Storm The Gates Brings CCG Table-Top RPG To Kickstarter

A new turn-based, collectible card-type strategy game from Rebel Entertainment called Storm The Gates has arrived on Kickstarter. The game has barely garnered $5,811 while seeking $400,000 in total. That's a heck of a lot of cheese for a small mouse.

The game is played like your typical turn-based strategy games, focusing more on combat and team tactics than things like diplomacy and civilization building. However, those of you who have played games like Might & Magic, Civilization or Lords of the Realm will find a similitude of gameplay within Storm The Gates that will make you feel right at home.

Wonacott PR tossed us a preview account to play-test the game early (during its Kickstarter) to get some impressions about the play experience. I should preface the following content by letting readers know that I'm not fond of play-testing games early if I'm not thoroughly excited about them. One of the major problems with hands-on previewing is that if the game isn't so great, I'm going to have to say so. In a way, a hands-on preview can ruin the momentum of a game if you decide to break from the tradition of the Doritocracy, which basically relies on always praising a game during its development phase.

There are, however, two poignant points about the hands-on preview worth noting. 1.) Thankfully the game was polished enough that I didn't run into problems or game-breaking glitches, and all the features and functions worked the way they should. 2.) Unfortunately, the game is a very typical Facebook-style, browser-based strategy experience that you might find a dime-dozen at one game portal or another.

Now I understand that a lot of people will fallback on the defense that a game being Kickstarted isn't whether or not it's fulfilling a genre that's already filled, but whether or not it's bringing the kind of gameplay experience you can't find in any other game. While playing Storm The Gates, however, there was nothing that really stood out to me that you haven't been able to find in other medieval-fantasy, turn-based CCG-style strategy games.

Usually Kickstarters are for games we don't usually get, the turn-based role-playing games like Wasteland and Shadowrun and The Banner Saga, where they're more than just a popcorn title you can find a dime a dozen of on Facebook or your local game portal operated by Lekool or Aeria.

In the case of Storm The Gates, we have a solid game that doesn't really stand out. There are two sides, Orks and Humans, and there boost towers you can build and units you can spawn and you basically battle to control the map. You can play against the NPC or against other players in synchronous or asynchronous turn-based play. Nice, right?

Well, we have games like Disciples III that kind of fulfill that role as well, along with Paper Sorcerer; Exodus War takes on the turn-based genre on the sci-fi front; Great Big War Games offers a similar experience in 3D; there's also Tynon, Wizardry, Dominator, Warlock, Myth War II, Riftcore, Dawn of Darkness, and of course, Dawn of Fantasy.

Now the thing is, out of all those games I mentioned, is there anything Storm The Gates does that they don't do? The answer is... 'No'. We basically have a game that will be another browser-based title that may or may not fulfill your table-top CCG-RPG, strategy needs until the next Facebook game drops, which will be in a few days or a few weeks at the rate they're usually released.

So basically, while Storm The Gates isn't a bad game and it works, the real question for gamers becomes: Is it worth investing in? Now I can't say 'yes' or 'no' either way because a game investment based on preference and interest is whole left up to the individual. It also becomes a question as to whether or not any of those aforementioned games don't already fulfill what Storm The Gates is trying to achieve. Now if you can convince yourself that this is something you want to play and invest your money into, then power to you.

If you have a desire to see Storm The Gates succeed, feel free to visit the official Kickstarter page to learn.