Mordheim - City of the Damned Reviews
An authentic enough adaptation, Mordheim is deliberately hard and borderline impenetrable to the initiated. Approach with caution.
I found myself wishing that something would appear to redeem Mordheim: City of the Damned, but as it began to feel like every action in the game was taking a few agonizing seconds too long, I realised that I'd lost hope in much the same way as the residents of the eponymous city. Mordheim isn't a dangerous place, it's just a bit dull.
Mordheim is unapologetically hardcore, and if you're not the type to play the X-COM games in Iron Man mode then you might want to give it a miss.
Ultimately, there are some big flaws here, and too much competition really with the recent release of XCOM 2 on home consoles that are much more complete, balanced and enjoyable. If you're desperate for some Warhammer strategy then this may do you, otherwise you'd be best to look elsewhere.
I like Mordheim more than I should. The game is a turn based grind-fest with a tacked on story mode, yet I keep firing it back up to play just one more mission.
My experience of Mordheim: City of the Damned is one where knowledge of the source material is both a blessing and a curse. This isn't a bad game, and despite its flaws there is still fun to be found in the Empire's official worst city to live in. I am well aware that some of my criticism stems from my personal love of Games Workshop's ill-fated tabletop classic, but at the same time, this also affected my enjoyment in a positive way. A game which allows me to have online Mordheim-lite matches with friends is great, but ultimately its blemishes stop it ascending to brilliance.
Mordheim is a game for fans of its tabletop sibling. As a strategy game, it offers enough depth and complexity to stand out from the crowd. As an RPG, it's simply burdened by too much complexity to reward the player. Sadly, thanks to a story that is difficult to appreciate and a heavy focus on run-of-the-mill missions, the gameplay becomes repetitive far too quickly as there are not enough interesting story missions to breathe life into the experience.
Mordheim is par for the course as far as tabletop-inspired tactical RPGs are concerned. The game foregoes accessibility for the sake of being "hardcore." This leaves many players to resort to trial and error before hitting their stride. If you're not well versed in the genre, this can be a bit of a time sink, which is especially unappealing when there are many, many other games to play that you'll find more enjoyable.
But if you were hoping for a new squad-based game with the finesse of XCOM, or the many tactical choices of Jagged Alliance 2, this is not it. Mordheim is dumb. Mordheim is flawed. Mordheim tries hard and doesn't succeed. This is not a happy Christmas, everyone, but the misshapen horror of Faschnat. It's your present from Krampus.