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Stormbound: Kingdom Wars review - A tactical alternative to Clash Royale

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Stormbound: Kingdom Wars review - A tactical alternative to Clash Royale

We've seen a lot of games that have tried to co-opt the Clash Royale formula. They've all done something a little bit different, but Stormbound is the first one to really head off in its own directions.

It's still a mobile MOBA, but there's more than a touch of the tower defence here, as well as a good dollop of board game thrown into the mix.

But at the same time you're going to be pretty familiar with what it has to offer. It moves at its own pace though, and it's an awful lot of tactical fun.

Clash-tastic

The game sees you and an AI or real-life opponent facing off across a gridded board. At each end of the board is a single base with a collection of hit points. Destroy your foe's base and you win the game.

You've got a deck of cards to do this with. These represent your troops. Each has its own set of skills and attributes, and different cards cost different amounts of mana.

There's none of the real-time punishment of Clash Royale here though. Everything is turn-based, and your units follow a set of behaviours depending where they are on the board.

The more considered play-style here creates a much deeper experience. There's a lot more to-and-fro on the battleground, and strength of arms alone is rarely enough to win the day. You need to play smart.

There's a decent tutorial that walks you through the basic, and the campaign lets you figure out more about the intricacies of the game before you dive into the multiplayer.

You don't get a frantic end game here. Your mana keeps going up, there's no timer, and you need to stick with the game until the bitter end to see what happens.

Much more regal

Stormbound has a depth that's easier to grasp than more fast-paced games. It's still just as easy to pick up, but you're going to want to push into it and find out more of what it has to offer.

If the other games in the genre are a little too hectic for you, then I urge you to check out Stormbound. It's fresh, it's fun, and it'll have you playing for hours on end.

Stormbound: Kingdom Wars review - A tactical alternative to Clash Royale

A deep and tactical mix of MOBA and tower defence that really sparkles
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.