The Dragoness: Command of the Flame

[A review from the point of view of the early phase of the campaign - there might be other stuff I haven't unlocked yet] This is a nice title, but I'd say the gameplay falls more along the lines of King's Bounty the Legend or HoMM Online than the HoMM series. You upgrade your town only in between playing maps, using resources gathered during actual tactical gameplay. Once you enter the map it is you against various immobile stack of monsters guarding resources and other map objects. There are opportunities to upgrade the hero and recruit creatures, but no town build-up happens on a map. I haven't seen enemy heroes moving on the map either. Food supply serves as a soft cap on the number of turns you can spend on the map. Each scenario has its own set of objectives and modifiers, making gameplay varied. There is an incentive to replay maps in form of various optional challenges. Judging by the file structure, there are about 40 scenarios. It doesn't look as if there is a random map generator.

One of the very few games where melee units are not only on par with ranged units but often even better! So if you're tired of the same old archer spam that you've been doing since the Heroes III days, this is a breath of fresh air. It accomplishes this by giving each unit shields that fully regenerate between each battle. Also, you don't have unit stacks, just a maximum of 6 units (more Age of Wonders style than Heroes/King's Bounty). This means you don't have to go top up unit stacks every level up or after each fight, and letting your melee units take a hit or two is fine (anyone who had to grind the "Grand Strategist" achievement in King's Bounty will appreciate this). The game implements roguelike elements quite well. You can set up your hero and starting troops before each mission and if you fail/die, you can repeat the mission (or choose another one). Building up the town between missions is where the "progress" of gameplay is, more so than getting a more powerful hero. This plays well with the achievements set up for each mission. I managed to get all of them during the first try with the exception of one (Graveyard mission, AFAIK two of them are mutually exclusive so you need to do the mission twice), but generally, since you can replay each mission, you can focus on one at a time. Cons: I had a few crashes (~6 during 30h+ gameplay); however, autosave after each turn makes it manageable. The voice acting is a bit wonky. The main advisor, Natiq (who has 90% of the dialogue), sounds like it's the voice actor's first job. Though it's not overly annoying since there isn't much dialogue. Conclusion: The game is different enough from other tactical strategy games to be worth a try. It avoids adding tedious mechanics just to pad for gameplay time and is well worth the price (especially on sale).

Dragoness plays similar to HoMM, except town upgrades only occur between missions (which can be farmed for resources to an extent, hence the roguelite aspect). In mission, enemies don't move around, but you are limited by movement and food. If you manage it well, there's usually enough time to do everything on a map. Units don't stack, so no more 1 shot wonder + 4 expendable meatshields, but you have 6 slots and two of the same rank/type can be merged to make a stronger one. More mechanics and unit types unlock with later missions. The hero character themselves levels up similar to HoMM or King's Bounty and learns spells or passive skills, but the hero and army do not transfer between missions. Each mission has an option of 2 or 3 randomly generated skillsets to choose from, and lets you select some units to start each mission with, both of which which can be further boosted by buildings in the town. Combat takes place on a 12x12 grid, with a decent balance between archers, melee, and caster/support units. Story is there but there's not much to it. Overall fun and worthwhile if you like strategy RPGs or HoMM like games in general.

awesome concept if a touch slow at times, repeating everything to gain resources, while being turn based, makes it just my speed and the story looks like it will be enjoyable too!!