A turn-based strategy game with the soul of a good board game. Deep, readable systems and one of the smartest campaigns of the year.
Strategy games often confuse depth with obscurity. Harvest of Thorns does the harder thing: it is genuinely deep and completely legible. Every rule is visible, every consequence is telegraphed, and yet the space of viable plans feels enormous. That is a design achievement, not an accident.
The campaign doubles as the best tutorial in the genre this year, introducing systems one clean idea at a time. Difficulty spikes late, and the multiplayer suite is thinner than it should be, but as a single-player strategy experience it is close to essential.
