In an ageless forest brimming with magic and mystery, you a a group of strangers have only one thing in common: the need to survive. Monstrous denizens of the forest retreat from sight during the day, only to gather and rush the gates of your town at night. You can’t avoid them, so you must prepare for the inevitable. In Big Mustache Games’ Grimmwood, the inevitable is often death.
We spent some time with the Grimmwood beta a few months ago and found the core concept pretty interesting. Up to 40 players fill a server and do their part to prepare for the siege to come. That could me gathering raw materials out in the forest, hunting and slaying monsters, creating gear and tools to build reinforcements, or weapons to defend the gates with. There was a strategic mix of turn-based strategy, RPG, and survival game mechanics, but the biggest twist was that it’s asynchronous game play cycles lasted a full 24 hours. You might not be awake to see the monsters rush the gates, depending on your time zone.
While BMG stands by that loop, they recognized that the long turns weren’t for everyone. So they introduced Blitz Mode, which is the same game, but in 15 minute intervals instead. This means you can have multiple monster waves per play session, but it also means everything is moving lightning quick. You’ll definitely need to be well coordinated with the more limited player selection in Blitz, because your stamina, hunger, and stress meters are also moving multiple times faster than usual. Here’s a few of the other changes Blitz mode offers:
- One day lasts 15 minutes, instead of 24 hours. Respectively, Hunger, Thirst and Stamina values change much, much faster;
- Max number of players is 10; Players can join up to the end of day 4, the first 2 days 5 slots are reserved for friends only;
- Resources don’t regenerate overnight, items and camps don’t disappear; Resources are more scarce in each Resource point of interest;
- Villagers regenerate more Stamina and Health overnight and relatively less Stamina on rest (if you rest 1 day in Blitz (15 minutes) you get less Stamina than if you rest 1 day in Normal (24 hours));
- Buildings are much cheaper;
- Destroying a Monster Lair and bringing back St. Valence Relics are more effective (-20 attack / +30 defense)
- Each player provides much more defense when guarding, more bonus in socializing, better tower detection, less people are required to banish someone, etc.
- Night attack value and monsters are increased much more for a given number of players; Enemies are spawned closer to the village;
- No guardian angel or rejuvenation potion or other beginners boosts apply;
See more here:
Grimmwood is available now on Steam.If you need more information about keeping the beasts at bay, come to the Official Grimmwood Wiki!