Game Review: Hex Gambit: Respawned

By Al

Players: 1-4 (Local & Online)
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC

We have an interesting game to look at today as Hex Gambit: Respawned is what I imagine would happen if Battle Chess decided to add a much deeper layer of tactics on top of its already silly gameplay. Developed by One Man Left Studios (Who I believe released this game in a non-Respawned version at one point.) and published by Blowfish Studios, it's out now on all major platforms. We're going to be taking a look at the Nintendo Switch version today, and see how this one holds up in both single and multi-player modes. It's going to be a wild ride, so buckle in as we dive into this quirky contender for your next game night.

Who even is this guy?

An early battle.

It makes sense to start any review by covering its story, but doing that for Hex Gambit is a bit of a confusing situation. Multiplayer is clearly the focus of the game here, and while that's fine, it also offers a single player campaign known as "Hex Royale". Calling Hex Royale a "story mode" is giving it a bit too much credit, as it mainly serves as a long-form tutorial. You go through 21 hand-crafted battles, and learn about the various in-game units and battle mechanics. Playing through this mode is also the only way to unlock the characters and arenas that aren't available at the start of the game. There is a bit of dialogue before each match by a character whose name completely escapes me at the moment, but none of it really matters. Me forgetting his name is rather telling too as there was even a point where the character, who is masked by the way, does an unmasking and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to actually KNOW the person who he turns out to be. It was at that point that I decided to simply ignore everything said that didn't actually pertain to gameplay. The lack of a true story mode IS somewhat upsetting though, as the game's many characters look like they'd have quite the story to tell. Even though you face them in Hex Royale battles, you never learn a single thing about them. Even though I didn't come into this game expecting a robust story mode, the presence of the rather thin Hex Royale actually made me upset that there wasn't one in-game. It's one thing to not have much in the way of single player modes, but it's another to make a tutorial overly long by throwing in a lot of pointless dialogue. That's actually another thing that bothered me, as there isn't a simple tutorial for players who want to just jump into the game. I'm getting ahead of the review here, but I eventually played this with a few friends in multiplayer, and we had to have several practice matches where I had to do the game's job explaining how its various mechanics worked. Though I did spend most of my time in Hex Royale, don't expect any grand reveals regarding its story. I guess that means that at the very least you can go into this review not having to worry about spoilers of any kind!

I hate these guys.

The best way to points!

Gameplay in Hex Gambit is turn-based, with your actions being limited to the number of action points you have available. Most things, like movement and attacking, take up one action point, and you're given three at the start of each turn. Unused action points carry over to subsequent turns, but you're only allowed to hold onto six at any one time. Every map is laid out essentially the same. You have a pillar representing each player's base, and summoning tiles close to it that you use to bring in new units. We'll talk more about the different units available later, but each battle starts with a handful of units available for each player. You're able to summon more as long as you have the action points necessary, and as long as you have units left to summon. That's right, each battle has a set number of units available to you, and while you don't have to bring them all into any single battle, you also can't bring in any beyond that set limit. Each unit needs one turn to become active, and they're unable to take any action, or be attacked, during their first turn. Also, while the map you play in doesn't really matter for the most part, some do have obstacles that can either help or hinder movement. Movement is actually one of the funnier quirks of the game, as similar to checkers, you can jump over enemies to reach further spots on the board. Jumping isn't considered an attack though, but it is fun to link movement together like that. There are two ways to win each battle, you can either score ten Victory Points, or you can defeat every unit your opponent currently has in play for a KO. Victory Points are scored by defeating an enemy unit, or by touching your opponent's pillar. Which type of win you go for is largely determined by how the battle is playing out, so you'll always want to keep your options open. Each character in-game has two abilities that are unique to them. The first is the unit (Which are called minions in-game by the way, but that reminds me too much of those OTHER minions.) loadout they have, and the second is their available Gambit. Gambits are special moves that you can use at any time for no action cost. These abilities vary by character, but they do things like reset any active unit, force an opponent's unit to switch sides, attack all active enemies, and so on. While there will be many scenarios that change up these core mechanics, this is pretty much what you can expect from every game of Hex Gambit.

It's now time to talk about the unit types. Units come in all sorts of varieties, but you're only ever going to use about four in any one battle. This is a little annoying as I feel it limits many tactical options, but I guess it's something we just have to live with. Each unit has special abilities that can be utilized in many different ways in-game. Soldiers seem basic but can attack two enemies at once if they're in a straight line, Runners can move and attack with the cost of a single Action Point, Snipers can shoot at enemies form across the screen, Motivators can make units impervious to damage or cause enemies to take double damage, Punks' attacks can take half of a unit's life away, and so on. There's honestly too many types to cover in this review, but rest assured that there's a unit that can do most actions you probably have in your head. While most units have a standard attack, many also have skills that require a certain amount of turns before they can be used. These are usually devastating attacks like the Brute's AOE attack, or the Sniper's ability to fire a more powerful missile. Besides needing to charge, some of these may also require extra action points. No matter what you choose to do though, each unit can only move or take an action once a turn. That means you can't spam your Sniper's attack outside of maybe using a particular Gambit to do so. It's not just attacks and skills that are unique to each character, they also have their own set amount of life. Runners and Snipers can be taken out quickly, but Defenders and Brutes can take quite a beating before going down. This is obviously where tactics come into, as you'll have to decide if you're going to take out a bunch of weaker enemies first, or focus on the heavy hitters first. It's actually for reasons like this that I don't like the fact that all units are never available at any one time. While I understand it could very easily destroy the game's balance, I feel it would've made for some interesting matches. Also, and this might sound weird, but I liked the humor that came with the units themselves. It's a hard thing to put onto paper, but they're all just a silly bunch that made me chuckle more than once. I'd totally buy figures of them if they were available.

I love Gambits that damage all units.

Grim Drake became a favorite later.

Since I think it's fairly obvious that multiplayer is the focus here, let's talk about that for a bit. I actually had to delay this review because I wanted to play this with friends locally, and didn't have a lot of options to do it. First off I want to mention how crazy accessible multiplayer is, especially on the Switch. Hex Gambit supports all sorts of gameplay options, and all mixes of computer and human controlled players. It also allows the use of any number of controllers. Only have one Pro Controller? Well, that's all you need to play! While this isn't anything unique to this game, it was a nice touch. One problem I had with the Hex Royale mode was that the opponents always seemed stronger than you. They always had units you didn't, and playing on the hardest difficulty was all but impossible thanks to turn timers and an AI that uses all its extra units to its advantage. While you can definitely stack the deck against you in the standard modes if you want, the game finally felt like the game was setting up truly even matches for once. Though I've already talked about not liking the limited use of units, I can say that playing with my friends was the most fun I had with the game, even though we only all played for about an hour or two. My only gripe with multiplayer has to be the lack of pre-made match types. I have to preface this by saying that you're able to alter just about every option for these matches, but I would've appreciated some developer-made modes that I could just select and jump right into. Nothing kills the fun more than wanting to change up the gameplay a bit and being overwhelmed by a screen packed full of options you can adjust. Of course that means that alternate game modes are there for players with more patience than me and my friends, but it's something you're going to have to work out for yourself. Even though I did have some fun with Hex Royale, I have to admit that multiplayer made the game for me. This is like playing a very intense version of 4-player chess, and I love that attention was given to the couch co-op vibes. Hex Gambit has definitely earned a place in our Game Night rotation.

While I do think that Hex Gambit: Respawned has a lot going for it as a cool multiplayer game, I had a couple other big issues with it that I couldn't work in elsewhere in the review. First off is the fact that it offers a rather lackluster single player experience overall. Part of me wonders if I'd be less disappointed if it simply had a tutorial and no Hex Royale Story Mode. You have a fairly unique cast of characters, but I can't tell you a single thing that makes them unique beyond their individual gambits. I've already mentioned the rest of the issues I had with Hex Royale's unbalanced difficulty, but there was something about the game that I was not expecting to find outside of the single player story mode. It makes sense for those battles to all have a small set of units that you're limited to, but I never thought that the same thing would hold true for EVERY OTHER MODE. Though I had a lot of fun trying out multiplayer, I was thrown for a loop when I noticed that I was only able to select certain units to put down. I already mentioned that unit loadouts are limited by character, but I really wished that they could be altered, especially since just about everything else in-game can be. This was just insane to me as it felt like I had to instantly relearn a game I had already spent several hours learning in Hex Royale. As far as I can tell, there is no way to change this within the any of the main menus. I appreciate the attention to balance, but I was hoping that I'd be able to cut loose and use any unit/gambit combination I wanted. While I can't honestly say that some units are just bad or if I don't know how to use their skills effectively, I can say that I don't ever want to be forced to use them simply because they're one of the few units my favorite characters can use. Once I realized that units were spread across everyone in this limited fashion, I realized that there wasn't a single character I truly liked using anymore. I will say that this didn't destroy ALL the fun I was having with the game, but it did take an otherwise amazing game down a notch or two.

An example of a skill about to be used.

This was a tough battle.

I think that I'm going to cover graphics and sound together since I don't have a whole lot to say about either. Now this isn't due to either being particularly bad, but they mostly just exist for what they are. I like the arenas and unit designs in the game, but the art style used for the characters themselves felt a bit too cartoon-y for my liking. That's obviously just a personal issue, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will dig ALL the designs the game has to offer. While I don't think it's fair to say that the game should've been a graphics powerhouse, I have to admit that I was expecting more sometimes from a game can potentially have four players fighting to the death. (Or to ten points I guess.) I will give it up to the game for not stuttering once, even on the Nintendo Switch, but there's nothing here that is going to impress. I pretty much have similar issues with the music, in that I definitely don't think a single thing about the soundtrack is bad, but it also isn't likely to wow anyone. The music works well, but exists mainly in the background as to not get in the way of the gameplay. I did find myself wanting for some vocal quips or voice acting in the game, as it really would've helped bring the game to life. Now I will admit that there are a few lines from the characters, and the units do "speak" a sort of guttural language, but the trailer actually fooled me into thinking that there'd be a lot more of each. Once again, this is by no means a deal-breaker, but it really would've helped bring up the presentation a bit.

While I do have a few issues with Hex Gambit's gameplay, I have admit that it is a highly replayable game. I may have felt hampered by the limited units, but I still had a lot of fun playing against friends in multiplayer. That said, I wasn't able to try out the online mode, but I do imagine it's a nice way to set up matches with your friends who don't have the luxury of testing your skills via local matches. I can't imagine the game will ever draw in enough players to make random matchups very likely, but I guess I could be wrong on that front. The problem I guess lies with players who might want to enjoy this as a solely single player game. You can indeed still play an infinite number of matches, with lots of customization options available to you, but Hex Royale is pretty much the only thing you'll find if you're looking for something more substantial. I'm not sure if that mode alone is enough to justify picking up the game unless you're getting it for the multiplayer gameplay as well. With all this in mind, I have to say that its current $14.99 price tag feels just right if you're somewhat unsure about the game. My own issues aside, I must reiterate that this can be a very fun game at times, and the almost subdued humor of everything really worked for me. Even those looking to pick it up for the single player modes can probably get this in the hopes of one day getting others who are willing to play. Or you could have more luck finding random online matches than I did, and try your hand at those. The possibilities are endless.

Trust me, losing in Hex Royale sucks.

Multiplayer is lots of fun!

Though I ended have a lot of mixed thoughts regarding Hex Gambit: Respawned, I ultimately think it's a really fun game, and I didn't regret a minute of it. Would I have found it far more enjoyable if it had robust single player options and full unit availability for all the characters? For sure, but I don't think that takes away from the great game it is. If you're a fan of board games, party games, or anything multiplayer, then pick this one up, I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun. Maybe think twice about it if you're not planning to play with friends on online, but I still don't think you'd be particularly disappointed with this one. It may not have hit it out of the park with its gameplay, but it definitely has more than enough charm to make up for that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to set up some matches with my friends at our next game night!

Check Out Hex Gambit Respawned on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/hex-gambit-respawned-switch/

---

Story: C
Gameplay: B
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: B-
Value: A

Overall: B-

Pros:
+ A fun turn-based tactics game that almost feels like a game of chess on steroids.
+ Extremely fun to play multiplayer, especially with friends in the same room.
+ The single-player mode offers a lot of challenges while teaching you the game's ins and outs.
+ Each character's gambit can really turn the tide of battles.
+ The humor throughout is just spot on.
+ Each match in Hex Gambit Respawned can be customized to fit just about any parameters.

Cons:
- The fact that you can't ever pick from ALL the available in-game units in any mode is baffling to me.
- The fun can wear a bit thin if only playing in single player as it can feel a bit unfair in later levels.
- I found myself wishing there was a more in-depth story mode that gave backstories to the selectable characters.
- The time limits and unbalanced gameplay on the highest difficulty setting make those missions feel near impossible.
- Though you can customize multiplayer games in just about any way imaginable, I wish there were more pre-set modes for those just looking to jump into the game quickly.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

---

#HexGambit