A few months from now, it’ll be hard to remember a time when everybody wasn’t talking about Grimguard Tactics, the ambitious new fantasy RPG from developer Outerdawn.
If you’re a fan of strategy games on mobile, Grimguard Tactics is going to take over your life, so you might well start boning up on the game’s lore and gameplay now. That’s why we’ve prepared this handy primer.
Lore
Let’s start with the backstory—not least because there’s so damn much of it.
Grimguard Tactics takes place in a sprawling fantasy world called Terenos. Scarred by years of conflict, Terenos is long past its golden age, when heroes performed their heroic deeds, rulers first consolidated their power, and cultures began to blossom.
An event called the Cataclysm pretty much put an end to all that, setting the world’s nations back decades before passing into legend. But now they’re on the rise again, driven by pride, patriotism, and a hellish bloodthirsty suspicion that haunts the dreams of every person.
The nations in question include Siborni, a prosperous society with a rich naval tradition; Hanchura, a vast region full of ancient cities, dramatic topography, and crime.
Those two resemble Italy and China, respectively, while the ancient fringe nation of Urkland is populated by fearsome beasts and even more fearsome people, therefore resembling Scotland.
Against this backdrop, a lone mercenary answers a nameless client’s call to find a mysterious relic, unwittingly triggering a new age of chaos.
This age of chaos comes courtesy of an ancient, reawakened, and newly superpowered species called the Primorva. To defeat them you’ll need to assemble a team of kickass heroes.
Rich characterization is the backbone of any decent fantasy epic, and Outerdawn has given Grimguard Tactics a backbone of pure steel with a cast of playable and non-playable characters whose biographies run to dozens of pages.
We don’t have the space to go into them all here, but you can take our word for it: Grimguard Tactics has a cast of characters, cultures, and histories that wouldn’t be out of place in a doorstop fantasy novel.
Gameplay
Grimguard Tactics puts these characters to good use by giving each and every one of them their own unique perks and abilities. They all belong to various different factions, too, and occupy roles such as Assault, Tank, Support, and so on.
Combining heroes in particular ways also lets you unlock hidden synergies, while you can tailor your crew to your own playing style by upgrading their gear, levelling them and, and Ascending them.
There’s vast scope of tactical experimentation in Grimguard Tactics, and you’ll be able to put this scope to good use throughout the epic single player campaign, dungeon raids, boss battles, and skirmishes with corrupted Heroes.
But no situation calls for more tactical astuteness than the PVP Arena, where you’ll sharpen your skills against the toughest opponent of all: other RPG fans.
On top of all that, Grimguard Tactics boasts a fully fledged town-building element that sees you venturing into Primorvan territory to raid enemy camps, gather resources, and use them to shore up your own Holdfast.
There’s a ton of stuff to do, then, including some seriously deep tactical battles, but Grimguard Tactics is one of those games with a shallow end as well as a deep end.
That’s why you’ve got the choice of going idle with autoplay, leaving your fate in the hands of the game’s sophisticated AI while you take a well-earned break.
To get started, download Grimguard Tactics for free right now on the App Store or Google Play.
