absent 10%) is the User Interface. The game is mostly done but how come you can't load games outside of the main menu? Or buy/sell multiple items? Or check your character's stats during combat? There's also some weird bugs that just shows the game lacks polish. For example, when characters level up, items you used to increase your stats are forgotten and you're left with your base stats. Same applies to items that regenerate health or mana. Another example of this is in a patch, developers introduced video settings (the game launched without this!). Unfortunately, the game doesn't remember your settings so you have to set it every time you start the game. If you can live with those shortcomings and its notably lack of polish, then it's a forgettable, fun game.