Antihero Released, Launch Trailer Shows Victorian Gang Tactics
Antihero, the turn based strategy game set in a Dickensian city, has been released. It will allow you to hire urchins, pilfer donation boxes in churches, beat up nasty old ladies, dress up as Daniel Day Lewis in The Gangs of New York, stab other criminals and grow your underground empire until you become the very best, like no one ever was. At least according to the launch trailer it will.
The developers describe it as a “fast turn based strategy game with an Oliver Twist”. The single player campaign will see you rise from a lowly thug to a criminal mastermind with an entire gang under your command. Expect the usual progression curve – you steal money from the honest folk, you recruit more units and equip them with better stuff so you can steal money more efficiently. All wrapped in a delicious, Victorian drapery.
We suspect multiplayer is going to be all the rage here, though. The online multiplayer supports both live and asynchronous, play-by-mail kinds of matches, while the local includes the genre standard hot seat. You will be allowed to tweak the rules before you start, which should help with both variety and longevity. Skirmishes against the AI are also included, with a leaderboard to show you exactly how lousy of a player you really are. It’s great that you don’t have to play against living people in order to feel inadequate.
The game looks absolutely gorgeous, and early Steam reviews are positive overall. However, a number of players have been complaining about balance issues (the cost of attacking versus defending seems to be a common complaint), as well as the time it takes to finish a multiplayer match. The ten percent discount should last until the end of the week, so it’s probably best to wait for some more reviews to pop up.
