Hell: Fight for Gilrand Review

Slitherine - makers of Panzer Corps, Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon, and more - have teamed up with the and Hunted Cow - the minds behind Battle Dungeon: Risen and a multitude of browser-based RPGs. And their unholy union has produced  Hell: Fight for Gilrand. 

The forces of Hell have been unleashed upon the mythical realm of Gilrand, and the Order of Radiance must stamp out this evil before it can snuff out the light of mankind. You get to explore this demon infested land in two story-driven campaigns, a skirmish mode with random maps and sets of units, and multiplayer modes. You begin the campaign as the humans, but eventually you can play as the demon horde - and both sides are treated with some humor. In the tutorial, your first mission is called Hammer Time and you play as a priest being hassled by an perturbed demoness.

The game isn't all laughs and giggles though. Hell: Fight for Gilrand is pretty hellish. Even the first mission on the lowest difficulty is challenging. The forces of hell swarm you pretty quickly and you have to learn some tactics on the fly. Positioning is key. If you can manage to get two or more units next to an enemy they will support each others' attacks or even give flanking bonuses. The demons won't make it easy for you to surround them, though. They use ranged attacks that cover a lot of distance and tend to move out of range as soon as they're finished attacking.

While Hell: Fight for Gilrand provides an engaging strategy experience, it fails in one place in particular: timing. The movements of the units are slow, and considering how many forces can be on the map at one time, you can put your iPad down and make a snack while you wait for the enemy to finish taking their turn. The screen can also feel a little cluttered with the icons, movement squares, informational terrain pop-ups, objectives, the map, etc.

Putting the time and clutter aside, Hell: Fight for Gilrand is a solid turn-based strategy game. With its various play modes, units to master, and campaigns to conquer, it's an easy game to get invested in but a hard one to win.