Wartales – Review
Wartales is a grim, low-fantasy mercenary simulator that takes delight in its difficulty. It’s obstinately cryptic not just because of this, but also because it’s still in Early Access(opens in new tab). Trying to make ends meet in this gloomy environment isn’t exactly a ball of fun, what with the lack of explanations, muted hues, unhappy individuals, and brutal combat. However, one need not look far to discover a source of joy.
Most of the misfortunes that have befallen my band of unfortunate mercenaries can be traced back to Wartales’ inability to understand the game’s fundamentals, let alone its more intricate mechanisms. Early Access has not only provided some pleasant surprises, but it has also been the source of some of the worst user experiences I’ve ever had to endure. Like when I learned I could enlist the help of animals.
My group began as a bunch of regular humans on their maiden voyage. They are generally terrible at everything, but they improve significantly with each turn-based battle they win and each new item they create. They can also take non-combat classes, like as fishing or smithing, and use those abilities to produce food, equipment, and currency by bartering with local merchants. They seem to be doing okay.
Somehow, the members of my team were able to get their hands on a rope. Perhaps a dead outlaw. Many of them exist. Although I have yet to try rope climbing, I am aware that it can be used to confine animals. When I was randomly beating up some wolves, I stumbled this this. One of my mercenaries gained a new skill while one of my lupine enemies was fighting an ally. It told me I could easily knock out the wolf and then capture it. That’s the way it was, of course.
This wolf joined the pack shockingly fast, considering it had been nearly killed by a knife and then stolen. There were no negative comments about it. However, there were specific nutritional needs to be met. Food is second only to gold in importance in Wartales, which is needed for a wide variety of items including pay. Your crew will request frequent rest and snack breaks, and they will swiftly desert if their stomachs aren’t being satisfied. As the team grows, so does the quantity and variety of food it consumes. Vultures feast on carcasses. People with the plague, and it turns out cannibals, eat their own kind.
I despised having to worry about food so much during my first few days in Wartales. It’s not exactly glitzy. However, I now have an abundance of food that necessitates my selling it to itinerant merchants and local shops. I always have too much meat, too many pork chops, and too many purportedly edible rats. To help me out, I had to go out and buy a donkey. In a word, he rocks. A single wolf pack may provide you with days’ worth of food and materials that can be sold or turned into items that can be sold for even more. Now that I have a larger animal crew, I no longer worry about starvation, but I have not yet reached financial independence.
Even though I am now actively trying to transform my treasure into profits rather than relying solely on mission rewards, my earnings are soon eaten away by wages. One of the many reasons I love animals so much is that they have no concept of currency. Unfortunately, they are also clueless about tactics and instead rely on random strategies when fighting. Because of this, my small wolf pack didn’t last long. This obstacle, however, would not prevent me from pursuing my goals.
After losing my furry companions, I decided to shake things up by capturing some wild boars. One of my humans has learnt to command monsters, and while they don’t seem to be any more effective than wolves on their own, they can at least be directed towards specific targets. The pieces are beginning to fit together. Several robbers have been killed by boars. I don’t know if there’s a maximum number of creatures you can retain (I’ve only caught five so far), but if there is, I want to keep going until I do.
The problem is that they aren’t particularly effective in combat. They charge at their foes and slowly chip away at their health, using their terrible tusks but being no match for a gigantic warhammer. But I am always amused when a herd of stupid boars charges a group of bandits, knights, or wolves. The only thing left for me to do is figure out how to keep them alive for longer without armour.
Also, if you have manacles, you can capture humans and turn them over to the authorities for a reward. But I ain’t no cop, so I haven’t done anything yet. Normally, I have a pretty open moral compass when it comes to video games, but the fact that this planet has plagues and a refugee crisis makes me feel bad about being a jerk. It’s not easy, though. Rather than listening to the whiners, I decided I would do all I could to aid the refugees by keeping them safe from harm and assisting them in locating suitable housing. However, some of them have resorted to banditry and violence in order to survive, killing and stealing.
Therefore, making the moral decision in Wartales is fraught with difficulty because they exist in a morally ambiguous world. It adds some drama to the decision-making process, though I wish the choices weren’t so capricious. After agreeing to chase away a group of bandits who were robbing and killing passing tourists, I was given the opportunity to show clemency. My two options, unfortunately, were to either give the robbers something I didn’t have or to kill them. I was unable to simply abandon them. Therefore, I was forced to take the lives of some people I believed did not deserve to die.
Other than the obvious need for instructions or advice, this is the Early Access feature I’m most excited to see progress on. Wartales seems considerably more concerned in the systems themselves than the stories they may inspire, despite the fact that there are plenty of roleplaying choices, such becoming a horrible villain who steals from poor farmers, a Robin Hood-style folk hero, or merely the owner of lots of hogs.
This becomes abundantly obvious when supervising your mercenaries, none of whom have any discernible character traits. Dissonance abounds in a game in which you ostensibly play as a group of comrades, but in which anyone could quit, never to be seen again, because their wages were a day late; you can also choose a group of deserters, some bandits, and a few other starting configurations, each of which has advantages and disadvantages. I think it would be great if friendships and rivalries were included. Wartales needs more vivid prose, and not just from the mercs. At the moment, everything is just quite basic and sparse. Even if the world is dismal, the adventures and dialogues can still be interesting.
Wartales is similar to Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord in many ways, but with the added ability to take over countries and command real armies. And if you’d want something a little more intimate and focused, check out Battle Brothers, which came out in 2017 and has received a lot of love and attention ever since. There’s place for more mercenary simulations, and while this one’s off to a good start, I’d wait to join till you see how it develops.
