For centuries, humanity has been content with turn-based games. Chess and its ancestors taught us to be patient, waiting for our opponents to calculate and make their moves before we could take our own. But our fast-paced modern lifestyles leave no time for such a slow approach – I need to be making my move at the same time as my opponent, in order to crush them as quickly as possible.
Thankfully, my needs have been met by turn-based strategy game Batalj, which launched on Steam earlier today. Once you’ve chosen your squad from one of nine different heroes, you’ll be placed into an online game where each player’s turn will be decided upon and then played out simultaneously.
The crux of that is minimal downtime between turns, and combat phases that rely solely on your strategic skill. With nine different heroes to choose from across three different factions, and 54 distinct units at your disposal, developer Fall Damage claims that there are millions of potential squads to choose from.
The studio was founded in late 2016, and has some significant gaming pedigree at the helm – its four co-founders hail from Battlefield studio DICE, and have been bringing their new game to life over the past two and a half years.
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You can check out Batalj’s trailer, which shows off some of its characters in action, in the video below.
If you fancy picking the game up, it’s available on Steam right now. What’s more, a launch deal means you can grab it for 20% off. You’ll need to move fast, as that offer expired on February 28, but if I piqued your interest with all that high-speed chess talk earlier on, I think you’ll be fine with that.