Siege Survival Gloria Victis Preview: Holding Out For Some Heroes
Siege Survival Gloria Victis could be the latest Assassin’s Creed, after witnessing the opening cinematics. They’re pretty impressive as you gear up for some epic battles and the kind of cutscenes that would make the Russo brothers fill their pants.
** Do note that a full review is in progress as I played the preview first **
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Only, you have nothing to do with the battles directly and instead play the support network or backbone to the defensive forces. Still, it’s an essential role, and your performance is key to the survival of your people.
The bloody Ismirs have shown up on your doorstep and have brought an array of destruction intent to take over the city. In the opening scenes, they’ve succeeded in wiping out the outer walls, infiltrating the townsfolk, and now aim to bring the castle down.
Siege Survival Gloria Victis Preview (PC via Steam)
You begin with Flint, a hooded worker (AC?) that has to give Bertram the carpenter a kick in the arse as he wallows in self-pity as his family have copped it. Boohoo, get over it – your people need you! His trade is pretty irrelevant in Siege Survival Gloria Victis, the same as everyone else, as you need the numbers more than the skills.
After creating some basic needs such as a campfire and beds, your primary job is to keep it together, providing a near-constant supply of armoury, food and water to the troops. At the same time, you need to ensure the people you control behind the wall are well fed and watered, or they’ll die.
Siege Survival Gloria Victis, published by Ravensourt, is a mixture of two games: survival/management and stealth tactics
The first is the above; managing the food supply, equipment and ensuring the animals are well fed to produce eggs and eventually some sausages (from the pigs). But at night, you masquerade as a medieval ninja and head into town to scavenge goods.
The latter is the stealth element, and you must sneak about the town at night without being seen, then return with your stash before dawn. There aren’t any options for combat here, but you can arm yourself with a torch to perhaps see better but to burn off decomposing bodies to prevent diseases. There’s also the option to equip a shovel to clear new areas.
All You Need Is A Shovel
Initially, you’ll be able to explore uninterrupted, but eventually, you run out of options and go balls deep into enemy territory. Patrols have the usual cone of vision; if you’re seen, they chase you down and attack. While I never lost a character, they did get wounded, and if you don’t create a bandage and subsequent medicine within your camp, they can die.
This switch between management and stealth was a good mix-up and made Siege Survival Gloria Victis feel varied. However, the lack of materials makes this bordering on a rogue-like. By about day 11, I’d run out of supplies to make the shovels I needed to progress. With everyone eating raw eggs and necking dirty water, I inevitably lost a character to thirst and starvation. On the other side of the wall, the Bastion, my troops were just keeping the enemy at bay but needed my input for bandages, food, water, and repairs to their gear.
It all felt like The Walking Dead, that being doomed was my fate
After losing a character, I toyed with restarting but instead dismantled a structure that gave me the items needed to build two shovels. When nighttime came, my team opened up a new area that had an abundance of food. Just as it was all looking positive: ‘Thank you for playing our game! Please wishlist’. Bugger, it was now I realised it was a prologue.
But the fact that I stuck it out in one go was all the worthwhile. Siege Survival Gloria Victisis a depressing thread of survival – balancing out resources between your troops that are keeping you safe, and the workers that allow the troops to do their job. Just as you take one step forward, it’s two steps back.
Two Games In One
Some of the structures/features in Siege Survival Gloria Victis were locked, such as a trebuchet, but you could upgrade a few stations with additional goods and facilities. The critical factor was the lack of materials, and you’re then up shit creek without a shovel. Once you’ve rinsed the area of salvageable goods in the stealth sections, it’s impossible to progress without using the shovels to open new locations. Be warned.
Aside from the management and stealth factors, there are a few dialogue scenes where you have a couple of paths to take. They aren’t anything drastic – just the usual attempts to recruit new characters, explore an area or come back later. The overall vibe to these segments, again, added to the variety.
With the ‘two games in one’, Siege Survival Gloria Victis feels like a good balance of two different genres without standing out like a sore thumb. There’s a bit of flexibility with the management areas, switching out camera angles and zooms, plus hot-swapping characters. In contrast, the stealth element is a bit more mysterious and tense as you never know if a patrol is around the corner and only have access to one character.
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Siege Survival Gloria Victis is a standalone game to the MMORPG Gloria Victis, also by Black Eye Games. They both are part of the same universe, but you needn’t be familiar with the latter for any further insight unless the factions and lore interest you. As for the game reviewed, the full release will be available on Steam on the 18th of May 2021.