Neuroshima Hex is a fun, fast-paced, tactical strategy game. The gameplay is unique, and that, coupled with its interesting “Mad Max”-style artwork make it a title any strategy game fan should consider.
The theme of Neuroshima Hex is based on a popular Polish RPG. Two to four human or AI opponents square off on a small 19-space game board, and take control of a unique faction or army. Each faction has a headquarter tile that starts with 20 hit points, and loses points by being attacked by opponents each turn. The winner of the game is the player with the most hit points remaining on his or her headquarters.
The two areas of the game that I find most compelling are that first, to start a turn a player must draw three action tiles, and then discard the “least useful” one. In many instances, all three tiles were very useful for my particular situation, and it pained me to give one up. Second, each of the factions plays with different tiles and will therefore have slightly different strategies.
For instance, the Borgo faction is loaded with melee and close-range attacks, while the Outpost faction features longer-range attacks. The Hegemony fights with unit-crippling nets, while the Moloch have lots of heavily armored units. The game designers had a tricky balancing act to prevent one faction from dominating the rest. I believe they have succeeded, as it is enjoyable to play as any of the four factions, and learning how to effectively play each faction gives Neuroshima Hex a ton of replayability.
The fit and finish of this app is top-notch. The artwork is taken straight from the popular board game, and while the post-apocalyptic style might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I found that it fit the theme quite well. The menus, instruction manual and video tutorial are all well-done, helping uninitiated users dive right in.
The only piece missing for me was the lack of online multi-player capability. This game would be a perfect fit for this feature, and is the only thing I would change in this outstanding strategy title.
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