Miasma Chronicles Review

To say I was looking forward to playing Miasma Chronicles would be a bit of an understatement. After playing developer The Bearded Ladies’ first title, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, and absolutely loving it, I was certifiably hyped for their next game. But can this match the charming yet deadly adventure of Mutant Year Zero, or is it a chronicle of errors? Let’s have a look.

Miasma Chronicles is a tactical role-playing game set in an apocalyptic American wasteland rendered almost uninhabitable by a mysterious force known as the Miasma. Although it may look quite pretty, like something akin to liquidised crystal, those that come into contact with this nasty stuff are either outright killed or mutated into abominations with a penchant for violence. Survivors band together in small encampments and villages in order to keep on living, if you can really call it that, as this is a bleak world indeed. Two of these survivors are our main characters, Elvis and Diggs, who are on a quest to find Elvis’ mother, in an attempt to learn more of the Miasma.

You see, when Elvis was a baby, he was left in the care of Diggs — who just so happens to be a robot, by the way — with the only memento of his mum being a glove that has the ability to control the Miasma. Hardly a nominee for mother of the year, but still, the duo set off in search of her after their village is attacked by mutated animals, courtesy of the Miasma. But this unknown entity isn’t the only thing to worry about, as the tyrannical First Family will destroy anyone or anything that doesn’t play by their rules.

This sets up a rather enthralling story, with the two lead heroes having a great chemistry (Elvis even refers to Diggs as his brother, due to their closeness) and the overall narrative being an enjoyable one. It’s paced relatively well, and although some of the writing felt rather flat and the occasional tropes crop up now and again, it’s definitely an engaging storyline with more hits than misses.

Unsurprisingly, this post-apocalyptic adventure is a desolate looking one, with various shades of greys and browns to really drive the point home that this is a dead world. That isn’t to say it looks bad, in fact, it’s actually quite beautiful in some places! I especially liked coming across a new settlement, wandering the ramshackle buildings and seeing people trying to make the best of what they had. Character models are — mostly — great, with the grotesque enemy designs being a particular stand-out.

As mentioned earlier, the two leads having a good back-and-forth when interacting with each other is elevated by the great voice acting. Diggs is the star of the show here, with witty retorts and quips aplenty. Sticking with the theme of “barren hellscape”, the music certainly fits in with the rest of Miasma Chronicles’ aesthetics, providing brooding, melancholic audio to explore the devastated environments.

Performance-wise, there were a few issues I came across. Small bugs — such as certain textures not rendering in cutscenes and screen-tearing — were fairly frequent; however, I did also have the game crash on me once during a combat encounter, forcing me to restart. Not a huge deal, but some of these fights can get pretty tough!

Miasma Chronicles’ gameplay will be familiar to those who played Mutant Year Zero or, even other turn-based tactical RPGs, such as XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Played from an isometric view, each battle is tense and strategic, with players offered various methods to plan out an attack or channel their inner Solid Snake and pick off enemies one by one.

If you opt for the all-guns-blazing approach (or just get caught trying to sneak around), then planning and executing each turn is always rewarding. Team members have two action points per turn, where they are able to move, attack, activate an ability (each character has their own skill tree), use an item, or reload. Before any moves have been made, though, you’re able to see which bad guy or mutant you’ll be able to attack from that position, with hit percentages and critical chances also being shown on the heads-up display.

Once it’s time to let bullets fly, it’s great to see your plan of action brought to life. Flanking an enemy in cover before obliterating them with a close-range weapon never grew old and made me feel like a real tactician. Unless I messed up and ended up with three mutants surrounding me.

Stealth is just as viable an option as well, whether you’re setting the team up in advantageous positions to get the drop on a group or silently skulk around picking goons off with a silenced weapon, it’s a great way to deal with a particularly nasty looking horde of mutated monsters.

It’s not all about warfare, though, as you’ll be able to freely roam the semi-open world, coming across hidden loot, sidequests, and more. Even just soaking up the atmosphere in the relative safety of a town was enjoyable! The camera still sticks to the isometric position, meaning you’ll have a good view of your surroundings and any impending danger lurking ahead.

In closing, Miasma Chronicles is sure to delight fans of the genre. Whilst it may not quite live up to Mutant Year Zero, it is definitely worth checking out. With its grim world, dark sense of humour, great lead characters, and thrilling tactical combat, it’s certain that fans of The Bearded Ladies’ previous title will find a lot to love here.