An XCOM-style strategy game in a high fantasy setting is an idea that makes so much sense you’ve got to wonder why no one’s come up with it before. Nothing says this kind of game has to be set in space, and Dungeons and Dragons, the tabletop game that started the collective obsession with strategic high fantasy RPGs, is a turn-based game that shares a lot of the same principles.
XCOM and DnD are inextricably linked, but it took me Dungeons of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos to actually realise that. I know – the name doesn’t do it any favours. But it speaks to the game’s slightly goofy charm, however unintentional – eager, sometimes a bit too much. This isn’t a dark, epic kind of fantasy, it’s the one where the demo starts with your party instantly cracking terrible jokes. All your DnD races and classes are there, and the sprites are very, very cute. The green troll looks a little bedraggled and has a snaggle-tooth poking out from under his lip. The dwarf has eyebrows so bushy they seem to cover his eyes.