In many ways, Battle Brothers is what you would probably get if you married the turn based strategy of XCOM with the mercenary management of Mount and Blade and really, you could certainly end up with far worse inspirations than those two.
A title that is deep in Steam Early Access, Battle Brothers is currently in the sort of rough and unfinished form that you might expect from a game that has yet to reach the heady heights of version 1.0. Nevertheless, even at this relatively nascent stage in its development, Battle Brothers is showing a fair amount of promise all the same.
A turn-based strategy game, Battle Brothers has players taking a trio of mercenaries around a procedurally generated map to complete contracts, gain new skills and collect new weapons and armour to help them in their endeavour. There’s no real story at this point, but going through the motions and improving your group (not to mention adding extra faces to it), proves to be an engaging pursuit nonetheless. Make no mistake though, Battle Brothers is not a pushover and from the beginning most players can expect to be pasted fairly quickly as they get to grips with the game’s idiosyncrasies and rough edges.
Speaking of which, with Battle Brothers freshly released on Steam Early Access, there is still heap of work to be done on the title and this is something that developer Overhype Studios is keenly aware of as the game is expected to remain in Early Access for at least one year. Indeed, players can expect to see a whole raft of new content in the future including, but not limited to, a proper worldmap, narrative and many new units and skills to choose from.
As the bugs get fixed and the additional features trickle in, it’s certainly not a stretch to imagine Battle Brothers becoming something more than the tactical curio that it currently is. With a solid, engaging core and replayability seemingly in spades, Overhype Studios scrappy little strategy outing could well be a true diamond in the rough when all is said and done.
Battle Brothers is available to buy in Early Access form on Steam for PC and currently retails at £14.99.
