f13.net forums - Chaos Reborn - by X-Com creator Julian Gollop

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August 03, 2025, 10:23:05 AM

we're back, baby

Julian Gollop, the often unsung hero behind UFO, X-COM, Laser Squad and.. well.. the original Chaos... has finally released his new game. Chaos Reborn. Succesfully Kickstarted a few years ago and after a long Early Access campaign on Steam, it got an official launch today.

It is -of course- a turn based startegy game played on an hex map which blends Magic The Gathering with Archon and Poker and puts it on a very old fashioned hex map.

The flow of the game is simple: you are a wizard and you have cards that you cast as spells and creatures to defeat the enemy wizard. Sounds familiar? The catch is that every spell/creature has a chance to fizzle, wasting you a turn (and the card). So you can instead decide to play the illusion of any card you have in your hand with a 100% success rate. Basically, bluffing. The illusionary creature will look completely real to your opponent until disbelieved/attacked. The mind boggles.

RNG is meaningful, but you could try and see the cast chance not so different from what would be the % chances of drawing the right card in a M:tG game. Positioning on the battlefield then plays a huge part too, with elevation being a factor in fights.

It looks pretty and it can be played by up to four players (I believe either 2v2 or FFA), and it launches with a "Season 1" ranked ladder for multiplayer matchmaking purposes, both in real time and in an even more old-fashioned asynchronous style, with one move per real life day (!).

Finally, there's a solo mode where you explore realms and stumble on some story elements but I haven't tried it. There's also equipment and equipment forging, but I am not sure how that works or how it impacts multiplayer. Supposedly, there's also realm-forging which should allow you to create maps or clusters of maps that you can share with friends. But again, I don't that's the meat of the game and I have no idea how it really works. Cool bonus though.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8YDHYPEAEQ

I was aware that this one was in the offing, but not that it'd be out so soon. As a huge fan of the original (yes, I'm old), is this one any good ?

I would say yes. You gotta have a stomach for the original though (which you have), or more in general for the RNG. And like in Blood Bowl, dice play a big role but not as big as strategy. So yes, I'd this is quite good. It also look competently presented, packaged and programmed.

Official site: http://www.chaos-reborn.com/

Never heard of this but it's on my Steam wishlist. headache

Anyway, just a tip: It's currently (until 2nd Nov) cheaper on the Steam Store than on the official site.

It's also getting better the more I play it. There's really a good bunch of very interesting mechanics. A great game designer that hasn't lost a bit of his edge over 30 years.

Seems neat, although I am not as endeared as Falconeer yet.

One interesting mechanic is that there is no HP system. Once an attack connects the target is killed. That's true not only for summons but also your own wizard. (Thus game over)

Chance also is quite a factor. In the very first tutorial mission my wizard managed to fail 3 times in a row on a 70% chance summon spell. The enemy OTOH succeeded every time, so at turn 3 I stood alone against 3 summoned Goblins + the wizard.

I am so endeared! Y'all gotta try matches with 3 or 4 people (everyone against everyone). It's exhilarating. Calapine, I might be wrong but I am sure that as soon as you'll try some matches with random people (or with me, whenever) you'll see how addictive it is. Also, items, loot, solo questing, etc. But whatever. The basics are so great, and yes while extremely affected by the RNG, games last between 5 to 20 minutes so before you even know it's 3am.

There is a demo up on Steam for this now.