Massive Chalice
By David Chapman,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Epic game of tactics that spans (and spawns) generations.
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Massive Chalice
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What’s It About?
In MASSIVE CHALICE, you play an immortal ruler of a burgeoning nation, battling for your land's survival against a mysterious enemy called the Cadence. Over the course of a 300-year war, you'll recruit heroes to join your army and send them to fight against the enemy. As time passes, you'll build and expand your nation's prominence. As your heroes age and gain experience, you'll bring some couples together to further their bloodlines and bring the battle to a new generation of heroes. The decisions you make and the legacy your heroes leave behind will shape the face of the war over the course of centuries.
Is It Any Good?
Massive Chalice turns the turn-based strategy formula on its head by drawing the actions out over the course of hundreds of years. Your heroes will live out their entire lives in the blink of an eye. Some will die on the battlefield, while others will simply succumb to the passage of time. It's the bloodlines of these heroes, though, and the game's handling of their legacies that bring a fresh change. By pairing up heroes with strong qualities, the hope is that their children and their children's children will inherit those traits to help in future battles. Even the weapons of heroes can be passed down throughout the ages, gaining a strength of their own as bloodline relics.
Massive Chalice is a gorgeous piece of art, with visuals that have an almost watercolor feel and an epic orchestral score. Gameplay can be deceptively overwhelming, though. At first, with only three main classes to differentiate your heroes' roles, things might seem fairly basic. But when you factor in the micromanagement of things such as traits and personalities, you'll soon realize there's a lot more to each hero than his or her class. Much like in real life, a trait might skip a generation, meaning you might be deep into the campaign before you realize a choice you made a few generations back has come back to haunt you. It can be a frustrating realization, but thankfully Massive Chalice has enough depth to keep you coming back for more.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the impact of violence in video games. Is the violence in Massive Chalice OK because it's similar to chess, or does the nature of warfare make the combat seem more realistic?
Talk about legacies. How can the actions taken by a generation today affect the lives of future generations down the road?
What are some ways that our individual traits and personalities can affect our performance?
Game Details
- Platforms: Windows, Xbox One
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: decision-making, strategy, Responsibility & Ethics: learning from consequences
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Double Fine Productions
- Release date: June 1, 2015
- Genre: Strategy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Adventures, Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: T for Fantasy Violence, Alcohol Reference, Language
- Last updated: April 2, 2021
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