Khronos game review

Now it's up to you, as a newly minted commander in the House of Telit, to lead your forces into battle, fighting against outside opponents and corruption from within, all in hopes of keeping the Empire together and making it a legacy worth saving.

The tagline for this sci-fi-themed turn-based strategy game could be "a minute to learn … a lifetime to master," but unfortunately, you're left with a disjointed, flawed story and play experience. Right from the start, Battle Worlds: Kronos warns players that its difficultly will take a measured amount of both patience and practice. It's not a matter of learning what to do but rather learning how to do it effectively. Moving and engaging throughout the battlefield is a simple process of using units' action points to either move or attack.

But arranging your units to take advantage of things such as cover, flanking, and range is where the bulk of the strategy comes into play. The AI is no slouch either. The computer-controlled opponents are extremely good at staying just out of reach, charging weaker units and otherwise stopping your progress through the game's multiple campaign settings.

It's hard work, but that hard work translates into a real sense of accomplishment when you finally start to understand the game's tactics and pull of a big win. Although the gameplay in Battle Worlds: Kronos is intense and challenging, there's too much of a disconnect to keep the player's interest. The game's focus on moving its plot forward is a jarring experience. For starters, cut scenes are extremely polished and detailed, yet the actual game looks somewhat bland, basic, and almost cartoonish by comparison.

There are also numerous times when a mission will get interrupted by a sudden on-screen text conversation meant to progress the story and possibly give some hints for how to handle the fight.

Instead of being helpful, though, it's more of a distraction, akin to interrupting a chess game and forcing the players to read a comic book before diving back into the match.

That's not to say the story doesn't have potential, but shoving it down the players' throats at the expense of staying focused on the mission objective is a quick way to yank a player out of the experience altogether. It ends up feeling like the developers really wanted to tell an epic story but had to shoehorn the game into it. Families can talk about violence in gaming.

How can things such as setting, scale, and style affect the impact of the violence? Talk about making strategic choices. When is it better to stand your ground, to press forward, or to do your best to avoid conflict?

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners. See how we rate. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization, earns a small affiliate fee from Amazon or iTunes when you use our links to make a purchase.

Thank you for your support. Our ratings are based on child development best practices. We display the minimum age for which content is developmentally appropriate. The star rating reflects overall quality and learning potential.

Learn how we rate. Parents' Ultimate Guide to Support our work! Battle Worlds: Kronos. Disjointed, mildly violent strategy with heavy-handed plot. Rate game. Play or buy. Parents say No reviews yet Add your rating. The similarities are clear in the combat and audio design, but Chronos treats the high frequency of death differently than the Souls games, with a cool, though under-utilised, ageing system and less punishment. Indeed, this is much friendlier than any Souls game.

Gitting gud is optional. Of the three difficulty options so, definitely not a Souls game , the lowest allows you to cruise through with relative ease.

It's clearly not the way to make certain systems shine, but allows a wide range of people to enjoy other parts of Chronos. Difficulty is locked in once you've started your game though, which makes it hard to experiment to find what's right for you.

While fans of Remnant: From the Ashes can enjoy plenty of prequel references here, Chronos stands just fine on its own. Living in a post-apocalyptic world with a whiff of Nier about it, you're sent through a portal into a fantasy land to find and slay a dragon. On anything but the lowest difficulty, you can expect to die dozens of times before the credits roll. The melee combat, which varies slightly depending on the weapon and shield combo you use which will likely change as you find and upgrade items , leaves little room for error.

What this also means, though, is that working out a technique to cut through an enemy type that previously flattened you is immensely satisfying. Each time you die, you respawn at a World Stone, which doubles as a fast travel point. You come back a year older, something that pays off every ten years starting at age 20 you begin at the disgustingly youthful age of At these times, you get to choose a Trait such as increased health, defence, or parrying window. When that happens, one of the two largest buildings will need to be downsized.

Perhaps the most clever, and most difficult to master feature of the game is that all medium and large buildings ripple into later ages. Build a large orange building in the Age of Might and you will also be building a large orange building in the Ages of Faith and Reason.

In fact, the only way to build in the Age of Reason at all is to build in an earlier age and to have it ripple through time into the Age of Reason. This rippling can be very cool and it's the defining feature of the game but it also creates enough difficult situations that the rules need to very carefully address them all. This leads to some rather complicated and, dare I say, fiddly rules. The good news is that the rulebook does a reasonably good job of explaining those rules and has plenty of clear examples.

Also, all of the rules are logical and necessary so it doesn't take very long for them to become second nature. Conclusions: Khronos is a unique and fascinating game. The time-altering aspect of the game makes this one that every serious gamer should want to try.

Still, it's not without its flaws. I've already mentioned that the rules can be a little daunting. What's more concerning to me is that this is the type of game that encourages some players to take a very long time to consider their optimal move, particularly on turns four and seven since scoring will take place as soon as they are finished with their turn.

This can become a real problem with a large group of players and, coupled with the fact that the board can change so much between turns, it's the main reason that I really don't recommend that this game be played with more than three players.

However, with three players, this is a truly fantastic game, one that I am always happy to play and one that I will often suggest. One other thing to consider is that, while this is definitely a moderately heavy strategy game, actions are strongly governed by the makeup of the cards in your hand.

No matter how good your strategy may be, it can all come undone with a poor card draw. For this reason, I highly recommend that the game be played with the ''Hold-em" variant described at the end of the rules, which gives players a little more direct control over the makeup of the cards in their hand. If you are looking for a solid medium-weight strategy game with a smattering of luck, a unique theme, and some truly original mechanics, then you really should give serious consideration to Khronos.