3 new turn-based games for December

Holiday season releases are always tricky

I’ve got a big thing planned for the month of December, looking ahead to games being released in 2025, so if you haven’t already, make sure you’re following along on Notes!

Hello JOMT Reader!

Releases during the holiday season can be hit and miss — traditionally, the releases slow down as everyone winds down for the season. Still, there are brave developers and publishers who try their luck: let’s see if we can help them out a little with the following three entries in the turn-based tactics genre.

Dustgrave

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2393370/Dustgrave_A_Sandbox_RPG/
📅 Release date: December 5, 2024 (early access)
🖥️ Developer: Innervoid Interactive
📢 Publisher: Digital Tribe
🎮 Platform: Steam (PC)

My preference for games always centers around player choice: not just how we are represented as avatars but how we choose to solve problems that the game throws our way. So when a game promises to be a sandbox RPG, I am curious to see how much of a sandbox we are talking about.

Dustgrave looks like it’ll be a great sandbox: the game world reacts to your actions based on their own moral alignment. There is so much potential for you to experience your own story based on how you play. Villagers may shun you for your recent dealings with a local crime lord. Enemy factions may plunder friendly settlements in their quest for dominance over the land.

A combination of real-time exploration and turn-based combat will keep the excitement going as you uncover the emerging story. As a bonus, the real-time exploration includes stealth mechanics that lets you be the ninja you always wanted to be. Sneaking into enemy territory wearing a disguise? Check. Wreak havoc from behind enemy lines? Check. The stealth mechanics alone opens up a whole new way of playing that I think has been missing from this genre.

I’m excited to give this a go and see what trouble I can get into!

Urban Strife

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/710230/Urban_Strife/
📅 Release date: December 10, 2024
🖥️ Developer: White Pond Games
📢 Publisher: MicroProse Software
🎮 Platform: Steam (PC)

When a developer mentions modding support for their unreleased game, you know that they are planning for the community to come up with wacky ideas to tweak the game. Couple that with zombie survival mechanics and there are endless ways that I can imagine people will create to combat the undead.

Urban Strife pits you and your squad against hordes of zombies and ruthless human factions, all struggling to survive in post-apocalyptic USA. It isn’t your typical shoot-and-forget turn-based combat: bullets mimic real-world ballistics, sound from your activities differ based on the environment (which I assume calls nearby zombies), and where you hit your targets matter.

The developers have also tried to address a key issue with zombie hordes and turn-based games: waiting time, especially for the horde. In Urban Strife, the horde will take their turn all at once, adding to the “horde is coming” effect.

Base building and crafting also feature prominently with the survival mechanic, but I’m most interested in the “living” world that I hope, like the first game on this list, will provide loads of emergent stories.

Fusionist

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2373910/Fusionist/
📅 Release date: December 23, 2024
🖥️ Developer: Fusion Interactive
📢 Publisher: Fusion Interactive
🎮 Platform: Steam (PC)

Releasing a game the day before a major holiday is a bold move. But it isn’t stopping developer/publisher Fusion Interactive from releasing Fusionist, a turn-based tactics game featuring mechs and base-building.

You’ll follow a story as you control mechs on a grid-based map, completing various objectives. The mechs fall into one of five basic classes, though how you equip them will ultimately decide how they are used on the battlefield. Turns during combat are decided on an initiative system, with the fastest mechs moving first.

Based on a Japanese preview article that I found, this game is very hard. According to the reviewer, clearing the mission itself was difficult and achievements even more so. One of the biggest reasons was the number of enemies, but after hours of trying, the reviewer was able to get the achievements. Despite the difficulty, they did note that the game evoked that feeling of Just One More Turn (I had to, but they really did say it), which of course, is music to my ears.

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like! What games are you most looking forward to for the holiday season? Let me know below!