Chaos Reborn Preview

When Julian Gollop released Chaos: The Battle of Wizards in 1985, he thought the game was a failure. In an age without internet and little interaction between developer and publisher, it took him a long time to realise that his inventive turn-based strategy title had become one of the ZX Spectrum’s most popular games. “I gave the game as a Your Sinclair (magazine) cover tape and that’s where it achieved its most widely known distribution. Yet it wasn’t until the summer after that I realised that the game was actually quite popular and people started talking about it, and wanted to do remakes of it. So at the time, for a long time, I never thought it would be that popular.” Now, almost 30 years on from the original and its rather different sequel Lords of Chaos, Gollop has decided to bring the series back to its roots with Chaos Reborn.

The remake is directly influenced by the grid and turn-based gameplay of the original, which sees up to four wizards summoning monsters and casting spells in an attempt to conquer their opponents and become the last wizard standing. Those who either didn’t play the original, or weren’t around to even hear of it, will find XCOM: Enemy Unknown to be the easiest reference point. It’s no surprise, really, considering Gollop was director of the original XCOM, UFO Defence (or UFO: Enemy Unknown, depending on where you’re from). While XCOM is all about strategic teamwork, Chaos Reborn is centred on your wizard and his limited supply of spells and summons. Games take place on a hexagon-grid playing field on which you’ll need to place numerous monsters, all ranging in power, to kill the enemy wizard (or wizards).

While the core gameplay is pleasantly familiar, Chaos Reborn features numerous mechanics that shake up the playing experience. The most significant of which is an odds-based system which gives each spell (summons included) a percentage rating for success. Essentially, the more powerful the monster or spell, the less likely you are to successfully cast it. Failing to cast a spell can be infuriating, but you’ll always know that it was a risk to begin with. It makes each and every move a gamble, and ensures that even the most well-laid plans have to be made adaptable. What makes this concept even more intriguing is the Law and Chaos mechanic that’s key to both the original Battle of Wizards and this modern remake.

Every spell in Chaos Reborn falls into three categories: Law, Neutral and Chaos. The more spells that are played of one category, the easier it becomes to continue playing these types of spells (with the exception of Neutral which doesn’t push the balance of Law vs Chaos in either direction). This means that players not only need to think strategically about where they move their creatures, but also how they use the energy of their spells in an effort to either boost their advantage or disrupt the enemy. While this was present in the original game, Chaos Reborn features a significant number of aesthetic improvements that will emphasise the impact of Law vs Chaos. While Law creatures and spells feature “cool colours”, Chaos is represented by “hot colours”. What’s more, the landscape will change based on the overall balance of the game.

The other key mechanic that provides Chaos Reborn with a totally unique flavour is a poker-esque system in which players can summon illusionary creatures that function just like their normal counterparts but can be cast without any risk of failure. The caveat here is that every wizard in the game has a non-expendable Disbelieve spell which can instantly destroy any illusion monster in play. It’s another level of terrific strategic play that can lead to some hilarious (or conversely, horrifying) moments during matches where a player wastes a turn Disbelieving an actual Golden Dragon, Giant or Elephant, some of the strongest creatures in the game. With all of these mechanics piled up within one match, you’d think it would get a little confusing. Not so, the game is wrapped up inside a functional and understandable UI, that even in its current prototype build works well to ease new players into the game.

That prototype build can currently be played online through the Unity web player, the link to which can be found on the game’s site. It’s currently missing a lot of the actual game content, but the core mechanics that are in pace are enough to get hooked on already. Of course, the final game will contain a lot more than the basic, albeit brilliant, matches. “We’ve got a whole single player experience which is going to be almost like an RPG system in that you’ve got a character that you need to level up by gaining experience points,” said Gollop. “You’ll be entering procedurally generated realms which appear on a regular basis, so each day there’ll be more new realms to explore. You’re wandering around the lands fighting Wizard Lords in an effort to finally fight the Wizard King and at the same time you’re accumulating experience points, and you’re winning artifacts, equipment and gold from battles.”

 

This overarching single player game, entitled Realms of Chaos, is entirely new for Chaos Reborn and should provide a lot of replayability to a game that was previously focused on single matches. What’s also new is an even more overarching meta-game featuring guilds and levels that apply singularly to this metagame. “The social ranking system takes you from Wizard Lord to Wizard King, Demi-God to God. They work as a relatively complicated social meta-game on top of the basic game. For example, Wizard Kings can create their own realms, and Gods have to attract followers and guilds. They’re basically different ways to be involved in the game.” It’s an interesting concept that’s furthered by an entirely new upgrade mechanic which sees staffs, hats and body suits providing buffs for your wizards, as well as special powers. All of which can be used and won within Realms of Chaos and online matches.

As a match-only experience based on the prototype, Chaos Reborn is currently a very fun game. So it’s exciting to think just how good it could be if the full version is funded on Kickstarter. The campaign is very near its goal (only a few thousand dollars left at time of press), and certainly deserves to reach it. The game is clearly a labour of love for Julian Gollop, who began to make his name with the original Spectrum title. Although the core mechanics of the game originate from a bygone age, they’re incredibly welcome in a gaming world that’s sadly lacking in strategy titles of their ilk. Chaos Reborn is shaping up to be a fantastic reinvention of an already popular game. As Gollop notes, “It’s only thanks to the players who still remember it, still play it and are making clones of it, that I felt encouraged to attempt a proper remake.” So well done folks, now let’s get that Kickstarter funded!

We spoke with Julian Gollop about Chaos Reborn; you can read the full interview here.