Developed by The Bearded Ladies, Miasma Chronicles is a turn-based tactical shooter, but it’s been combined with RPG and free-roam mechanics to give a more in-depth gameplay experience. Embark on a quest across a post-apocalyptic wasteland full of dangerous enemies and plagued by a mysterious force known as the ‘Miasma’.

In this adventure, you follow the story of Elvis, a young man brought to the old mining town of Sedentary as a baby. However, he was left by his mother, leaving his older robotic brother Diggs to look after him. He had no choice but to fend for himself, but now he wants answers. Elvis wants to figure out his purpose and who he actually is. Being left with very cryptic information from his mother, he sets out to find her.

The story here starts out convoluted, unraveling quite nicely as you progress. All the twists and Elvis’s questions being answered kept me on the edge of my seat and wanting to progress further to find out what awaits me at the end. The characters you meet along the way are unique and have their own little story, all of which are quite interesting, especially when you see some of your party members change as your relationship grows.

Naturally, you will take control of Elvis as the main character, but two others will accompany you for a total part of three. Each companion comes with their own unique set of skills to aid you in combat. First, we have Diggs, your older and robotic brother. Diggs is your more tanky character, using special abilities like ‘Big Brother,’ which allows you to use him as a shield or piece of cover.

My favourite of his skills is one you get early on – his ability to knock an enemy on his back for a turn and allow you to focus on other enemies, or to take that one out real quick. Secondly, we have a mysterious girl, but I will keep that one a little hush-hush because I don’t want to give away too much.

Exploring the world and engaging in combat are two separate things that work together flawlessly. Scouting out a combat situation before engaging in an ambush is great. Not only can you position each character individually for a more tactical approach, but with silenced weapons and enough damage, you can pick off enemies before taking on the rest of the group.

Each time you take out an enemy silently it returns you to free-roaming, allowing you to find and assassinate your next target. Be careful though, if anyone sees or hears an enemy get shot, they’ll be alerted, pulling you into combat.

Now, we are probably wondering how Elvis will combat the Miasma itself. Wielding a robotic glove left by his mother, he finds a way to harness its power instead. Using this to advance your story is the main purpose, though it does come in to be very helpful in combat. After absorbing the Miasma into the glove, you’ll be awarded abilities that are great fun, ranging from a tornado that knocks enemies back, to my favourite early on, a chain-lightning attack that hits multiple enemies, and much more.

There’s a good variety of weapons and attachments to aid you on your journey. Silenced weapons were definitely my go-to, having everyone equipped with one helped so much in taking a more stealthy approach. I also had some extra firepower in a secondary slot on each character, great for when you run out of ammo in one gun and are close to finishing an engagement. All the weapons can be equipped with extra attachments, plus there are also upgrades for your glove and even your character, offering a multitude of options for multiple play styles.

Miasma Chronicles ran great for the most part, but there were a few hiccups I encountered throughout. Choosing between Performance or Quality mode will change how the game runs and looks. I ran it on Quality mode because it still looked great. Now, the few hiccups I encounter were some lag – taking a shot at any enemy could cause the game to seize up temporarily, which happened regularly. One of my other annoyances was traversing up some stairs, and the game forcing me to regroup with my teammates if I didn’t beat the timer. This was a problem after I had positioned them where I wanted them.

I do love a good post-apocalyptic world, particularly one that is done well. Miasma Chronicles has definitely pulled that off. It’s a desolate and plagued world where there are few places for refuge. Beautifully crafted and well executed is how I would put it, straight from the initial appearance and crisp details to the character models, even though you spend most of your time with an isometrical view, up and away from the characters, although it does show them nicely in cutscenes.

The sound was hit-and-miss at some points, but mostly hit, and it worked great, ranging from the atmospheric sounds of the Miasma and its howling winds as you got close, to the voice acting and other sounds. The towns felt alive with random conversations from the town folk and a few interactive friends of Elvis to talk to. The small miss was the weird desync I seemed to have when in combat. Taking a shot was satisfying until the sound didn’t come through after the gun had visually fired. This, unfortunately, took a bit away from the combat.

As a lesser fan of tactical shooters I actually really enjoyed this title. The added free roam to this genre gave it a really nice touch and offered more to the story, which was quite interesting. It’s graphically beautiful, well, for a post-apocalyptic world, and it has great sound design, and although it does have a small desync issue, I managed to look past that and enjoy what Miasma Chronicles presents.

Written by: MrVibeAU