In the interest of full transparency, I know basically nothing about any of the various Warhammer universes. I would have had no idea that the Warhammer 40,000 universe is separate from the Age of Sigmar universe if I hadn’t done a bit of research before I started working on this review. I think that’s actually a good thing, though, because that lack of knowledge will allow me to review Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground on its merits as a fantasy, turn-based strategy Rogue-lite without potentially getting distracted by how well (or how poorly) Storm Ground represents Age of Sigmar lore.

As far as I can tell, the Age of Sigmar universe is set after the destruction of the so-called “Old World” of “Warhammer fantasy.” That is to say, there seem to be no Space Marines in Storm Ground, but there are still legions of soldiers who faithfully serve the titular God-King, Sigmar. There are three playable factions in Storm Ground: the Stormcast Eternals, the Maggotkin of Nurgle, and the Nighthaunt. When you first start playing Storm Ground, you’ll have to start by doing a couple of runs as the Stormcast Eternals, then you’ll unlock the campaigns of the other two factions.

All three factions are at war with each other. Thus, in each run you play through as any faction, your main goal will be to work toward strengthening your faction while hindering the other two in several possible ways. For example, some missions you’ll undertake during a run might have you breach one of Sigmar’s Stormvaults to reap the rewards within and simultaneously prevent your enemies from claiming them first. Other missions might have you destroy objectives that your enemies could have potentially used to recruit more troops, or prevent enemies from doing the same to your faction’s resources.

In each individual mission during a run, you can bring a Warband of up to four units. One of these units must be your faction’s hero. Other units you can recruit to your Warband are of common archetypes like tanks, scouts, and artillery. If your hero dies at any point during a mission, you fail the run, no matter how much of your Warband you had left or how close you were to completing the mission objectives. Thankfully, heroes don’t die permanently: Each hero will be resurrected by their chosen god and sent back into the fray.

When it comes to non-hero units that die during missions, that’s a slightly different matter. If a unit other than your hero dies during a run, they stay dead for the remainder of the run. You can occasionally obtain consumable “Miracles,” which can be spent to resurrect one fallen unit without having to start an entirely new run. I’m glad this mechanic is present, especially since it’s balanced by the fact that you can never guarantee when you’ll acquire Miracles or how many you might have at any given time. You’ll have to think carefully about how and when to spend your Miracles.

No matter how many losses you sustain during a run, you regain access to all your units, levels, and equipment at the start of each run. I’m really glad that having a strong unit die doesn’t mean I lose them permanently. Given the nature of Storm Ground’s Rogue-lite elements, you’re effectively guaranteed to eventually have to take a mission that’s far too difficult for you to succeed in until you strengthen your units more. Several negative reviews of Storm Ground I’ve seen on Steam point out that this can potentially make Storm Ground’s gameplay feel like an unpleasant grind.

Personally, though, I’ve never had that feeling when I’ve lost any runs in Storm Ground. I’d say I’ve only had the opposite experience in those cases: Even if I was up against an insurmountably difficult mission, each run I’ve lost in Storm Ground has put me in that addicting “just one more run” mindset I commonly get from similar games. I always consider it a good sign when I can play any game for hours on end with no idea how much time has passed. Storm Ground’s implementation of Rogue-lite mechanics is one reason Storm Ground is firmly in that category for me.

Another point I’d put in Storm Ground’s favor is that I’ve easily gotten deeply immersed in its story. The way the story is told and how the major characters from all the factions interact with each other has really gripped me. This could be because I know nothing about Warhammer or any of its various universes, but I don’t particularly care either way. I’m a sucker for most types of high fantasy games, and it seems Storm Ground knew just the right way to sink its hooks deep into my interest. That’s also coupled with particularly excellent voice acting.

Storm Ground also offers some quite solid turn-based strategy mechanics. These mechanics mesh really well with the more procedurally-generated parts of the core gameplay loop. Each mission’s battlefield could have drastic differences in things like mission objectives, terrain types, hazards, and what I call “control points.” All these things expertly combine to shake up the tactics you’ll need to carry out and help keep the core gameplay loop engaging. I really enjoy being able to plan out how my ranged units can take advantage of the high ground and how I could potentially knock enemies into chasms and off cliffs.

Speaking of sending enemies into hazards, that brings me to something I both like and dislike about Storm Ground’s gameplay. Friendly fire is always a concern. You can directly target friendly units with offensive abilities, which strikes me as really strange. You also have to be cautious about using knockback effects on enemies, since your foes could be knocked into your allies and damage them. There are additionally certain enemy types that explode on death, which means you’ll need to ensure any nearby units you want to keep around will survive that damage. This concept mostly adds enjoyable twists to my tactical thinking.

There are a handful of things I dislike about Storm Ground. The most glaring of these is how slow the core gameplay loop often feels, especially in combat. Storm Ground is practically crying out for the addition of options that allow players to speed up (or entirely skip) things like unit movement and combat animations. Sid Meier’s Civilization games have had these options available for years now, so I see no reason why a fellow turn-based strategy game should omit them. While I’m at it, the ability to adjust the size, color, and font of subtitles would have been nice, too.

I’ve also experienced somewhat frequent, awkward pauses in gameplay. I’m not entirely sure what has been causing any of these hiccups. I have Storm Ground installed on a pretty speedy internal SSD, which leads me to suspect that Storm Ground’s game data might be poorly optimized. Many negative Steam reviews I’ve seen have also mentioned these pauses and other irritating bugs. Perhaps another handful of passes should have been done by Storm Ground’s quality assurance team, but I’m not sure.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t conclude with one of the biggest things I think both veteran Warhammer fans and newcomers alike will appreciate about Storm Ground. After you’ve done a few runs with each of the three factions, you’ll unlock the Army Painter system. Even if you know less about Warhammer than a total newcomer like myself, I’m sure you’ve at least heard of people buying and painting Warhammer figurines. I lack the money and the fine motor skills to buy and paint Warhammer miniatures, so I’d say Storm Ground’s robust Army Painter is a fantastic addition.

A PC review copy of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground was provided by Focus Entertainment for this review.

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Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground

$19.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Fascinating story and character interactions.
• Excellent voice acting.
• Can give you that exciting “just one more run” mindset.
• The built-in Army Painter is a fantastic addition.
• Really well-implemented Rogue-lite aspects.

Cons

• Somewhat frequent, inexplicable pauses in gameplay.
• Some UI elements can be misleading.
• Rogue-lite elements can make gameplay feel like a grind.
• Options to speed up unit animations should have been included.
• Most aspects of gameplay can feel needlessly slow.