Antihero Review – Games like Dungeon Keeper are interesting because they let you play as the antagonists. Majority of the games let you be the hero, a forces of good who would triumph against the evil plaguing the world. But when the twist happens and you play the other part instead, things get interesting, and funny at times.
Antihero is such game, where it let you be an anti-hero, a thieves guild leader who hires little kids to do your dirty pickpocketing and stealing money from a church’s offering, or assassins to assassinate high, dirty figures.
Antihero is a digital board game that can be played on your own (there’s a single-player campaign), with friends offline [i.e locally], or with a random opponent online. The game is available on Steam (PC), iOS, and Android.
As a Master Thief, you have a lot of things at your disposal. Street urchins, thugs, assassins, and many others are for hire; Buildings can also be burgled, or infiltrated for bonus coins and lanterns. You use lanterns to mostly do upgrades – for your Master Thief, to recruit new units, or upgrade other stuffs. Coins and Lanterns are the economic items in the game.
The game itself is turn-based, and each unit has specific points you can spend on to move and attack. Unexplored territories will have to be scouted by your Master Thief first, and buildings that generate coins/lanterns or provide values will have to be infiltrated by the correct unit.
Units in the game are quite varied and it creates an interesting paper-scissor game while you try to juggle which unit to generate, upgrade, and deploy as the round progresses. As your turn is pretty limited and you can only spend Lanterns for an unlock once per turn, you have to adjust as your opponent does the same thing. These mechanics make each round interesting and bring dynamics to the gameplay.
To win the round, you have to collect a few numbers of Victory points – which can be obtained through different things in the game. So, even though your thieves’ guild is more thriving and successful than your opponent’s, that doesn’t mean winning the game. The opponent can outwit you in the last minute and strategise to focus on getting the Victory points as much as possible in a round.
And, since your units cannot be seen unless if your Master Thief scouts the area or your units are nearby, it creates an interesting hide-and-seek tactics and surprises.
Even though each round plays differently, in the end each round offers you similar, linear things to tick off your list. But thankfully, surprises do happen each round, so the game will always keep you on your toes and to force to you re-strategise in order to win the game.
The game art is beautiful and the animation is spot on for this game genre and fits the feel of the overall game. I was playing this on my iPhone X and despite of the tinier screen (compared to a tablet or PC), the interface is smooth and intuitive to play without frustrations or any hiccups. With an option to play locally with friends and also online, Antihero has definitely a lot to offer for the price!
Antihero on iOS (App Store) | Antihero on Android (Google Play) | Antihero on Steam
Disclosure: Antihero review license was supplied for reviewing but all opinions are mine and not paid
