Sine Requie: Snake Eyes Demo

Whenever zombies enter the picture, it’s either in a modern setting like The Walking Dead, or in a fantasy setting like a D&D RPG. However, the concept is incredibly versatile, so you can include the undead in almost every kind of story, regardless of whether it takes place in the past, the future, or some kind of alternate reality. The real struggle is to make the rest of the story intriguing and enjoyable, given the fact that originality is hard to find in the genre nowadays.

Sine Requie: Snake Eyes is a survival game with RPG elements and a bit of CCG added for taste, in which you control a party of heroes as they explore the desolate landscape of a post-apocalyptic world. The action takes place in the year 1954 in Italy, and the whole country is under the strict rule of Pope Leo XIV and his templar-like subordinates. Hence, the people have to fear both the Church and the zombies that roam around their cities.

Because the game mixes so many different elements together, it can be a bit disorienting at first, but everything starts to make sense after a few minutes. You control a party of four characters, each one with different abilities and personalities. The exploration phase has you moving around the map from one location to the other in turns, and you can choose whether to move slower or faster in order to preserve vigor.

Things get a tad confusing during the combat sequences as well, but the underlying system is actually very enjoyable and polished. Thus, every character gets a turn to attempt one action, be it a melee attack, a defensive maneuver or tactical repositioning. However, the success of these actions is dictated by cards, which are randomly drawn from a deck. These cards are not what you may expect, however, because they merely tell you whether the action was successful or not.

Some other parameters decide how likely your action is to succeed, such as the distance from your target. When things go wrong, the attacks fail and you are left open to enemy attacks, not to mention the fact that weapons can jam as well. The luck factor is definitely there, which might be a bit frustrating sometimes, but then again it also makes the combat less predictable and more engaging.

Although it might require a short acclimatization period at first, Sine Requie: Snake Eyes is definitely on the right track, especially since it’s very different from most other strategy/survival games on the market. Hence, the demo is worth a shot, and we really hope that the developers keep doing a good job and release a full version sometime soon.