Another great project in the series

The Lamplighters League, developed by Harebrained Schemes and distributed by Paradox Interactive, was released on October 3, 2023 and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X.

The Lamplighters League is a turn-based strategy game, with strong RPG elements and resource and unit management, set in the 1930s, in what looks a lot like England. In this game, we control secret agents on various missions, solve puzzles , we stealthily surprise enemies or even make a big mess, with the player's choices being very important to the rhythm of the game.



A classic genre in a modern way

Firstly, I had the opportunity to choose which difficulty I would like to face in the game, in any case, the tutorials presented are very complete and introduce different mechanics that the game offers, which is always welcome, in addition to having some cinematics to introduce players to the game's story.

Personally, I believe that the game's setting is essential for creating the atmosphere presented, and the introduction to the mechanics also contribute greatly to ensuring that this genre, which has already been extensively explored over the years, remains relevant, as it provides a comfortable experience, but it becomes nauseating very easily.

The game itself doesn't have much complexity in general, when playing, we notice clear references to projects like XCOM and Mutant Year Zero, which is not a negative aspect in any way, as drinking from the source of great successes to create its own personality It's always a good technique, especially when it comes to games.

The titles I mentioned coordinated a large part of the direction of this style and, certainly, here it was no different, the project follows a good part of the standards and gameplay, with the difference of a very characteristic setting and theme.

As I have already mentioned in other strategy game reviews, a characteristic that is common to all is the very slow and rhythmic pace, however, in this style of game, unfortunately, the mechanics throughout the game become extremely repetitive and boring, in addition to creating tendencies of exhaustingly long grinding with few rewards, which happens in The Lamplighters League after a few good hours of play, reaching the point where we are held hostage by secondary quests for a long period of time until we obtain enough resources and strength to continue with our main story.



Characters with different personalities and gameplay.

A very interesting part of the game is the existence of a set of magic cards. They function like another type of equipment, adding passive perks or active abilities that can attach to any character.

These cards are given to us randomly after each mission and we can attach them to someone or convert them into resources, they cannot be exchanged, only replaced or improved. In practice, you will find those that suit the characters and discard everything else. Although they are beneficial to a certain extent, the fact that they are random is quite annoying, and the character stress system that the game has makes these cards seem more like a problem than a solution.

During the first hours of play, the game is very fun, the atmosphere is addictive and captivating, the combat is very interesting and is certainly one of the strongest points offered, making the game much more dynamic.

Despite the dynamic nature of the combat, the game tries to encourage you at all times to use the unique abilities of each agent, such as climbing a vine, opening locks and breaking walls, to orchestrate planned attacks on each map, moving silently to open shortcuts and clear paths, avoiding clashes.

The problem is that the levels are simply not designed to utilize these stealth or infiltration tactics. Opportunities to use each agent's abilities are rare, especially after the tutorial, giving the impression that the idea was abandoned during the game's development, with the design of the maps being mostly narrow corridors that direct you from one mandatory combat to the next, making stealth practically useless.



Who wouldn't want to be a secret agent?

In The Lamplighters League, we have a huge variety of explanatory texts, letters scattered on the floor, notes and a few menus, serving solely for managing units and items. Great highlight again for the game's setting, which even reminded me of Dishonored in some aspects.

The game provides very good immersion, especially during combat, where the use of the camera changes and we have a third-person view, common in shooting games, in which we can see texture details, scenery and the agents themselves.

As it is a tactical game, camera control is essential, but it is a bit difficult, especially using the keyboard to perform this action, it is a detail that requires customization, but at first it's quite confusing and can get in the way, especially when using stealth mechanics.

The controls are easy to adapt to, with the exception of the camera, as I said previously, however, I recommend using a console control, it helps a lot in adapting to the commands.



A journey through time filled with wars and strategies

My experience with The Lamplighters League was good to a certain extent, with emphasis on the graphic style adopted and the immersion provided by the battles, however there were several things that caused me discomfort, as I said previously, mainly the issue of grinding throughout the game.

The game, overall, brought me good experiences and a few hours of fun and I recommend it if you are already a fan of this style, and a fan of similar titles, such as XCOM, the game for beginners, in my opinion, is not very captivating.

It is worth mentioning that its soundtrack and dubbing are also very good, the voices match the characters and the regional theme songs are very interesting, making this a very pleasant experience.



For this review, the game was experienced on PC, using the Xbox platform.