Fort Triumph Review

I have to be honest – I was initially very low on Fort Triumph. I’m not overly keen on XCOM-style games, but I’m always willing to try something out of my comfort zone. My first two hours with FT were of attrition as I struggled to proceed, get to grips with the mechanics, and overall not get my ass handed to me every fight. I stuck with it however, and after starting fresh (on Easy) I can say that I finally see what others are so full of praise for. I’m still not overly fond of the style of game, but Fort Triumph might just make a convert of me yet.

If you’ve played XCOM before you’ll settle in much easier here than I. Player and AI take turns in moving troops around a battlefield, getting into cover and attacking the enemy to be the last team standing. Unlike XCOM though, this is squarely in the fantasy realm, so we’re using mages, soldiers, and archers against the likes of goblins and skeletons. Elemental attacks meld with brute force weapons, and magic can be used to alter the play space. Fort Triumph has a very deep learning curve, but if you take the time to get into it you’ll find it to be very rewarding too.

Players have a home base that can be upgraded to assist the party out on the field, such as gaining more currency per day, or allowing them extra health in battle. Traversing a large world map from a isometric perspective, we can head straight to the marked main missons, or explore to gather more resources, XP, and loot. There is an enemy faction also moving about the map that will ultimately attack our base if we’re not quick enough to progress, as well as plenty of extra battles to fight should we so wish. Once we’ve levelled up enough, some of the easier ones grant us an Auto-Win option, saving us from having to smash easy foes in actual combat. I didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the world maps, but the areas I did explore yielded a lot of extra stuff, so players looking to really get stuck in will have plenty to do.

Heroes can be levelled up individually, and gain new skills as well as upgrade current ones. Just one of the neat touches here, classes aren’t restricted to the usual abilities; a soldier can gain the same magic spells as a mage, for example. Each time we opt for a new power, three random selections are presented to us. Once again, the option to really get into the nitty gritty is immense here, and skilled players will no doubt end up with quite the party of heroes to choose from. We can have four in the field at a time by default (later this can be increased to five), and a back-up five at the home base in case of death or attack by the enemy.

Perma-death is on by default, and this was part of the reason I was struggling early on. Despite only being on Normal difficulty, the enemies kicked my ass over and over, so I was constantly losing my upgraded units. Easy mode made things more bearable, and it is possible to turn off Perma-death before starting a game (though we can’t change it without starting over). It can be frustrating to lose a good unit late on, but then that’s part of the excitement of battle, to see if we can get everyone out alive.

Into the battle then, and as mentioned, players of XCOM will be right at home. Moving a unit costs action points, as does attacking. Some cost more, some less, but utilising them fully requires some forward thinking. Players are able to move units quite far ahead using up all action points, but keeping the crew together is the best bet for survival. Once we’re done the enemy take their turn, and so on and so forth. The game speed can be knocked up to 3X, and I found this a great way to keep things moving instead of watching the same animations over and over.

One of the big hooks to FT is the use of physics in the battle arenas. There are houses, pillars, rocks, barrels, and more that can be interacted with to attack enemies. Some characters can kick rocks into them, dealing damage and knocking them back to be stunned. Pillars can be knocked on top of enemies to crush them, while wooden structures such as houses can be set alight, gradually burning away with each turn until it collapses in, damaging anyone inside. Enemies can directly be shunted too, and if they are in a direct line it’s possible to knock them all with a single kick, one into the other. It can take a bit of getting used to, especially as friendly fire is on so it’s entirely possible to inadvertently hit our own team with a misplaced attack. Once you get your head round it though, the battle options open up and become even deeper than initial impressions lead us to believe.

Conclusion

At this point I can easily say I’ve found my groove with Fort Triumph. It went from being something I was struggling to motivate myself to play to not realising I’d spent an entire evening working through multiple missions. I’m still getting beat up quite a lot even on Easy, but now I’ve learned the ropes a bit better I can feel another restart on the harder difficulties calling to me. Whether I ever get to it or not is another thing, but it really is very good. If you’ve the patience and time to learn the mechanics properly, then Fort Triumph will be one of the more satisfying turn-based strategies you could choose from.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.