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3 weeks ago
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Assassin’s Creed Unity comes to mind immediately, but otherwise, we don’t have that many games set during the height of the French Revolution. Bonaparte, the debut work from Studio Imugi, is about to change that. A strategy game with mech combat, it casts you as an alternate history version of France’s most famous general as you navigate the political, economical, and militaristic storm of the 1790s. Combining hex-based battles, diplomacy, and a branching story, it’s a seriously unique proposal, and PCGamesN has an inside look.
Despite the name, you’re not playing as Napoleon, but rather a French politician and military commander inspired by Bonaparte. The strategy game is set in an alternate, steampunk history, where alongside musketeers and cavalrymen you have access to gigantic robotic soldiers. Intensely powerful, you can use them to clear the field of lesser troops, or stick them head-to-head with your opponents’ equally tough mechs. Combat is turn and tile-based. The power of your offense and defense fluctuates depending on your stats but also your position – if you attack from the rear, you can expect to rout your enemies with relative ease.
But it’s not all about fighting. As one of the Convention’s most esteemed statespeople, you are also responsible for governing France and all of her provinces. The diplomats and politicians with whom you interact are all based on real people – in the demo we’re shown, we’re faced with a significant political decision, about whether we should support or challenge Robespierre’s policy of Terror.
In these sections, Bonaparte plays more like a grand strategy game, as you navigate bureaucracy, adjust the economy, and instantiate policies that affect every aspect of the Revolution. Another good example, during the early game, Louis XVI, as in reality, tries to fly to Varennes to escape prosecution.
Once he’s captured, you have a say in how he should be treated. Your role, naturally, involves appeasing and maintaining a balance between the warring revolutionary factions. Do you punish Louis as severely as possible to earn plaudits from the Convention and the Sans-Culottes, or have mercy, and gain the back of the royalists?
A visionary mix of Civilization, Crusader Kings, and… Armored Core, Bonaparte will arrive on Steam in 2025. You can wishlist it right here.
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