Fort Triumph has been described as "fantasy XCOM" by BioShock director Ken Levine, who apparently backed its successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2017, and who am I to argue with Ken Levine? Besides, I agree: Fort Triumph is a turn-based tactical RPG set in a world distorted by magic, so I'd say fantasy XCOM is right on the money. It also recently entered Steam Early Access, and its old Kickstarter demo is still available if you want to give it a sample.
A lot of Fort Triumph looks familiar—grid-based, turn-based combat, the three staple fantasy classes with the addition of the wild card savage class—but it stands out thanks to its focus on environmental interactions. As developer Cookiebyte Entertainment says on the game's Steam page: "In Fort Triumph, every crate and every tree is a potential weapon in the hands of experienced tacticians: in order to succeed, you will have to burn, freeze, topple, kick around or outright destroy the scenery at the right moment."
I gave the Kickstarter demo a whirl, and they weren't kidding when they said you can interact with almost anything. I used a wind spell to knock a column onto a goblin, then used the same spell to topple a flaming tree. I used my foot to knock a goblin into another goblin, and I used my other foot to knock a goblin into an orc (I assume it was my orc-killing foot, but to be sure I'd have to consult Chris' guide to ass-kicking). Suffice it to say Fort Triumph lets you do some cool stuff and encourages you to view environments differently.
Cookiebyte expects Fort Triumph to stick around in Early Access for about a year, putting its official release date around mid-2019. It's currently $20 (with a $2 discount available through Thursday, May 3), and comes with the first few hours of the game's singleplayer campaign, with more levels due in upcoming updates. The devs say the price will "likely" increase post-Early Access.
Thanks, RockPaperShotgun.
