Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure (Chess) Reviews

wouldnt work without setting the page file to 12gb. I have 6gb of ram with ryzen integrated graphics. game is fun. I thought at first that since you werent introduced to all the pieces that the game was for beginners. not really. its actually harder than games like final fantasy tactics and although im not sure if moves like en passant work at the beginning of the campaign. the game sets up interesting challenges that make you practice offensive chess. if you want an engaging chess game without having to worry about what pieces do what. the adventure mode is for you.

I don't like chess, but I gave it a chance anyway because it was on sale. One mission after the tutorial, basically the first mission, I get an impossible chess puzzle. You can't win logically, you have to beat the level by moving in a particular order so the a.i. moves to a spot that makes no sense. There is no guide for this level, videos of people playing online get a different first true level. Even for a guy who doesn't like chess I expected more from campaign mode.

Absolutely needs an undo last move button. Wasted hours because I was doing well and made like one mistake and had to do the whole level again. Kind of ridiculous. And way too difficult. Would you believe that the average layman (what most people playing your are) is not in fact a 2400 rated chess master, which is about what you need to be to beat this shit.

[b][u]TL;DR[/u][/b] A game of chess and chess-puzzles, with an extremely high-cliché fantasy theme. Quite engaging, highly-polished and very enjoyable. [b][u]Full Review[/u][/b] I discovered this title by accident, but wow... what a surprise! I quite like chess, but it does tend to be a) quite clinical and b) too difficult. This game, however, fixes that! [i]Chessaria[/i] comes with a quick-play mode against the computer with a few chess variants (standard chess, plus some asymmetric variants and other unusual scenarios). It also has a multiplayer mode, that lets you play against friends online. And then there is the "Adventure" (the single-player campaign). The Adventure takes you on a journey through the land, and presents 100 varied and engaging chess puzzles (and the occasional full game of chess). You can also play standard chess with it and you can also match-up multiplayer with a friend online, which is neat. Online games can be of different variants too, such as capture the treasure or reach objective squares, so it is not just online chess per se. Also, by playing the Adventure campaign you can unlock new boards (that is, unlock new graphics and animations). [b][u]High Fantasy[/u][/b] I said the setting is high-cliché fantasy. And I mean seriously high-cliché, where the long-forgotten elven kingdom is beset by orcs and epic music, and you need to lead your small band of heros (chess pieces) to unravel the mysterious mystery, defeat the evil adversaries (also chess peices) and bring freedom and justice and even more epic music to the realm once more! The single-player campaign is a set of chess puzzles. Or, more accurately, puzzles with chess pieces. There are quirks, like blocked squares, traps, hidden items, objective squares, etc.. Check out the videos on the Steam store page and you'll get the idea. If you are an ultra-purist chess player, you'll end up rolling your eyes or rage-quitting in disgust. However if you enjoy classic fantasy and intruiging "out-of-the-box" puzzles, then you'll have a lot of fun. So, yes, this is a fantasy setting with dragons, high elves, foul orcs and all the other usuals. Everything is exaggerated, but this adds to the lighthearted nature. The chess pieces become the characters, which range from naïve elvish footsoldiers to the faerie queen to orcish warlords. Some of the names are a play on words or chess terms (aren't they, Fid?). Some seem to subtly poke fun (e.g. female bishops). Animations are sanitised and there is no blood or gore (destroyed pieces fade into faerie dust) and the language is tame, making it suitable for a somewhat younger audience (although, that said, some of the females are quite scantily clad). There is occasional voice acting and it is also cliché, but in a good way. I found myself warming to the characters and their quirky ways. [b][u]Strong points[/u][/b] Overall, [i]Chessaria[/i] is great, but there are some things which are particularly classy. Primarily, the game itself is pretty slick. I encountered only 1 bug during 50 hours of playtime, and the developers responded to it promptly when I reported it. It is very smooth and reliable. The attention to detail in the graphics is gorgeous and the animations are cute. The detail that has gone into the surrounding scenery is impressive and really helps add to the atmosphere. The developers certainly didn't stop trying when they reached square H8. There is plenty of off-board scenery, from vegetation and architecture and even fish swimming in the nearby water. It adds to the ambience of the single-player games, and makes the Adventure campaign feel like a true journey... even though you are on chess boards. The music is superb. Normally, I don't like music and I normally switch off in-game music. However, this time it stayed on throughout the entire campaign. It is atmospheric, not too intrusive, and really suits the theme and setting well. The gameplay is great. There are chess games and puzzles, but sometimes there are unexpected features, such as changed roles, hidden items, obstacles, multi-square pieces and other charming features. I will not list some of the best ones... as the surprise factor is part of the delight in encountering them. In any case, it was varied and exciting and great fun. [b][u]Criticisms[/u][/b] I have two main criticisms. The first of these is that the Steam achievements do not work. Sometimes you can get the wrong one, sometimes they are late, sometimes they simply do not activate. This is frustrating and seriously detracts from the replayability of some parts of the game. I [i]really[/i] wish the developers would deal with this! The other problem is the multiplayer setup. Although you can play against a human opponent, unless you already know someone, there is no "multiplayer lobby" where you can hang out and wait for a random stranger to challenge. A couple of other things would be nice, but are not essential. A mission editor to let you build your own games/puzzles would be appreciated. Ditto for a campaign editor. Also some more variation in some of the animations would be good. There is no warning if you are in check either, which can be a shock when your king is suddenly fireballed off the board! [b][u]Difficulty[/u][/b] A big factor with chess is how hard it is. I am a weak chess player. I know the rules and a few basics (forks, pins, and the relative value of pieces) and I found the AI a nice match to my skill levels. Clever enough not to make stupid mistakes, but not Kasparov-grade either so that the game is impossible. The computer doesn't take long in making its move, so it is not tedious waiting for it. It took me about 40 hours to get through the Adventure campaign. Some levels I blitzed through, but others required multiple attempts. I got some tips to help me through a couple of levels, but it was eminently doable. For the single stand-alone games, you can set the AI difficulty from very easy to insanely difficult (well, by my standard at least). For a newcomer to chess, or perhaps a younger player, I think the developers have pitched it really well. [b][u]Conclusion[/u][/b] If you like chess and, especially, chess puzzles then you will enjoy the game play. Of course, it is extremely high-cliché fantasy in its setting, but I found this light, enjoyable and lots of fun. Although there are a few deficiencies, I would definitely recommend it.

Myself and a friend purchased this game for cross-platform play (pc-mac) and although it is indeed capable of that there are a few problems which I feel I should warn people about. First I'd like to go over the positives: - The single player adventure mode is good fun and the puzzles are fresh and inventive. - There was clearly a lot of effort put into the art work and models which are both great. - The cross-platform play works as advertised. - There are several multi-player game modes which is a nice addition to regular chess. However that is pretty much it. Next I'd like to discuss the negatives: - The first thing I feel I need to point out is how taxing this game is to run. My friend who also purchased the game as I say has a good Mac and I have medium spec gaming laptop (the ram, CPU and graphic specs of our machines were all well above the recommended specs for the game). When running Chessaria it made both of our machines overheat to unacceptable levels within 10 minutes of being open. As a point of reference - it made my laptop go up to 94 degrees, which is hotter than it gets after 3 hours of Unreal Engine 4. My friend had to install specific software to limit the performance consumption of Chessaria (though that caused it to run less smoothly) and I had to edit power settings to force it to only run off one of my computer cores. And even after this it still takes my laptop up to 75 degrees. So just be aware if you want to get Chessaria that there is some sort of performance issue. - There are a few design choices in terms of gameplay which I found a little questionable. Though they are mostly just small quality of life things I will list a few here. > The game doesn't display taken pieces during a game. > There is no 'undo move' option in single player. > There is often some kind of syncing issue with steam friends list which means friends names don't display in the multiplayer set up area. - Though the multiplayer has a few alternate chess variants most of them are unfortunately not very good/quite badly balanced. Only 2 or 3 of them seem worth playing. On top of this there is no customisation option to set up your own custom chess matches. Within minutes of googling if there were any free apps which allow for custom multiplayer chess games I found a free app that does just that. - This is less to do with the game itself but there is a great lack of information about it online. If you want to search for potential unlockables or update change logs you won't find any. Also some of the limited information about the game found online seems to be contradictory. Overall if you want this game so you can play solo chess puzzles through a long and detailed story mode then It may just be worth it. However if you have a low spec machine or are looking for a game to satisfy a desire to play multiplayer with your friends then I would recommend looking for a free chess app or browser game instead.

Perhaps this game gets more compelling later on, but it honestly made such a bad first impression with me that I really don't care. If you are a fan of chess, or are even just someone who is intrigued by chess, this game is not for you. This is not a chess game, and it is not going to make you any better at chess. It barely even teaches you how to play chess. Rather than teaching you any fundamentals or useful techniques, within the first dozen levels, you will have played that many tedious mobility puzzles. Most of these puzzles revolve around this moronic "civilians" mechanic, meaning that your objective will be to shamble one or two pieces all over the board, trying to keep a group of slowly advancing pawns from capturing these useless "civilian" pieces that just sit at the back of the board. Instead of discovering clever ways to use your pieces, and learning about important concepts like forks and skewers, you will be spending your time trying to figure out how to keep yourself out of zugzwang (being forced to move when you don't want to), while also putting your AI opponent in zugzwang. Holy cow, what fun... The most egregious example of how stupid this game is (in my single hour of playtime) was when I was playing one of the missions described above. I had FINALLY been given an actual handful of pieces, and though to myself, "Alright, here's where things pick up, right?" Wrong. After my first move, a fucking meteor comes down and erases half of them from the board. I wish I were making this up, but it somehow gets even worse. The opponent has a new piece on the board. "Oh, it's a king! Interesting... This is where I learn about placing the king in check to gain tempo, right?" Wrong again. The king can be captured, like any other piece, and has absolutely no aversion to it either. It was at this point that I uninstalled and requested my refund. There is absolutely nothing good about this game. It fails as a chess game because it doesn't follow the rules of chess. It fails as a puzzle game because it's just a terrible version of chess. The pacing is horrendous. The ambiance is generic and uninspired. Everything takes WAY TOO LONG, even with the attack animations disabled. It is a waste of time, and it simply isn't fun. Don't buy this game. This game sucks.

Chessaria is a very enjoyable game by itself, but coupled with the game of chess not only do you have an enjoyable game you also have an incredible tool for learning strategy and abstract thinking to help improve your chess game. The game play is smooth and the graphics are beautiful. The ambient music is soothing and adds to the puzzles as you think your way through each one of the different challenges presented to you in a fantasy world environment. The concept of strategy is encouraged between each cut scene with quotes displayed in bold lettering on a black screen from notable military tacticians, philosophers, and chess grandmasters adding to the gravity of what you are really developing when you play Chessaria, a better ability to play chess.

Ignore earlier reviews. It's been upgraded. Seriously. If you want tactical depth, breadth, and challenge - even if you have zero love for or interest in "Chess" - get this. If you do love chess and you wouldn't mind some pretty colors and animation with an amazing AI - get this. If you're looking for a fantasy RPG with a decent plot, any character advancement, decent dialogue, or decent optimization... don't get this... Don't let the time on Steam fool you: I played all the way through a much earlier version. A worse version. I came back and got thoroughly wow'ed... WOW have these devs (a) listened to reviewers, and (b) improved the game 100x over. Awesome job, guys - most teams don't listen like that. I have to admit, the early version was a bit embarrassing: typos everywhere, glitches, mediocre AI, poor game customization, no skipping cutscenes that you've seen a thousand times because that stupid boss owns your face... All fixed and then some. The AI is *not* mediocre anymore - it mops the floor with me. That's a good thing! I feel like this is the tactical challenge I've always wanted out of e.g. Xcom and Shadowrun, but I've never been so shamelessly abused by an AI in gaming history. In other tactical games, the AI trounces you when you give it enough clear advantages: superior numbers, superior firepower, superior positioning, never genuinely superior tactics (if you are good/attentive). This game, on the other hand, takes a "chess" AI and pits it against you in tactical setups. These aren't like chess setups: they might have two rows of nothing but pawns and you have to protect "villagers" in your back with your two rooks and two bishops. There are "bosses" and unique games that use chess as a starting point, but deviate completely from the base game. Add standard RP fare (orcs, elves, princes and princesses) and staging, and you have what FEELS like a tactical RPG, PLAYS like a tactical RPG, and pummels your face in like chess. DEVS, for the love of God, I hope you hear me: Put this game ON SALE. You're charging 3x too much for it. It's not that it isn't "worth" $24, but no one's going to TRY it for $24! I'm happy with my money spent. I'll get $50 worth out of it, easy. But it LOOKS worth $8 or $9, and it's "worth a try" at that amount - under $10. You have to keep in mind that, from the outside, this sure looks like Battle Chess 2.0. (People: It's not.) No one's throwing down $24 to try a "fantasy chess game"! Get this on the front page pop-up for a Steam Sale, advertise it for 60% off for a few days, get some hype, bump it back up when you have the momentum... To everyone else, if you have the $24, go for it. Let the difficulty slide up on you (the early levels assume you don't know a thing about chess) and suddenly clock you upside the head. On that note... Maybe a difficulty setting? I'm personally enjoying the beating but my wife would like me to go to bed before 3am "after I beat this level"... I feel like my first few playthroughs of Civ5 on Deity...

Very nice game that tickles a chess players imagination. The moves are basically same as in a regular chess game, but in this game the four knights variation may actually mean that you have four knights while opponent has 20 pawns. As you can tell from this some very nice situations can occur. There are 100 levels when I write this and it took me 19 hours of play to complete the game. I am an advanced chess player but not one that would participate in any tournaments or anything. To play this you do need to apply basic chess principles like controlling the center in some puzzles and on other levels perhaps bust through from the sides. So you need to evaluate the position for weaknesses. Some tactical and strategic knowledge and skill is required to really enjoy this game. I would not recommend this game to a total noob, but if you have played some chess this is a very nice break from traditional games. For whatever reason the game seems to be resource hungry, as I have a 1080Ti but still on 3440x1440 the game was only some 80fps. I dont know what is going on there but for me the game play was of course smooth as this is a strategy game but I was surprised to see the relatively low fps, comparable to some AAA titles out there.

Chessaria is the kind of game where you would play when deciding to take a break from your conventional chess games. It comes from many different problem and solution levels. I do agree that some of the stages doesn't state their objective clearly but however, it's puzzle and problem-solving nature makes it challenging. As not all games are perfect, the developers are still working on to rectify the problems. Do give them some time and try it out. Hope this review helps!