Game News Hold the fort in upcoming turn-based tactical RPG The Way of Wrath

[Infinitron]

Tags: Animmal; The Way of Wrath

The Way of Wrath is an upcoming turn-based tactical fantasy RPG by Georgia-based indie studio Animmal. We've known about the game since April when it appeared on Steam, but I must confess that with no trailer or significant gameplay footage available I didn't pay much attention to it. Today the developers finally released a gameplay preview video and it actually looks kind of neat. In The Way of Wrath, you play as the leader of a group of survivors who are holed up in a fort in the middle of a wintry no man's land in the aftermath of a terrible war. The description might make you think the game is some sort of procedurally generated tactical fort simulator, but the video reveals something perhaps more along the lines of Expeditions: Viking. Check it out:

The Way of Wrath is a story-driven, turn-based, tactical RPG. Take charge of a ragged group of soldiers and hold a rundown fort against a merciless onslaught of an overwhelming enemy force. You will need to be ruthless, fearless, and cunning to survive what is to come.

Become a leader who can guide your people through hell. Rekindle the fighting spirit of your warriors and turn the old, ruined fort into a formidable bastion against a merciless onslaught of the overpowering enemy.

Immerse yourself in a world of mystery, superstitions, and dark rituals. Brave the cold, unforgiving no man’s land between your fort and enemy encampment. Hunt for food. Harvest materials to rebuild your fort. Recruit allies, and battle vicious enemies in brutal combat encounters.

Tests your tactical skills against battle-hardened veterans of a decade long brutal war in a fast-paced, lethal turn-based combat. Fight in handcrafted combat encounters against unique characters equipped with their own favored AI tactics, gear, and skills.

Experience a dynamic, non-linear story. Each character, friend or foe, pursues their own agendas and reacts to actions of others. Alliances will be forged and Broken. Survivors will grieve the death of their kin and settle scores with their enemies.

• Create your own character. Customize appearance, origin, and reputation. Freely choose among dozens of skills and perks in an unrestrictive, classless system. Pick your party from a colorful cast of characters, or build your companions from scratch.
  
• Explore open world map to hunt, fish, harvest valuable materials, perform mystical rituals. Survive the cold, harsh landscape and its many environmental hazards.
  
• Repair defenses. Build traps and siege equipment. Craft weapons, armor, and tools of war. Cook food, brew alcohol and prepare the medicine.
  
• Your every action will be judged, and the consequences of your choices will be felt constantly as the story is reshaped to a new reality. Will you end up a respected leader, a feared tyrant, or a hated despot swinging on a rope from the tower of your own fort?
  
• Lead your people and maintain morale. Deal with their disagreements, superstitions, and self-destructive habits. Ignore them at your peril. Desperate people will be tempted by their worst instincts. Eager to escape hopeless reality in alcohol, drugs, petty squabbles, and comforting promises of the mystical rituals.
  
• Experience a new kind of interactive story. Each in-game day the map will update with new encounters, and character story-lines will move forward.

That loud color scheme won't be for everybody, but otherwise this looks pretty entertaining. The Way of Wrath is supposed to come out on Early Access sometime later this year, so stay tuned.

 

[luj1]

Wow this game looks cheap. Also use of squares for tactical combat

They should have made this game w/ mobile in mind. That way it would have stood a chance.

 

[Hellwalker]

Yay! News on codex main page. ^_^
Hm, I will need to rework that description. :D The game is indeed more like Expeditions, with bit of Gothic and Divinity mixed in. Nothing is really procedural, the world, quests and everything is hand crafted. Just a bit different approach to C&C and branching.

The game is still work in progress. And the look will be improved much more in the final game.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Description looks promising mate, change the looks because they are miserably awful.

 

[a100167]

Not too keen on the art style really but I'm diggin' it. I like the morale system of Expedition Vikings so if this game could take that and improve upon that system it would be super neato

 

[Awakened_Yeti]

more caveman games are good

 

[Fenix]

Yay! News on codex main page. ^_^
Hm, I will need to rework that description. :D The game is indeed more like Expeditions, with bit of Gothic and Divinity mixed in. Nothing is really procedural, the world, quests and everything is hand crafted. Just a bit different approach to C&C and branching.

The game is still work in progress. And the look will be improved much more in the final game.

Hey! I got positive vibes from video, because it remembered me Evil Islands, actually the first allod there - the one with stone hammers, bone bows and bone spears.
Is that so or it's different technological era, with iron\steel and shit?

Also, I dont' care about visuals, but you need to think about making some stilisation of what character are saying, because language appears to be TOO modern.
At least I got such impression.

 

[Hellwalker]

Yay! News on codex main page. ^_^
Hm, I will need to rework that description. :D The game is indeed more like Expeditions, with bit of Gothic and Divinity mixed in. Nothing is really procedural, the world, quests and everything is hand crafted. Just a bit different approach to C&C and branching.

The game is still work in progress. And the look will be improved much more in the final game.

Hey! I got positive vibes from video, because it remembered me Evil Islands, actually the first allod there - the one with stone hammers, bone bows and bone spears.
Is that so or it's different technological era, with iron\steel and shit?

Also, I dont' care about visuals, but you need to think about making some stilisation of what character are saying, because language appears to be TOO modern.
At least I got such impression.

Thank you!
Metal weaponry is very rare and rudimentary, most fighting will happen with wood, bones, obsidian etc. It is not exactly symmetric to earth's history, but it's close to bronze age stuff. Some areas more advanced, some more primitive. So barbarians stumbling upon Constantinople type of scenarios would not be unheard of

This world will also advance in future games technologically, but it won't strictly follow earth's advances. So, technology discovered on earth much later could be discovered early on with all the devastating implications of society not-ready for such advancements.
Kinda of tricky subject, but I'm real excited about brainstorming these ideas. I want to make transition very natural and thorough. So each tech/religion/ideological advance and change would feel real. The leaps will also not be giant.

I'm rewriting dialogues a lot, especially swearing. Trying out different ideas. I'll try to take off the modern edge a bit.

 

[Infinitron]

Thank you!
Metal weaponry is very rare and rudimentary, most fighting will happen with wood, bones, obsidian etc. It is not exactly symmetric to earth's history, but it's close to bronze age stuff. Some areas more advanced, some more primitive. So barbarians stumbling upon Constantinople type of scenarios would not be unheard of

Yes, the society the player character belongs to are primitive shamanistic tribals which is interesting. But what about the side that won this brutal war that happened before the game? Are they more advanced? Are the enemies that the player deals with in the video tribal auxiliaries that the conquering army left behind, or are they representative of their core culture?

 

[Hellwalker]

Yes, the society the player character belongs to are primitive shamanistic tribals which is interesting. But what about the side that won this brutal war that happened before the game? Are they more advanced? Are the enemies that the player deals with in the video tribal auxiliaries the conquering army left behind, or are they representative of their core culture?

Without going too much into spoilers, the expedition to wipe your people out is a personal campaign by a group of enemy veterans and a man leading them, who had especially bitter time fighting your people.
Beyond these elite core group, they have "recruited" bunch of other war groups that had misfortune of stumbling into them. War prisoners & criminals, foreign mercenary groups etc. The group shown in video are part of are the scouts and they are part of the core army, but considered a 'lower caste'.

Their civilization is more advanced, it's mostly settled society that enjoyed larger patches of peace and had time to build some permanent settlements. They are ahead technologically, but not to a great degree.
The war with your people has greatly militarized them, and over the years of fighting they built the first large permanent army in the region. This + access to more bronze weapons finally gave them the edge to the player's defeat nomadic warrior people.

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, the society the player character belongs to are primitive shamanistic tribals which is interesting. But what about the side that won this brutal war that happened before the game? Are they more advanced? Are the enemies that the player deals with in the video tribal auxiliaries the conquering army left behind, or are they representative of their core culture?

Without going too much into spoilers, the expedition to wipe your people out is a personal campaign by a group of enemy veterans and a man leading them, who had especially bitter time fighting your people.
Beyond these elite core group, they have "recruited" bunch of other war groups that had misfortune of stumbling into them. War prisoners & criminals, foreign mercenary groups etc. The group shown in video are part of are the scouts and they are part of the core army, but considered a 'lower caste'.

Their civilization is more advanced, it's mostly settled society that enjoyed larger patches of peace and had time to build some permanent settlements. They are ahead technologically, but not to a great degree.
The war with your people has greatly militarized them, and over the years of fighting they built the first large permanent army in the region. This + access to more bronze weapons finally gave them the edge to the player's defeat nomadic warrior people.

Ah, so it's a bit more small scale thing. Where does the bronze come from? Independently produced, or trade with an advanced civilization further afield akin to Egypt and Mesopotomia?

 

[Hellwalker]

Yes, the society the player character belongs to are primitive shamanistic tribals which is interesting. But what about the side that won this brutal war that happened before the game? Are they more advanced? Are the enemies that the player deals with in the video tribal auxiliaries the conquering army left behind, or are they representative of their core culture?

Without going too much into spoilers, the expedition to wipe your people out is a personal campaign by a group of enemy veterans and a man leading them, who had especially bitter time fighting your people.
Beyond these elite core group, they have "recruited" bunch of other war groups that had misfortune of stumbling into them. War prisoners & criminals, foreign mercenary groups etc. The group shown in video are part of are the scouts and they are part of the core army, but considered a 'lower caste'.

Their civilization is more advanced, it's mostly settled society that enjoyed larger patches of peace and had time to build some permanent settlements. They are ahead technologically, but not to a great degree.
The war with your people has greatly militarized them, and over the years of fighting they built the first large permanent army in the region. This + access to more bronze weapons finally gave them the edge to the player's defeat nomadic warrior people.

Ah, so it's a bit more small scale thing. Where does the bronze come from? Independently produced, or trade with an advanced civilization further afield akin to Egypt and Mesopotomia?

Yep! Smaller scale. I'm hoping this will allow me more focus/time on each character and conflict. I take cues from Gothic & Thief on that, really loved the small scale + sense of living community there. + I really want a lot of exploration and discovery of the overall world to happen from players point of view, to capture that magical atmosphere of ancient world where the world was alien, uncharted and unknown.

There is a volcanic mountainous range cutting through the area, relatively rich in metals. The reclusive tribes living there learned long ago how to work the metal. Your enemies began capturing and enslaving them for their skills. They also trade for some of it, but quality of processing and shaping metal is no match.
Some light spoilers:

Spoiler

The people living near volcano are actually trapped in that place. They, and the animals living nearby, are extremely addicted to something(avoiding larger spoiler) found in the area. Its hold is so strong children get addicted in their mothers womb. They cannot leave far from the mountains without dying of withdrawal effects.

 

[Delterius]

looks very pretty

 

[Fenix]

Metal weaponry is very rare and rudimentary, most fighting will happen with wood, bones, obsidian etc. It is not exactly symmetric to earth's history, but it's close to bronze age stuff.

YES! YES ten thousand times!

I'm rewriting dialogues a lot, especially swearing. Trying out different ideas. I'll try to take off the modern edge a bit.

YES! I will definitely keep eye on your game!

P.S. And sorry for my spelling error - I meant text stylisation. )

 

[oscar]

Another Evil Island fan here. I love the aesthetic, mixture of Ice Age tribal, Aztec and Native American from the looks of it. Some have critiqued the graphics but at least the style is memorable and clear

 

[luj1]

Ah, so it's a bit more small scale thing. Where does the bronze come from? Independently produced, or trade with an advanced civilization further afield akin to Egypt and Mesopotomia?

*sound of a sloppy fellatio nearby*

 

[luj1]

I love it how Infi pretends he's interested

 

[Hellwalker]

looks very pretty

YES! YES ten thousand times!



YES! I will definitely keep eye on your game!

P.S. And sorry for my spelling error - I meant text stylisation. )

Thank you!

Another Evil Island fan here. I love the aesthetic, mixture of Ice Age tribal, Aztec and Native American from the looks of it. Some have critiqued the graphics but at least the style is memorable and clear

Thanks! Yep, + some more nomadic peoples(Mongols, Artic) and a bit of color from India and surroundings.

Beyond weapons, the medicine, rituals, food, superstitions will also be inspired by it.

Well as a consequence, it will be good idea to use common sense when trusting shamans with what medicine they plan to administer on you in the game. :D

 

[Fenix]

We will be waiting for more news! )

 

[Sin2x]

Banner Saga-esque much. Count me in.

 

[Fenix]

I hope it will be nothing like it in tone. )