Summary
Miasma Chronicles is a serviceable tactical role playing game that puts a focus on stealth mechanics and tells a fairly engaging narrative.
The newest project from Swedish development team The Bearded Ladies is Miasma Chronicles, a turn-based tactical role playing game that mixes in stealth mechanics. You’ve probably heard of this studio from their previous games Mutant Year Zero and Corruption 2029, two titles that gained mostly positive critical reception.
Now I’m someone who hasn’t really dabbled into the realm of tactics-based games before, as I never played classics such as XCOM or Fire Emblem. Considering Miasma Chronicles is my first taste of what this genre really has to offer, this game is quite enjoyable for the most part, with a few minor caveats. While I can applaud the game for its outstanding visuals and world building, I can’t overlook some frustrating design choices and difficulty imbalances.
The narrative here is mostly pretty self explanatory, as it revolves around the title of the game: miasma. Miasma is a mysterious, liquid-metal-like substance that has plagued the world. We start off the story with our two protagonists Elvis and his robot brother Diggs trying to use a tactical glove left by Elvis’s mother that can seemingly control the deadly goo. The two siblings travel across a post-apocalyptic United States in search of their mother, who they believe holds the answers to their questions about the miasma. Along the way, the pair encounter evil mutants and the First Family, a robotic ruling fist of the lands. It’s an all around enjoyable story with great revelations here and there, but the world building is what truly shines here.
Gameplay is broken down into real-time exploration, where you can navigate the world freely, and turn-based tactical combat, where the battlefield is broken down into grids and characters take turns performing actions. Each character gets two action points per turn, which usually boils down to using one to move into position and the other to attack or reload. Stealth is a large mechanic of this game, as you can run around in real-time to set up ambushes. It is in your best interest to neutralize as many enemies as you can before engaging in battle. While in combat, your attacks have a chance of landing based on your position and the enemy’s, and whether or not they are behind cover. After all, this is a tactical game, so succeeding depends on your careful planning and strategizing.
You start off with just Elvis and Diggs and recruit a few more members later on, but it is a little disappointing that your party size caps out at 3. Progression is quite straightforward for any role playing game, where leveling up grants more health points and skill points that you can then allocate in a tree. Experience comes from partaking in battles, completing quests, and finding treasures buried throughout the world. That being said, most of the side missions are uninspired and quite repetitive. Exploration is encouraged here as Elvis gains new miasma powers for his glove from finding it in various parts of the environment. Puzzles are also sprinkled in here and there, some of which are quite mind bending as they encourage you to look for clues in your surroundings.
Most TRPG games are known for their unforgiving nature of gameplay but I’m glad to see Miasma Chronicles offers a wide range of options for players of all backgrounds. There’s four difficulty modes, ranging from the “narrative” difficulty which reduces enemy damage and heals your entire party after each combat encounter to the “alpha editor” difficulty that disables manual saves and makes the game overly challenging. I started off on “normal” difficulty, and even then, I had some troubles staying alive in fights, considering how bloated some enemies are and how little damage your weapons do. The game also seems to be quite stingy with how much money you earn from battles and how expensive items are in shops.
It’s pretty obvious that the visual department blew it out of the water with how beautiful the graphics look here. The game looks absolutely gorgeous on the PlayStation 5, with crisp environmental and character details. I really enjoyed the game’s rendition of post apocalyptic America mixed with a steampunk vibe, especially Elvis’s futuristic glove along with his junkyard robot brother Diggs. The demented designs of the miasma monsters along with the miasma itself provide a great contrast in aesthetic to the protagonists. The art direction paired with excellently voice actors and actresses provide an all around indisputably atmospheric experience.
While the game was known to have performance issues on PS5 during its initial launch, I’m happy to say that post launch patches have made the game run better, with no hard crashes or stutters. There are still some bugs such as the inability to interact with objects or characters getting stuck in terrain. Miasma Chronicles offers two modes, one prioritizing graphics and one prioritizing frame rates. However, the game could use some quality of life updates with the design of the UI, as some menus are confusing to navigate and the font size is way too miniscule. The game also doesn’t seem to track playtime correctly, as it overcounts the amount of time spent in-game, but this is a minor issue at most.
Miasma Chronicles is a serviceable tactical role playing game that puts a focus on stealth mechanics and tells a fairly engaging narrative. The steampunk post-apocalyptic aesthetic presented here is simply unparalleled and immersive thanks to a fantastic cast of characters and world building. However, the learning curve here is a bit too high, especially if you are a newcomer to the genre, due to the unbalanced nature of the game. But even if you’re a diehard tactics fan, I’d wait for a discount and a few more patches.
