Skyshine's Bedlam

My early assertion that Skyshine’s Bedlam is a lot like The Banner Saga with a sci-fi setting is pretty close. The story in Bedlam is far thinner, but they’ve tweaked the combat and added some resources to balance and I think they’ve ended up with a better game.

Skyshine's Bedlam is a tough but rewarding trip through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

I hate this game. And I love it. No other game managed to motivate me so often to have another go. But the crashes and some unfair situations are frustrating.

Despite some rather controversial combat mechanics, Skyshine's Bedlam remains a fun and artistically beautiful roguelike experience, following in the footsteps of games like Faster Than Light.

Overall, if you’re in to punishing yourself with some turn based violence, than Skyshine’s Bedlam is for you. It’s not exactly polished and it still needs a little work, but it’s definitely a worthwhile game.

Skyshine's Bedlam is a pretty good mix of turn-based strategy and rogue-like mechanics. However, the sheer difficulty at the beginning of a campaign and the randomized unit placement does make it very tough for players to survive their journey into the Wasteland.

Bedlam is a pretty amazing balancing act on multiple fronts. It has a feel that fondly reminds me of Oregon Trail, but with more head shots and acid-scorched bones.

A punishing take on the Rogue-inspired genre, Bedlam is weird and colorful and stressful.

It's hard, very hard, EXTREMELY hard, so much we recommend it only to hardcore rogue-like fans. Still, if you are that kind of player, and start the game prepared for a lot of suffering, there's much fun to be had in this little strategy game with a Mad Max vibe.

While deliciously unpredictable most of the time Bedlam is still brutally difficult, thus sadly obliterating your chances of a potentially great turn-based tactical experience.

A solid game with a beautiful artstyle, fine combat system and decent music...The many text-screens do more harm to the game than they add to it.

The 2-ap combat system actually lessens the amount of strategic thinking involved, and the endgame is a missed opportunity.

Skyshine’s Bedlam is definitely rough around the edges, and could certainly do with a few balance fixes (and a more rewarding ending), but as a package, I still found it to have a charm that its faults couldn’t quite spoil—if only just.

Bedlam is enjoyable, but it needs a bit more tweaking to be worth recommending above other games of its type.

Sometimes is needlessly frustrating, hiding precious information from the player with no apparent reason. On the other hand, some gameplay elements are really interesting, and it's a shame they didn't get developed to their full extent.

Skyshine's BEDLAM works as a roguelike, but its simplistic combat system prevents it from becoming something bigger and deeper.

There are many games where you can lose your best guys in a second and end up dead in a radioactive ditch, but in BEDLAM such misfortunes often come through no fault of player. [Nov 2015, p.69]

The game failed to win me over because its simplicity was taken too far. [12/2015, p.64]

Combat feels good enough, but there's not much to it, and little to strive for.

Conceptually interesting and visually beautiful game is lagging behind the competition with its content although postapocalyptic environment fans can enjoy it a bit. And if developers are going to push updates as the do now I can recommend the game in few months also to other fans turn-based strategies.

Skyshine's Bedlam promises more than it offers. The game makes a good impression with audio and visuals reminiscent of the Borderland series, but a cool gameplay concept has been buried underneath a weak tactical mode. This is a game with an artificially high difficulty level and a total lack of balance. It has appeared on the market only to conduct beta tests on unsuspecting players.

Sometimes there are diamonds to be found out in the wastelands. Maybe with a different kind of combat system polish, Skyshine's BEDLAM could be one of those.

This is a prime example of a good idea being badly executed. The post-apocalyptic world is devoid of situations or characters of interest and its problematic gameplay pales in comparison with its main inspirations, namely FTL and The Banner Saga.

There are two sides to one’s experience playing Skyshine’s Bedlam. You either feel bewildered when you lose another character in a seemingly unavoidable catastrophe, or grind away, repeating the same routing over and over again. And there is no gameplay between these sides.