Highlands

The 'thumbs down' isn't me saying it's a bad game, but rather that it hasn't impressed me enough to make me recommend it. I'll return to this view if what I see later changes my opinion. As of this review, I've only completed the first few levels, and played only 3-4 hours. I'm posting this as a brief list of criticisms. But first, the good: It's got a pleasant aesthetic, and information is generally clear and easy to parse. The basic mechanics of the game are simple, yet hint at a greater depth, and the random nature of the combat does help, even if it makes some choices become choices between playing safe and slower, or slightly faster and possibly suicidal. I also absolutely love how snappy and quick the main menu is. Now for the bad. [list] [*] The inventory UI is terribly clunky. It shouldn't take a dozen clicks just to take items from two characters, and switch them around. [*] There are no hotkeys for the few menus the game has. [*] The fights seem to be exercises of patie...

Alright, two hours into this bad boy, and I'm comfortable reviewing. Highlands is a Risk-esque resource management/strategy game with RPG elements, to lay it out at its core. While the pics provided up there might make you think it's very simple, there's a lot more depth than I thought there would be. Gameplay: You have armies that you shift around different areas, and the entirety of your army are heroes. There are four classes: combatants, leaders, academics and mechanics. Combatants' sole purpose is to fight, to add greater numbers to your army. Leaders develop the lands they're on, allowing those lands to generate resources for you. Academics heal your people, simply put. Mechanics fortify areas and also craft items that can be equipped by your heroes. As they level up, they get stronger, acquire different skills and increase in health. You can carry a few minor heroes over with you between games, usually the best leveled ones. For those who've played Risk, the battling is very...

This really isn't a game any more than sitting in a corner by yourself and rolling a pair of dice over and over is a game. It's very simple with some very rudimentary strategy elements. I found myself bored with Highlands a little bit after the tutorial and have completely run out of patience. Also, there's not really any justification for the setting of floating islands. I mean it looks cool, but it's just a standard 2D map with some clouds around it. Being up in the air doesn't really effect anything and I wonder why they decided that this was the right setting for their story. Nothing is animated, everything is very flat and cheap and used over and over again. Very nice art, really bad game.

+ Beautiful graphic + Decent story line + Easy to learn - Low replayability - Combat can become repetitive Does the game worth $14? problably not. So, wait until it go onsale before you grab it.

This is probably one of the best hidden jewels all over steam... If you like storytelling games with a strong tactical and role play element...search no more,This is it! It plays a lot like a board game,but with a type of artistic quality and simple mechanics only possible in a computer game. My main reason to make this review,is related to the fact of how little attention it was able to get...If you were looking in the first weeks,during and after release,you probably know"HIGHLANDS",if not...it can be noticed just by chance.In fact there is no real excuse for not to play(beautiful game with hy reviews and a very fair price)...if only pepole could actually see it...!?!

Mechanics are shallow. AI is meh. Only strategy is...lets keep loading more units! Artistically, it's nice. But that's where the fun ends.

A surprising little strategy gem. This is a turn-based strategy game that owes more to abstract wargames than it does to the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics or King's Bounty, complete with somewhat esoteric game mechanics, abstraction of combat, and emphasis on supply lines and areas of control. But where I usually find the gameplay of grand war games to be inaccessible at best, Highlands' mechanics are clean and simple to understand, and within a couple of chapters I found myself adroitly maneuvering my units toward victory. The good: The art is gorgeous, hand-drawn cel-style, and while the character portraits and chapter interstitials aren't animated, they don't really need to be: the art stands well enough on its own. The game mechanics are unique, but not obtuse. I found them easy to understand and manipulate, and I really enjoyed the feeling of mastering a new and unfamiliar system by the end of the game. If you enjoy learning systems, this will scratch that itch. On the Challe...

[h1]REVIEW OF THE GAME[/h1] This game looks very simple judging by screenshots and video-trailer, and in fact, it's true - mechanics are very simplistic and you quickly get a grasp on what's going on and how to play. Basic idea behind it is "less is more" and it serves this game so well! I honestly wouldn't change a thing. Game is great fun to play. It is both challenging and rewarding. I played 5 hours straight without even noticing it. Very refreshing. [h1]NOTES FOR DEVELOPERS[/h1] There are a couple of things I would like to point out merely in hopes developer reads this review and takes them into account for future games. You can find them in comment section.

Picked it up during the sale and was only expecting it to be decent at best. Boy was I wrong; this game turned out to be amazing! It is pretty simple yet incredibly deep, Other reviews complained about the difficulty but hailed its gorgeous scapes. The latter remark is became very evident as the sky-city steampunkish world came to life, an aesthetic that sort of reminds me of Bioshock Infinite. However, the complaints about the difficulty I have to strongly disagree (I should note that the developers did already address those complaints before I picked up a copy as they shifted the "normal" difficulty to "challenging" and have now created an easier "normal"). But after I beat it on the new normal I decided to give challenging a shot and that is where I discovered how the strategy of this game really starts to come out. Honestly, this game reminds me of the old Advanced Wars games for the GBA in the way that it is pretty straight forward and easy to follow yet requires a ton of strate...

Completed on Normal (took me ~8hrs), and am keen to move onto the higher difficulties. Very good strategic game. Addictive (I own hundreds of games, and few grab me for hours). Highly recommended if you like: - Heroes of Might and Magic 2 or 3, - King's Bounty series, or - board games generally!