Chains of Freedom Review Summary

General positive feedback: This cluster contains general positive feedback, such as the game being fun, enjoyable, and polished. While positive, these points lack specific details and actionable feedback, reducing their overall importance.

XCOM-like tactical combat and setting: The game is frequently compared to XCOM and other tactical RPGs like Mutant Year Zero and Gears Tactics, offering similar turn-based combat with strategic elements. It also incorporates dark themes reminiscent of Resident Evil and a post-apocalyptic setting, creating a familiar yet distinct experience for fans of the genre.

Detailed and immersive world design: The game features a visually appealing and detailed post-apocalyptic world with a distinct Eastern European atmosphere. The art style blends realistic elements with unique themes, such as zombie aliens and cults, creating an immersive and engaging environment.

Resource management and flexible builds: The game incorporates survival horror elements, requiring players to manage resources, craft items, and experiment with builds. The biocrystal system and lack of class restrictions allow for diverse character development and strategic flexibility.

Diverse character development options: The game provides players with a variety of weapons and skills to customize their characters and approach combat encounters. This allows for diverse playstyles and strategic options when dealing with enemies.

Character investment feels wasted: Characters that players invest in can become useless or permanently leave the party due to plot events. This can waste resources and lead to a frustrating experience.

Lacks RPG depth and features: The game lacks key RPG elements and features. Reviewers noted the absence of meaningful choices, character progression, base building, a world map, and upgrade systems, limiting player agency and strategic depth.

Unoriginal, weak narrative: The story is criticized for being simplistic, predictable, and lacking originality. Dialogue is unremarkable, and the narrative serves primarily to advance the action rather than provide a compelling experience.

Ammunition and supply scarcity: Ammunition and supplies are scarce, forcing players to rely on melee combat and resource management. The illogical map design and limited crafting choices exacerbate the issue, hindering experimentation and build diversity.

Frustrating RNG and turn limits: The game's reliance on RNG, combined with strict turn limits, leads to frustrating gameplay. Players can lose battles due to bad luck and missed attacks, especially early game before builds are developed.

Streamlined, continuous tactical combat: The game emphasizes streamlined tactical combat, drawing comparisons to XCOM and similar titles. However, the continuous, incident-driven structure may limit strategic rethinking opportunities, setting it apart from games with base-building or world-map elements.

Crystals drive character progression: Character progression relies on equipping crystals with various effects instead of gaining experience. Scavenging and exploration, including backtracking to optional areas, are important for finding loot and crystals to enhance units.

Action point turn-based combat: The game uses turn-based combat based on action points. Players manage weapons, ammunition, skills and items during combat. This system encourages strategic decision-making during each turn.

Interesting stone system: The stone system is interesting, but the review provides no specific details about it. Without more information, it's difficult to assess its impact or provide constructive feedback.

Generally good performance and optimization: The game's performance is generally good, with smooth gameplay reported on both older machines and the Steam Deck. Some players have noted minor frame rate issues in specific environments on the Steam Deck, but overall optimization appears solid.

Cumbersome saving process: The game's saving process is cumbersome, involving multiple steps and potentially disrupting the flow of gameplay. Streamlining the saving mechanism could improve the user experience.

Fast loading times: Area transitions are quick, with loading times around 3 seconds. This contributes to a smoother and more immersive experience as players explore the game world.

Worth the price: Several reviewers find the game to be worth its price, especially considering its quality and the time investment it requires. Some suggest starting on the hardest difficulty for genre veterans. One reviewer considered it a worthy project for its modest price.

Good for genre fans: The game is recommended for fans of tactical turn-based RPGs, especially those who enjoy games like XCOM or Gorky 17. The game also has good language support.

More content is desired: Some reviewers hope for more story content, companions, weapons, crystal levels, or new game plus features to increase replayability.

Enjoyable gameplay loop: The game's loop of events, rewards, and character progression is enjoyable and encourages continued play, keeping players engaged.

Hope for continued support: Reviewers are optimistic about the game's future and hope the developers will continue to support and expand upon it. This suggests a solid foundation that players want to see built upon with future updates and content.

Reached the manor: This point is not useful as it lacks context and doesn't provide any feedback about the game. It simply states the reviewer's progress in the game.