From XCOM 2 to Baldur’s Gate 3, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to great turn-based strategy games and tactical RPGs. Yet I’m always on the lookout for the next potential winner, and Prelude Dark Pain is shaping up to be a serious contender. A dark fantasy tale where your group of heroes attempt to save the land of Statera from a generations-old force of evil, it matches a beautiful art style with grid-based combat. The results have been immediate; just a few short hours after launching its Kickstarter, developer Quickfire Games has already eclipsed its initial funding goal.
Will’s already taken a hands-on look at Prelude Dark Pain for us, and came away impressed by its setup and the use of positions and flanking during the battle sequences. Cast as a young blacksmith named Soren, your team of five is built from over 20 playable heroes spread across eight classes, with each character boasting two talent branches and a pool of 25 skills that you can choose between. That results in the ample tactical depth and broad potential for creativity that makes the best turn-based RPGs shine.
Between fights, you’ll pursue the main narrative of stopping the Order of the Ashen Crusade and the Lord of Pain that it reveres. It’s a little reminiscent of The Witcher 3’s clashes with The Wild Hunt, and much like CDPR’s epic, Quickfire has fleshed out its world with plenty of sidequests and sights to see, further building out the lore and characters. The jobs you take on and the choices you make can impact everything from the heroes that might join your party to the very outcome of your overarching quest.
You’ll encounter more than 20 different cultures, friendly and hostile, as you travel across Statera, and will even have the ability to manage your home settlement, craft weapon upgrades and fresh equipment, and send out heroes who aren’t in your main party on jobs to free innocents, scavenge for materials, or gather intelligence on your foes.
It all looks excellent, and, so far, the response has been tremendous. The Prelude Dark Pain Kickstarter campaign launched with a goal of €40,000 ($45,250 / £33,997). Yet within just 12 hours, it had soared well past that; at the time of writing, it sits at €54,039 ($61,132 / £45,930) and climbing. If it keeps moving at that pace, Quickfire has plenty of potential stretch goals on the cards.
If it makes it to €60,000, it will introduce a ranked mode and battle maps with unique gameplay bonuses. At €75,000, expect an expanded crafting system with more recipes and patterns. Upon reaching €100,000, the dev is planning a new world map. Finally (so far), climbing to €120,000 will unlock an additional ‘Demon Hunters’ world quest that features four new heroes.
Quickfire Games plans to launch Prelude Dark Pain into Steam Early Access in 2026. You can wishlist it now if you want to stay up to date with its progress.
If you love a rich blend of tactics and narrative, you’ll want to take a look through the best games like Baldur’s Gate 3. If planning ahead is everything you need to succeed, try one of the best strategy games on PC in 2025.
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