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[Tnx]

"Thea: The Awakening, a turn-based, rogue-like, strategic-survival game, set in a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy world, all inspired by Slavic Myth and Folklore and infused with rich story and a unique, card based minigame (for combat). " - Steam

Been playing this all day, it's basically a cross between Civ, King of Dragon's Pass, and a bit of a roguelike.  It's in early access but from what I've seen, it's basically complete and playable.  You pick a god to start off with, and you get bonuses to your village/followers depending on the god.  Multiple playthroughs will unlock other gods to choose as well as additional bonuses.  From there, you guide a village (which starts with random resources surrounding it, random villagers, and random equipment) and try to survive in the world.  Anyways, the steam page and let's play videos can probably explain it better then I can.

EDIT, Better let's play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rxwWPhbmAg&feature=youtu.be

http://store.steampowered.com/app/378720/

[Frumple]

... looking at that LP, it looks pretty neat, if a little clumsy UI wise. Price is more than I can rationalize splashing at th'mo, though.

[Astral]

It looks interesting, but...

[...]card based minigame.

I don't get why card-based games seem to be fairly common these days, and (at least, to me) they tend to be lazily implemented, and a general negative for most games. If I wanted to play with cards, I'd play a card-based game.

Having Lorem Ipsum text in the preview trailer detailing the "Over 200 Unique Story Events" was also somewhat off-putting. Something I'd get on a Steam sale maybe.

[Frumple]

Eh, you can check footage of the combat. It's... not really a card game -- there's no randomness, drawing, etc., so far as I could tell -- it's just using cards to represent characters. Presumably to give a simple visual representation of turn order and whatnot, without having to bother with fancy graphics.

... which is probably the reason why card-based stuff is common nowadays. It's generally a lot easier to make art assets for 'em. Plus you've got built in expectations (booster packs, etc., which thea at least seems to mercifully lack) you can pattern (some of) your monetization options off of. They do tend to be lazily implemented, but that's kinda' true for... whatever, card based or not.

[Majestic7]

Isn't the graphical style completely wrong for "dark fantasy"? It seems cheery and fairy tale-ish rather than...umm.. dark.

[Frumple]

Doesn't really seem to be, going by the LP stuff? Pretty appropriate for a dark fantasy bit based on slavic folklore. It's just not so drab and monochrome as to be hard to see what the hell is going on. The art direction that I've seen is fairly spot on for what the scenario is supposed to be, imo.

[BishopX]

Eh, you can check footage of the combat. It's... not really a card game -- there's no randomness, drawing, etc., so far as I could tell -- it's just using cards to represent characters. Presumably to give a simple visual representation of turn order and whatnot, without having to bother with fancy graphics.

... which is probably the reason why card-based stuff is common nowadays. It's generally a lot easier to make art assets for 'em. Plus you've got built in expectations (booster packs, etc., which thea at least seems to mercifully lack) you can pattern (some of) your monetization options off of. They do tend to be lazily implemented, but that's kinda' true for... whatever, card based or not.

Having played it, the random part is who's actually fighting vs who is supporting. Basically you can't use a few tanks to cover for weaker party members in challenges, which I like.

[ductape]

reviews seem pretty glowing. Not sure, worth $20?

[Xardalas]

reviews seem pretty glowing. Not sure, worth $20?

From what I have seen of Arumba's let's play of it, I'd wait a little while. Right not there are no keyboard shortcuts in the game, the interface is a little clunky. I'm not sure I'd spend a twenty on it in it's current state.

[Schaep]

I picked it up, it's pretty neat, has a lot of content but it needs more polish. The interface is opaque and tedious and it needs some balancing as well. There are a lot of typos and weird sentences which is really jarring in a text heavy game. That being said the core of the game is a fun twist on the 4X formula and I can see it becoming quite good in a month or two.

[TTHSK]

I grabbed it a few days ago, and it's very much my kind of thing so I like it a lot.

The content has a few quests that seem to occur every game (or have every time I've played so far); these are the main quest and the longer side quests, although there's good variety in random events+mini-quests and the per-god quest seems to differ significantly between gods. There's more than enough content for one playthrough at least.

Genre wise I feel it's a lot more rpg than 4X. It has some 4X stuff (lots of exploration and a bunch of exploitation, and the interface is very 4X) but the gameplay feels lot more rpgish to me (a lot of time is spent roaming around leveling or collecting goodies or questing or equipping my dudes).

[BishopX]

So Thea just got a major upgrade, with changes to worker management and resource distribution. Worker activity is now project based, with one lead and assistants helping, rather than a multitude of individual tasks.  and you're no longer guaranteed vegetables and wood at your starting location, which makes expeditions much more important.

[Rumble]

This game left early access last Friday and is officially released.  On Steam it is discounted 20% until the end of the month.

I'm loving it so far, it is a novel take on the 4x genre and fairly challenging even on normal difficulty. The UI issues seem to have been addressed. Tooltips are plentiful and informative, lots of UI elements can be inspected with right click, and there is a robust help directory.

I'm now on my second playthrough.  I've already seen several events and quests that never appeared on my first, though I don't know if the main story quest can vary or if there are alternative victory conditions. 

For those just starting out, choose non-combat conflict options whenever you can. Your followers can take wounds and (later) die from combat, but no permanent damage is inflicted to them by an intelligence or poisoning check.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

They list this as a feature:

Rewards and unlocks that carry on to the next playthrough, encouraging replayability

Any examples?

[askovdk]

They list this as a feature:

Rewards and unlocks that carry on to the next playthrough, encouraging replayability

Any examples?

You select a god when starting a new game, and when you end a game this god gets experience that unlocks permanent benefits for your tribe the next time you play that god.
I can only see a few abilities, so I don't know how powerful they become, but my two starting gods are ok different and I expect they become more specialized with additional unlocks.

I think the unlock system works very well in this game. Mistakes can be crushing, - but this way 'loosing is fun' and you are encuraged to start a new game.