As a newcomer to the Warhammer franchise, I was excited to see the reveal for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground. I’ve played a bit of Vermintide II in the past and was up for a different type of playstyle to check out. While I liked the gameplay from Storm Ground overall, I was left underwhelmed because of some of its gameplay mechanics. It’s not a title that everyone would enjoy but it may be one that would fit for a niche crowd.

Story

Storm Ground does a fantastic job at making its stories feel fleshed out. There are multiple campaigns you’ll embark on spanning 3 different factions, the Stormcast Eternals, the Nighthaunt, and the Maggotkin of Nurgle. All of these factions have tons of characters you’ll come across and in each one you’ll follow its character. The stories aren’t the main focus but it’s cool to have them there.

Gameplay

As a newcomer to not just the Warhammer franchise but strategy games in general, I was actually pretty relieved that Storm Ground has a lot of instructions throughout its playthrough. The game has players focus on commanding their team across multiple campaigns that’ll test you in many different ways. Each of the 3 playable factions features their own unique spin on the gameplay that felt really interesting.

Each campaign will have you using the main character that’ll you need to keep alive in order to survive. That’s easier said than done though because the game is relentless. Planning out your attack routes and defenses of your team is extremely important and has to be calculated in every turn. Enemies are pretty tactical and won’t give you much breathing room from turn to turn.

There are a bunch of different mission types and objectives that you’ll have to focus on in order to actually complete a level. This can be as simple as destroying a certain enemy or completing the level within an allotted amount of turns. It does a good job of adding a different kind of difficulty to the game. Because of how tedious the gameplay can be, balancing combat strategy and the objectives can be a real test.

If the main character falls, you lose and have to start over. This is where the rogue-like mechanics fit in. Once you restart, you don’t respawn at the point you were at. It’s back to the beginning with you. How does this affect the overall gameplay? Well, anything you unlock during your playthroughs is actually carried with you regardless of if you die.

I think that is an awesome idea but it tends to make the rogue-like aspect then feel kind of redundant. The reason is, everything you unlock is actually pretty important. You’ll unlock things such as units that serve as foot soldiers. They come in all different types of classes that have their own set of unique abilities and weapons.

You’ll also come across a bunch of different loot types such as weapons, armor, and skills that you’ll either find on the battlefield or earn by playing and completing objectives. Your main character as well as the units can be customized with your earnings at the beginning of each new mission. Having all of your items at your disposal at all times no matter whether you have to start the campaign over really doesn’t make sense to me.

I wish that the devs chose one or the other. Either give us a linear journey where when you die you respawn at the point of death or go full rogue-like and take everything away at death. The game never really hooked me and I feel like this is the main reason. I think that it could’ve been better handled. Even if they still went with this approach, maybe some adjusting could’ve been done like taking certain things away that were earned in that specific campaign but not from ones that were completed. It’s a wasted opportunity in my opinion.

Talking about the principles of its gameplay though, it’s incredibly smooth. Animations and attacks work without a hitch and the controls are tuned very nicely even for a controller. I was worried that the controls and gameplay were going to be sloggy but I’m really glad that I was wrong. It comes as kind of a shame though that I wasn’t really a fan of the progression though.

Visuals

Storm Ground has a very distinct art style that is actually pretty easy on the eyes. The bright blues and yellows of the Stormcast Eternals contrast really nicely against the dark and muddy backgrounds. It’s all pretty dynamic. The great look of this title is furthered by the lighting of both the environments and spells/attacks.

Audio

I was blown away by how much dialogue was recorded for the characters. They’re acted very much in character and did a great job of making the characters feel living. It’s always my favorite thing to hear when voice actors go fully into character like this, especially in video games.

Replayability

Because of its rogue-like style mechanics, Storm Ground has plenty of playtime and replayability for those that just can’t get enough of it. There’s also multiplayer that you can jump into. It doesn’t implement the rogue-like progression so this is a more vanilla version of how to play the game.

What It Could Have Done Better

While I do enjoy rogue-like mechanics in games, it isn’t the case for this game. I would’ve liked to have the option to play a more vanilla form of progression as well. Because of its uneveness, it became hard for me to really get invested in the game.

Verdict

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground is a cool game that tries its hand at blending aspects of two different genres into one title. It does have a pretty steep learning curve so this really isn’t a good choice for newbies to the turn-based strategy genre, like myself. It is a beautiful-looking title though that definitely has a ton of heart poured into it. It’s evident everywhere, from its visual presentation to its character portrayals, and to its fluid gameplay.