Barbearian

Barbearian (2020) is a hectic action game where you fight through three-level missions by hacking and slashing hundreds of tiny enemies, collecting cash and rescuing minions to add to your army. It's a role-play game you can take on in bite-sized portions each of which requires different tactics.

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You start with just your bear character who must escape his prison of peculiar floating lands that want to experiment on him. As you progress you build an army of tiny accomplices with different abilities and attacks. They can be upgraded as you go for a temporary strategic advantage.

You need to take care to look after these vulnerable troops at first. But between levels you can upgrade them to make them stronger. You need a lot of them so you can call more in from your pool of energy to help in the fight.

The game cleverly evolves as your army grows. Troops aren't only good for attacking but also as cannon fodder to distract the enemy while you progress in different directions. Although this sounds a bit harsh, they don't actually die as you can revitalise them for the next mission.

This all works together to create a good balance of frantic battling and strategy. It's a novel way to dip your toe in the role-play adventure genre while only having to commit to short battles as you have time.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Barbearian 3 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 7 months ago.