We got the opportunity to go hands-on with several of publisher 505 Games’ upcoming titles. One of the games we got to try was Miasma Chronicles from developer The Bearded Ladies who created 2018’s Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden. In the same vein, Miasma Chronicles is a tactical turn-based RPG but adds real-time stealth to its combat.
Miasma Chronicles follows Elvis and his robotic older ‘brother’ Diggs on a quest across a post-apocalyptic wasteland to find answers against a savage force known as the ‘Miasma’ that may change the course of human history forever.
The demo we got to play starts off with Elvis trying to manipulate the Miasma, something he can do thanks to a strange glove that his mother gave him. It stops working, forcing Elvis and Diggs to trek back to Sedentary, a desolate mining town. Along the way, they come across monsters known as Frogs taking out a family. Once they take out the Frogs and make it into town, Elvis and Diggs meet up with Mason, the Mayor of Sedentary. They talk about the Frogs coming to the town when Mason reveals that other towns have been radio silent. When they investigated, they discovered that the Frogs wiped them out and now Sedentary is next. In order to stop the possible ‘invasion,’ Mason tasks Elvis and Diggs with getting past the Miasma to locate Elivis’ mother, who may be the key to saving the town and finding answers surrounding the Miasma. In order to fix the glove, Elvis and Diggs need to find a power core. They make a deal with Bertha Jr, owner of the Guns N Ammo store in town. They have to get something for her in exchange for the power core she has. They venture off, take on more Frogs, find what Bertha wants and install the power core to the glove. That’s where the demo ended.
Miasma Chronicles plays a lot like Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden. Each character has two action points per turn, they can move, engage in combat, or use items before their turn ends. The difference here is the addition of stealth. Players can move Elvis and Diggs into position in order to ambush enemies. When you are in stealth, you can move freely without using action points. Damage is doubled if you engage enemies while in stealth. It also provides Elvis and Diggs the first move once combat begins.
If you liked Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden, chances are you’ll like Miasma Chronicles. It takes what The Bearded Ladies did with the tactical turn-based gameplay and evolves things such as the addition of real-time stealth. Plus, it’ll be interesting to see what else Elvis will learn and if you are able to utilize and manipulate the Miasma during exploration and combat if it’s something that you could do.
Miasma Chronicles is set to launch in 2023 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Amazon Luna.