Odium (Gorky 17) Demo

Whenever the TBS genre is mentioned, it’s either Heroes or XCOM that comes to mind, since they are probably the most recognized games in this particular niche. However, there were many other great releases over the decades, including series like Disciples, Jagged Alliance, or King’s Bounty, all of which shared the same elements, more or less.

Odium (or Gorky 17 as it is also known) is a turn-based tactics game that borrows a lot of its ideas from XCOM and Jagged Alliance, although it also tops them with a bit of originality here and there. However, if you are familiar with the aforementioned titles, then you should be at home in Odium as well, because the gameplay is very similar and you can use most of the same tactics here as well.

To start off with, the story talks about a Russian laboratory build under a Polish city by the name of Lubin. NATO discovers this laboratory and decides to abandon it, only to soon find out that strange creatures have invaded the city. You get to control a team of NATO soldiers sent to contain the situation and prevent the monsters from leaving the city, using any means necessary.

The game is played in real-time while you are exploring the town, but the gameplay switches to turn-based once you enter combat. Hence, your characters can only perform a small number of actions at a time, including shooting and moving. You can either take cover and hope for the best if the positioning is not in your favor, or pull out the shotgun and take your chances by going head-to-head with the mutants.

On the other hand, you must remember that ammunition is scarce and the monsters are rather difficult to put down. Things get easier as you play along, because your characters gain experience and they can level-up to acquire better stats, but the difficulty level remains the same. Hence, every encounter must be carefully approached, otherwise you risk losing your team members.

In the end, Odium is definitely worthy of a try, especially if you enjoyed XCOM and Jagged Alliance. However, the game is not very friendly with beginners and you might have trouble making it work on a modern PC, so you need to take these factors into consideration as well.