A story mode…?

[Solone201]

Whenever I play an rpg with turn based combat like Avadon, Battle of Westnoth or – even – Divinity Original Sin 2, it always comes a moment where I’m going to sigh and say something like: “If only it had the gameplay of Battle Brother…”. Those games are actually amazing, but Battle Brothers has something unique that is difficult to find in most rpg: it tries to be as realistic as possible when it comes to combat. In BB for example, a fully armored level 11 brother can be stabbed to death by a vile gobelin if he’s not careful, or can be one-shotted if he engaged the fight with a half broken helmet. Same way, you can survive the Three Crisis using only regular weapons (not the famed or unique ones); the game doesn’t force you to get the best of the best equipment to enjoy it. When your mercenaries are fighting, they can be injured… Do you realize how rare that feature is in (rp) games? Usually, your hero fight huge creatures and receive blow after blow without ever being injured. That simple element add so much life to the experience. In most games, once the battle is over, well, you just look for another one: you’re always ready. But in this masterpiece, you need to repair your stuff and take care of the wounded (and injuries can last days!): it adds so much to the role-play experience!

You guys of Overhype Studios created a pure gem. I play it so much that it becomes difficult to enjoy other games . I have been playing this game for more than a thousand hours! I have never played a single game this much (even Mount and Blade), BUT (yeah here comes the “but”) everytime I start a new session, I have that kind of emptyness in my stomach – that kind of disapointment – at the thought that the story I’m telling myself to go with my merryband of swellswords is not “real”; and that epic fight against Illska Ghul and his orc fellows in the swamps where Thorismund the Swann chose to die because it was essential not to break the line… that story is going to be forgotten. But those who played Age of Decadence (the mercenary storyline) are always going to remember the battle of Harran’s Pass against the Ordu Horde, or at least they can relate. Same with the fight against Dallis on the Lady Vengeance, for those who played Divinity Original Sin 2. BB is already an amazing game, but whenever I play an rpg with turn based combat like Avadon, Battle of Westnoth or – even – Divinity Original Sin 2, it always comes a moment where I’m going to sigh and say something like: “If only Battle Brother had a story like this”. Just imagine: the polished and detailed gameplay of BB, plus a long and ingaging story like the Spiderweb games, or even a bunch of small stories like in Battle of Wesnoth…

I know it is not easy to work on the same project for years, and maybe the game was not even designed to support that kind of features in the first place, but everytime I read one of those “event” that randomly happens during the campaign, I cannot help but feel a bit sad that I will never know the story of that “witch” that was burned in Torfmark and the witch hunter who caught her; or that my brothers and I will never hunt down that strange looking fellow who hired those bandits to steal the Statue of Fertility of good Ulrich the burgomeister, and maybe reveal a much bigger conspiracy; or even that we will never know what was behind the return of the Undead or what drove the greenskins out of the wasteland, and especially what made them team up.

The world is already built, the city, the people are so well described that you – the player – want to know more! According to the amount of details you already put in your game, according to the quality of the writing of the “events”, I’m certain that, if you decide to add a story mode to this game, it is going to be well-balanced, deep and as satisfying as the rest. You might not be ready or willing to open that “Box of Pandora” – actually I can understand that – but please consider it, and – who knows? – maybe a crowdfunding campaign could be the key… I would most certainly support it (I would support any game you would decide to make at this point, anyway).

One last thing: thank you very much for this game (with a story or not)!

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