Sword Legacy: Omen (Review)

Sword Legacy: Omen is a tactical turn-based RPG set in a re-imagining of the King Arthur mythos. developed by Firecast Studio and Fableware Narrative Design and published by Team17 Digital Ltd.

I'm a huge fan of the King Arthur mythos in all forms of media, though truthfully I've never read through any of the original novels or such, I just love the world built around it. On the other hand I'm not a fan of tactical turn-based games, so I knew there was a chance I would end up dissatisfied with this game. Luckily the combat was pretty fun and I enjoyed the story, so I came out of it feeling mostly positive.

First off I want to mention the look. I really liked the cartoonish art style they went for, it reminds me of the old Quest For Camelot cartoon from 1998 mixed with the darker tones of The Black Cauldron, but in a tactical top-down perspective. During the story based segments the art was a little blurry, I'm not sure if this was a design choice or just a weird resolution bug. I would have preferred if it was sharper, but there's currently no option to change it so you're gonna be stuck with it like it or not. The enemy deigns were fine, I wouldn't call them generic but it's not anything you haven't seen before in a dark fantasy setting. There's the undead, wolves, dragons, cursed knights, and so on.

Sword Legacy: Omen is a departure from the original King Arthur lore, the story goes like this. The lord of Mercia has been assassinated, your love kidnapped and home is no more. As Uther, the disgraced Knight Commander, aided by Merlin, an eldritch sorcerer, you must lead your misfit band of companions throughout quests riddled with trials. Forge uneasy alliances to acquire the mythical Excalibur sword and defeat the sinister power-obsessed duke of Wessex. The story was immersive and pretty well written, I found myself reading all the little bits of lore you can find spread across the levels while exploring. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that the ending was kind of shocking and a bit too dark and depressing for my liking, it almost ruined the entire game for me.

As far as combat goes it was pretty decent, it wasn't a huge departure from what I expected, but it wasn't unbearably boring like many other turn-based tactical games. The movement is tile-based like The Banner Sage series, each of your four chosen characters has a certain amount of action points that they can use each turn, to maneuver, attack, and use different skills/abilities. (Abilities can be obtained by spending renown points, which are gained by completing levels.) There are objects that can be interacted with like barrels and carts that can be used as cover, or objects full of flammable oil and more. There's also a stress system based on willpower and being overnumbered, if members of your group get too scared/stressed they will retreat from battle. I understand the mechanic, but it was a little irritating at times. When not engaged in a combat scenario, you can explore and search for loot and lore about what's going on with the world and the people/different races and characters in it. 

Throughout your journey you will come across towns where you can sell/purchase items, potions, and other consumables, as well as resting to heal up (for a pricey amount of gold). As you progress through the game you will find more people who are willing to join your little gang, like an archer, a barbarian, and a priest. each new party member brings their own unique skills to the battlefield, keeping the gameplay from getting stale and tedious. At least until towards the end when all the enemy types and characters have already been introduced and you're stuck fighting the same enemies for about the last 3rd of the game. Bosses were also hit or miss in terms of difficulty, for example the dragon can be killed in like two turns, but the last boss will most likely take you multiple tries. 

I went into this expecting to come out at least a little disappointed, but I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would. The world and it's characters are interesting, the story is well written, the art and music are very appealing, and the combat was deep and enjoyable enough to keep me playing all the way through. There were a few minor bugs, the stress mechanic was kind of annoying, and the ending was a pretty big let down, but didn't completely ruin the experience for me. If you enjoy tactical turn-based strategy or especially medieval themed games, you won't be disappointed with this one. Sword Legacy: Omen is available for $17.99 on Pc/Steam.