Fort Triumph Game Review
Enjoyable environment messing gameplay
Sizeable campaigns
Charming Warcraft-inspired visuals
Kicking trees onto goblins is the best
Fussy controls and tiny text on console
Over world elements are a little lacklustre
Fort Triumph game provides a fun and compelling spin on the XCOM formula. Game Battles are both intense and strategic, with the option to manipulate the environment using a wide array of varied abilities proving hugely enjoyable. Whilst this console version of this game isn’t the best, it's an experience that is still well worth your time if a turn-based strategy is your thing.
About The Game
The Fort Triumph game is created on a pretty straightforward but scintillating idea: it’s XCOM but with a Dungeons and Dragons aesthetic. It only points out that we get 3D turn-based isometric permadeath-coated gameplay with more goblins, dragons, and wizards than you can shake a wand at.
Released in 2020 on PC, Fort Triumph has now made the hop, skip, and athletics check to jump over to the console. The console version is not that good, as they can very easily lead to poorly conceived controls and text so small it cannot be read from the sofa. This unfortunately all applies to Fort Triumph. Gamepad controls are often messy and counterintuitive, the player is forced to navigate menus with a confusing amount of trigger squeezing, and while I’m sure the text boxes that frequently appear are helpful, I’ve no idea what they say.
Then there are the surprisingly lengthy loading times, and the waiting you’ll do as the CPU in your console spends thinking about how to move each of the many units at its disposal during later levels.
Having said all that and got my moaning firmly out of the way, we can tell you that we love Fort Triumph. All the usual silliness of a distinctly average conversion can’t dampen the enjoyment of a solid game well done.
Game Features
The foremost something you will see about Fort Triumph is the charming and chunky cartoon visuals. It is most likely reminiscent of Warcraft 3 and Heroes of Might & Magic games, and they’re all the better for it. This is a Dungeons and Dragons regarded through the colorful and bold prism of a Saturday morning cartoon. The characters thud roughly the 3D isometric battlefields with glee, the comical animation bringing to life everything and everyone you meet.
Do not let the game graphics visuals fool you, as Fort Triumph offers deep and challenging strategic gameplay. The main thing that the developers CookieByte Entertainment have achieved is a focus on the mischievous manipulation of the environment. Nearly every object in a level can be launched, slammed, or crushed against an unsuspecting foe. Having said the Ranger class launch a grappling hook arrow to yank a goblin into a tree that then fell over and smashed a necromancer, was a fist-pumping moment that left a gleeful grin etched on my face. All of the characters have a means of messing with the world, be it a kick that sends rocks colliding into foes like skittles on a bowling aisle or the ability to use magical winds to blow over precariously placed obelisks.
It is your way that you can chain together all these abilities which provide Fort Triumph its tactical complexity. It is a plan for a series of chain attacks with reaction skills and overwatch and you can quickly decimate the enemy forces. Nevertheless, mistakenly leave the character in a random place at the end of a turn and the often devious AI will happily return the favor. Add permadeath to the combination and battles soon become tense encounters where one wrong move can lead to the pumped-up Paladin you’ve spent hours leveling up suffering a premature death. It is the fun of XCOM then, only this time with added giant mushroom tossing.
What’s perhaps less successful is the turn-based overworld that will occupy the player’s time between battles. Here you will guide your whole team of heroes around the landscape, capturing buildings, looting treasure, and finding packs of foes to battle. There is also some basic resource gathering and base building to be done. It is an inoffensive game, serving more as a moderately bland intermission until you get stuck back into the delightful battles. However, in a neat touch, you can skip battles against weak opponents, allowing you to gain experience without being bogged down in overly easy fights. It’s a generous game design that keeps the focus on the killer content and not having to micro-manage tedious filler.
There is a lot of content to be discovered here too. There are four sizeable campaigns to play through, following the misadventures of Humans, Goblins, Undead, and Forest Utopians. Whilst visually distinguishable, the game would benefit from having greater gameplay variety between each faction. Oftentimes it’s a case of more of the same tactics with an aesthetic reskin. Luckily, a clear and genuinely hilarious story, one which happily and humorously deconstructs the fantasy genre, will help see the player through to the end.
Game Trailer
In order to have more insight into this game, you can watch this video from the following link:
You can visit the website of Fort Triumph Game Review by Mr. Frog to understand the game more.
