Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure (Chess)

Great chess game with very cool scenarios and units, I only hope achievements weren't broken

Absolutely needs an undo last move button. Wasted hours because I was doing well and made like one mistake and had to do the whole level again. Kind of ridiculous.

I don't like chess, but I gave it a chance anyway because it was on sale. One mission after the tutorial, basically the first mission, I get an impossible chess puzzle. You can't win logically, you have to beat the level by moving in a particular order so the a.i. moves to a spot that makes no sense. There is no guide for this level, videos of people playing online get a different first true level. Even for a guy who doesn't like chess I expected more from campaign mode.

wouldnt work without setting the page file to 12gb. I have 6gb of ram with ryzen integrated graphics. game is fun. I thought at first that since you werent introduced to all the pieces that the game was for beginners. not really. its actually harder than games like final fantasy tactics and although im not sure if moves like en passant work at the beginning of the campaign. the game sets up interesting challenges that make you practice offensive chess. if you want an engaging chess game without having to worry about what pieces do what. the adventure mode is for you.

good learning curve, a generally enjoyable game. It won't really help with real world chess as the goals are different in each round (i.e. capture the king isn't the ultimate goal) but great for sinking into a little classic strategy with a twist.

Not truly original, as many chess games have featured puzzle modes, and campaigns, but this one is well done, and the campaign has a good amount of variety to its' mission structure. The presentation is top notch, as well.

Chessaria is a very enjoyable game by itself, but coupled with the game of chess not only do you have an enjoyable game you also have an incredible tool for learning strategy and abstract thinking to help improve your chess game.

The game play is smooth and the graphics are beautiful. The ambient music is soothing and adds to the puzzles as you think your way through each one of the different challenges presented to you in a fantasy world environment.

The concept of strategy is encouraged between each cut scene with quotes displayed in bold lettering on a black screen from notable military tacticians, philosophers, and chess grandmasters adding to the gravity of what you are really developing when you play Chessaria, a better ability to play chess.

I like both the traditional chess and the adventure battles using modified chess moves and board layouts and obstacles

Perhaps this game gets more compelling later on, but it honestly made such a bad first impression with me that I really don't care.

If you are a fan of chess, or are even just someone who is intrigued by chess, this game is not for you. This is not a chess game, and it is not going to make you any better at chess. It barely even teaches you how to play chess. Rather than teaching you any fundamentals or useful techniques, within the first dozen levels, you will have played that many tedious mobility puzzles. Most of these puzzles revolve around this moronic "civilians" mechanic, meaning that your objective will be to shamble one or two pieces all over the board, trying to keep a group of slowly advancing pawns from capturing these useless "civilian" pieces that just sit at the back of the board. Instead of discovering clever ways to use your pieces, and learning about important concepts like forks and skewers, you will be spending your time trying to figure out how to keep yourself out of zugzwang (being forced to move when you don't want to), while also putting your AI opponent in zugzwang. Holy cow, what fun...

The most egregious example of how stupid this game is (in my single hour of playtime) was when I was playing one of the missions described above. I had FINALLY been given an actual handful of pieces, and though to myself, "Alright, here's where things pick up, right?" Wrong. After my first move, a fucking meteor comes down and erases half of them from the board. I wish I were making this up, but it somehow gets even worse. The opponent has a new piece on the board. "Oh, it's a king! Interesting... This is where I learn about placing the king in check to gain tempo, right?" Wrong again. The king can be captured, like any other piece, and has absolutely no aversion to it either. It was at this point that I uninstalled and requested my refund.

There is absolutely nothing good about this game. It fails as a chess game because it doesn't follow the rules of chess. It fails as a puzzle game because it's just a terrible version of chess. The pacing is horrendous. The ambiance is generic and uninspired. Everything takes WAY TOO LONG, even with the attack animations disabled. It is a waste of time, and it simply isn't fun.

Don't buy this game. This game sucks.

Though Chessaria has been out for several years and Pixel Wizards big introduction to their own franchise is a major first time release. As leader of the new group dedicated to Turn Base Genre Review. I thought I would give this ambitious game a quick look at what it does right and what they to do to improve, so let's get rocking.

What I initially enjoyed:
Presentation: Solid isometric use, colors, sounds, character presentation, themes and UI arrangement is well executed. They add a simple good vs bad narrative and the functions are simple and easy to understand. So far so good.
Chess, Chess, and more Chess: This is the modern homage to some classic chess games. Clearly this is Battle Chess just dressed up nicer with solid piece design and wonderful set designs. If you love chess to death. This one is for you.
Adventure Mode: This is the games new twist. The many variations of puzzles here will challenge you, but don't get stuck.
Variety: It does give you a lot of variety in puzzles and game play.
Perseverance : One of the issues with many games is you don't want to feel you're doing homework or not being rewarded for sticking with a game. Chessaria does sometimes feel like home work, but if its tactical challenges and puzzle solving you enjoy. Then the addition of Chessaria may appeal to you.
Licensed Friendly: It does not over complicate things and I remember thinking this is what the old Battle Chess should have learned from. Chessaria can be any licensed material, like Star Wars Monopoly, and still be Battle Chess friendly. It is expandable in other theme format and still be Chessaria.

What needs to improve:
It's Chess: first if you don't like chess or have no patience, or even willing to learn chess basics. I am not sure like my kids, that there is enough to keep you invested beyond that basic fact. Despite its fantasy theme. It may be a game you touch on when you feel like it than be 'must play'.
Stuck: There were some puzzles and bugs that got you stuck to the point of giving up and that should not be its purpose.
One Gimmick: I mean this in the scope of move animation, something developers need to go beyond of. Having a unit have just one finish move can become boring and it was this that cause Battle Chess and other chess animated games to fail. They needed to push this envelope with combination moves, and multiple animated outcomes, even unlocks to other Chess animated moves based on standard chess combinations that I think would have made it much more fun. Like Castling for example, slight con for me.
Multiple Chess Types: Chessaria misses on opportunities to bring forth multiple player options or unique formats of Chess, like 3 dimensional board chess, or its own new chess format game, that make the game one track minded. Yes you have pvp, but seems lacking in its thought process and just a simple add on.

My initial impression: Chessaria is simply a story mode battle chess with 100's of puzzle and it seemed to have two different AI's, one for chess and one for adventure. If you love chess or a fan of it. Then Chessaria gives you bang for the buck. If you have never played chess and learn the simple basics to the game. Then Chessaria may have a fancy appeal to you. However, whether you dress in a shirt or jeans, or a fancy tuxedo. They are still clothes. Just depends on your style. I credit Pixel Wizards effort in giving you the world of Chessaria to learn chess from and enjoy some fun puzzle game play. However, it's not for everyone. Chessaria is a nice start. We will see where they go from here. See VIDEO above the discussion to see if the game play is for you before buying. My Initial score 2.9 out of 5

Myself and a friend purchased this game for cross-platform play (pc-mac) and although it is indeed capable of that there are a few problems which I feel I should warn people about.

First I'd like to go over the positives:

- The single player adventure mode is good fun and the puzzles are fresh and inventive.
- There was clearly a lot of effort put into the art work and models which are both great.
- The cross-platform play works as advertised.
- There are several multi-player game modes which is a nice addition to regular chess.

However that is pretty much it. Next I'd like to discuss the negatives:

- The first thing I feel I need to point out is how taxing this game is to run. My friend who also purchased the game as I say has a good Mac and I have medium spec gaming laptop (the ram, CPU and graphic specs of our machines were all well above the recommended specs for the game). When running Chessaria it made both of our machines overheat to unacceptable levels within 10 minutes of being open. As a point of reference - it made my laptop go up to 94 degrees, which is hotter than it gets after 3 hours of Unreal Engine 4.
My friend had to install specific software to limit the performance consumption of Chessaria (though that caused it to run less smoothly) and I had to edit power settings to force it to only run off one of my computer cores. And even after this it still takes my laptop up to 75 degrees. So just be aware if you want to get Chessaria that there is some sort of performance issue.

- There are a few design choices in terms of gameplay which I found a little questionable. Though they are mostly just small quality of life things I will list a few here.
> The game doesn't display taken pieces during a game.
> There is no 'undo move' option in single player.
> There is often some kind of syncing issue with steam friends list which means friends names don't display in the multiplayer set up area.

- Though the multiplayer has a few alternate chess variants most of them are unfortunately not very good/quite badly balanced. Only 2 or 3 of them seem worth playing. On top of this there is no customisation option to set up your own custom chess matches. Within minutes of googling if there were any free apps which allow for custom multiplayer chess games I found a free app that does just that.

- This is less to do with the game itself but there is a great lack of information about it online. If you want to search for potential unlockables or update change logs you won't find any. Also some of the limited information about the game found online seems to be contradictory.

Overall if you want this game so you can play solo chess puzzles through a long and detailed story mode then It may just be worth it. However if you have a low spec machine or are looking for a game to satisfy a desire to play multiplayer with your friends then I would recommend looking for a free chess app or browser game instead.

TL;DR A game of chess and chess-puzzles, with an extremely high-cliché fantasy theme. Quite engaging, highly-polished and very enjoyable.


Full Review

I discovered this title by accident, but wow... what a surprise! I quite like chess, but it does tend to be a) quite clinical and b) too difficult. This game, however, fixes that! Chessaria comes with a quick-play mode against the computer with a few chess variants (standard chess, plus some asymmetric variants and other unusual scenarios). It also has a multiplayer mode, that lets you play against friends online. And then there is the "Adventure" (the single-player campaign). The Adventure takes you on a journey through the land, and presents 100 varied and engaging chess puzzles (and the occasional full game of chess).

You can also play standard chess with it and you can also match-up multiplayer with a friend online, which is neat. Online games can be of different variants too, such as capture the treasure or reach objective squares, so it is not just online chess per se. Also, by playing the Adventure campaign you can unlock new boards (that is, unlock new graphics and animations).


High Fantasy

I said the setting is high-cliché fantasy. And I mean seriously high-cliché, where the long-forgotten elven kingdom is beset by orcs and epic music, and you need to lead your small band of heros (chess pieces) to unravel the mysterious mystery, defeat the evil adversaries (also chess peices) and bring freedom and justice and even more epic music to the realm once more! The single-player campaign is a set of chess puzzles. Or, more accurately, puzzles with chess pieces. There are quirks, like blocked squares, traps, hidden items, objective squares, etc.. Check out the videos on the Steam store page and you'll get the idea.

If you are an ultra-purist chess player, you'll end up rolling your eyes or rage-quitting in disgust. However if you enjoy classic fantasy and intruiging "out-of-the-box" puzzles, then you'll have a lot of fun.

So, yes, this is a fantasy setting with dragons, high elves, foul orcs and all the other usuals. Everything is exaggerated, but this adds to the lighthearted nature. The chess pieces become the characters, which range from naïve elvish footsoldiers to the faerie queen to orcish warlords. Some of the names are a play on words or chess terms (aren't they, Fid?). Some seem to subtly poke fun (e.g. female bishops). Animations are sanitised and there is no blood or gore (destroyed pieces fade into faerie dust) and the language is tame, making it suitable for a somewhat younger audience (although, that said, some of the females are quite scantily clad). There is occasional voice acting and it is also cliché, but in a good way. I found myself warming to the characters and their quirky ways.


Strong points

Overall, Chessaria is great, but there are some things which are particularly classy. Primarily, the game itself is pretty slick. I encountered only 1 bug during 50 hours of playtime, and the developers responded to it promptly when I reported it. It is very smooth and reliable.

The attention to detail in the graphics is gorgeous and the animations are cute. The detail that has gone into the surrounding scenery is impressive and really helps add to the atmosphere. The developers certainly didn't stop trying when they reached square H8. There is plenty of off-board scenery, from vegetation and architecture and even fish swimming in the nearby water. It adds to the ambience of the single-player games, and makes the Adventure campaign feel like a true journey... even though you are on chess boards. The music is superb. Normally, I don't like music and I normally switch off in-game music. However, this time it stayed on throughout the entire campaign. It is atmospheric, not too intrusive, and really suits the theme and setting well.

The gameplay is great. There are chess games and puzzles, but sometimes there are unexpected features, such as changed roles, hidden items, obstacles, multi-square pieces and other charming features. I will not list some of the best ones... as the surprise factor is part of the delight in encountering them. In any case, it was varied and exciting and great fun.


Criticisms

I have two main criticisms. The first of these is that the Steam achievements do not work. Sometimes you can get the wrong one, sometimes they are late, sometimes they simply do not activate. This is frustrating and seriously detracts from the replayability of some parts of the game. I really wish the developers would deal with this!

The other problem is the multiplayer setup. Although you can play against a human opponent, unless you already know someone, there is no "multiplayer lobby" where you can hang out and wait for a random stranger to challenge.

A couple of other things would be nice, but are not essential. A mission editor to let you build your own games/puzzles would be appreciated. Ditto for a campaign editor. Also some more variation in some of the animations would be good. There is no warning if you are in check either, which can be a shock when your king is suddenly fireballed off the board!


Difficulty

A big factor with chess is how hard it is. I am a weak chess player. I know the rules and a few basics (forks, pins, and the relative value of pieces) and I found the AI a nice match to my skill levels. Clever enough not to make stupid mistakes, but not Kasparov-grade either so that the game is impossible. The computer doesn't take long in making its move, so it is not tedious waiting for it. It took me about 40 hours to get through the Adventure campaign. Some levels I blitzed through, but others required multiple attempts. I got some tips to help me through a couple of levels, but it was eminently doable. For the single stand-alone games, you can set the AI difficulty from very easy to insanely difficult (well, by my standard at least). For a newcomer to chess, or perhaps a younger player, I think the developers have pitched it really well.



Conclusion

If you like chess and, especially, chess puzzles then you will enjoy the game play. Of course, it is extremely high-cliché fantasy in its setting, but I found this light, enjoyable and lots of fun. Although there are a few deficiencies, I would definitely recommend it.

Load Game, front screen comes up and then crashes. Restart game and get past opening screen to find game is running websites in the background behind the game, also graphics do not reflect graphics on previews, and yes I have a very good graphics card and have everything maxed. The worst part though is they put in beat the stupid clock missions, so its not a casual game, its rush! rush! rush! game.

I've played chess for a very long time & have lately not found too many players where I live. I stumbled upon this game on Steam and was pretty blown away. At first I thought - oh - a chess game that just animates the moves in a chess game. No- it's definitely not that. This game not only presents some polished animations, but more importantly improves your real chess game by continually presenting you with new variations and situations which do not normally exist on a chess board. Very cool game & I would highly recommend!

Chessaria is a fun chess game that mixes up chess. It brings an interesting fantasy adventure theme to the concept; to give one an 100 level campaign. A variety of setups, number of pieces, and interesting missions, along side a fun story, where characters speak and progress it forward, this is a truly a hallmark in chess games. Taking the old concept of Battle Chess, where the pieces are characters not merely pieces to a whole new level.

As if that isn't everything, the graphics are colorful, fun, and the world and the chess boards are seemlessly integrated.

Finally, the different misisons seem great at teaching chess fundamentals; so if you wanted to play chess with your child but he just thought it boring; play this game with them watching and I'll bet they'll want to play, when they've finished the adventure, I'll bet they won't think chess is boring anymore.

Very nice game that tickles a chess players imagination. The moves are basically same as in a regular chess game, but in this game the four knights variation may actually mean that you have four knights while opponent has 20 pawns. As you can tell from this some very nice situations can occur. There are 100 levels when I write this and it took me 19 hours of play to complete the game. I am an advanced chess player but not one that would participate in any tournaments or anything. To play this you do need to apply basic chess principles like controlling the center in some puzzles and on other levels perhaps bust through from the sides. So you need to evaluate the position for weaknesses. Some tactical and strategic knowledge and skill is required to really enjoy this game.

I would not recommend this game to a total noob, but if you have played some chess this is a very nice break from traditional games.

For whatever reason the game seems to be resource hungry, as I have a 1080Ti but still on 3440x1440 the game was only some 80fps. I dont know what is going on there but for me the game play was of course smooth as this is a strategy game but I was surprised to see the relatively low fps, comparable to some AAA titles out there.

Ignore earlier reviews. It's been upgraded. Seriously.

If you want tactical depth, breadth, and challenge - even if you have zero love for or interest in "Chess" - get this. If you do love chess and you wouldn't mind some pretty colors and animation with an amazing AI - get this. If you're looking for a fantasy RPG with a decent plot, any character advancement, decent dialogue, or decent optimization... don't get this...

Don't let the time on Steam fool you: I played all the way through a much earlier version. A worse version. I came back and got thoroughly wow'ed...

WOW have these devs (a) listened to reviewers, and (b) improved the game 100x over. Awesome job, guys - most teams don't listen like that. I have to admit, the early version was a bit embarrassing: typos everywhere, glitches, mediocre AI, poor game customization, no skipping cutscenes that you've seen a thousand times because that stupid boss owns your face... All fixed and then some.

The AI is *not* mediocre anymore - it mops the floor with me. That's a good thing! I feel like this is the tactical challenge I've always wanted out of e.g. Xcom and Shadowrun, but I've never been so shamelessly abused by an AI in gaming history. In other tactical games, the AI trounces you when you give it enough clear advantages: superior numbers, superior firepower, superior positioning, never genuinely superior tactics (if you are good/attentive).

This game, on the other hand, takes a "chess" AI and pits it against you in tactical setups. These aren't like chess setups: they might have two rows of nothing but pawns and you have to protect "villagers" in your back with your two rooks and two bishops. There are "bosses" and unique games that use chess as a starting point, but deviate completely from the base game. Add standard RP fare (orcs, elves, princes and princesses) and staging, and you have what FEELS like a tactical RPG, PLAYS like a tactical RPG, and pummels your face in like chess.

DEVS, for the love of God, I hope you hear me: Put this game ON SALE. You're charging 3x too much for it. It's not that it isn't "worth" $24, but no one's going to TRY it for $24! I'm happy with my money spent. I'll get $50 worth out of it, easy. But it LOOKS worth $8 or $9, and it's "worth a try" at that amount - under $10. You have to keep in mind that, from the outside, this sure looks like Battle Chess 2.0. (People: It's not.) No one's throwing down $24 to try a "fantasy chess game"! Get this on the front page pop-up for a Steam Sale, advertise it for 60% off for a few days, get some hype, bump it back up when you have the momentum...

To everyone else, if you have the $24, go for it. Let the difficulty slide up on you (the early levels assume you don't know a thing about chess) and suddenly clock you upside the head.

On that note... Maybe a difficulty setting? I'm personally enjoying the beating but my wife would like me to go to bed before 3am "after I beat this level"... I feel like my first few playthroughs of Civ5 on Deity...

I've been playing chess for a little over a year now. This game was honestly just what I needed to add a little spice to the age old game. Still myself an amateur at the game, it helped make sure that I can take chess strategy and apply it in different ways to achieve various objectives. Would recommend this to anyone looking to improve their spacial awareness and synergy between pieces.

Bought the game, wishing I hadn't, see rant below for why. Am generally stuck ,bored and not enjoying game.
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Extreamly frustrating. Failed the Golem mission for something like the 20th time. A skip button to get past the beginning Bla Bla Bla might be nice. Not exactly sure what I supposed to do to win. An explanation of what spaces the Golem can attack would be nice. I managed to get behind him and take out a crystal but the he appeared to take out a peice 2 spaces away and the game locked up. Also I've never been a fan of hidden object games, hidden peices and hidden clue are not fun. One of the Underworrrld missions has the player trying to get 3 peices into 3 spaces on the other side of the board and there is a hidden peice behind a rock. The stand on correct runes is rather difficult to find the clues on which runes are the right ones. Also the graphics look nice, nice and cluttered. Can't tell what is a 1 space collum from multi space wall. Sometimes simpler is better.

Chessaria is the kind of game where you would play when deciding to take a break from your conventional chess games. It comes from many different problem and solution levels. I do agree that some of the stages doesn't state their objective clearly but however, it's puzzle and problem-solving nature makes it challenging. As not all games are perfect, the developers are still working on to rectify the problems. Do give them some time and try it out. Hope this review helps!