If you haven't heard of Wartorn until now, don't worry, I haven't either. I stumbled upon the game when I watched a trailer just before receiving a copy for review. And you can believe me or not, but just over a minute of footage was enough for me to eagerly await Wartorn to appear on my computer's hard drive.

Before I move on to my impressions related to Wartorn, let me introduce you to the latest game created by Stray Kite Studios. Wartorn is a very interesting attempt to combine real-time strategy with roguelike. During the game, we play as Yara and Elani, sisters who have been driven out of their home and set out on a dangerous journey to find shelter for themselves and other surviving refugees.

The gameplay relies on the aforementioned sisters as they journey through a conflict-ridden land. Traveling through it with our caravan, we encounter many problems, and one of them is satisfying our companions. A magical hourglass will help us in this, which forces us to relive the same day over and over again.

I will start this text in an unusual way, focusing on graphics. I've always been of the opinion that graphics in games are not the most important thing. I often thought that this is the least important element of modern games. However, I'm glad to be led out of my mistake by such gems as Wartorn. The title simply looks beautiful, and the artistic team from Stray Kite Studios deserves words of praise.

The game uses a unique style that at first glance brings to mind watercolors. Not everyone will like it because some parts seemed pretty dirty and dark, but overall, Wartorn looks really good.

Moreover, each of the units belonging to our caravan is characterized by an enormous attention to detail. Just like the environment, the units appearing on the screen can also impress with their charm.

Now it would be appropriate to move on to the gameplay, which is the most important part of video games. I must admit, I haven't had much time to play lately. The title from Stray Kite Studios, however, made it hard for me to step away from the monitor at times. Moving the caravan on the map and pushing through from one stop to the next reminded me of the times when I got caught in the "just one more game" syndrome while playing Football Manager.

I really liked the idea of combining RTS with roguelike elements. However, we aren't dealing with a traditional real-time strategy here. So don't count on base building, creating a huge number of units, and destroying the enemy. Instead, we travel by caravan and choose the direction in which we are heading. I have often found myself at a crossroads where I had to choose which way to go. Sure, there were times when one option seemed obvious at first, but I ended up learning a tough lesson along the way.

However, this doesn't mean that Wartorn doesn't use elements known from strategy games. One of these is the gathering of resources, which is of fundamental importance in the game. We constantly need to focus on the food resources, as well as the morale of our people. The complete loss of hope by the expedition participants is associated with its end, and consequently, the need to start a new game.

What do typical missions that we will have to play in Wartorn look like? At first glance, they don't seem too complicated. Our task is to reach the end point. You can do it in two ways - either by taking out all the enemies in your way, or by trying to avoid them and running to the edge of the map.

As I mentioned earlier, Yara and Elani aren't the only characters under our command. During the mission, a maximum of five units can be in our care, each characterized by different skills. It's worth combining them in a way that allows us to maximize their potential. For example, water mages can summon rain, while their more thunderous counterparts can call forth lightning, which then react with each other. There's no need to say what happens to enemies within striking range, right?

Of course, it's also worth remembering that some units can hurt their companions. Imagine my surprise when a huge troll threw a rock at the enemy group, accidentally hitting half of his own unit with it. The mission, of course, was a total failure because the mages strategically positioned on the hill finished off my remaining forces.

There were more such cases. So it's worth planning each battle properly, because the "charge at the enemy!!!!" tactic in practice means defeat. It's not always like this, though, and watching huge trees or trolls crashing into enemy units brings great joy. Until the moment when a mistake is made, and the rear of our soldiers is attacked by units to which we have no response.

Honestly, I like games that provide a challenge, but not to the extreme like in soulslike games. However, Wartorn made me swear like a sailor out of nerves. The Stray Kite Studios just chewed me up and spit me out in every possible way, but I kept coming back for more after each of those experiences. Call me a masochist, but this is exactly what's beautiful in Wartorn.

I felt like the characters in the game were doomed to fail during the hours I spent playing it. No matter what we do, no matter how we guide our caravan, in the end, there will be an enemy who will turn our unit into mincemeat.

If I were to sum up Wartorn in terms of difficulty, it's actually very high, so it's not a game I would recommend to new RTS players. Unless, of course, you clearly dislike someone, you might consider whether constantly dying in Wartorn would be an appropriate punishment. The game doesn't forgive mistakes that can be easily made. That's why it's necessary to use the possibility of slowing down time as often as possible. Sometimes, even this strategy won't help you escape from an inevitable failure; it will just make you watch it in slow motion.

That's why I warn everyone who likes to feel relaxed while playing video games. Then Wartorn is not a title intended for you. This game will make you grind your teeth in frustration and nerves.

Alright, so throughout the entire review of Wartorn, you could read about this game in almost nothing but superlatives. So it might seem that this is a title devoid of major flaws, and every real-time strategy fan should add it to their wishlist. With a heavy heart, however, I must say that this is not the case, although it is still a good title.

The review version of Wartorn was characterized by quite a large number of bugs. The most troublesome were those related to the behavior of the controlled units. I can count on one hand the moments when my subordinates behaved logically and chose the best path to the point I designated. My patience was really put to the test when the squad stopped just two steps away from the target, turned around, and then went around it. Of course, along the way, they engage enemy forces and take quite a beating.

Problems also occurred when units were executing orders. I felt like my orders were reaching them with a significant delay, or not at all. Of course, this happened at the least appropriate moments, such as trying to get out of the range of an enemy spell. I hope that the devs will fix these issues in the launch update, which undoubtedly awaits Wartorn.

It's time to conclude the review of Wartorn. And to be honest, until the very last moments, I will have a dilemma about what final score to give this game. On the one hand, I had a great time playing it, and the graphics impressed me so much that sometimes I launch this title just to feast my eyes on the views.

Actually, all the elements are in their place here. The game is really fun, trying to save the caravan in sneaky ways is a blast, and getting to know the backstories of the two main characters is really engaging. However, the whole thing is spoiled by an inflated difficulty level, which is also exacerbated by bugs that occur during the game.

Don't get me wrong, I like challenges in video games, but while playing Wartorn, I had an irresistible impression that the devs at certain moments turned the difficulty level slider to "super, hyper, mega, devilishly hard." There were stages where no matter what I did, the end result would be the same anyway.

Does this mean that Wartorn is a title only for real hardcore players who pour cereal into milk or eat pizza with a knife and fork? Honestly, no, but before buying Wartorn, we should remember how demanding this title is. Take my word for it, there's nothing more satisfying than finally figuring out how to beat that one level that's been bugging you for hours, only to immediately fail on the next one and start all over again. However, this is the whole charm of Wartorn, without which the game wouldn't be the same.