Mordheim: City of the Damned Reviews

Focus Home Interactive and Rogue Factor’s Mordheim: City of the Damned, a turn-based strategy/RPG based on Games Workshop’ Warhammer setting, has been the subject of a number of reviews from critical outlets, which we have attempted to round up with this post. While most of them are positive, there is a notable exception.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun, scoreless but very obviously negative.

The thing I hate most is probably how stupid the opponents I fight are. Your warband might be half a dozen fighters, or it may be a few more as, with time, you unlock more slots for more warriors. Your opponents are of a similar number. Of those (say) six enemies you cross paths with in some ruined back alley somewhere, four might run at you, one might seemingly get stuck on a street corner and do nothing, and another might stand there and let your archers pummel him with arrows until, like the most melancholic bouncy castle, he succumbs to all this pricking and lets the life fart out of him, collapsing into himself.

…

It’s saved somewhat by multiplayer. Your warbands can be teleported out of the campaign and into fights with other humans, humans nowhere near as dim as the game’s AI, humans able to make decisions that go beyond just charging forward. Against real people, Mordheim can be a game of hiding and of ambushes, it’s maps suddenly full of danger and surprise, of bait and switch. A warband so engaged can gain both injuries and experience, or simply fight in a showcase match, returning to your PC as if nothing had ever happened.

But if you were hoping for a new squad-based game with the finesse of XCOM, or the many tactical choices of Jagged Alliance 2, this is not it. Mordheim is dumb. Mordheim is flawed. Mordheim tries hard and doesn’t succeed. This is not a happy Christmas, everyone, but the misshapen horror of Faschnat. It’s your present from Krampus.

Hardcore Gamer, 3/5.

Fans of Warhammer-related products and turn-based game aficionados will enjoy City of the Damned. It isn’t a casual experience and mastering the many systems as well as the flexible combat will take dedication and time. It needs a little more technical polish and a much smoother learning curve to be considered for real mass-market appeal, but Mordheim: City of the Damned is a rewarding game for the right player.

COGconnected, 80/100.

Mordheim manages to create a turn-based experience that is not quite like the now seemingly industry-standard XCOM but which finds its own way to tweak the genre. Aside from the jarring nearly-first-person perspective the game really does feel like a tabletop miniature game, complete with randomization and ability checks. And at the same time this is probably the most natural way to design such a game. Tabletop miniature games are essentially the original (turn-based) combat games. Making a digital version of one of the lesser known entries in the genre is completely logical.

Softpedia, 8/10.

Mordheim: City of the Damned is clearly designed with single player as the most important mode, but gamers can also take their squad online to try and take out their friends or complete unknowns.

There are no rule tweaks, which makes it easy to jump in after playing some of the campaign, but the stakes are higher, and it’s always possible to meet an enemy who has carefully prepared and equipped his team to execute a tactics to perfection.

The game also suffers from some connection issues and the load times are just as long as they are in the single-player portion.

God is a Geek, 8.5/10.

Ignore the terrible loading times between missions and the odd framerate issue and you’ll find a game that has plenty to offer the most hardcore strategist. Mordheim: City of the Damned is an incredibly dense game that will punish you just as much as it will reward you just remember to have fun in the process.

The Escapist, 4/5.

Don’t let the difficulty of Mordheim: City of the Damned throw you off. The initial experience looks punishing, but a few rounds of skirmish matches will help you understand the mechanics. From there, you’ll bond with your squad through the trials, triumphs, and failures you experience together. Mordheim: City of the Damned isn’t about winning or losing, it’s about making the best of the bloody journey.