Krosmaster Arena

Faced with the option, most gamers would probably choose a real-time experience rather than a turn-based one, because it’s a lot more satisfying in certain ways. On the other hand, it is obvious that a great deal of depth is lost in the trade off, because you give up the time to think about most of your strategies. Hence, even if they are slightly more boring to watch, turn-based strategy games are the preferred option for hardcore fans of the genre.

Krosmaster Arena looks a lot like a board game at first, and it borrows many mechanics from the genre as well. However, it is actually an online TBS, albeit in a much more diluted form, one that maybe doesn’t scare beginners away. You can still put some basic tactics into play, and there are enough intriguing mechanics to keep you from getting bored too quickly.

The action takes place in a place called the Krosmoz, where heroes clash in epic confrontations searching for glory and money. Your task is to collect fighters and form an unbeatable team to challenge other players from all over the world. Once a team is assembled, each player takes his turn to strike and position the fighters on the board, which is split into tiles and littered with all sorts of goodies.

The combat mechanics seem simple at first, but there are some intricacies that might catch you off guard later on. Bonuses can be distributed at the beginning of each turn, such as critical damage, defense points and extra speed. Each fighter has unique skills as well, so you need to figure out which one of them would benefit the most from a particular bonus. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s enough to make every skirmish special.

From a technical point of view, there are some issues. Although the game looks nice and runs pretty smoothly in all circumstances, the camera is a pain to adjust. It is not completely mobile, which means that you can end up with horrible angles that show none of the action. Thankfully, it shouldn’t hurt the actual gameplay, because there is always one way to rotate it in order to see your fighters and make the desired moves.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the game comes with the possibility to pay actual cash in order to unlock better fighters. It is still possible to earn them through hard work, but it’s obviously not a great feeling to see someone trample all over you just because they paid and you didn’t. Hence, Krosmaster Arena can be the perfect solution to casual strategy fans, as long as you can put up with its quirks.