Miasma Chronicles is truly a phenomenal experience with its rich story and excellent gameplay.
Ah yes, the classic turn-based strategy, a genre filled to the brim with military hoohah and the occasional medieval combat game. So, it’s not often you find a game as unique as Miasma Chronicles. It’s developed by none other than The Bearded Ladies and published by 505 Games, and it is truly like no other.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the curiously named developer, The Bearded Ladies is a game development studio based in Sweden. The studio released their first game, Bandit Landit, on the PlayStation 3 way back in 2010. However, for nearly a decade, there was nothing coming from the studio until 2018, when they released Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, a truly excellent turn-based RPG with incredible character design and an equally incredible story.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden would also establish a lot of trends we would see in their later games, such as Corruption 2029, which wasn’t that great. It was good but not great. However, Miasma Chronicles shows that the studio has learned a thing or two.
Miasma Chronicles is the latest game from The Bearded Ladies and tells the story of a once utopian version of our world that has been torn apart by the Miasma. In this version of our world, everyone has basically devolved. While the people aren’t knuckle-dragging cavemen, they have certainly lost a lot of past knowledge thanks to the Miasma destroying most of the world aside from a few pockets of civilization.
You play as Elvis, a young man who lives in one of the said pockets of civilization. You first encounter Elvis as he’s trying to break through the Miasma using his nano glove. It doesn’t go according to plan, and his arm is set on fire, not for long though, as it is swiftly put out by his robotic ray of southern sass and adoptive big brother, Diggs. It is here where you also learn that the reason for Elvis doing this is because he’s trying to reach his mother, who has given him that glove to break through the Miasma wall that she’s behind. You also learn that this is also his 37th failed attempt at doing so.
Afterwards, you will be given a chance to explore the beautiful yet completely destroyed world. Miasma Chronicles, despite being set in a world that has been completely destroyed, is also somehow an incredibly beautiful game to look at. Everywhere on the map is packed full of little detail and bursts of color that still maintain the overall ‘all we have lost’ bleakness but make it not so dull and dreary. It makes you want to explore the world more, which is actually encouraged as in almost every nook and cranny, you’ll be able to find something useful or find something to make something useful.
After our trip through a dilapidated business office, we get our first taste of the game’s combat, and oh boy, you might need to buckle up for this one. Miasma Chronicles has a bit of a steep learning curve because, despite its appearance, the game isn’t your typical turn-based strategy game. That’s why it’s highly recommended that before you even start the game, you should probably choose your difficulty wisely.
If you’re unfamiliar with the turn-based strategy genre, then play the game with Narrative difficulty, as that is essentially easy mode. After that, you’ll have to choose your game mode between Light Tactical and Full Tactical. If you have more experience in the genre or are just feeling particularly masochistic, Full Tactical will be a good fit, as these game modes affect the hit chance and how the cover works. You can change difficulties later on if you feel like it, at least but you can’t change the game mode without starting over.
Now with that out of the way, back to combat. Your first dose of combat will be facing off against a group of frog monsters, who we later learn are called Grabbers. These fearsome amphibians were created to fight against humanity. As stated earlier, Miasma Chronicles isn’t your typical strategy game. When you encounter a group of hostile enemies, you don’t just have to dive straight into combat; instead, you can actually set up an ambush to get a free strike in from a vantage point.
Setting up an ambush can be tricky as you can split up your squad and will need to make sure all of them stay out of an enemy’s line of sight. Having your squad separate can also lead to them getting ganged up on, which will lead to enemies picking your squad off one by one instead of you picking them off.
When in combat, you will have the option to do a variety of things besides moving and shooting. The game allows you to use your environment to your advantage, such as allowing you to throw glass bottles to lure enemies away from their friends and leaving them sitting ducks or using some of the convenient noise-creating devices if there is one nearby. Dotted across the map, you will also see the occasional environmental hazard in the form of exploding barrels.
There are three flavors of barrels, fuel barrels, acid barrels, and explosive barrels. Fuel barrels deal fire damage and damage over time, while acid barrels eat through armor, and explosive barrels explode, dealing heavy damage. However, be mindful that certain enemies are immune to certain damage types.
Another thing you will encounter in your environment is cover. In Miasma Chronicles, much like the barrels, you get three types of cover, full cover, half cover, and destructible cover. Full cover offers you, well… Full cover and significantly reduces the chance of you getting hit, half cover does the same thing, but the chance of getting hit is more than a full cover, and a destructible cover is a cover that can be destroyed. Your squad isn’t the only group of people and robots that can use cover; you will either need to draw your enemies out or destroy their cover.
As you can probably tell, Miasma Chronicles offers you a lot of variety, from your play style to your strategy, but also in your weapon variety. As you can probably guess, there are three weapon types, each one as unique as the last. You get assault rifles, short to medium range, and they work well when you’re closer to your enemies. Sniper rifles offer long-range and high damage along with increased crit chance the further you are away from them, and finally, we have Shotguns. Shotguns are short-range and can knock enemies back, and your crit chance is also a bit higher.
Now unlike most turn-based strategy games, Miasma Chronicles handles their guns a bit differently, and that’s in regards to ammo. You see, the golden age is over, and technology hasn’t advanced much, so you will still need to manually reload your guns. Assault rifles have a large pool of ammo, so they don’t have to be reloaded as often. Snipers, on the other hand, have to be reloaded after every shot. Shotgun ammo pools vary from gun to gun, so choose wisely.
Speaking of choosing wisely. Unlike most games in Miasma Chronicles, fortune doesn’t favor the brave. She instead favors the smart, as not every encounter needs to be fought. Oftentimes you will need to choose your battles carefully, as not all battles need to be handled guns blazing and bravado soaring, sometimes sneaking is all you have to do. By all means, you can give it a try; just expect to see a game over the screen with your whole party wiped. Lucky for you, you’ll get a warning for a recommended level before engaging in what could be a dangerous battle for your party.
As you progress through the story of Miasma Chronicles, you will eventually learn that there is a lot more to Elvis’s glove than what first meets the eye. Elvis will eventually gain the ability to absorb the Miasma vortexes. These unlock awesome and powerful abilities that let you do a variety of cool and awesome things, from throwing enemies across the battlefield to mind-controlling ones. These powers do come at a cost in the form of KW, which is easily recharged through Energy Cells.
As stated earlier, Miasma Chronicles is packed with detail, and this carries over in almost every aspect of the game, from the world itself to the characters that inhabit it. Everything feels incredibly fleshed out. The characters you meet feel like actual people; the world feels lived in or once lived in. You get connected to these characters, and you care about them as they progress through their journey Miasma Chronicles in one word, is simply an experience.
Miasma Chronicles is truly like no other and is not comparable to anything else in its genre. The world is fleshed out and feels alive, and the gameplay, with its steep learning curve, offers variety and flexibility that’s not seen anywhere else. Miasma Chronicles is definitely worth your time, and you should definitely give the game a try.
