Displaced

Review

Not so long ago, Clermont was a stunning city with high rise buildings everywhere. Majestic parks, gardens and venues. Life was good in Clermont and all around the country, it was worth living. That was before the deadly conflict between the government and the separatists began. Now, most of the cities are totally destroyed and chaos reigns in every corner of the country. The only chance you have to survive this ordeal is to find a way to cross the border to safety. That’s your story, for you and four of your peers. How are you going to do it?

Displaced is a strategy/adventure game where you control a group of five civilians who try to escape a war-torn country.

At the start of the game, you’ll have to choose from five of the six characters available on your first attempt. As you progress through the game, you’ll be able to unlock thirteen others characters. Most of them have two or three skills, which are: attack, agility and defence. After you have selected your party, you’ll have to choose in which way they are going to leave the country; either via water, air or through the immigration centre. After that, you’ll start the game in the city of Clermont. The map will only display where you are located at the start; the rest is a fog of war and you’ll have to discover it. You can explore your surroundings by using the camp icon, or you can move your party straight to the fog. It’s imperative that your party is fully rested to explore its surrounding. As you move around, your group will use energy and will need food to keep on going. If you don’t have enough food, some or all of your crew will die. As you make your way through the map, you’ll notice question marks as well as exclamation marks. These will indicate that you are coming across traders, objects, quests or buildings not displayed on the map. A successful quest will earn you either money, food, weapons, special items or medical supplies. As days pass, a red zone will keep on expanding within the map and if you re-enter a location within that zone, your party will effectively be in a bombardment zone. So try to reach your goal before the entire map becomes red!

One thing is for sure, there are plenty of groups of marauders out there and most of your encounters will end up as a fight. This brings me to the combat phase of the game. Before the start of the fight, you have to place each of your character’s cards on one of the eight available slots. All of the eight slots will display two or three of the characters skills that I mentioned above. The trick is to place the right character on its appropriate slot to not only inflict the most damage but to make sure it isn’t easily injured. You can nominate how specific characters react in battle; aggressively, defensively, or will they just hide. In the event that one of your party receives a critical injury, his or her card will become reddish. A good rest will be needed to revitalise him or her. If you have a medical kit, it will be a good idea to use it.        

I personally like the look of this game. The painted artwork is really nice and will give you the feel and the atmosphere of what a war-torn country might be like. In terms of re-playability, you have three ways to finish the game. The fact that you can unlock another thirteen characters gives this game a bit more to offer. The dialogue will change slightly depending on which way your party will want to leave the country, which adds to the content.  In my opinion, I think this game needs to be slightly more challenging.