I have had my eyes on the game Wartorn for a bit now. It has a cool aesthetic for a top-down RTS game. It is also tied to a narrative with a roguelite system. Luckily, I was given the chance by Stray Kite Studios to get my hands on a preview build of the game.
Starting Wartorn
You are immediately introduced to Yara and Elani. Yara has just had a birthday, and she has been given a present from an unknown sender. Before she can open it, the imperials try to bash down the door. You are taken to a tutorial that shows you how to move with the mouse. You can right-click on the map to have your character move and press the F key to interact with objects. You are also introduced to Redjrix and how he can just teleport wherever he wants. There are a lot of terms and places that get thrown at you, and I wish there was a codex during cutscenes or dialogue so I could follow everything, but I will admit a lot of the terms just flew over my head.
Yara and Elani run away from their estate as the imperials are trying to burn it to the ground through the catacombs. They are tasked with going to the recognition stone to meet up with Redjrix, and on their way there, they meet up with rainmakers and thundermakers. This is when the gameplay system begins as Yara discovers the gift she was given is an hourglass. This hourglass, once tipped over, can slow things down to a crawl. You can control the rainmakers and the thundermakers alongside Yara and Elani to run through enemies and locations.
Playing Wartorn
Once you get control of your armies, you are in full Wartorn experience time. You will get a wagon and have to advance time by one day of travel. After each day of traveling, an event will happen. You will need to react to the event, and the consequences depend on your reaction. Your choices can help your playthrough or hinder your choices for the future. Sometimes you won’t have to choose any reactions, as the event will require you to play through it. This can include finding your way past a bunch of enemies, protecting your wagon from enemies, or scripted events for the narrative to progress.
When you do get into battle, each squad has a special ability as well as a number that represents the number of soldiers in that squad. You can bring four squads, plus your heroes will be taking a slot, so five squads you can control total. These special abilities can be combined to deal devastating damage. For instance, you can use rainmakers to drench the area surrounding an enemy force, and then the thundermakers to launch lightning at the water, dealing damage to everyone and even possibly stunning them.
In events, you can lose your forces and even full squads, which makes it more difficult for the game later on. It is wise to work smart and use flanking and ambushing enemies to get the most use out of abilities. If you have more squads in the wagon and you lose a squad, you can use the T button to bring out reinforcements to fill your numbers back up, so it isn’t a bad idea to get more forces to help out.
Roguelite Wartorn
Once you die in Wartorn, you meet up with some sort of goddess who exclaims about the hourglass and how she can use it to send you back. When you get sent back, you go back to the Imperials taking over the estate on Day 1. You can now use the community tree to get upgrades or the spellbook to learn new spells for your heroes. You will have to leave once again in the wagon for the recognition stone. You can try different routes and get different events to have a better chance at certain scripted fights.
I enjoy roguelites that can use the narrative to work through the roguelite elements. The hourglass is a nice touch, and it helps with planning for future encounters. The number hot keys make it easy to switch between your squads on the fly, and slowing time helps with planning combos.
I am looking forward to spending more time with Wartorn when I can, and it is awesome to hear that they are planning to launch the game into early access on June 17th, 2025. You can wishlist the game on Steam or try out the combat demo right now!
Preview Disclosure Statement: Wartorn was provided to us by Stray Kite Studios for preview purposes.
