Ash of Gods: Redemption

Part turn-based combat, part card game -- and full-on adventure -- this role-playing strategy game finds the right combo to lure players in and keep them waiting for the next fight. Ash of Gods: Redemption is a visual gem that turns away from realistic graphics and instead uses art that could have sprung from the pages of a comic book. And just when there's some anticipation about where the story might be going, the tale moves through enough twists and turns to keep players invested. The options within the game are also well managed; while there's a far amount of spurting blood, it can be turned off, and if players aren't interested in the tedium of turn-based combat, there's an option for automatic combat, although the game still plays out the turns by itself. What's also a plus for players interested in the story is that decisions made have consequences. Players will gain or lose loyalty, and morale can have an effect on combat.

Within the realm of the combat, there are plenty of decisions to be made leading up to the actual fight -- such as which characters you will take into the fight, what items they will carry, how you will level up their skills, and what cards will be played in which round of the combat. Cleverly, the game has found a nice balance with all those seemingly different elements. If there are some drawbacks, it's that conversations for the Story mode take a long time to play out, and there are instances when players have to make the right choice within the context or else some story sequences won't appear on the main screen. Another minor issue is that there aren't hints that menu or dialogue screens can be scrolled through for options, and there's no way to pull the camera back to get a bigger picture of the setting. The music is nice, but the vocal grunts during the conversations get old as well. These issues aside, Ash of Gods: Redemption is an enjoyable game that will keep players engaged for a long time.