TL;DR: I enjoy this game immensely. This review summarizes some reasons why.

THE THEME: At the end of the 14th century, Earth shattered into innumerable fragments in a magic-instigated apocalypse. Powerful magic allows fragments of Earth to endure as habitable, island realms scattered between planes of existence. From a planet called Limbo, wizards and gods engage in eternal conflict over who controls the many, surviving realms of old Earth. Each realm holds the promise of ancient artifacts, lore, and power to fuel the ambitions of wizards and gods alike. It is a feudal, dystopic society of magic users.

THE DEVELOPER: Chaos Reborn is a rebirth and reimagining of Chaos: The Battle of Wizards (1985) and Lords of Chaos (1990) by their original creator, Julian Gollop. Mr. Gollop is more known for creating the original X-COM: UFO Defense (1994), the widely acclaimed classic which inspired XCOM: Enemy Unknown and many other games. The classic Chaos and X-COM games were rooted upon deep, tactical play. Chaos Reborn is a true successor to both legacies.

TACTICAL GAMEPLAY: I cannot really do the basic gameplay experience justice in a short paragraph. It has too many tactical layers. But at essence, the game involves duels of up to 6 wizards. Wizards can invoke flamboyantly magical spells and summon creatures. Yet wizards themselves are fragile and must be protected. Imagine a three dimensional, multi-layered game of wizard chess with variable numbers and types of pieces which can come and go, and where each attack has a very real chance of failure. But if you lose the wizard, then you lose the game. Sometimes you will lose despite your best efforts, and sometimes you will win because you were lucky rather than good. That said, this game is tactically deep and, over time, rewards players who come to understand and appreciate all of the many, varied tactical approaches to gameplay.

TUTORIAL: There is a tutorial labeled “Wizard Training” in the main menu. It comprises a series of gated set-piece encounters which gradually introduce you to the fundamental mechanics and tactics of the game. Having played the game for hundreds of hours before experiencing the tutorial, I still found it enjoyable. It’s not often that I can say that about a tutorial.

ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAME MODES: Multiplayer wizard duels can be played live or asynchronously with up to 6 players. Matches can be friendly or ranked. And matches can be played Equipped (with custom equipment) or Classic (with standard equipment). Ranked matches allow you to qualify as an "Archmage" at which point you will be given your worldwide rank computed by an ELO scoring method. League standings reset in monthly seasons. Whether friendly or ranked, matches generally go quickly. As for the asynchronous games, these are my favorites. You can have up to 20 asynchronous games going at any time. Each player has many days to complete their turns in a match, but I find matches generally go more quickly than that. After ranked matches were first introduced, I completed 35 ranked async matches in just 3 days, and this was gameplay I managed in bits of free time that I had rather in continuous sittings. (I love, love the asynchronous functionality.) Additionally, players can create custom friendly matches, changing the parameters of the game.

ONLINE SINGLEPLAYER: There are developer and player created Realms of Chaos which you can explore online with your wizard. These Realms vary in size and challenge and come with a rating system to help determine which are worth exploring. The essential aspect of this game mode is to explore the map to find and defeat all of the Wizard Lords (AI-controlled mini-bosses) in order to reach and defeat the Wizard King (AI-controlled boss) of the Realm. While you are doing this, the Wizard King and his Wizard Lords summon reinforcements. And if you take too long, the Wizard King can banish you from the Realm. This game mode should not be considered a full-fledged RPG. Think of each of the Realms as puzzles to be solved, and some have stories to tell.

CO-OP: The game creates an internal friends list based upon your Steam friends list. You can also add game-only friends. With these friends, you can invite them to co-op with you in online Realms or in online custom games with up to 6 wizards.

OFFLINE HOTSEAT AND SINGLEPLAYER GAME MODES: There are offline game modes which allow hotseat gameplay against any combination of human or AI-controlled opponents. There is an offline singleplayer campaign. I have not played much of the singleplayer campaign. I find the online Realms experience superior as it integrates with all of the other online features.

GRAPHICS: The game uses the Unity game engine, which should be compatible with most computers. The custom art and animations are quite pretty. And the game really does have its own, unique graphical theme. Don’t rely on me for too much input on this, as I was playing the game when wizards and creatures were represented by crude, unanimated placeholder graphics. But if you really care about graphics, the graphics are good.

IN SUM: As-is, the game is a gem. If you like tactical turn-based games, then spending $20 on Chaos Reborn will get you one of the more fun games in your Steam inventory. If you’ve read this far and the game still intrigues you, then you should get the game.

[b]TL;DR:[/b] I enjoy this game immensely. This review summarizes some reasons why. [b]THE THEME:[/b] At the end of the 14th century, Earth shattered into innumerable fragments in a magic-instigated apocalypse. Powerful magic allows fragments of Earth to endure as habitable, island realms scattered between planes of existence. From a planet called Limbo, wizards and gods engage in eternal conflict over who controls the many, surviving realms of old Earth. Each realm holds the promise of ancient artifacts, lore, and power to fuel the ambitions of wizards and gods alike. It is a feudal, dystopic society of magic users. [b]THE DEVELOPER:[/b] [i]Chaos Reborn[/i] is a rebirth and reimagining of [i]Chaos: The Battle of Wizards[/i] (1985) and [i]Lords of Chaos[/i] (1990) by their original creator, Julian Gollop. Mr. Gollop is more known for creating the original [i]X-COM: UFO Defense[/i] (1994), the widely acclaimed classic which inspired [i]XCOM: Enemy Unknown[/i] and many other games. The classic [i]Chaos[/i] and [i]X-COM[/i] games were rooted upon deep, tactical play. [i]Chaos Reborn[/i] is a true successor to both legacies. [b]TACTICAL GAMEPLAY:[/b] I cannot really do the basic gameplay experience justice in a short paragraph. It has too many tactical layers. But at essence, the game involves duels of up to 6 wizards. Wizards can invoke flamboyantly magical spells and summon creatures. Yet wizards themselves are fragile and must be protected. Imagine a three dimensional, multi-layered game of wizard chess with variable numbers and types of pieces which can come and go, and where each attack has a very real chance of failure. But if you lose the wizard, then you lose the game. Sometimes you will lose despite your best efforts, and sometimes you will win because you were lucky rather than good. That said, this game is tactically deep and, over time, rewards players who come to understand and appreciate all of the many, varied tactical approaches to gameplay. [b]TUTORIAL:[/b] There is a tutorial labeled “Wizard Training” in the main menu. It comprises a series of gated set-piece encounters which gradually introduce you to the fundamental mechanics and tactics of the game. Having played the game for hundreds of hours before experiencing the tutorial, I still found it enjoyable. It’s not often that I can say that about a tutorial. [b]ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAME MODES:[/b] Multiplayer wizard duels can be played live or asynchronously with up to 6 players. Matches can be friendly or ranked. And matches can be played Equipped (with custom equipment) or Classic (with standard equipment). Ranked matches allow you to qualify as an "Archmage" at which point you will be given your worldwide rank computed by an ELO scoring method. League standings reset in monthly seasons. Whether friendly or ranked, matches generally go quickly. As for the asynchronous games, these are my favorites. You can have up to 20 asynchronous games going at any time. Each player has many days to complete their turns in a match, but I find matches generally go more quickly than that. After ranked matches were first introduced, I completed 35 ranked async matches in just 3 days, and this was gameplay I managed in bits of free time that I had rather in continuous sittings. (I love, love the asynchronous functionality.) Additionally, players can create custom friendly matches, changing the parameters of the game. [b]ONLINE SINGLEPLAYER:[/b] There are developer and player created Realms of Chaos which you can explore online with your wizard. These Realms vary in size and challenge and come with a rating system to help determine which are worth exploring. The essential aspect of this game mode is to explore the map to find and defeat all of the Wizard Lords (AI-controlled mini-bosses) in order to reach and defeat the Wizard King (AI-controlled boss) of the Realm. While you are doing this, the Wizard King and his Wizard Lords summon reinforcements. And if you take too long, the Wizard King can banish you from the Realm. This game mode should not be considered a full-fledged RPG. Think of each of the Realms as puzzles to be solved, and some have stories to tell. [b]CO-OP:[/b] The game creates an internal friends list based upon your Steam friends list. You can also add game-only friends. With these friends, you can invite them to co-op with you in online Realms or in online custom games with up to 6 wizards. [b]OFFLINE HOTSEAT AND SINGLEPLAYER GAME MODES:[/b] There are offline game modes which allow hotseat gameplay against any combination of human or AI-controlled opponents. There is an offline singleplayer campaign. I have not played much of the singleplayer campaign. I find the online Realms experience superior as it integrates with all of the other online features. [b]GRAPHICS:[/b] The game uses the Unity game engine, which should be compatible with most computers. The custom art and animations are quite pretty. And the game really does have its own, unique graphical theme. Don’t rely on me for too much input on this, as I was playing the game when wizards and creatures were represented by crude, unanimated placeholder graphics. But if you really care about graphics, the graphics are good. [b]IN SUM:[/b] As-is, the game is a gem. If you like tactical turn-based games, then spending $20 on [i]Chaos Reborn[/i] will get you one of the more fun games in your Steam inventory. If you’ve read this far and the game still intrigues you, then you should get the game.