Skyshine's Bedlam

 PC
User Score
5.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 39 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 39
  3. Negative: 16 out of 39

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  1. iseeall
    Mar 14, 2021
    5
    A mediocre TBS with some randomized travelling between battles.

    Good: - actually nothing. So-so: - I found the combat system way too simplistic. Though I guess some players may find it okay. It could probably work fine on mobile - the art style: it reminds comic books. If you are fan of comic books, you will like it. I was never a fan of comic books, so it's a miss for me - story    A mediocre TBS with some randomized travelling between battles.

    Good:
    - actually nothing.

    So-so:
    - I found the combat system way too simplistic. Though I guess some players may find it okay. It could probably work fine on mobile
    - the art style: it reminds comic books. If you are fan of comic books, you will like it. I was never a fan of comic books, so it's a miss for me
    - story - it's wordy and you might enjoy it if you're into teenage-targeted comic books and Mad Max. But it's far, far from the level of Fallout. In fact, I just stopped reading it after a while because it's all about random resources to loot and random fights

    Bad:
    - nothing

    Yeah, it's the first game I've ever reviewed where I can't really point out anything specifically bad or specifically good. It's just kinda mediocre all-around. It does have a distinctive art style (which I'm not a fan of), so maybe if you are into post-apocalyptic comic books you could give it a try just for that alone.    … Expand
  2. ComandanteCobra
    Jan 20, 2016
    4
    Not so good I'm afraid.
    Visual style, theme and game concept are really very good, I compliment the character design....but gameplay is not.
    Combat is very light from a tactical point of view, very few option to choose from during turns, no option in character development (equipment, role, ability ...nothing is changeable), convoy management also very basic...so sadly get boring very    Not so good I'm afraid.
    Visual style, theme and game concept are really very good, I compliment the character design....but gameplay is not.
    Combat is very light from a tactical point of view, very few option to choose from during turns, no option in character development (equipment, role, ability ...nothing is changeable), convoy management also very basic...so sadly get boring very quickly.
    It's more like an Android game than a pc one.
    I would suggest seeing gameplay video before purchase    … Expand
  3. Sjalka
    Oct 15, 2015
    5
    Hmm - when i first heard of the game (watched some alpha preview on youtube) - i was kind of hyped based on the art and design.

    Now that the game is out - my enthusiasm is significantly lowered. It looks very good. Although i am not exactly a fan of low resolution pixels - the design is still great. However ... the meat of the game, decisions, random encounters - and most of all ...    Hmm - when i first heard of the game (watched some alpha preview on youtube) - i was kind of hyped based on the art and design.

    Now that the game is out - my enthusiasm is significantly lowered. It looks very good. Although i am not exactly a fan of low resolution pixels - the design is still great.

    However ... the meat of the game, decisions, random encounters - and most of all ... combat - is not .. well... very good. Especially the combat mechanics ... suck. I would like to use another word to describe it - but this word pretty much fits it.
    Just too often ... avoiding the death of a character simply is impossible. - there is no way to really protect team members - ... and before the latest patch ... even the starting locations were so random that more often than not - enemies were placed right next to my ranged fighters.

    The patch indeed improved a lot of things - but for some reason ... its just not as enjoyable as similar titles (like FTL)

    The combat is the core of the game - and it is neither tactical, nor enjoyable. And that is a shame for a game that offers such a great art style. (kind of fits in the theory that many great looking games lack gameplay designers, while many well designed games are ugly as sin and need art designers - but somehow those two rarely get together to make something that looks good - and also plays good)

    in its current state ... it is merely average at best - and there are many better alternatives out there.    … Expand
  4. Mikimax
    Sep 20, 2015
    7
    Interesting rogue like/indie/fallout/banner saga game with nice graphics, art style, music, characters and concept.
    Bad sides:
    I was expecting to be able to fight with Dozer, upgrade it even more. Fights are ok, but not deep enough. They should have used the XCOM style turn based fights. 2 moves are just not enough.
    Game needs more depth, mainly unit battles and Dozer battles.
  5. baalmahdi
    Oct 3, 2015
    7
    Small, small game... but i will play it again, and again! (for how long? That is the question...)
    The art stlye is absolutely jaw-dropping, but the game is lack of content, and really short. As an indie rogue-like strategy game it is worth the shot, but there is an FTL out there... never forget the great FTL...
  6. brian130
    Sep 17, 2015
    6
    An interesting take on the Faster Than Light rogue-like game concept. Start out as a group of humans attempting to cross a vast wasteland by traveling from one dangerous point on the map to the next. You'll use meat and crude to get there and there is a finite amount of the stuff so you'll need some generous random events to boost you along the way. It's all very tense and exciting, hopingAn interesting take on the Faster Than Light rogue-like game concept. Start out as a group of humans attempting to cross a vast wasteland by traveling from one dangerous point on the map to the next. You'll use meat and crude to get there and there is a finite amount of the stuff so you'll need some generous random events to boost you along the way. It's all very tense and exciting, hoping the next encounter (and many of them are well-written) will give you the resource you need to get to the next border crossing.

    Sadly all of the positive elements are overshadowed by a very poor combat system. You only have two actions per turn (spread out between your troops) meaning you can have one guy move once and one guy shoot or the same guy move twice, etc. It's awful. Troop health means some can be one-shotted, or if the AI takes both of his actions to shoot you, almost all of your troops can be two-shotted. And there's really nothing you can do about it, particularly because there's no way to position your troops for battle. They just plop down randomly. Combat was a huge part of FTL and you had excellent control over all of it's aspect, weapons, shields, damage control, troop placement, invasions. It was frantic and fun. Here combat is brief, bloody, and frustrating. An overhauled combat system would easily bump my rating up 2 points or more.    … Expand
  7. Hideyoshi123
    Sep 21, 2015
    3
    This game was on my radar for awhile and I was looking forward to it (I love a good turn based strategy game). Most notably that it was using the Banner Saga engine, a great game if you haven't tried it!!!

    Sadly this is NOT The Banner Saga, its a close copy but without ANY and I do mean ANY of the combat depth (or meaningful choices). I was hugely let down within 5 minutes and after    This game was on my radar for awhile and I was looking forward to it (I love a good turn based strategy game). Most notably that it was using the Banner Saga engine, a great game if you haven't tried it!!!

    Sadly this is NOT The Banner Saga, its a close copy but without ANY and I do mean ANY of the combat depth (or meaningful choices).

    I was hugely let down within 5 minutes and after watching my entire squad get wiped out because I simply ASSUMED you could move and position your team (your "whole" team). However after watching the tutorials I realized they had basically implemented an absolutely dumbed down version of just about every other decent turn based strat game on the market.

    Your ENTIRE squad (depending how many you choose to take to battle) gets 2 action points per turn, the AI gets the same, you can either move or shoot, move twice or shoot twice, move once attack once, etc. So instead of a position / cover based system it ends up being a terrible zerg what you can without moving too much while you watch your squad members get nailed (you'll basically have to sacrifice a lot of them to simply level others up) because everybody has ridiculously low health.

    After completing the "main" objective of the game, I had seen so many of the not so random encounters repeat themselves again and again, which seemed to be par for the course, just a flat out lack of depth to the core game mechanics, although it does come in a very nice looking package.    … Expand
  8. Mrki93
    Sep 27, 2015
    0
    People keep saying it has something to do with Fallout. Ha!! Apart from post apocalyptic theme it has nothing in common with it.I hated Banner Saga, but this is worse. Saga at least had nice drawings and nicely told story with distinct characters, this has nothing of the sort. Graphically obsolete, mechanically shallow (combat is just WTF?!), tutorial is non existent (or it's buriedPeople keep saying it has something to do with Fallout. Ha!! Apart from post apocalyptic theme it has nothing in common with it.I hated Banner Saga, but this is worse. Saga at least had nice drawings and nicely told story with distinct characters, this has nothing of the sort. Graphically obsolete, mechanically shallow (combat is just WTF?!), tutorial is non existent (or it's buried somewhere hard to find), interface is counter intuitive... the list goes on. I have to give my thanks to CODEX for saving me money on this piece of **** game. Uninstalled it 15 minutes after installing it, so minimal time lost.

    P.S. Please stop making ****ty games.    … Expand
  9. blade01
    Oct 11, 2015
    4
    Wow what an overhyped game.I saw some payed promos on YT and was a bit hyped.After some hours into the nothing but disappointment remains.Lets look into the details:

    Visuals:Yes the game got a unique look.Or maybe not unique but you dont see this style not that often.Its a futuristic/cyberpunk-artstyle.Looks ok.But for the most part the game looks not that great.Especially in the fights    Wow what an overhyped game.I saw some payed promos on YT and was a bit hyped.After some hours into the nothing but disappointment remains.Lets look into the details:

    Visuals:Yes the game got a unique look.Or maybe not unique but you dont see this style not that often.Its a futuristic/cyberpunk-artstyle.Looks ok.But for the most part the game looks not that great.Especially in the fights it looks kinda bad.I played a lot of the classic PS2 strategic-RPGs like Stellar Deus.They looked more unique and they hold up to this day.When i compare Bedlam to these games i think the devs did an ok job but is this enough?

    Sound:Wow, really nothing shines here.The weaponsounds suck.They are generic and dont have any impact.Is there a theme, a backround music?I dont think so.I demand more when a game sucks when it comes to visuals.You can do so much things with the sound to make the player forget that everything else suckz.But here?Nothing!

    Gameplay:Ok, visuals suck, sound suck, what about the core mechanics?In 2015/2016 i demand more compared to the old PS2 strategic titles of this genre.Even on PC the genre evolved quite a bit.You have games like Jagged Alliance on the throne of the genre and here comes a game that looks not great with a bad sound assets and......a shallow gameplay.That describes the gameplay pretty accurate, its shallow.You cant equip weapons, different armor or do research.You start out with **** soldiers, cant equip anything.You cant adapt your own play because of the very limited supply of fighters.The healing takes FOREVER and everyone dies far too quickly.And here comes the cavalry, the fanboys, i know you guys.You say "but it is meant to be a hard game".Yes, a hard game, not a stupid one.The enemy will rush you cause hey, hey have nothing to lose.They die, no one cares while your healing takes weeks and you will encounter enemys every 1-3 days.The enemy will often dont use cover, instead the braindead AI will rush you, often instakill 1 guy per fight.Sometimes you awayteam will start the map seperated.Think about that.You start your mission and 1 or 2 guys stand in the other corner of the map and between your 2 groups are enemys.This is unfair, youll lose guys in this situation because the devs made it so so you have a feeling of "wow this is hard".Nope, not hard, unfair.A big disapointment are the encounters.You can choose what to do but wow, youll get no infos about what is going on.It will say "you found X, what will you do" and you can choose options.That is so random and its not appealing to me, im sorry.

    Conclusion:From a technical point this game is ok at best.THe gameplay is shallow and unfair.No customization and soldiers that die in a second and you are not interested in them.Wow, what a boring game, i had fun for 5 minutes.The only upside:No bugs.A game that bores me so quickly deserves a 4.You can compare this game to FTL.That was much more fun with more customization.Buy that, not Bedlam or how i call it:Badlame.    … Expand
  10. jcook89
    Oct 9, 2015
    0
    I love squad based combat games. I cut my teeth on x-com back in the day and jagged alliance I played endlessly. This game looks amazing but the game play mechanics are hopelessly broken. Cover is made worthless as you can't shoot from it for no goddamn reason. You get two action points before your turn is up and they get to move making it impossible to coordinate your squad's tactics. YouI love squad based combat games. I cut my teeth on x-com back in the day and jagged alliance I played endlessly. This game looks amazing but the game play mechanics are hopelessly broken. Cover is made worthless as you can't shoot from it for no goddamn reason. You get two action points before your turn is up and they get to move making it impossible to coordinate your squad's tactics. You have to just stand out in the open and shoot like a **** idiot. It's like they found some amazing artists who never played a squad based game in their lives and created this amazing looking game with what looks like an intriguing story but god it sucks to play. Just no. Oh also most times you want to shoot someone right in front of you who is in fact in range of your shooter you have to move to some special square where the game will then allow you to shoot from that spot for some reason that is confounding thus burning both your actions to shoot only once at a guy who is like 4 feet from your character. Oh god this game looks so cool! But goddamn is it broken. Basics people fundamentals some play testing for gad sakes. Jesus stay away its a beautiful trap..… Expand
  11. Tiqueu
    Sep 23, 2015
    8
    While not unique in any way, Bedlam’s art is just scrumptious, its story-line is addictive and game mechanics are infuriatingly fun.

    Skyshine’s Bedlam is like XCOM meets FTL meets Fallout meets Mad Max. You and your immense APC, simply dubbed Dozer, have to traverse the desert riddled with Mutant, Cyborg, Marauders and Rogue A.I. cities. If your foes won’t be your end, then the lack    While not unique in any way, Bedlam’s art is just scrumptious, its story-line is addictive and game mechanics are infuriatingly fun.

    Skyshine’s Bedlam is like XCOM meets FTL meets Fallout meets Mad Max.

    You and your immense APC, simply dubbed Dozer, have to traverse the desert riddled with Mutant, Cyborg, Marauders and Rogue A.I. cities. If your foes won’t be your end, then the lack of crude, meat and power cells will surely make a dent in your quest.

    Your goal is to reach Aztec City where, rumors have it, a sanctuary can be found – a new hope for life.

    It's clearly a rogue-like game that takes inspiration from Oregon Trail, XCOM and FTL with a little bit of Mad Max and Fallout sprinkled on top.

    I don't get why everyone is bashing the combat system - it's supposed to be this hard. You have to think to win a fight. There are so many dumbed down games nowadays that don't require any strategy whatsoever. Unfortunately, shallow titles have cemented themselves as the gaming industry's standard. It has to be incredible easy to play, filled with tutorials so everyone can jump on it and of course, have a safety net just in case you don't quite get the mechanics - aka a ton of checkpoints and the possibility to Save Game.

    Well, this is not the case with Skyshine's Bedlam. It stands tall with its middle finger pointed at the status quo.

    Combat is fun and enjoyable - if you spend time to actually learn it. The story unravels as you play. If you just go straight to Aztec City you'll be missing out on the fantastic lore made by John Mueller and his team.

    Sure, it can feel lackluster if you don't pay any attention to details, if you don't immerse yourself into Bedlam's universe. But who's fault is that?

    Try it out on Steam, it's totally worth it.    … Expand
  12. OutlawJapple
    Dec 26, 2015
    8
    I've been following this game since Kickstarter. I have to say while it was rough around the edges upon release, the devs have been listening and have made major updates to this game. So all the review below are actually invalid as they pertain to version 1.5 and under. You have to try version 2.5 - they added a new tactics mode for combat!! All my other issues, like wonky boring eventsI've been following this game since Kickstarter. I have to say while it was rough around the edges upon release, the devs have been listening and have made major updates to this game. So all the review below are actually invalid as they pertain to version 1.5 and under. You have to try version 2.5 - they added a new tactics mode for combat!! All my other issues, like wonky boring events are also being addressed.… Expand
  13. Yulduz
    Feb 1, 2020
    6
    This review is for the REDUX version.

    Great tactical combat system and good graphics but the rest of the game is weak: -No story, only serves as background -I.A. weak during fighting -A faction too strong with respect to the others. Bad balanced game. -Gran sistema de combate táctico por turnos y buenos graficos pero el resto del juego no está a la altura: -Historia    This review is for the REDUX version.

    Great tactical combat system and good graphics but the rest of the game is weak:

    -No story, only serves as background
    -I.A. weak during fighting
    -A faction too strong with respect to the others. Bad balanced game.

    -Gran sistema de combate táctico por turnos y buenos graficos pero el resto del juego no está a la altura:

    -Historia inexistente, sólo sirve de fondo
    -I.A. débil durante combates
    -Una facción demasiado fuerte con respecto a las otras. Mal balanceado el juego.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 26
  3. Negative: 2 out of 26
  1. Riot Pixels
    Dec 23, 2015
    45
    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.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Dec 16, 2015
    60
    The game failed to win me over because its simplicity was taken too far. [12/2015, p.64]
  3. GameSpot
    Nov 24, 2015
    60
    Combat feels good enough, but there's not much to it, and little to strive for.
    Read full review
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