At the heart of Grotesque tactics is a fun turn based combat system with a variety of heroes. The actual battles are enjoyable as is the light hearted and satarical atmosphere. Alas the game suffers from a number of drawbacks. As an RPG it lacks depth in any sort of character development, interesting skills or abilities, and items. The humour has its moments both good and poor. The camera is awful, especially at some junctures, and maps are recycled throughout. The game starts out tremendously easy, so one really does feel its a casual game. Only the battles in the last third of the game are challenging for anyone whose experienced with turn based combat. I did finish the game, and I'm personally glad the playing time was 15 hours. I don't think I would have wanted to play any longer.

A game that's very full of itself, while claiming to be a light-hearted take on TBRPG. The characters are mostly irritating, and there's lots of dialogue that's un-skippable. The dialogue is made worse by the game panning your screen view to centre on each character as it talks: very bad if you have vision problems or motion sickness, merely annoying otherwise.

Many of the jokes fell flat because the rest of the game was already annoying the heck out of me. Ask any stand-up comedian how hard it is to make an audience laugh when you've had a bad warm-up act. All in all, it seems like they've tried to be another, "Fallout", and failed.

The graphics are good, but the controls are awkward enough to make you want to curse the nicely rendered trees and hills when you're stuck behind them. The only practical way to return to your PC is to press an arrow key. If a point-and-click game has an interface where the keyboard works better than the mouse, there's something wrong. The audio's good, IMO.

Overall, it wasn't expensive, and I've no real regrets from the purchase. There will be some players who will love it from start to finish. I personally feel the developers could have done a lot better, and would, indeed, need to for Grotesque to live up to the publishers hype. Ignore said hype and treat it as a budget TBRPG and you'll probably have no complaints.

I've really enjoyed playing this game,it can be a bit sluggish but this is understandable considering the massive tactical maps with vibrant and engaging graphics set forth!you can trim the graphics down to suit tour pc,but i recommend the maxed settings for those with pc's that can handle it.For the price ill be surprised if anyone takes the time to read this anyway enjoy!!!

When I heard that the developers of this game had worked on Sacred 2, which is one of my favorite games of all time, I instantly wanted to give it a shot; and I am glad I did. I went into the game with high hopes, and was not let down. The controls are seamless, the humor is frequent, and as well done as promised, and the main quest was a load of fun to go through too. Pick this up if you get a chance, now I am off to try the sequel.

I suspect people's opinion of this game will be based on expectations and purchase price. I got it at 75% and was highly pleased. If you are looking for a King's Bounty or Might and Magic experience you will be sorely disappointed. But if you want to pass 10-15 hrs in an engaging and amusing way, this game is a good pick.

Pros: Graphically cute (my wife even commented on it, and she usually says nothing about my games),

Fun humor, with several LOL moments, enagaging enough gameplay, with the obsessions keeping spice in the battles.

Cons: UI is imperfect as noted in other reviews, camera is herky-jerky, little replay value.

Bottom line, I enjoyed this little game and was glad I bought it.

If you like/love and understand 99% of the jokes in the TV Show "The Big Bang Theory", then this game is definately for you, since it contains high level of Geek references in every step you take (E.G. You hit a green mushroom and suddenly when it dies, the word "1UP" comes out along with the particular sound you heard in Super Mario Bros). Gfx are JRPG style. Gameplay is very simple (but it works). So if you are looking for a game that fits into the "casual gaming" basket and a lot of geek humor to take some laughs out of you, this one is definately for you. BANG!

I love this series, and being the beginning it holds a special place in my game collection. It's also the best so far, so definitely make sure you start with this one. Some great humor and satire in the game, some hidden and some pretty in-your-face. Love the game in its entirety, and I definitely recommend picking it up asap!

It's a parody at its best. Easy, yet very good battle system, many funny dialogues which make you laugh out loud. Nice graphics, atmospheric music, over 10h of gameplay. Hilarious animations and avatars, rememberable characters, a must-play for all who seek a huge portion of humour which mocks cRPGs. Pity that the sequel is such a letdown...

Despite all of this simplicity, I found it a fun and streamlined SRPG experience. It has only the basics, yes, and it only lasted 14 hours for me, but it\'s fun to play.  The art is just beautiful.  It\'s extremely well done, with lots of bright colors and lighting.  Graphically it\'s a joy to behold.  

loving this tongue in cheek game. must say its one of the most original games ive played for awhile. the basic premise of hte game is that all of the soldiers of the country have been killed in battle against the dark church, thus it is up to you to gather up a band of thugs, weirdos etc basically the dregs of society and to go and save the world. oh and did i mention the most terrifying peoples about - the scantily clad virgins. yes they are your ultimate weapon against the enemy and perhaps the ultimate headache for your hero. so together with the semidivine `hero` guiding you the battle against the dark church begins.

so how does the game play? graphics are pretty good. occasionally i find controlling the camera a bit hard, trying to mouse around the screen seemed to flash quickly from one side to the other. this was fixable by lowering the sensitivity of my mouse and thus isnt really a game problem.

gameplay was good the black humour throughout is of course very appealing and if for no other reason makes one want to play more. that aside, the story itself is keeping me intrigued. but lets not spoil the story here. turn based combat is simple enough. the only problem for me is the lack of ability to choose the stats that get upgraded on the characters, it seems that they all get automatically assigned. which for someone who likes to shape his characters to what he wants is a bit off a disappointment, but only a little. there are enough characters entering the game at different times to keep things interesting.

overall

overall a lot of fun, plenty of laughs and an all around good time. perhaps not everyones cup of tea, but then what game is. if you like balck humour and satire then you will probably like this.

4 stars and bring on GT2 dungeons and donuts.

I purchased this game a long time ago but hadn't even tried it yet! What a mistake, this game is a lot of fun and the humour is great!

A little warning though, make sure that you download the patch if you get this game, there is a link to download the patch on Gamersgate but does not already come installed with the game installer itself.

The english translation can be clunky at times but the strategic combat, humor and price more than make up for it.

Give it a try, you won't regret it.

I was excpecting a lot from Grotesque. In the end I am kind of disapointed.

The graphics are good, the game is a little slow, I still can't get use to it and loose my patience.

The characters are not that likable, they pisses me off, I just want to tell them to shup up but well... games don't obey...

I still play this game being a huge RPG fan and hoping for something good to happen but what makes me a little sad is that the jokes that were supposed to be one of the main good points on the game, don't work on me. I understand the jokes but I"m not even smiling...

I had it with a lower price, I grade it with that in mind? but the original price (20€) is, for me, too muxh for what you get in the end.

Maybe try it before buying.

Absolutely the slowest paced and most boring game I have ever played. I cannot understand how this game got good reviews on any of the gaming sites.

Losts of promise. Cute graphics. Decent story. Happy I bought this one. Eary to pick up and play. Long on dialog, but enough action to keep you going.

You like RPGs and also a bit "Kings Bounty"-like Strategy?

You like humor in the style of Monkey Island, Penny Arcade , Plants vs Zombies or Bard's Tale?

Then this RPG is perfect for you!

You are the most unlucky guy in the world: An Emo! In your Company there are crazy characters like the

extreme Holy "Duke Nukem Ultima Parody" Avatar, jealous virgins, and a perverted goblin thief!

This game is not made for the hardcore tactic Progamer (recommended: try the hard difficult), but for all RPG loving fans, Ex-WoW gamers (like me

;)) and yes... also for women! It's very easy to learn and after you played a few hours it will become more complex, because you get more and more party members each with unique skills.

Game length: around 15 hours. That's ok for this price and I hope there will be a sequel.

Ok I have played this game for a while now and it does have a lot going for it, decent graphics, an amusing sence of humer and a good solid gameplay format, and for the asking price thats not a bad thing. However there are one or two small things that bug me, the first is the skill system or lack of one, each charcater in your team has just two skills they can use and some of these skills are verry simillar in effect if not name, a larger variety of choice for battlefield tacticks would of been nice. Secondly the scroll system is flawed zooming out and in is a pain and i often found myself fighting the mouse to scroll around the map for a view of the tactics needed for any upcomming battle. Now i have not played this game to completion yet so can not say for sure but my initial immpression is that the actual size of the game is limmited my team having already destroyed a majoy bad guy and now on the hunt for the big bosses hideout, I hope I am wrong and i am not already aproaching end game after just a few short hours of play, if i am right however then this realy is a budget title, great gameplay and decent graphics but too short and limmited for serious gaming.

Ahhh, so much potential wasted.

This could have been a great game, let's call it: "King's Bounty Light". It is definitely funny, irreverent, and light - grotesque, as the title rightly implies. All the characters are different and well designed. The environment is gorgeous, very similar to King's Bounty. The music is nice, and the dialogs funny. There is no voice-over in the English version but this is not a problem. The action is turn-based, when your party meet enemies everyone takes its turn and a nice, tactical, at time even excellent combat ensues. It feels a lot like King's Bounty, but instead of having your main heroes exploring the world, you navigate the world with your entire party, which eventually will grow to include 9 members.

So far so good. The problems are all linked to the lack on any sort of depth. The developers advertised this game as a low-budget game, but for the same money you can buy King's Bounty or any of its excellent expansions and have a truly epic game in your hands. Think about this: the RPG part of the game is so underdeveloped that each party member has just 2 skills on top of the starting attack. Two skills in the entire game! The equipment suffers of the same superficiality: you can buy two slightly better version of the armor and the weapon, and with some luck you will find an upgrade in the world. Levelling up is automatic, and why bother since everything you do has literally no consequences or options whatsoever? The story, although both funny and interesting, is as linear as it can be. Do it once and your done for good. And mind me, the entire game can be finished in a weekend, maybe 10-12 hours if you play veerryy slloowwlyyy.

On top of this basic design flaw, the other major problem is that combat starts in the world where you party is, and you cannot control anybody movement but your leader. Although your party is supposed to stay in a basic formation (no option here as well), the world is so small and narrow that I often ended up starting combats with my vulnerable archers at the front, where thy were taken to pieces, of course. As done in King's Bounty and many other turn-based games, combat should send the parties in an arena in which everything would be much more organized and enjoyable.

In sum, if you have 20 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, you might have a few hours of fun with this game. But if you don’t' mind to wait, in a few months this will be certainly available for a few bucks. If the developers will decide to use this 'concept demo' to make a real game, I think they will have a winner in their hands. I surely hope about it, although next time I will make sure to check it before buying it.