iOS Universal, Android •
The wonderful folk in our forums directed me to some questionable reviews posted on the just released mobile strategy title Chaos Reborn: Adventures. One of them gives the game one star on the sole basis that Julian Gollop, the creator of the original XCOM, created this game and it’s nothing like XCOM. I found this funny as hell because we usually criticize when creators keep redoing the same thing over and over but now Chaos Reborn is being flogged because it’s not just like another game that the designer created 23 years ago. What’s even better is that Chaos Reborn: Adventures is actually a remake of a game that Julian Gollop designed well before the idea of cryssalids ever entered his brain. Anyway, I’m rambling here. The major point to take from all this is that Chaos Reborn: Adventures is now available for both iOS and Android.
Chaos Reborn was a remake/sequel of a 1985 game designed by Gollop called Chaos: The Battle of Wizards and was released on Steam back in 2015. Chaos Reborn: Adventures was developed by Big Blue Bubble and seems to take everything from the big-screen version and squish it down to fit on our touchscreens. Players play battling wizards using cards to cast spells and place their summoned creations on a hex grid where they can battle it out, chess-style.
You may be able to tell from my description that I haven’t played either the 1895 original or the 2015 reboot, and I haven’t had time to play the new mobile version either. I could be all wet on their similarities, but just reading descriptions and looking at screenshots I’m sticking to my story. For a better description let’s blurb it out:
From the creator of X-COM [even though it’s nothing like X-COM -ed.], Chaos Reborn has arrived on your mobile device with Chaos Reborn: Adventures!
Defeat magical wizards in tactical turn-based combat in this spellcasting strategy RPG! Chaos Reborn: Adventures combines RPG-style turn-based combat with the tactical positioning of chess and the bluff of poker to create an entirely unique strategy game. Customize your wizard with 100s of gear items, spells, and mythical creatures to secure victory!
Battle your friends in a head-to-head competitive multiplayer mode, or try your hand at a robust single-player narrative campaign as you discover a complex tale of warring wizard factions, mystical realms, and supernatural forces. The choice is yours!
FEATURES
• Tactical turn-based combat
• Competitive multiplayer
• Challenging single-player campaign
• Gorgeous 3D graphics
• Deep and enthralling lore
It sounds a bit like Magic: The Gathering without the billions of cards and brain-burning deck building. I’m in and, if early reviews are accurate, I’ll be staying for a long time. There’s a campaign for solo play as well as online multiplayer once you wrap your head around the card-based combat not to mention the “deep and enthralling lore”.
The game is $10 for iOS Universal and Android but it’s a purely premium title with no IAP in sight. At least not in my first pass through the app which, thankfully, contains a multi-chapter tutorial for newbs like me.
I’m definitely intrigued, but $10 keeps this from being an impulse buy. Looking forward to hearing impressions from all of you, though.
a 9/10 review on pocketgamer suggests it to be “without a doubt the best turn-based strategy game you can get for your phone or tablet.”
It is certainly a glowing review, but it doesn’t really tell you anything about the game.
Reviewers, man … nine of 10 are an unforgivable drain on the world’s oxygen.
yup, pocketgamer is definitely not Stately Play
Yeah, we don’t do reviews! (I’m sorry about that…I’m really trying but am just not finding enough time to play new games enough to feel confident writing a full review. Still hoping I can get my shit together soon)
For Classic battles (in Law or Chaos Mode) every wizard uses a standard staff and bodygear (on the PC it is the same staff and bodygear so I assume that also applies to mobile as it is the same game/code). For Equipped (Law or Chaos) battles every wizard chooses equipment and talismans that they have gained in the game or bought from the shop.
You pick alignments for your wizard in the Single Player Campaign.
maybe pocketgamer is fishing lots of small ones with nets at the surface, but SP goes down deep to bring the heavy pounders to the feast.
substance wins over mass appeal.
6 player async you say?
Whoa, what? Not that I’m doubting @Snotty128 but can anyone else confirm this and expound?
According to this screenshot I just did make, you can battle up to 6 persons. Teams are possible. Sync and asynchronous.
Invites are possible.
How is one player differentiated from another? Are there different wizards to pick when starting a game? Or does everyone have the same creatures/spells?
Well now. Looks like it might be worth 10 of your Earth dollars.
I caved and bought it. Working my way through training slowly but surely, but so far, so good!
glowing
review on PT.
btw since not belonging to Slitherine any longer PT is gaining back credibility.
I agree. Joe’s doing a good job over there. Makes me wish I had stuck it out and hung on until they sold the site…at least I wouldn’t have had to go back to my day job.
That said, I really like the freedom here where I don’t have to worry about pissing anyone off. (Except Dukester, of course)
Wait; what?
Anyone up for a friendly multiplayer game (law, standard equipment)?
@JMH.75 Certainly. I might well have managed to send you an invite to a Custom Async game called “SP Starter”. I might have sent two invitations … not sure. If you don’t see it (any) then please try inviting me.
The trick is, I think, that when creating a game “Start Game” is what you tap when all invites are accepted … sounds obvious now. Less obvious is to click the back arrow bottom left of screen after setting up a game to exit without losing it. Probably.
I live in fear of saying something that will make you angry.
Great, now my secret is out.
I have now 5 games with you in my list
I think something did not go as planned 
This game is truly outstanding, absolutely loving it.
It’s MASSIVE, started the first campaign…so much to take.
I hope they sort out the guest login soon to be able to sync devices and possibly notifications.
Can’t put it down.
i have created a verified account but can only log into the game as guest
what’s that?
You can just change your name as guest and people will be able to find you.
Hi!
I just added you as a friend.
Weird…the game actually has notifications…because when I received your request (I was playing the campaign) it notified me with a sound too.
You are the only one tough, other requests didn’t do like this.
Also…I have you BOTH on iPhone and iPad…did you do anything special?
So far, for anyone else, I’m literally two different Pitta on two devices, as I log with different guests. How do you change this?
That said, game is truly outstanding…yesterday I played some async games and it was simply awesome (but no notifications and just on one device) and like 3 hours in the campaign (should I say…first campaign) which is pretty MASSIVE, with added gears, equioements, traveling…etc.
I added both Pitta’s
I have no clue how to have the same ID on both devices. I suspect it is work in progress.
Oh!
I hoped you knew something I didn’t!!!
So you requested 2 Pitta friendships?
How did you separate iPad Pitta and iPhone Pitta?
Because I received two distinct friendships, one on iPad and one on iPhone (I added you on both of course and invited for a game).
I think it’s a work in progress too, hope they sort it out fast because I can see this being a staple on my future async games.
@JMH.75 Did you see my PM about not being to see any game between us? In multiplayer I get a”5” in a circle by Custom but when I select it and Async games I see (currently) none of ours but 3 others … including one between you and @Pitta.
I would assume that I did not set up the games properly … but you could see 5 invitations from me! Even so I guess I screwed up somewhere along the line.
I haven’t found how to change my name as guest (just created a wizard “robthomasson” for multiplaye)r so maybe that is part of the problem. But … you can see my invitations. I will have to try harder when I get a chance tomorrow.
@Pitta: I cannot tell the difference between your 2 accounts, I just saw 2 times an account Pitta and invited them both.
I see.
Game started, tricky map!!!
I’m still learning so don’t worry, it will be a fast game.
I hope they will add sync and notifications pretty soon…wrote them but no answer (it’s the week end anyway).
People enjoying the game should do the same, in case they simply missed the feature.
Anyone here with the PC version? Do you actually log in with a proper username or is it still a guest account?
@Pitta The PC version uses a different system (back end) for multiplayer games from the iOS & Android implementations which use a bigbluebubble service that also hosts other games.
Like you I logged on to CR multiplayer on two devices so there are now two “robthomasson” wizards … with no way of knowing which is which. I guess the real identifier is the Guest Account support id behind the scenes.
At least one other bigbluebubble game (My Singing Monsters) has the ability to link devices so hopefully maybe who knows that will come to CR.
In the meantime I am going to accept friend requests on one device only. Looking forward to team games.
Damn, I want to get in on all this hot wizard action, but I’m not sure I want to spend $10 to see how well it runs on my old Moto X phone (don’t have any iOS 11 devices).
Edit: Although I guess I could always refund it within two hours if it doesn’t work (or absolutely kills my already feeble battery, which seems likely). Hmm…
Started a 3 players versus game with @js619 and @JMH.75 lets see how it goes.
If we have enough people, we could do a team vs team battle.
Or with teams of 2 people a grand 3 teams battle Royale.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
What an epic game @JMH.75 !!!
Outstanding!!!
Never knew you could hide in the magical trees…and what move with the ice wall!!!
AWESOME!!!
@JMH.75 Yeah chaos mode is really tense. It’s the original mode. Law mode as far as I know has been added later for a more traditional experience.
Between law and chaos modes, skirmishes, mupltiplayer and the grand solo campaign it’s like several different games in one app.
Law sucks, chaos is the only way to play.
I want to apologize to everyone I’m playing with with the iPad account.
Yesterday all of a sudden without warning started an optic fiber upgrade at home…should have been 2 hours but of course I’m still without internet.
iPhone account is always on and with me…so feel free to invite me (Chaos mode preferably).
For notifications I use twitter DM (I’m Pitta_twit in case) but everything will do (even nothing…I have other async games going on anyway so I check the app multiple times per da…hour).
All the positive feedback convinced me to buy this … working my way through the tutorial now. Damn you people and your virtual arm twisting.
The game continues to amaze me.
I almost played async/AI skirmishes only till I’ve been without internet at home since some days (sigh…sorry for not taking my turns).
So I continued the campaign…woah.
While the battles are the same as skirmishes, you recruit people, get gears and even conquer cities and mana flux buildings…all things that change the main quest and your strategic advantage.
I was able to ally with a Dragon’s den…so I had dragons in my deck and even a dragon companion. Awesome.
I’m now at the final battle (which is really hard).
@JMH.75 Just to tell you I’m immensely enjoying our games!!!
Using RftG to notify turns as well
Me too, although I do not get the take over yet: somehow my take over did not work
Apologies all, had to reset my phone and lost all ongoing games. Now playing from my iPad entitled JS619iPad; friend requests sent.
It is a shame that such a cool game seems to get profiles and online just wrong enough that I really don’t care to bother.
Be honest. Is this the new “the dog ate my homework” excuse?
and what exactly is so terribly wrong with online?
ok, no device sync. what else?
i had no problem to establish a long friendslist, and online games seem to run good enough.
I’m just going on what I’ve heard, but no device sync is a big deal, especially since I’m considering a new phone. I’ve also heard of some notification issues and I do know that I wasn’t able to create any kind of an online ID other than guest.
The bottom line is that there are some games that do online flawlessly, so I’ve been spoiled by the likes of Playdek and CGE. Having to jump through any kind of hoops is a huge turn off.
This game needs much more love.
I’m very happy to report that the dev answered me to a direct question, and custom login (not guest, to sync devices) and native iOS notifications are coming in a planned update (2019 tough).
Can’t wait!!!
Does anyone have an insight into this game’s update schedule? This is one that id like to invest more time in to but really want some quality of life improvements first.
I wish I knew myself too.
I want to play this game way more but seems to be in the same situation of another fav of mine, Harald…ie ‘promised’ updates that never happen.
I stopped bothering the devs because the answer was always the same.